Silver Plated Christmas Decoration Scottish Thistle Hamilton & Young

Decorate your Christmas Tree with this lovely Silver Christmas Decoration featuring the famous Scottish Thistle.

Crafted in the finest silver plate, the decoration has an attractive red ribbon to hang it on the tree, and comes complete on a display card giving a short history of the design.

Size: 60mm x 60mm

THE SCOTTISH THISTLE

The thistle is a thorny flower that grows wild in all parts of Scotland, and legend has it that it became the national emblem ofScotland after the Battle of Largs in 1263AD.

A Norse attack force had decided on a stealthy night attack. However their leader trod on a thistle and his yell alerted the Scots, who under their king Alexander III routed them.

This battle led to the ending of the Norse occupation of western parts ofScotland, and the establishment of the kingdom of Scotland as it is today. The first time a thistle was used as the special emblem of Scotland, however, was in the time of King James III, in the 15th Century.

The thistle is not a useful plant, but it is tough and prickly, something you cannot simply grasp hold of and pull out of the ground like a common weed, and it became a popular badge in Scotland. While the Lion Rampant flag was grand and the Saltire Flag hallowed by long tradition, the homely thistle was something everyone could identify with.

To the Scots it was a reminder that their country might not be the most rich or fertile but, equally, it was not to be grasped lightly.