VIII. FRASER
FRASER OF LOVAT.
Confirmation of the supposition that various branches of Clan Fraser wore tartans similar in scheme but different in detail is furnished by the family portraits. In a fine presentment of Major James Fraser of Castle Leather (whereof a replica hangs in Inverness Town Hall), painted about 1723, a red pattern is shown in the plaid, while the rest of the dress is a simple check in red, green, and blue. Portraits of the Hon. Sybella Fraser of Lovat and the Hon. Mrs Archibald Fraser of Lovat, executed after the middle of last century, in the collection of Sir William Augustus Fraser of Ledclune, have different red setts in the plaids. Miss Fraser of Abertarff possesses an interesting likeness of her father, dated 1808, that supplies yet another arrangement in red. The present illustration depicts the earliest authenticated Lovat pattern, which is accepted, moreover, by the leading collectors. In 1849 Lord Lovat wrote of the tartan generally styled Fraser (though, as already mentioned, it is most probably Grant—Plate X.), that he had ascertained it to be that of his clan prior to 1745. It is difficult to accept the statement, since no trace of the design appears in the Fraser paintings either at or before that period. On the other hand, the pattern was undoubtedly in use then by a prominent member of Clan Grant, of whom it is said that he continued to wear the Highland dress for almost a century, as stated in the notes on the Grant tartan.
IX. FRASER OF LOVAT
GRANT.
Reproduced from a portrait of Robert Grant of Lurg (1678-1777), in the collection at Troup House. This example, as mentioned in the note to Plate VIII., is identical with that now commonly styled the Fraser. It was accepted by some only of the Fraser families in 1842, because it was illustrated under their name in the Vestiarium Scoticum. Of the Laird of Lurg there is another likeness, in the possession of Lady Seafield at Castle Grant, which represents him in the Black Watch tartan. The explanation offered is that he was an officer in the Clan Grant Company of the Black Watch; that since his clan supported the Government the prohibition against the national dress would not be enforced in his case; and that it is but reasonable to suppose he wore the tartan of his clan when not in military uniform. In connection with the Grants occurs one of the earliest descriptions of a distinctive clan design. It is dated 1704. It has been partially, though inaccurately, quoted in Sir William Fraser’s Chiefs of Grant (Edinburgh, 1883), and on account of its interest it is given in the Introduction to this work. The illustration is not in absolute harmony with the description, and appears, indeed, to be a modification of it. Attention may again be directed to the resemblance between the Grant and the Fraser tartans. The wide dissimilarity in the tartans depicted in the Grant family portraits preserved at Castle Grant and elsewhere is referred to in the Introduction.
