94 Arms of the Royal Burgh of Sanquhar. 



would probably be made locally, and the presence of the 

 motto may have been no more than an artist's whim. 



According- to the strict letter of the law the King alone 

 can grant part of the royal arms, and as the motto in ques- 

 tion was adopted by Charles II. as a royal motto it would 

 appear that anyone using it without the King's authority is 

 breaking the law. It is true that some writers on heraldry 

 have argued that there is no property in a motto taken by 

 itself. Such may be the case in England, but hardly in 

 Scotland, where the motto or ditton to give it its Scottish 

 name is always registered as part of the escutcheon. The 

 motto, " Nemo me impune lacessit," appears for the first 

 time in Scotland on coins of James VI. (the two merk and the 

 one merk pieces) in 1578 along with a thistle. The motto is 

 said to come from Italy. Nisbet (System of Heraldry) tries 

 to give it a great antiquity in Scotland. He mentions that 

 Franciscus Sforza Duke of Milan took as his device a grey- 

 hound with the motto, Quietum nemo impune lacessit, but 

 continues Nisbet, " some allege that he borrowed it from the 

 Scots." There were two Dukes of Milan of the name given, 

 the first ruling from 1450 to 1466, and the second from 1522 

 to 1535, being the first and the last of the house of Sforza. I 

 think the reference in Nisbet is to the first although he does 

 not say so. This motto is sometimes called the Royal Motto 

 of Scotland, but it is not entitled to that exclusive title 

 though it is one of the royal mottoes and was registered as 

 such by Charles II. as part of his royal arms in 1672. It is 

 not, however, the original royal motto of Scotland. That 

 is, " In Defens," which appears on the old representation of 

 the royal arms of Scotland in the volume of " Actis maid be 

 James the Fift," printed in Edinburgh in 1541. The wood- 

 cut is said to have been designed by the well-known Sir 

 David Lyndsay of the Mount, the then Lyon King at Arms. 

 Stevenson in his Heraldry of Scotland states that its more 

 ancient form is, " In my defence me God defend," just as 

 the full form of the royal motto of England was " God and 

 the right shall me defend." A splendid photograph of the 

 Royal Arms of the United Kingdom as used in Scotland, 

 designed by Mr Graham Johnston, herald painter to the Lyon 



