Old and rare Scottish tartans

The authority for the accompanying example is a portrait of Sir Alexander (afterwards first Lord) Macdonald of the Isles, in the collection of Lord Macdonald of the Isles, at Armadale Castle in Skye. Of that painting, executed by an unknown artist about 1750, the vignette on the title-page of the present work is a reproduction. The tartan is represented only in the coat of the youth holding the golf-club, the trews being in red and white check; and a close inspection reveals an important addition to what has long been accepted as the Lord of the Isles pattern—to wit, that of the black lines intersecting the red squares. The omission of these black lines from the modern sett is obviously accidental, for the tartan as now worn is based on the authority of the picture, which was believed to have been accurately copied. The origin of the error cannot be ascertained; but, probably, a mistake in the reproduction of the design when tartans became the wear after the repeal of the prohibitory statute has remained undetected till now. On the canvas, at least, the intersections are clearly depicted; and, moreover, the tartan thus conforms to the rule of breaking large squares generally observed in old clan patterns. The Costume of the Clans, by John Sobieski Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart, contains a presentment of the painting which, though professedly coloured from the original, is nevertheless extremely inaccurate. It may be added that the tartan, which is that usually worn by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, who bears the title of the Lord of the Isles, has never hitherto been faithfully delineated in any previous work nor properly reproduced in any textile fabric of modern manufacture.