The evidence of the early date of this design rests entirely upon
specimens in collections of old hard tartans. Diligent research reveals
no portrait in Highland costume of a member of the clan, whose leading
representatives, moreover, are without any account of the origin either
of this pattern or of another bearing the same name and differing from
it mainly in the omission of the white stripe. From the collation of
many authorities and the inspection of many samples, however, the
conclusion has been reached that of the two the design here represented
is the earlier. It is preserved in a collection of examples of tartans
made by the Highland Society of London in 1822; in that of Messrs
Ogilvie & Co., Edinburgh, dealers in tartan about the same period; in
that of The Mackintosh at Moy Hall, and in many others.
[Illustration: V. DAVIDSON]