The accompanying tartan is one of two ancient designs bearing the same
name. It figures in all the collections formed in the early years of
the century, and an excellent example (the precise date of which,
however, is unknown) has been procured from Messrs Romanes & Paterson.
The other design, to be found in a collection made in 1790, is shown in
an ancient piece of hard tartan with a simple check in red and green
about five-eighths of an inch square in the Editor’s possession. In
the _Vestiarium Scoticum_ the Mac Lachlan is depicted as a brilliant
combination of yellow and black, being the sett in use by the present
Mac Lachlan of Mac Lachlan. The clan generally use a red and dark blue
design, which cannot be traced further back than 1850 to the Smiths’
and Smibert’s works. The existence of the tartan illustrated appears
to have been generally overlooked by the clan, a fact greatly to be
regretted, as it is one of the finest of the old clan setts. That the
illustration represents an early and authentic clan pattern of the Mac
Lachlan cannot be doubted, for it is the only example occurring under
that name in the collections of the Highland Society, the Campbells
of Craignish, The Mackintosh of Mackintosh, and many others. Several
members of a minor sept of the Mac Lachlans, followers of the Stewarts
of Appin, were slain in the campaign of 1745-46 while fighting in the
Appin Regiment. (See note under Stewart of Appin.)
[Illustration: XX. MAC LACHLAN]