Five tartans described in the MS. whence the _Vestiarium Scoticum_
was derived are omitted from that work. The illuminated transcript of
the document by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder and the drawings of designs
by Charles Edward Stuart, brother of the editor of the _Vestiarium_,
were kindly placed at the disposal of the Editor by Miss Dick Lauder.
In the Introduction will be found a lengthened reference to this
work, while some notes regarding it also appear in the list of works
hitherto published on the subject of tartans. It is believed that
the reproduction of these patterns will prove of interest; and,
accordingly, they are illustrated in Plates XXII. and XXXIV. to XXXVII.
of the present volume. The _Vestiarium_ is enough of a bibliographical
rarity to be known to comparatively few, while the original MS.
is meanwhile quite unavailable. The scheme here represented bears
considerable resemblance to certain early setts of Royal Stewart,
but no record yet discovered indicates the period of its general use
in Atholl. There is reason to believe, however, that it constituted
the basis of the red tartan of Clan Donnachie or the Robertsons. The
well-nigh universal adoption of the Atholl district pattern (commonly
styled the Atholl-Murray) by the various septs in this part of
Perthshire precluded the extensive wear of any other. Hence this design
has remained almost unknown to the present generation.
[Illustration: XXXV. STEWART OF ATHOLL]