Confirmation of the supposition that various branches of Clan Fraser wore tartans similar in scheme but different in detail is furnished by the family portraits. In a fine presentment of Major James Fraser of Castle Leather (whereof a replica hangs in Inverness Town Hall), painted about 1723, a red pattern is shown in the plaid, while the rest of the dress is a simple check in red, green, and blue. Portraits of the Hon. Sybella Fraser of Lovat and the Hon. Mrs Archibald Fraser of Lovat, executed after the middle of last century, in the collection of Sir William Augustus Fraser of Ledclune, have different red setts in the plaids. Miss Fraser of Abertarff possesses an interesting likeness of her father, dated 1808, that supplies yet another arrangement in red. The present illustration depicts the earliest authenticated Lovat pattern, which is accepted, moreover, by the leading collectors. In 1849 Lord Lovat wrote of the tartan generally styled Fraser (though, as already mentioned, it is most probably Grant—Plate X.), that he had ascertained it to be that of his clan prior to 1745. It is difficult to accept the statement, since no trace of the design appears in the Fraser paintings either at or before that period. On the other hand, the pattern was undoubtedly in use then by a prominent member of Clan Grant, of whom it is said that he continued to wear the Highland dress for almost a century, as stated in the notes on the Grant tartan.
IX. FRASER OF LOVAT