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.
[Illustration: IX. FRASER OF LOVAT]