TARTAN, a worsted cloth woven with alternate stripes or bands of coloured warp and weft, so as to form a chequered pattern in which the colours alternate in "sets" of definite width and sequence. The weaving of particoloured and striped cloth cannot be claimed as peculiar to any special race or country, for such checks are the simplest ornamental form into which dyed yarns can be combined in the loom. But the term tartan is specially applied to the variegated cloth used for the principal portions of the distinctive costume of the Highlanders of Scot land. For this costume, and the tartan of which it is composed, great antiquity is claimed, and it is asserted that the numerous clans into which the Highland population were divided had each from time to time a special tartan by which it was distinguished. After the rebellion of 1745 various acts of parliament were passed for disarming the Scottish Highlanders and for prohibiting the use of the Highland dress in Scotland, under severe penalties. , These acts remained nominally in force till 1782, when they were for mally repealed, and since that time clan tartan has, with varying fluctuations of fashion, been a popular article of dress, by no means confined in its use to Scotland alone ; and many new and imaginary "sets" have been invented by manufacturers, with the result of introducing confusion in the heraldry of tartans, and of throwing doubt on the reality of the distinctive "sets" which at one time undoubtedly were more or less recognized as the badge of various clans.
Undoubtedly the term tartan was known, and the material was woven, "of one or two colours for the poor and more varied for the rich," as early as the middle of the 15th century. In the accounts of John, bishop of Glasgow, treasurer to King James III., in 1471, there occurs, with other mention of the material, the following :--"Ane elne and ane halve of blue Tartane to Tyne his gowne of cloth of Gold." It is here obvious that the term is not restricted to particoloured chequered textures. In 1538 accounts were incurred for a Highland dress for King James V. on the occasion of a hunting excursion in the Highlands, in which there are charges for "variant cullorit velvet," for "ane schort Heland coit," and for "Heland tartane to be hose to the kinge's grace." Bishop John Lesley, in his De origin, moribus, et rebus gestis Scotorum, published in 1578, says of the ancient and still used dress of the Highlanders and Islanders, "all, both noble and common people, wore mantles of one sort (except that the nobles preferred those of several colours)." A hint of clan tartan
distinctions is given by Martin Martin in his Western Isles of Scotland (1703), which work also contains a minute description of the dress of the Highlanders and the manufacture of tartan. The following lines give a brief description of the colours of the tartans of the principal clans. The kilt-tartan colour is given in each case; the plaid-tartans vary in slight particulars.
Campbell of Breadalbane, green ground with black and blue half-inch wide crossings and double yellow overcheck. Campbell of Argyll, green ground with wide blue and black crossings, narrow black crossings and alternate yellow and white overcheck. Cameron, red ground with wide green crossings and yellow over check. Forbes, green ground, blue and black wide crossings and narrow crossings of black, white overcheck. Fraser, red ground with green and blue wide crossings, and white overcheck on the red. Graham of Monteith, green ground, wide cross bands of black with blue, and double pale blue overcheck. Grant, red ground with narrow and wide crossings of green and blue, pale blue overcheck. Macdonell of Glengarry, green ground with wide crossings and black and blue, narrow crossings of four red lines and white overcheck. Macdonald, green ground with black and blue wide crossings and four red overlines in two groups, and fine red overcheck. Macdonald of Clanranald, green ground, wide crossings of black and blue, narrow crossings of red grouped together, and white overcheck. Macgregor, red ground, wide and narrow crossings of green, white overcheck edged with black. Mackintosh, red ground, wide crossings of green, narrow crossings of blue and blue overcheck. Mackenzie, green ground, wide crossings of blue and black, with one white overcheck and red overcheck. Macleod, green ground, wide black and blue crossings, overcheck of red and overcheck of yellow. Macpherson, red ground with bright blue, green and black wide and narrow cross ings, narrow white crossings and yellow overcheck. Munro, red ground, green and black wide and narrow crossings, narrow red crossings, double yellow overcheck. Murray of Athole, green ground with blue and black wide crossings and treble overcheck in red. Royal Stewart, red ground with green and blue wide and narrow crossings, bright blue narrow crossings, and double over check of white and yellow.