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Tartan Stories #2

Story 6 -- Tartans Not Scottish!      Story 7 -- Waxed Garments?      Story 8 -- No Sett?      Story 9 -- Colors/Clans      Story 10 -- Scottish Tartans Museum

Story 6 -- Tartans Not Scottish!

Most of the tartans associated today with clans are an invention, not least by two Polish brothers claiming to be the descendants of Charles Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales (Bonnie Prince Charlie). Clansmen would not recognize today's tartans as being of their clan, for they wore whatever set appealed and whatever set was available.

The ultimate irony is that the tartan is not a traditional Scottish form of dress. Rather, it was a popular fashion imported from the Netherlands. In fact, many of the tartans today identified with clans were a originally assigned numbers in Dutch factories. At the time that the laws prohibiting highland dress were enacted, the tartan, along with another non Scottish garment, the kilt (invented by an English Quaker industrialist to replace the leine, a long shirtlike garment that was impractical in factories), were popular fashions worn by many sectors of Scottish society. As a result, it became banned in an effort to stifle ethnic/national identity and prevent uprisings against the English. The Clan identifications came later as part of a festival revival of Scottish folkways organized by none other than the great romantic writer, Sir Walter Scott. Clans members were each given a different tartan as part of a uniform. The idea became popularly associated, especially among the romantic lowland bourgeois and the remnant highland aristocracy, with tradition when in reality it only went back a few generations.

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Story 7 -- Waxed Garments?

The kilt was originally a garment that was comprised of a substantial amount of fabric that was waxed. It was arranged in pleats to be wearable without the wearer being blown around like a parachute. It's purpose was to be pulled up over the upper body without exposing one's nether regions, when camping out or sheltering from the weather.

Examination of Roman documentation plainly reveals that their Celtic enemies wore this garment. I believe this was some time before your Quaker gentleman was fiddling around in shirt factories.

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Story 8 -- No Sett?

"Plus, of course, a great tip-off to the quality of said 'history' was that he started right off saying 'the tartan' was a -garment-. Tartan is a weave and color pattern. A 'plaid' is a garment."

Wrong!!

A tartan is a type of cloth from the French "tertaine". It is characterized by a tightly woven, watershedding, twill structure usually woven in worsted wool and typified by the cloth woven in the Scottish highlands.

Yes, tartan can indeed be a solid color. Indications that the term referred to cloth appear in the records of one of the kings, which notes an order requesting "100 ells of plain green tartan".

Source: Tartan: A Highland Textile
James D. Scarlett

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Story 9 -- Colors/Clans

Julius Caesar and other early observers were much struck by the Celt's love of color. To describe the cloth patterns rather baffled the sober Romans, but we may shrewdly guess one type conspicuous among those textiles. Except in one or two isolated villages of Europe the Tartan design was preserved only in Scotland and the word has now been credibly described as of Pictish origin. Here the "Weft-as warp2" stripings were applied not always to the same form of garment. The modern kilt began developing about 1600 from a large swathing plaid with a belt into the shortened pleated version of today. In Scotland the plaid is a shawl or wrap-rug without any distinctive pattern such as the famous Paisley Plaids. Some exported Tartan plaids have by now caused various parts of the world to forget all others and use the word Plaid to mean the tartan color-pattern or any colored checking of similar style.

The Scottish Tartans as a system of popular heraldry only developed fully after Culloden had crushed the clan system itself from active politics. Like the Jacobite songs the Tartan provided an outlet for national sentiment, after the period 1746 to 1782 when the Kilt and tartan alike were proscribed/ Thereafter ensued a steady growth of Tartans describing the main Clans and families with a few of the earlier type attached to districts. There are now about 500 tartans registered with the Lord Lyon King of Arms.

Apart from its value as an emblem of clan, country or regiment, the Tartan has two main functions, an inspiration expressed in color and camouflage. When the general clan tartan has been seen as inappropriate for one of it's objectives then a second coloring has appeared (Hunting, Dress, etc.)

A Scot by descent should wear the Tartan of his father or family or associated Sept. Alternatively that of his mother, wife, or district of origin. For uncertain cases and those wishing to eschew their respect as a measure of compliment or guesting, there are the Stewart and Jacobite tartans, otherwise such clans as MacDonald or Gordon who welcome such tributes.

Bibliography:

• From: Patrick Gavin
  Newsgroups: soc.culture.Celtic Heritage
  Date: 24 Feb 1995
• From: James R. Bell
  Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995
• From: Fred S. Ullom
  Newsgroups: soc.culture.Celtic Heritage
  Date: Wed, 01 Mar 95

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Story 10 -- Scottish Tartans Museum

"A visit to the Scottish Tartans Museum http://www.scottishtartans.org/ and Gift Shop in the Smoky Mountains is a stroll through the history and culture of Scotland. Our 4800 square foot location on Main Street in downtown Franklin, NC, showcases a large Museum area as well as an expansive Gift Shop. Our Museum is the only American extension of the Scottish Tartans Society in Scotland. The Scottish Tartans Society is the governing body for tartans globally and maintains the official Register of All Publicly Known Tartans. The Society has two museums--one in Keith, Scotland, and one in Franklin, NC."

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