Old and rare Scottish tartans

by Donald William Stewart

STEWART OF GALLOWAY.

Like the preceding design, this is one of the five tartans omitted from the published Vestiarium Scoticum; and it differs from the Stewart of Appin merely in the number and the tint of the lines intersecting the red squares. In the same respects it differs also from the Royal Stewart, the evolution of which is somewhat remarkable. When the Royal Company of Archers adopted the Royal Stewart as their uniform early last century, the tartan presented an aspect not easily reconciled with its present setting—as the relics of the old dress show—but the change has been very gradual. The wedding coat of Charles II., preserved in the collection of the Duke of St Albans at Bestwood, is said to be adorned with ribbons of Royal Stewart. This example the author has not yet had an opportunity of verifying. The Stewart of Galloway is a family tartan, restricted in use to the house whose name it bears, and its more immediate connections. It was in considerable favour in the early years of the present century among families allied to the Galloway Stewarts; but of its earlier use available records afford no trace, though there is reason to regard its wear soon after the Union of the Kingdoms as highly probable.

XXXVI. STEWART OF GALLOWAY

STUART OF BUTE.

Of the early use of the various setts of the Stewarts little can be gleaned, unfortunately, even from painstaking investigation at the most likely sources. The pattern now submitted of the Stuart of Bute is a reproduction of another of the drawings omitted from the published Vestiarium Scoticum. It is clear from the correspondence between Sir Walter Scott and Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, already mentioned, that Charles Edward Stuart executed all the water-colours about 1829 (although the work edited by his brother was not published till thirteen years later) for the transcript of the MS. whereon the book is founded. The records of this, as of the previous design, point to its use having been confined almost entirely to the family from whom it derives its title, though others, more or less closely related, have likewise claimed an interest in the wear. Whether or not the pattern was employed by the Stuarts of Bute prior to the production of the MS. by the father of the Stuart brothers has not been ascertained.

XXXVII. STUART OF BUTE