Are "Clan" tartans older than we think?

[Highland Rogue]

I've always held the opinion that the whole notion of named "clan" tartans is a fairly recent (as in the last 200 years) innovation, something that stemmed from Highland regements wearing a particular distinctive tarta and being called after their founder - the Gordon Highlanders, for example; or the MacKenzie/Seaforth Highlanders, MacLeod's Highlanders, The Sutherland Highlanders, etc. - all of whom wore variations of the "Blackwatch" government tartan with the addition of distinctive overstripes to distinguish their particular regiments - yellow for Gordon, red for Atholl, red and white for MacKenzie (Seaforth), red and buff (yellow) for MacLeod, etc. - and that it was a short step to go from having a few named tartan patterns for various regiments in the 1700's to tartan manufacturers like Wilson's attaching names to various other tartans that they wove and sold.

However, in the back of a small book on how to properly wear the kilt, entitled "Tartans and Highland Dress" by Charles R. MacKinnon of Dunakin (which I highly recommend as required reading for anyone wishing to follow the traditional approach to wearing the kilt, if you can find a copy of it), there is in the back of the book a rather long poem entitled "Tartana, or The Plaid" written by Lanarkshire poet Allan Ramsay (1686-1758) and published by him in 1719 which hints at the notion of certain tartans being affiliated with certain Scottish surnames (and not all of them are Highland!). The poem begins:

"Ye Caledonian beauties, who have long
Been both the muse and subject of my song,
Assist your bard, who, in harmonious lays,
Designs the glory of your Plaid to raise:"

The poem then goes on to describe the ancientness of the plaid as a garment of great antiquity and to complement the loveliness of the likes of "Tartanas" such as "Pringella...whose whiter hand outshines its snowy leaves;" and "Campbella" who "shining red" her "cheeks adorn;" and then "Stewarta's Plaid we view, or thine Ramseia, edg'd around with blue; One shows the spring ehen nature is most kind, The other heav'n, whose spangles lift the mind."....."And when, Fergusia, mortals gaze on you; you raise our wonder, and our love engage, Which makes us curse, and yet admire the hedge; The silk and tartan hedge, which doth conspire With you to kindle love's soft spreading fire"....."How are we pleas'd, when with a handsome air We see Hepburna walk with easy care? One arm half circles round her slender waist. The other like an ivory pillar plac'd, To hold her Plaid around her modest face"........With what a pretty action Keitha holds Her Plaid, and varies oft its airy folds"....."Thus belles in Plaids veil and display their charms, The love-sick youth thus bright Humea warms"...."So through Hamilla's open'd Plaid, we may Behold her heav'nly face, and heaving milky way"...."So shine, Maxella, nor their censure fear, Who, slaves to vapours, dare not so appear"

So here, as early as 1719, we have a lowland poet extolling the beauty and virtues of the tartan plaid personified in the form of Caledonian nymphs with names representing old Scottish families (both Highland and Lowland) such as Pringle, Campbell, Stewart, Ramsay, Ferguson, Hepburn, Keith, Hume, Hamilton and Maxwell.

While this isn't a direct statment insisting that there were specific tartans known by those names in 1719, it appears to imply that there may have been certain tartans associated with certain surnames at that early period.

[macwilkin]

This would be an excellent thread for the heraldry and tartans section....

T.

[JolyStNicholas]

Grand post, thanks for sharing this information.

[Dr Mac]

It IS an interesting possibility, isn't it...

[Joseph McLaren]

I've come across this poem before, in the following form, but never with the individually named clans as in your version.

Tartania, or, The Plaid
by Allan Ramsay, 1721

Ye Caledonian beauties, who have long
Been the muse and subject of my song,
Assist your bard, who, in harmonious lays,
Designs the glory of your Plaid to raise.
How my fond breast with blazing ardour glows,
Whene’er my song on you just praise bestows!...

And you who, on Edina’s streets display
Millions of matchless beauties every day;
Inspir’d by you, what poet can desire
To warm his genius at a brighter fire?

I sing the Plaid, and sing with all my skill;
Mount then, O Fancy! Standard to my will;
Be strong each thought, run soft each happy line,
That gracefulness and harmony may shine,
Adapted to the beautiful design.
Great is the subject, vast th’ exalted theme,
And shall stand fair in endless rolls of fame.

The Plaid’s antiquity comes first in view,
Precedence to antiquity is due:
Antiquity contains a certain spell,
To make e’en things of little worth excel;
To smallest subjects gives a glaring dash,
Protecting high-born idiots from the lash;
Much more ‘tis valu’d when, with merit plac’d,
It graces merit, and by merit’s grac’d…

The Plaid itself gives pleasure to the sight,
To see how all its set[t]s imbibe the light,
Forming some way, which e’en to me lies hid,
White, black, blue, yellow, purple, green and red.
Let Newton’s royal club through prisms stare,
To view celestial dyes with curious care;
I’ll please myself, nor shall my sight ask aid
Of crystal gimcracks to survey the plaid…

And thus they spake, with air divinely free:
“Say, Paris, which is fairest of us three?”
To Jove’s high queen and the celestial maids,
‘Ere he would pass his sentence, cry’d, “No Plaids.”
Quickly the goddesses obey’d his call,
In simple nature’s dress he view’d them all,
Then to Cyth’rea gave the golden ball.

is it at all possible that McKinnon added those lines himself as a wry adaptation of an older verse, or that someone else did, and he ws quoting them? Just a thought, but I'd love to see your theory born out.

[Highland Rogue]

I've come across this poem before, in the following form, but never with the individually named clans as in your version.

is it at all possible that McKinnon added those lines himself as a wry adaptation of an older verse, or that someone else did, and he ws quoting them? Just a thought, but I'd love to see your theory born out.

I think the version you posted may have been an abbreviated version of the poem, as the one given by MacKinnon is much longer and I highly doubt that he would try to insert vast portions of verse into it that were not Ramsay's original.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

There was some discussion about this poem in the STA's newsletter a couple of years ago. I read the poem simply to be describing the garments worn by the particular ladies named, with no real indication that the colors or patterns worn were supposed to be associated with the clan as a whole.

So, while the poem is interesting, it proves nothing in and of itself. We would need to discover a lot more from the early eighteenth century in favor of named clan tartans to back up these claims. As it is, there is no other suggestion from that era that tartans were worn in the kind of representative fashion that has come to be recognized Scottish tradition today.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Alan Ramsey was a closet Jacobite, and his poem Tartana, or the Plaid was a luke warm Jacobite broadside. Like many Scots of the Enlightenment he was opposed to the Union:

Ye gods who Justice Love look down
and you as promised heretofore
would you all Scotland's wishes crown
James with his Golden Reign restore

Unfortunately for tartan hunters, Ramsay is merely waxing poetic (and Jacobite) when he refers to "colours" attached to "names' in his poetic narrative.

To find out more read The Invention of Scotland by Murray G.H. Pittock. It covers this period, and this particular poet, in some interesting detail.

[Panache]

Being that the Original Poster has been banned perhaps it would be for the best to close this thread

Cheers

Jamie