[Scottish National Memorials Contents]
BLACK SILK ROBE and BLACK VELVET CAP, which belonged to ‘Lord Drummond, Justice-General, 1489.’ Sir James Drummond, Justiciar of Scotland, and Constable of the Castle of Stirling, was created Lord Drummond by James III. in 1487-8. He died in 1519, aged upwards of eighty years. He was the brother of Annabella, Queen of Robert III.
(1442) Lent by the BARONESS WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY.
EMBROIDERED JACKET, which belonged to Lady Jean Drummond, the only child of James, first Earl of Perth, who married, on 19th February 1632, John, thirteenth Earl of Sutherland. Lady Jean brought to her husband a dowry of 5000 marks, which, says the History of the House of Seyton, was ‘the greatest portion that ever was given in Scotland before that time.’ This, however, is a mistake, for much more liberal dowries are on record.
(1445) Lent by the BARONESS WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY.
MANTLE or THE ORDER OF THE THISTLE, which belonged to James, fourth Earl of Perth. (See Fig. 198.)
Tradition ascribes the establishment of the Order of the Thistle, or of St. Andrew, to the reign of the mythical King Achaius, who is said to have instituted it in the eighth century in commemoration of a signal victory obtained by him over Athelstane, King of the Saxons, previous to which a white St. Andrew’s Cross had appeared in the heavens to animate and encourage the Scottish army. Nisbet, in his System of Heraldry, patriotically contends for the extreme antiquity of the Order, maintaining its right to precedency over the English Garter, and it would certainly seem from the authorities adduced by him as if the existence of the Order could be traced previous to the reign of James V., by whom it was undoubtedly held in high honour. After the death of that King in 1541 it seems to have fallen into abeyance till it was revived in 1687 by James VII. The Statutes of the Order, issued by the latter from Windsor on 29th May 1687, provide that the mantle ‘shall be of green velvet, lined with white taffeta, with tassels of gold and green, the whole robe parsemée or powdered over with thistles of gold embroidered; upon the left shoulder of which, in a field of blue, St. Andrew the Apostle his image bearing before him the cross of his martyrdom of silver embroidery.’ The Chapel Royal at Holyrood was constituted the Chapel of the Order.
The Earl of Perth was one of the original twelve knights created at the revival of the Order. He held the high office of Chancellor of Scotland from 1684 till the Revolution of 1688, after which event he was imprisoned in Stirling Castle. On his liberation in 1693 he went to Rome, but subsequently joined his exiled master at St. Germains and was created by the latter Duke of Perth. He died at St. Germains on 11th May 1716, and was buried in the Scots College at Paris.
After the Revolution the Order of the Thistle again fell into abeyance, but was re-established by Queen Anne on 31st December 1704. The number of the knights remained twelve till May 1827, when it was increased to sixteen.
(1444) Lent by the BARONESS WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY.
JEWEL OF THE ORDER OF THE THISTLE, consisting of an oval plate of gold bearing on one side the image of St. Andrew with his cross before him, and on the other a thistle. In the Statutes of James VII. it is appointed to be worn from ‘a purple blue ribbon, watered or tabied,’ but in those of Anne it is ordered to be worn ‘at a green ribbon over the left shoulder, cross the body and tied under the right arm.’ The collar of the Order is composed of thistles intermingled with sprigs of rue.
(1433) Lent by the BARONESS WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY.
PURSE, which belonged to James, fourth Earl of Perth.
(1440) Lent by the BARONESS WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY.
AN OLD SPORRAN, with brass top. The Sporran is the purse or pocket which is carried in front of the Highland kilt. Such purses are generally made of goats’ or badgers’ skins. Those worn in early days were smaller and much less conspicuous than modern sporrans, and it was only among persons of rank that silver mountings and other ornamental appendages were used.
(1268) Lent by the MARQUIS OF BREADALBANE.
MARIE OF LORRAINE SHOE, of brown natural coloured leather, with two perforated side-flaps and centre thong which overlapped when worn, and were connected with a lace. This shape of shoe was peculiar to the sixteenth century, and seems to have been much adopted by the Guise family. The shoe was purchased at the Gibson-Craig Sale in Edinburgh, on March 9th, 1887. Along with it was an infant’s cap, to which there was attached the following inscription: ‘Child’s cap found in a garret of Mary of Lorraine’s house in Blyth’s Close, Edinburgh,’ signed ‘C. K. Sharpe of Hoddam.’ (See page 2 of Appendix, Greig’s Old-fashioned Shoes.) (See Fig. 199.)
(1261) Lent by THOMAS W. GREIG.
THE EGLINTON SHOE., of lavender-coloured kid, with slashes of white satin ‘let in’ in front, forming a pattern narrow at the toe, and widening towards the instep. The bottom of the heel is in the form of a heart. It belonged to Lilias, daughter of the twelfth Earl of Eglinton, and was worn by her at her marriage to R. D. Macqueen, of Braxfield, in 1796. This shoe was given to Mr. Greig by Mrs. Macqueen of Braxfield. (Engraved in Old-fashioned Shoes by T. W. Greig.)
(1263) Lent by THOMAS W. GREIG.
LEATHER SHOE, of the early Scottish form, agreeing with that mentioned by Martin, in his Western Isles of Scotland (1703), where, after mentioning that brogues were formerly the foot-covering of the people, he says, ‘The generality now wear shooes having one thin sole only, and shaped after the right and left foot, so that what is for one foot will not serve for the other.’
(1426) Lent by JAMES AITCHISON.
PAIR OF HIGHLAND BROGUES, of Raw Ox-hide. Such brogues, made of deer, horse, or ox-hide with the hair on, were the common foot-coverings of the Highlanders in former days. John Elder, a Highland priest, writing to Henry VIII. in 1543, says, ‘We go a huntynge, and after we have slayne redd deir, we flaye of the skyne, bey and bey, and settinge of our bair foote on the insyde therof, for veide of cunnyge shoemakers, by your Grace’s pardon, we play the sutters compassinge, and mesuringe so moche thereof as shall retche up to our anclers, pryckynge the upper part therof also with holis, that the water may repas when it entres, and stretchide up with a stronge thwange of the same, mettand above our said ancklers, so, and please your noble Grace, we make our shoois: Therfor we usinge such manner of shoois, the roghe hairie syde outwart, in your Grace’s dominion of England, we be callit roghe footide Scottis.’
(1264) Lent by ROBERT GLEN.
HIGHLAND MARRIAGE PLAID OR SCARF, of last century, 2 ½ yards long, 39 inches broad, spun in Ross-shire and woven in Dunfermline. Initials ‘I. C.’ at one end, and ‘82’ at the other. Presented to a lady on the occasion of her marriage in 1782.
(1259) Lent by MRS. CAMERON.
GOWN, of Yellow Brocaded Silk, worn at the marriage of the Earl of Kilmarnock, by Margaret Boyd, bridesmaid and cousin of the Earl. Early eighteenth century.
(1258) Lent by MRS. STEWART.
WHALEBONE BACK-SCRATCHER. Three forms of this curious and obsolete implement are figured in Chambers’s Book of Days, vol. ii. p. 238, where it is stated, ‘The scratch-back was literally, as its name implies, formed for the purpose of scratching the backs of our fair and stately great and great-great-grandmothers, and their ancestresses from the time of Queen Elizabeth… But few of the relics have passed down to our time, and even in instances where they are preserved, their original use even has been forgotten. At one time, scratch-backs were almost as indispensable an accompaniment to a lady of quality as her fan and her patch-box. They were kept in her toilet, and carried with her even to her box at the play.’ To this day back-scratchers are a known implement in Eastern countries; but their use implies a certain rudeness of life which is not pleasant to contemplate.
(1429) Lent by JAMES AITCHISON.
