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TARTAN (from F. tiretaine, " linsie-w...

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 435 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TARTAN (from F. tiretaine, " linsie-wolsie," Sp. tiritana, a See also:kind of woollen See also:cloth, perhaps so called from its thinness and lightness, cf. Sp. tiritar, to tremble with See also:cold)  , a worsted See also:cloth See also:woven with alternate stripes or bands of coloured warp and weft, so as to See also:form a chequered See also:pattern in which the See also:colours alternate in " sets " of definite width and sequence . The See also:weaving of particoloured and striped cloth cannot be claimed as See also:peculiar to any See also:special See also:race or See also:country, for indeed such checks are the simplest ornamental form into which dyed yarns can be combined in the See also:loom . But the See also:term See also:tartan is specially applied to the variegated cloth used for the See also:principal portions of the distinctive See also:costume of the Highlanders of See also:Scotland . For this costume, and the tartan of which it is composed, See also:great antiquity is claimed, and it is asserted that the numerous clans into which the Highland See also:population were divided had each from See also:time to time a special tartan by which it was distinguished . After the See also:rebellion of 1945 various acts of See also:parliament were passed for disarming the Scottish Highlanders and for prohibiting the use of the Highland See also:dress in Scotland, under severe penalties . These acts remained nominally in force till 1782, when they were formally repealed, and since that time See also:clan tartan has, with varying fluctuations of See also:fashion, been a popular See also:article of dress, by no means confined in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 See also: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 See also:rich," as See also:early as the See also:middle of the 15th See also:century . In the accounts of See also:John, See also:bishop of See also:Glasgow, treasurer to See also:King See also:James III., in 1471, there occurs, with other mention of the material, the following:—" Ane See also:elne and ane halve of See also:blue Tartane to lyne his gowne of cloth of See also: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 See also:hunting excursion in the See also:Highlands, in which there are charges for " variant cullorit See also:velvet," for " ane schort Heland coit," and for " Heland tartane to be See also:hose to the kinge's See also:grace." Bishop John See also:Lesley, in his De origine, moribus, et See also:rebus gestis Scotorum, published in 1578, says of the See also:ancient and still-used dress of the Highlanders and Islanders, " all, both See also:noble and See also:common See also:people, wore mantles of one sort (except that the nobies preferred those of several colours)." See also:George See also:Buchanan, in his Rerum Scoticarum historia (1582), as translated by Monypenny (1612), says of the Highlanders, " They delight in marled clothes, specially that have any See also:long stripes of sundry colours; they love chiefly See also:purple and blue . Their predecessors used See also:short mantles or plaids of See also:divers colours sundry ways divided; and amongst some the same See also:custom is observed to this See also:day." A hint of clan tartan distinctions is given by See also:Martin Martin in his Western Isles of Scotland (1903), which See also:work also contains a See also:minute description of the dress of the Highlanders and the manufacture of tartan . " Every isle," he observes, " differs from each other in their See also:fancy of making plaids, as to the stripes in breadth and colours . This See also:humour is as different through the mainland of the Highlands, in so far that they who have seen those places are able at the first view of a See also:man's See also:plaid to guess the See also:place of his See also:residence." The following lines give a brief description of the colours of the tartans of the principal clans .

The See also:

kilt-tartan See also:colour is given in each See also:case; the plaid-tartans vary in slight particulars . See also:Campbell of See also:Breadalbane, See also:light See also:green, crossed with darker green, the stripes broad with narrow edging of yellow . Campbell of See also:Argyll, light green crossed with dark green, narrow See also:independent See also:cross lines of See also:white . See also:Cameron, See also:brick-red with broad chequered cross of same colour, edged white and with broad centre of ground colour, two independent cross lines of green . See also:Forbes, yellow green, crossed with broad dark-green lines, centred See also:black, independent cross lines yellow . See also:Fraser, red ground, See also:main cross lines red with deeper red centre edged with blue, independent cross lines blue . See also:Gordon, dark blue-green ground, with broad cross lines of lighter green, narrow centre See also:line yellow . Graeme, light green ground, crossed with, darker green in small chequer, independent crosslines dark green . See also:Grant, See also:scarlet, with broad black-edged scarlet crossings, black independent cross lines . See also:Macdonald of Glengarry and Keppoch, red, with open broad blue cross lines, and two independent blue crossings . Macdonald of See also:Glencoe, green with broad dark-green See also:crossing, the whole covered with See also:fine red lines . Macdonald of Clanranald, light green with broad dark-green crossing, covered with fine red lines .

See also:

Macgregor, scarlet, with narrow scarlet cross lines, edged and centred blue, widely spaced . See also:Mackintosh, red with blue-edged and centred crossings of red, and independent blue cross lines . See also:Mackenzie, blue-green, broad crossing of same colour with darker edges, independent cross lines, alternately red and white, over the main crossings . See also:Macleod, green, with dark-green crossings, over crossings, every other square, a red line . See also:Macpherson, See also:pale See also:grey, four darker grey bars at crossings, the whole covered with red See also:double independent lines . See also:Munro, red with broad green stripe and narrow lines forming a check of black and yellow . See also:Murray, green, See also:close crossings of darker green, independent lines red . See also:Stewart, scarlet, deep coloured crossings with scarlet centre, fine widely spaced dark independent lines . See W. and A . See also:Smith, Tartans of the Clans of Scotland (185o); J . Sobieski See also:Stuart, Vestiarium Scoticum (1842) ; R . R .

M'Ian, Clans of the Scottish Highlands (1845–46) ; J . Grant, Tartans of the Clans of Scotland (See also:

Edinburgh, 1885) .

End of Article: TARTAN (from F. tiretaine, " linsie-wolsie," Sp. tiritana, a kind of woollen cloth, perhaps so called from its thinness and lightness, cf. Sp. tiritar, to tremble with cold)
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