Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
Soldiers ; truly a grim phalanx few would have cared-to face. 
I think they were of the kind in the old Herbal called 
Thistle Melancholy, from an old belief it drove away melan- 
choly, if, according to Dioscorides, that delightful old 
ancient, 
The root was borne about one. 
Another kind was “ Thistle Hartichoaklike,” which cer- 
tainly resembles] an artichoke in the matter of its leaves, 
and is a handsome ornament to a waste corner. Thistles 
are called Thrissells here. This is a very old name, as 
it is mentioned in Dunbar’s poem, “ The Thrissell and the 
Rois,” on the marriage of James IV., 1503. They were for- 
merly used as food for cattle ; “ cattel,” as my old Herbalist 
spells it, and, in consequence, no farmer waged war against 
thistles, but rather they were considered a crop. In the 
archives of the Priory of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, 1344- 
1345, there is a note of thick leather gloves required for the 
gatherers of this crop ! I have heard gloves of this kind 
were manufactured within the last hundred years — I do not 
quite dare write “ century.” The round cakes of shortbread, 
which appear in Scotch baker-shops at New Year time, have 
often thistles in pink and white sugar on them, and the 
motto, “ For Auld Lang Syne.” They have certainly not 
ceased to be the national emblem, though it is curious 
that Scotchmen never seem able to tell one for sure which 
kind of thistle is the national emblem. But a thistle which 
resembles Our Lady’s Thistle ( 'Card-mis Marianas) is figured 
on the money coined by James V., who was the first king 
to put thistleheads on the Scotch coinage. In old curiosity- 
shops I have sometimes found cut-glass wine-glasses and 
decanters cunningly engraved with thistles, or even fashioned 
in the shape of thistleheads, and the horn spoons sold in 
Edinburgh have often the dearest little silver thistles on the 
end of the pointed handle. In the Inventory of King 
James IIL’s jewels there are some ornaments fashioned as 
thistles. The insignia of the most ancient and noble 
Order of the Thistle are very pretty ; the Star especially, 
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