Old and rare Scottish tartans

I wish to communicate to you an account of a very curious manuscript which I have great hope may interest you as much as it has done me. It is entitled Liber Vest[i]arium Scotia, otherwise clippit the Garderope of Scotland, Beand ane Mirrour to shewe the true Tertaynis of the principal Scottyshe famylies, be Schyr Richarde Urquharde Knychte. The original belongs to Mr Allan Hay, father to the Messrs Hay, now residing at Logie House, within a mile of this place. It is written in beautifully clear and distinct black letter, and belonged to Lesly, Bishop of Ross, the historian, whose autograph is on it in the shape of a curious memorandum. To give you some idea of the style of the manuscript I shall copy the following commencement of the preface, in which the time when it was written is sufficiently marked by internal evidence:—

Forasmeikle, &c. [The remainder of the quotation from the introduction is not written into the copy of Sir Thomas’s letter retained by him.]

After this follows a dissertation on the rules for making tartan, which is prefaced thus:—

First, for the manner of making and devising of tertennis, &c. [Here again the quotation stops short.]

From this last quotation we are made aware of a fact of which I confess myself to have been always very sceptical hitherto. I mean that tartans were some centuries ago in use universally over Scotland, and accordingly the author of the manuscript, after giving us first descriptions of thirty-eight different tartans belonging to the principal Highland families, and eleven of the “terteinis of lesser famylies or houses, the quhilk be comand frae the cheff houses and original clannes,” goes on with “Here begynnethe off the Laich Cuntre Pairtes and Border clannes,” of which families he gives us the description of twenty-nine tartans. Among these last you may believe the tartan of the illustrious family of Scott is not forgotten. The descriptions are all so very particular that it is quite impossible to mistake them, and as I wished to possess myself of a copy of the manuscript (which I wrote out myself), Mr Charles Stuart Hay, with very great politeness, agreed to illuminate it for me, with drawings of all the tartans, a work which occupied him unceasingly for above three weeks, by which labour he has made me a most beautiful book. There is no printed copy of the manuscript, but the Messrs Hay, Junior, are in possession of a manuscript copy which is very old, and I have heard of another manuscript copy of it which did exist somewhere in Strathglass, but which has been ineffectually sought for as yet. The original came into the family of Mr Allan Hay from the unfortunate Prince Charles Stuart. So far as I know it is now the oldest and best authority (perhaps I should say the only authority) on the subject of tartans; and in these times of rage for tartans, when the most uncouth spurious modern “coats of many colours” are every day invented, manufactured, christened after particular names and worn as genuine, a book of this kind containing authority so invaluable must become extremely popular. At present a woful want of knowledge on the subject prevails. Some of the clans are at this moment ignorantly disputing for the right to the same tartans, which, in fact, belongs to none of them, but are merely modern inventions for clothing Regimental Highlanders. Hardly does one of the clans now wear its tartan with its legitimate sets, stripes, and spranges perfect in all their parts. The Messrs Hay have already instructed several of the chiefs of clans who have had webs of their true tartans made; and as one instance of this I may mention that Cluny Macpherson appeared at the late fancy ball at Edinburgh in his beautiful and genuine tartan as taken from the MS.: viz., “thre wyde stryppes of black upon a white fielde, and throuchout the mydward black ain yellowe, and upon the quite sett twa spranges of crimsoun of ten thredis;” which excited universal admiration. Macleod has got a sketch of his splendid tartan, “three black stryps upon ain yellow fylde,” &c. His and MacLauchlane’s, both families of Norwegian origin, being the only yellow fields. Comyn, who was quite ignorant of his tartan, has now worn more than ever at the Caledonian balls in London his “twa wyd strypis of greine upon ain scarlatt field,” &c.; and so of many more whom the Messrs Hay have enlightened as being their particular friends. A curious cor[r]oboration of the accuracy of the manuscript (if cor[r]oboration had been wanting) occurred in the case of Lovat. Talking of his tartan, he told the Messrs Hay that, although the tartan he then wore was that which was always worn by the Clan Fraser as their clan tartan, yet some old people of the name maintained that there should be a white sprainge through it. The Messrs Hay, on consulting the manuscript, found the tartan to be exactly as worn by Lovat, with the addition of the white sprainge, and described as follows:—“Frizzel hath fovr strippes upone ain scarlatt fyeld quhairoff the outerward be of greine, and the innerward of blewe, and upon the scarlatte sette ys ane sprainge of quhite of saxteine threids,” &c., &c. I need not mention any more but that of Scott, which is as follows:—“Scott hathe four stryppis upon ain fyeld,” &c., &c. But to illustrate this perfectly to you I have begged of my friend, Mr Charles Stuart Hay, to make for you the accompanying colored drawing, on the back of which you have the different colors accurately laid down of their proper relative breadths, and the whole of the proper size for weaving, so that you have only to send the sheet to Messrs Wilson, Carpet and Tartan manufacturers at Bannockburn, who will make you any quantity of the tartan, soft, hard, or delicately fine merino, as you may specify, and in every respect perfectly correct as to pattern, they having already executed many orders from similar drawings and directions by Mr Hay. So I hope to see both you and Miss Scott doing honour to the ancient garb of your antecessors (sic), though ladies, as you will afterwards see, being rather difficult to fix, were left very much to their “awin fauntasyes” in such matters. That I may complete the account of this curious manuscript I may add that after the tartans have been gone through we have a dissertation of “womenis quhite plaids clyppit Arryssadis, the quhilk are not orderit after their clannes, but after their awin conceits and as it liketh them.” Then we have a short treatise of “Hoses and Trewsis,” and then “Hereafter followethe of senyes of divers clannes,” &c., in the list of which I find “Scotte, Blaeberrye,” with which I hope Miss Scott will adorn her head at the next ball she honours with her presence, and so make war fairly under her proper badge. The whole concludes, as most books of those times were wont to do, with a L’Envoy in the following lines:—

Dames and Lordyngis. [Here the quotation ends in Sir Thomas’s copy. It has been considered unnecessary to reprint the lines with which the Vestiarium concludes.]

What Sir Richard Urquhart the author was I have not yet made out, but presume that he was of the Cromarty family, though I confess I cannot find one of the name corresponding to the times in the celebrated Urquhart genealogy, which begins with Adam. I think I have now told you enough of this curious MS. to lead you to approve of the advice I have given to the brothers Messrs Hay, that they ought to publish it without one moment’s delay, illustrated with minute specimens of all the tartans described in it, with a scale attached to each, so as to make one aware of the proper size the cloth should be wrought. This, I am happy to say, I have prevailed on them to do, and the plan they think of is to print it at their own expense after they shall have got as many subscribers as will ensure their being no losers; and as engravings would not only be deadly as to cost, but totally inadequate to the purpose of giving specimens of the tartans, and, indeed, useless where the effect cannot be given without colouring them with the same trouble that is bestowed on a drawing, they have resolved to get a given number of yards of silk ribbon woven of each pattern of the breadth of ladies sash ribbons, whence pieces of perhaps four or six inches in length may be cut and neatly laid down with paste on drawing paper, which will make a cheap, novel, very beautiful, and most satisfactory illustration to the work, and render it in every respect a popular as it will be an elegant national work for the drawing-room table, which cannot fail to be much in request.[85] I mean to write to Mr Cadell and the Taits to get information for the gentlemen as to the expense of printing and publishing the work, and they have already written to Wilson at Bannockburn about the silk ribbons. If you should happen to see Mr Cadell, your noticing the work to him would be very obliging; and if you find my description of it sufficiently interesting to induce you to talk of it to your friends, and, above all, if you could notice it publicly at the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, and at the Highland Society, and Celtic Society, Border Club, &c., you would do more good in paving the way for its success than a thousand advertisements, and would confer a very great obligation on the Messrs Hay.[86]

I need not say I have the greatest interest in the MS. which you mention, in case it shall really prove an authentic document. There would not be the least difficulty in getting the Bannatyne Club to take, perhaps, 100 copies, or obtaining support enough so as at the least to preclude the possibility of loss to the ingenious Messrs Hay Allans. But I think it indispensable that the original MS. should be sent for a month or so to the Register House, under the charge of the Deputy Register, Mr Thomson, that its antiquity be closely scrutinised by competent persons. The art of imitating ancient writing has got to a considerable perfection, and it has been the bane of Scottish literature and disgrace of her antiquities that we have manifested an eager propensity to believe without inquiry and propagate the errors which we adopt too hastily ourselves. The general proposition that the Lowlanders ever wore plaids is difficult to swallow. They were of twenty different races, and almost all distinctly different from the Scoto-Irish, who are the proper Scots, from which the Royal Family are descended. For instance, there is scarce a great family in the Lowlands of Scotland that is not to be traced to the Normans, the proudest as well as most civilised race in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Is it natural to think that, holdin[g] the Scots in the contempt in which they did, they would have adopted their dress?... I could shew, I think, that there is no period in Scottish history when the manners, language, or dress of the Highlanders were adopted in the low country. They brought them with them from Ireland, as you will see from the very curious prints in Derricke’s picture of Ireland, where you see the chief and followers of the wild Irish in the ordinary Highland dress tempore Queen Elizabeth. Besides this, where has slept this universal custom that nowhere, unless in this MS., is it even heard of? Lesley knew it not, though the work had been in his possession, and his attention must have been called to it when writing concerning the three races of Scots, Highlanders, Lowlanders, and bordermen, and treating of their dress in particular. Andrew Borde knows nothing of [it], nor the Frenchman who published the geographical work from which Pinkerton copied the prints of the Highlander and Lowlander, the former in a frieze plaid or mantle, while the Lowlander strides away in a cloak and trunk hose, like his neighbour the Fleming. I will not state other objections, though so many occur, that the authenticity of the MS. being proved, I would rather suppose the author had been some tartan weaver zealous for his craft, who wished to extend the use of tartan over the whole kingdom. I have been told, and believe till now, that the use of tartan was never general in Scotland (Lowlands) until the Union, when the detestation of that measure led it to be adopted as the national colour, and the ladies all affected tartan screens.

The Messrs Hay have shewn no backwardness to obey your wishes [i.e., to send the MS. for inspection]. I read to them that part of your letter intended for their ears (keeping, of course, strictly to myself all that was confidential) [Sir Thomas, no doubt, refers to the second portion of Sir Walter’s letter relating to the descent of John Sobieski Stuart and his brother Charles Edward, which, as having no relation to the subject of this work, has not been reproduced], when they displayed every possible readiness to get the older copy of the MS. sent from London, where it is in their father’s possession, to Edinburgh, as you desire; and accordingly they took an early opportunity of writing to their father to beg he would send it without delay. Meanwhile they immediately put into my hands the old copy of the MS. in their possession,[87] with full powers to transmit it to you. In the event of their father having any doubt about parting with what he values as the apple of his eye, they suggested the alternative of the MS. being examined in London by Meyrick, or any of the people about the British Museum, or any one else, in short, in whose judgment in such matters you could have confidence. I may repeat again that there are two copies of the MS. in their family, viz., that which is believed to be the original, which is in possession of the father in London, and that which is presumed to be a copy (though a copy of above a century old). The latter is in my custody at this moment, ready to be sent you. But I very much regret that the father not only refuses the request made to him about sending down the London MS.,[88] but also expresses the strongest objection to its publication. I shall copy for you what he says by-and-bye, but before doing so I shall copy for you the description of the London or original MS., which description was sent down some time ago at my request in a letter from the father:—

My copy of the Vest[i]arium Scotiæ is written on vellum in the common black letter hand of the sixteenth century, with illuminated capitals at the heads of sections of the kind used in ordinary missals. There are thirty-four pages in the book, which is a small quarto, bound in white vellum, and stamped and gilt. I never heard of any other MS. copy of the work than that in our possession, but there was a printed copy made by order of the late prince, with an introduction describing the book and containing facsimiles of the capitals, and the Bishop of Ross’s date. By the former it appeared that the original had been in the Library of the Scots College at Douay, and from it was removed, with many other of the MSS. of that body, and presented to His Royal Highness some time afterwards. The printed copy was in possession of His Royal Highness the Cardinal of York a short time before his death, and is supposed to have fallen into the hands of the English Government, and along with what they obtained of the Stuart papers.

In addition to this information about the MS. (which I asked for that I might put it as a memorandum on my own copy), Mr Hay sent me a traced facsimile of the Bishop of Ross’s name and notandum, which I read, “Jo. Rossen, primo Maii 1571. I tuck my feaver and ageu at ix huris at ny^t.” This I now enclose for your inspection, with a request that you will have the goodness to return it to me safely when you have had leisure to satisfy yourself perfectly with it, as I mean to paste it on to a blank leaf in my copy. It is not impossible that you may know of or hear of some signatures of John Leslie’s to be found in some of the public collections in Edinburgh. If so, it would be curious to compare this facsimile with it. And now with regard to the father’s letter refusing to send the original MS. I copy it verbatim from the first half sheet of it, which his son has torn off and sent me:—

July 5th, 1829.—My dearest Ian,—I have been reflecting upon all which you request concerning the MS., but you know that there are certain things about which I never consult either the feelings or the opinions of others, but act up to previous unalterable determinations; therefore I feel sorry that you did not consult me before you gave any acquiescence to the purpose of publishing the Garderope of Scotland, as you ought to have remembered the private memorandums written on the blank leaves, and that it was impossible, coupled with other circumstances, to subject them to common curiosity, which neither I nor you can think of for a moment to reclaim the whole history and use of tartan from oblivion. [As to the opinion of Sir Walter Scott, inasmuch as I never heard it respected among antiquaries as of the least value, it is quite indifferent to me.][89] I wish for no connection with the public either for me or mine, or anything in my possession; and if you had kept still more retired from observation the relics of which I gratified you and Charles by the keeping, it would have been a much better proof of your regard for them and respect to the memory of those to whom they belonged. Love to all, and believe me, my dearest Ian, your affectionate father,

J. T. Stuart Hay.

I cannot for a moment believe that the brothers Allan Hay could be guilty of the fraud of attempting to foist a forged manuscript upon me. And, indeed, for what purpose should they attempt so base a thing? Not, certainly, from a thirst for publication, because they never entertained the idea of printing it until repeatedly urged to do so by myself and some other friends who happened to see it, not through any ostentation of theirs, but more as matter of accident than anything else, for they did not seem to set any great value on their old copy.

But although you may be very ready to acquit the Allan Hays of being the impostors, yet it must be admitted that the MS. may nevertheless be a forgery. But if the Allan Hays be acquitted and their story be believed, we then establish that, if there be forgery at all, it must be a forgery of some antiquity. Now, in trying this alternative I confess I think it much more difficult to believe that any one could have undertaken so tedious and fruitless a labour in times when MSS. were much less cared about than they are now, than to believe that the MS. in question really is what it pretends to be. And I do think that the internal evidence of the manuscript itself is very strongly in its favour, and that it is extremely unlikely that any one could have constructed a cheat with so many genuine characters about it. With all this, I must also own that the mere circumstance that Sir Walter Scott doubts is enough to shake the firmest opinion.

As for the Vestiarium, without pretending to know how it may have been got up, it is not, as Audrey says, a true thing, and, allowing the ingenuity of your arguments, one is obliged to allow so many extremely improbable circumstances and mere possibilities, that if any single one of them is not so weighty as to break down the whole system, their combined influence certainly will do so.

I cannot believe there is any copy of such a work among the Cardinal Duke of York’s papers. I am one of the commissioners for examining these papers, which are to a certain extent already catalogued. I will, however, keep a look out for the work of Master Urquhart, which I think his name is. To suppose Lowlanders to be Highlanders we must suppose that they spoke the Gaelick, and held the system of clanship. Without this there could be no occasion for wearing clan tartans. Now, every law or regulation concerning clanship is limited to the Highlands and to the Borders, who seem to have it as a tie of communion calculated to bind a tribe strongly together. But we are now required to believe that there was none of that distinction of dress at all, and if not of dress, why should there have been any difference of language or laws? A nation’s dress is much more easily changed than its manners and language; but here the dress alone remains, the manners and language that associated with it are totally gone. The idea of distinguishing the clans by their tartans is but a fashion of modern date in the Highlands themselves; much less could it be supposed to be carried to such an extent in the Lowlands as the manuscript pretends. Tartan itself is unquestionably a Lowland word, and the stuff “tiretain” fetched from Flanders, and I suspect the Highlander wore a frieze mantle like the Irish chief, without what we now call the bracken.

I confess I am still a believer. What do you think of the facsimile of old Leslie’s handwriting? By-the-bye, I will thank you to send it me in Mr Hay’s parcel,[90] to save me from sending to London for another. I have examined the old copy of the manuscript in my possession,[91] and find the water-mark of the paper to be ante-Union, the supporters to the arms being two unicorns.

We cannot find that the actual MS., “which belonged to the Douay College,” and “contains the signature of the Bishop of Ross,” has ever been exhibited to any learned society in the north, or even to any individual scholar or antiquary unconnected with the present publication; but about twenty years ago, a description of the MS., with a transcript of part, at least, if not the whole of it, was sent to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, with a request that they would patronise its publication; and by their secretary the specimen was placed in the hands of Sir Walter Scott, who kindly undertook to examine it, and give the society the benefit of his opinion as to its authenticity. The secretary, accompanied by our informant, a reverend friend deeply versed in Highland lore, waited upon him shortly afterwards to ascertain the result of the scrutiny. Sir Walter assured them that the style and dialect of the specimen shewn him were utterly false, a most feeble and clumsy imitation of the genuine writing of the period, and indignantly declared his conviction that the manuscript itself must be an absolute fabrication.[93]

The reviewer proceeds to proclaim an opinion asserted to have been delivered by Sir Walter Scott, that the MS. was a clumsy imitation of the genuine writing of its professed period, “and unentitled to any credit.” The reviewer, however, has concealed that Sir Walter Scott never saw the original MS., and that he died some years before the publication of the printed edition—consequently that he never had any opportunity of forming a judgment even from a careful and formal copy. According to the acknowledgment of the reviewer himself, the asserted opinion of Sir Walter was founded upon a “description of the MS., with a transcript of a part, if not the whole.” How far any critic could presume to form a judgment upon any “transcript,” especially an imperfect “part,” of a work, we leave to the experience of those accustomed to the criticism of old writings. But the reviewer has farther concealed the nature of the “transcript” said to have been exhibited to Sir Walter Scott. After the originals of the Vestiarium were in the possession of its editor, there never was made more than one “transcript,” that alluded to by the reviewer as “a transcript obtained by a gentleman in the north.” This copy, or, as admitted by the reviewer, “a part,” was transmitted by the transcriber to some of his friends in Edinburgh, at which time we believe, as asserted by the reviewer, it was casually shewn to Sir Walter Scott. The reviewer, however, has concealed the nature of this transcript, upon which Sir Walter’s asserted opinion is so maliciously quoted. Far from being, as might have been expected, a critical facsimile, or even matter-of-fact copy from the original, it was a sort of “Hood’s Comic Almanack” of tartans, neatly written, not in “clerks’,” “scriveners’,” or any other MS. text of the sixteenth century, but in ordinary Roman letter, consequently, exhibiting no “imitation” of the “genuine writing” of the period, said to have been contra-distinguished in Sir Walter’s observation, and still farther at variance with the original, or any object of serious criticism, by being illustrated in vermilion, with bizarre caricatures in the form of burlesque head and tail pieces, generally graphic puns and hieroglyphics for the name of each family whose title they adorned. Of their description, consequently, of the serious character of the MS. of which Sir Walter Scott’s criticism is so gravely reported, a conclusion may be formed by a few examples, such as, for “Dundas” the sketch of a small “Dun,” and on its summit an “ass.” For Brodie (pronounced in Scots Broadie), a large, i.e., a “Broad” “eye.” And for Montgomery the view of a mount, enlivened by several dancing figures, intended to associate the idea of “go-merry,” and the like. Such is the manuscript said to have been exhibited to and condemned by Sir Walter Scott as “of no authority whatever.” Its removal from authority, however, was farther extended by the fact that it was not even a transcript of the oldest MS. on which the reviewer sits in judgment, but of an inferior, tattered, and inaccurate copy, no older than the year 1721, and which was the only one “in the north” when the amiable and distinguished friend[94] of the possessor, designated by the reviewer after that borealian locality, made the transcript, with which he amused some idle winter days, with the conceits which, it was then predicted, would extend to the original a connection of misconception and ridicule.

According to this expectation, all those who became acquainted with the tract only through the medium of the copy supposed that the illustrations, as well as the text, were equally facsimiles of the original MS.; and if Sir Walter Scott had no explanation to the contrary, he, of course, entertained the same conclusion, and thus must have supposed the tract a greater enormity of absurdity than has even been assumed by the reviewer.[95]

It matters little to the public who was the perpetrator of the present forgery. It may have been “the late Mr Robert Walker,”[97] who is so ready with an entry from “the Bishop’s Diary” in its support—a “Diary” which, like Mr Sobieski Stuart’s MS. itself, formed “part of the Douay papers.”[98] It may have been the defunct porter of Auld Reekie, John Ross, from whom one of the copies is said to have been procured. And apropos of this latter possibility we would recommend Mr Sobieski Stuart to again look at his original MS., and consider whether what he has taken for the signature of the well-known bishop, John of Ross, be not in fact a quaint attempt of his friend the sword-player to write his own name in an old hand, after practising upon the fever and ague notice which accompanies it.[99]