Page:The Book of Orders of Knighthood and Decorations of Honour of All Nations.djvu/222

100 is of crimson velvet.

is likewise of crimson velvet, lined with white taffeta.

is of black velvet lined with white taffeta; the plume of white ostrich feathers, in the centre of which a tuft of black heron's feathers, all fastened to the hat by a band of diamonds.

, gold, consists of twenty-six pieces, each in the form of a garter, enamelled, azure, and appended thereto.

, or figure of St. George on horseback, encountering the dragon. The George is worn to the collar; and the lesser George, pendent to a broad dark blue ribbon over the left shoulder.

, of eight points silver, has upon the centre the Cross of St. George, gules, encircled with the garter.

The Officers of the Order are;—the Prelate, the Bishop of Winchester; the Chancellor, the Bishop of Oxford; the Registrar, the Dean of Windsor; the Garter Principal King of Arms, and the Usher of the Black Rod.

Motto—Honi soit qui mal y pense.

THE MOST ANCIENT AND MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE THISTLE.

Tradition and national partiality have carried up the institution of "the Thistle" to fabulous times, but, leaving conjecture and surmise for fact and reality, we cannot trace the Order as an, further back than the reign of of England and VII. of Scotland. Nevertheless, in the Royal Warrant issued by that monarch before the promulgation of the Statutes, reference is made to the fact, that "his Majesty's Royal predecessor, Achaius, King of Scots, did institute the most ancient and most noble Order of the Thistle, under the protection of St.