Tradition associates this tartan with the amiable, ill-fated James
Drummond, Duke of Perth, who was conspicuous in the ’45, and who died
on board a French frigate while attempting to escape in the succeeding
year. The early collections nearly all contain this pattern, which is
variously styled Drummond of Perth, Drummond, and Perth. Portraits of
the Duke in tartan garb are in the possession of the Duke of Richmond
and Gordon at Gordon Castle, and of Lord Ancaster at Drummond Castle,
but in neither case is the painting sufficiently distinct for the
confirmation of details. The Murray-Threipland family preserve at
Fingask Castle a cloak said to have been left there by Prince Charles
Edward; and its design, reproduced in Plate XL., is the Drummond of
Perth, with the exception of a narrow line. It is probable either
that the garment belonged to the Duke, or that it was made for the
Prince from some of his tartan. The pattern now commonly worn by the
Drummonds is likewise claimed by the Grants, the sett of the latter
varying only by the shade of a blue line; but there is no proof of the
early adoption of either by the families concerned. The introduction
of the two setts last referred to was long posterior to the use of the
example illustrated, and they seem variations of the Drummond given by
John Sobieski Stuart in _Vestiarium Scoticum_. In the table to Logan’s
_Scottish Gaël_ the Drummond scheme agrees with the present plate; but
the manufacturers, no doubt to avoid a multiplicity of patterns of the
same name, have, probably unwittingly, dropped the older of the two
designs.
[Illustration: VI. DRUMMOND OF PERTH]