Arlen,

There is a book on tartans that was published just a few years ago (I'm sorry I can't recall the title). A friend of mine brought it into the museum for me to look at. The author actually made the statement that if you were caught wearing a tartan not your own in America it was considered "bad taste" but in Scotland you could face a "25 pound fine" and cited Lord Lyon as her source. Ridiculous! (But I notice you get off a bit cheaper according to her imaginary law than the one in your story!)

Working in the Scottish Tartans Museum as I do I hear so many tartan myths that I couldn't possibly relate them all. But one I just heard for the first time last week was from a young Scottish woman who was visiting our museum with a group of Scottish students. The woman, who looked to be in her mid-twenties, soberly instructed all the children that if your tartan had red in it, that meant you had bastards in your family.

When our museum staff attempted to dispell her myth, she would have none of it. She was from Scotland, and therefor the expert. We are just dumb Americans playing dress-up, it seems.