There are a number of Scots and people of Scottish ancestry residing on the Highlands and twin hills of Queen Anne and Magnolia.
At a meeting and planning session on Queen Anne for the upcoming Highland Games, the question of the tartan arose, which I would like to share with you.
Fifty million people throughout the world can claim some element of Scottish descent, and such is the thirst for information about tartans that a computer has had to be installed in a museum devoted to tartans at Comrie, in Perthshire, Scotland, to store up information about this cloth.
The Scottish Tartans Society, formed (in 1963) to preserve the Celtic heritage, now has the capacity to put all the information onto magnetic disks, with a computer that can search 500,000 characters in less than one second.
There are thousands of Scottish societies in the world. The Scottish Tartans Society wanted to coordinate them and act as a general clearinghouse so they always could have a digest of up-to-date information in so-called clanetarium form.
The Society has a coat of arms that was awarded to it in 1977. This features three tender hooks, used by weavers to stretch cloth, and the motto "Bring Forrit the Tartan." The phrase derives from the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, when General Sir Colin Campbell was sent to relieve Locknow, in India, and the 93rd Highlanders saved the day.
The earliest tartan is the so-called Falkirk tartan in two shades of brown, found stuffed in a jar of coins in Bells Meadow, Falkirk; it dates from 245 A.D. A piece of MacBean tartan was taken to the moon and left there for prosperity by Commander Alan MacBean. There also are tartans dating from Culloden, the 1745 battle of Culloden that dashed the hopes of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" to gain the English throne (dashed it for the time being, anyway). The clan system was broken, and tartans and bagpipes were prohibited in Scotland for 35 years.
There were military tartans, which were made of harsh combed wool that cut the soldiers knees - until Queen Victoria noticed the problem and gave orders that the softer, carded wool kilts should be supplied to all Highland regiments.
Queen Victoria also invented the kilt "pin." When the kilt of a parading soldier blew over his head, she suggested pins to keep them down. At that point in history, one has to remember that, in the interest of being properly regimental, underwear was prohibited. Doubtless the queen was not amused.
The Victorian era was a bonanza for plaid. Queen Victoria's passion for "this dear paradise," her Highlands, so influenced society that there was a rush to buy estates and cover them in tartan. At Balmoral, her own Scottish estate, she had carpets in Royal Stuart and chairs, curtains and sofas covered in dress Stuart. Even the draperies in the royal couch were tartan.
The queen's husband, Albert Prince Consort, invented two tartan designs: Victoria and Balmoral. Wilson's of Bannockburn was one of the first companies to manufacture tartan on a large scale. Its customers included Brazilian dandies, the emperor of Austria and tea planters who dressed their servants in tartan.
The best-selling of all tartans are the Royal Stuart and the Black Watch. The Black Watch was the uniform of the Highland regiments raised by King George II 12 years after Culloden. Many Scottish regimental tartans are derived from it, an exception being the Cameron Highlanders, which was invented by the colonel's mother and is based on the MacDonald plaid.
If you have the least trace of Scottish connection in your history, I'm sure you can find a tartan you are entitled to wear. The right of wearing the tartan used to be adhered to much more strictly in the past, especially with military dress tartans; it is much more relaxed now. To quote a good friend of ours, who was asked at a Scottish Highland ball by what right he wore that particular tartan, he replied, "By right of purchase, what else?"
In fact, the desire to wear the kilt was so strongly felt by those who were in no way entitled to do so, that in 1972 a craze was born for creating instant Scotsmen at a Caledonian nightclub off Trafalgar Square in London. Trousers were discarded, to be replaced by the kilt and sporran. The transformed visitor then piped in.
The wearing of the kilt and tartan troues by gentlemen is popular all over the world, and locally by members of the Caledonian and St. Andrew's Society, Scottish country-dance groups and the many local pipe bands. Ladies favor long, pleated tartan skirts and sashes of tartan worn diagonally over evening gowns for formal occasions. The regular kilts with the proverbial cashmere sweater, or twin set, is a fashion that has never changed and has recently become popular again.
You can see kilts of every description and hear bagpipes to your heart's content at the Northwest Highland Games and Clan Gathering taking place July 30-31. Remember, "scotch" describes whiskey. A Scotsman/woman describes a person of Scottish heritage. TTFN ... or should I say Slanchivar![[In-content Ad]]
