This thistle was of the ordinary variety, but of colossal
proportions, full seven feet high, or, as we afterwards saw it
described, "a beautiful emblem of a war-like nation with his radious
crown of rubies full seven feet high." We had always looked upon the
thistle as an inferior plant, and in Cheshire destroyed it in thousands,
regarding it as only fit for food for donkeys, of which very few were
kept in that county; but any one seeing this fine plant must have been
greatly impressed by its appearance. The thistle has been the emblem of
Scotland from very early times, and is supposed to have been adopted by
the Scots after a victorious battle with the Danes, who on a dark night
tried to attack them unawares. The Danes were creeping towards them
silently, when one of them placed his bare foot on a thistle, which
caused him to yell out with pain. This served as an alarm to the Scots,
who at once fell upon the Danes and defeated them with great slaughter,
and ever afterwards the thistle appeared as their national emblem, with
the motto, _Nemo me impune lacessit_, or, "No one hurts me with
impunity."
Golspie was only a short distance away from the castle, and we were
anxious to get there, as we expected letters from home, so we called at
the post office first and got what letters had arrived, but another mail
was expected.
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