Of the early use of the various setts of the Stewarts little can
be gleaned, unfortunately, even from painstaking investigation at
the most likely sources. The pattern now submitted of the Stuart of
Bute is a reproduction of another of the drawings omitted from the
published _Vestiarium Scoticum_. It is clear from the correspondence
between Sir Walter Scott and Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, already mentioned,
that Charles Edward Stuart executed all the water-colours about 1829
(although the work edited by his brother was not published till
thirteen years later) for the transcript of the MS. whereon the book
is founded. The records of this, as of the previous design, point to
its use having been confined almost entirely to the family from whom it
derives its title, though others, more or less closely related, have
likewise claimed an interest in the wear. Whether or not the pattern
was employed by the Stuarts of Bute prior to the production of the MS.
by the father of the Stuart brothers has not been ascertained.
[Illustration: XXXVII. STUART OF BUTE]