One of the most famous tartans is that of the "Black Watch.° This has no clan sig nificance. It is entirely military. When Gen eral Wade in 1725 was sent to Scotland to pacify the Highlands, in pursuance of the act for disarming the Highlander& he gave orders that the six companies in existence should adopt a uniform tartan; and this being of a dark color gave rise to the name of the Black Watch. In 1739 these six companies were formed into a regiment and the history of the Black Watch began. Ever since Fontenoy this regiment has been associated with some of the greatest deeds accomplished by the British army. The great fame of the Black Watch caused other Highland regiments to be formed: the 71st and 72d in 1773; the 74th in 1788; the 78th in 1793; the 79th or Cameron Highlanders in 1795; the 92d or Gordon Highlanders in 1796; and the 93d or Sutherland Highlanders in 1800. The dress of these regiments has become a national feature and has done more than anything else to perpetuate the wearing of the kilt. The Battle of Culloden (1746), where Prince Charles, Edward Stuart, grand son of James II, was defeated by the Duke of Cumberland, ended the clan system.
In that year (1746), the wearing of the tar tan was prohibited by the British Parliament under penalty of six months' imprisonment. This act was repealed in 1782, through the efforts of the gallant Duke of Montrose.
In the 36 intervening years the weaving of the Highlanders ceased in the Highlands and many of the old °sets° or patterns were for gotten. Owing to the fact that the tartan was worn in the Lowlands, particularly in Edin burgh, where the ladies made it a fashionable craze, it was possible to revive the ancient fabrics. From 1782 onward the wearing of the tartan became general throughout Scotland, and the romances of Sir Walter Scott, who peopled the country with fascinating heroes and hero ines, gave a new and poetic interest to the national dress.
During the World War the Germans called the Highland regiments "Ladies from Hell .° The king of England and all branches of the royal family wear the royal plaid of the high steward of Scotland, whose name is, in consequence of the office, Stewart (or Stuart). The Prince of Wales, as Lord of the Isles, wears the red and green plaid with intersecting black lines of that district. The Duke of Sussex, who is Earl of Inverness, wears the Inverness. In modern times many tartans have been invented, manufactured and named after the Border tribes of the Lowlands, such as Douglas, Johnston, Lindsay, etc., and many fancy tartans in various sorts of fabrics have been manufactured, particularly for women's dresses. Silk tartan and tartan velvet (with short nap woven in plaids) have been manu factured for women's dresses and men's waist coats, and at certain periods have been ex tremely costly and fashionable. Every sort of article appears in Scotland in the national tar tans: capes, skirts, boys' suits, kilts for little boys and girls, underpetticoats, ties, tam o'shant ers, blouses shawls, rugs, kummerbunds and linings for bags and satchels.
The Lowland 'Shepherd's Plaid," or tartan, is a woolen cloth made into small checks of black and white. This is also called a °mud.) The check and plaid appear in many varie ties in the cotton, woolen and silk goods made in India. Agra, for instance, turns out large quantities of checked and striped cotton cloths.
Gingham comes from a Malay word, meaning striped. It is of cotton or linen, woven of dyed threads in stripes or checks and plaids. Ging hams were much worn in the 18th century. For example, the British Magazine (1763) notes that °Ladies of taste are prodigiously fond of the ginghams manufactured in Manchester.* Kites is the name' by which a stout fabric, woven in colored check patterns, is known in the Punjab. The loom for khes weaving is wider than usual and the cloth is prized for winter wraps. Dark red, dark blue and white are the usual colors. These cloths are some thing like the ginghams and checks of England. They are mostly woven with yarn brought from England, or are Bombay mill-spun. Another kind of check cloth, largely made at Ludhiana, is called Gabrun or Gamrun. It is still better known as Ludhiana cloth and is much used by Europeans for summer clothing.
In Multan and Bhawalpur, where variegated silks are produced, checks are among the favor ite patterns. In Peshawar, Kohat, Shahpur and Bhawalpur silk Lungis are made. These are woven of various colors and often with gold thread interwoven for extra beauty. LunOis are chiefly worn for turbans and are exten sively used on the Punjab frontier, as they are considered handsomer than white turbans. Some of the arrangements of stripes are, like the Scottish tartans, distinctive of certain Khels, or clans.
Kites, described above as made of cotton, are also made of silk, sometimes plain, some times in patterns. 'The Khes,° writes Baden Powell, °is also woven in silk, either check pattern in squares, or plain silk with a gold border and edged with some fancy pattern' Blankets of goat's hair are produced in the hill districts of the Punjab. These are often woven into a check pattern. Various kinds of silk and cotton mixed fabrics are made in the Maldah district: Sabzikatar, for example, is of a green ground with fine stripes of checkered crimson and yellow, with figures resembling a dagger between the stripes.
Bulbulchasm has a gold ground with dia mond patterns, compared to the eye of the nightingale (bulbul), In many provinces silk and cotton weaving with warps and wefts, Which have been separately tied and dyed by the Bandhana knot-tying process, is practised. From this name is derived the bandanna hand kerchief, which the old Southern negress used to wear in the form of a picturesque turban.
Thus the migration of the check in all its various manifestations and varieties brings mankind together strangely; and the old dis tinction of plaid and checks, which was used originally to label clans and families, lives to-day as a popular and useful motive of decoration.
Bibliography.--Skene, William Forbes, 'The Highlanders of Scotland' (Stirling 1902) ; Browne, Dr. James, 'History of the Highlands and the Highland Clans) (4 vols., 1838; re edited by J. S. Keltie, 2 vols., 1875); Grant, James, 'The Tartans of the Clans of Scotland' (Edinburgh and London 1886) • Stewart, David, 'Sketches of the Character, Manners and Pres ent State of the Highlanders' (2 vols.. Edin burgh 1825) ; Logan, James,