The present example is designated Huntly and Brodie in certain early
collections, and, like those of Dunblane, Strathearn, and Atholl, it
appears to belong to a district rather than to a family. Tradition
shows it to have been in use during a considerable portion of last
century by such families as Gordon, Brodie, and Forbes, or at least
by members of these touched with Jacobitism, who appear to have
assumed this tartan in common, just as many families of different
name adopted a uniform wear in various localities. On the raising of
the Gordon Highlanders in 1794 a yellow stripe was introduced into
the Black Watch pattern for their regimental use; and since then the
Gordons have discontinued the use of the Huntly except on full-dress
occasions. In a beautiful painting of Miss Rebecca Forbes, daughter of
Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, married in 1802 to Alastair Ranaldson
Macdonell, fifteenth of Glengarry, there is a dress of this tartan
which is known to have been used by her family in Aberdeenshire.
From information supplied by the late Dr. William Forbes Skene to Mr
Elphinstone Dalrymple, it is ascertained that the present Forbes
tartan was designed for the Pitsligo family in 1822 by another Miss
Forbes of Pitsligo. It was done by merely adding a white line to the
Forty-second; the Gordon was similarly obtained by the addition of a
yellow one, and this is now the sole difference between the wear of
the two principal families, Forbes and Gordon, who formerly wore the
Huntly.
[Illustration: XI. HUNTLY]