Arms of the Roval Burgh of Sanquhar. 93 



Statistical Accounts (1792-18^5), ha\c all descriptions of our 

 burg-h. All refer to her municipal privileges, but not in any 

 one of them have we any reference to a royal grant of a 

 motto. I ha\e consulted two heraldic experts on this ques- 

 tion, Mr John A. Stewart, convener of the Heraldry Com- 

 mittee of the St. Andrew Society, Glasgow (who was also 

 ccn\ener of the Heraldic Section of the Scottish National 

 Exhibition in Glasgow in 1911), and Mr C. Cleland Harvey, 

 author of Scottish FZa^'-.v, and both gave me the same answer, 

 viz., that they never heard of a grant of the motto b\ the 

 King to a burgh, and that they thought it very unlikelv that 

 any such grant had ever been made. The fact that no motto 

 appears on any of the seals of the burgh seems to me plain 

 evidence that when the seals were made no such honour was 

 known. 



The motto in question appears, as I have said, on the 

 flag of the " Five incorporated trades of the burgh." It is 

 said also to have been on the three drums of the old burgh 

 band and also on the Hag known as the town flag, which was 

 similar to the trades' flag but larger, and which, I am in- 

 formed, was last flown in 1871. From the poem before men- 

 tioned of James Kennedy it would appear that the trades' 

 flag dates from 1819, the drums would probably be later. 

 The latter, I may say, have all disappeared, although I can 

 remember seeing them. They were painted blue and white, 

 but I cannot recall any lettering thereon. The presence of 

 the motto on a flag cannot, I fear, be taken as an evidence of 

 right thereto. On one of the Dumfries flags, dated 1815, 

 preserved in the Observatory Museum, this very motto 

 appears, and it seems to have been quite usual to put it on 

 banners. It is looked upon by many as being a national 

 motto in the same way as the thistle is regarded as the 

 national emblem. It is now the motto of the Order of the 

 Thistle, being made so in 1687, when that order was 

 " revived " by King James \TI. It appeared on the accoutre- 

 ments of quite a number of the old Scottish regiments, in- 

 cluding the Nithsdale Local Militia, which was disbanded 

 in 1814. It still has a place on the equipment of the Royal 

 Scots and the Scots Greys. The flag bearing the motto 



