Point of the Thistle - Telegraph It was not the Duke of Cambridge who was installed as a Knight of the Thistle yesterday, but the Earl of Strathearn, his title in Scotland. This was a very Scottish event, with the sovereign in the thick, dark green mantle of the order, its train so long and heavy that the boy bearing it almost sank beneath its waves. The Earl took his stall in the astonishing Thistle Chapel of St Giles" Cathedral. Taller than it is long, the chapel is a masterpiece of vaulting, carving, crockets, finials and rich heraldic painting of the best medieval workmanship - except that it wasn't built until 1911, the work of a fine Edinburgh-born architect, Sir Robert Lorimer. He ensured that among the carved thistles grew the stone shamrocks and roses of the Union. The motto of the Order of the Thistle might be translated: "No one tries it on with me." It is a commendable sentiment for a constituent part of a United Kingdom.