Part 8

Professor Skene’s statements—first, that a description of the manuscript, with a transcript of part, if not the whole of it, was sent to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, with a request that they would patronise its publication; second, that the specimen was placed by their secretary in the hands of Sir Walter Scott, who undertook to express an opinion upon it; and, third, that the secretary and “our informant” afterwards waited upon Sir Walter to ascertain what his opinion was—are unverified. All that has yet been discovered, indeed, goes to show that nothing of the kind ever took place, and that the “facts” stated in the _Quarterly Review_ had their origin only in the imagination of the learned professor’s “reverend friend.” The minutes of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for that period are yet in existence. They are kept with a careful, even a tedious minuteness; and is it possible to suppose that the series of events detailed in the _Quarterly Review_ of June 1847 as having taken place “about twenty years ago,” involving questions of such importance to antiquaries, especially to Scottish antiquaries, could have been entirely omitted from them? Yet they are. No mention whatever of the circumstances stated by Professor Skene to have occurred “about twenty years ago” appears.

John Sobieski Stuart’s position in the affair is quite plain. We find from the correspondence that all Sir Walter really saw was the description and extracts contained in Sir Thomas’s letter of 1st June 1829; but the editor of the _Vestiarium_, aware of the fact that Sir Thomas had a transcript of the work, which he had expressly offered to show Sir Walter, and confronted with the absolute statement by Professor Skene, on the authority of his “reverend friend,” that Sir Walter had seen a transcript, arrived naturally at the conclusion that the transcript Sir Walter was asserted to have seen was the only one in existence, that made by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, and directed his reply accordingly. Had he been aware of the real facts of the case, his reply to Professor Skene might have been even more crushing than it was.

Professor Skene made an attack in another quarter. He questioned the authenticity of the work on the ground that there were several and serious errors in the genealogies of the clans whose tartans are described, and he specified particularly M’Nab, Farquharson, Clan Gun, Cluny Macpherson, and Mackintosh, the occurrence of errors in regard to whose genealogies, he urged, demonstrated that the _Vestiarium_ was a forgery. To reply to these criticisms John Sobieski Stuart seriously set himself, and with remarkable ability and success.[96]

Finally, Professor Skene fell foul of the Bishop of Ross’s signature.

It matters little to the public who was the perpetrator of the present forgery. It may have been “_the late_ Mr Robert Walker,”[97] who is so ready with an entry from “the Bishop’s Diary” in its support—a “Diary” which, like Mr Sobieski Stuart’s MS. itself, formed “part of the Douay papers.”[98] It may have been the defunct porter of Auld Reekie, John Ross, from whom one of the copies is said to have been procured. And _apropos_ of this latter possibility we would recommend Mr Sobieski Stuart to again look at his original MS., and consider whether what he has taken for the signature of the well-known bishop, John of Ross, be not in fact a quaint attempt of his friend the sword-player to write his own name in an old hand, after practising upon the fever and ague notice which accompanies it.[99]

To this taunt John Sobieski Stuart made no reply. Possibly it was beyond his power to give any example of the bishop’s signature beyond the one in his possession. And yet the propriety of comparing an authoritative example of Leslie’s handwriting with that appearing in the _Vestiarium_ obviously suggests itself, and did not escape Sir Thomas Dick Lauder’s observation. He wrote on 20th July 1829,[100] enclosing Sir Walter Scott a traced facsimile of the signature for his satisfaction, and adding “it is not impossible you may know of or hear of some signatures of John Leslie’s to be found in some of the public collections in Edinburgh. If so, it would be curious to compare this facsimile with it.” Of this request no notice appears to have been taken by Sir Walter, and Sir Thomas again returns to the charge on 29th November,[101] when he asked Sir Walter for his opinion of the authenticity of the signature, and requesting him to return the facsimile. But the day of Sir Walter’s own trouble had come, and he contented himself with returning the facsimile to Sir Thomas without any attempt at verification. One obvious explanation of Sir Walter’s proceeding is that the public records were not then so accessible as they are now, and a search must have proved both tedious and expensive.

Of Leslie’s signature as Bishop of Ross (Jo. Rossen.) not many examples are available, but the Editor’s attention has been drawn to one in the _Lord Treasurer’s Accounts_. It is submitted that the reader may be able to form an opinion as to whether the facsimile in the _Vestiarium_ is more likely to represent the signature of the Bishop of Ross or the scrawl of an Edinburgh street porter of 1819.

D. W. S.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: _The Heimskringla_, or Chronicle of the Kings of Norway. Translated from Icelandic of Snorro Sturleson, with a preliminary dissertation, by Samuel Laing, Esq. London: Longmans, 1844. Magnus Barefoot’s Saga (written by Snorro Sturleson 1178-1241), Vol. III., p. 139.]

[Footnote 2: Laing translates the word “kyrtlu” as “kirtles;” Gregory and Skene translate it “tunics.”]

[Footnote 3: _Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis_, Vol. II., p. 8. Spalding Club.]

[Footnote 4: _Scotichronicon_, Gregory’s translation. _Transactions of the Iona Club_, p. 27.]

[Footnote 5: _Borthwick’s Remarks on British Antiquities._ Edinburgh, 1776, p. 139.]

[Footnote 6: _Pinkerton’s History of Scotland from the Accession of the House of Stuart._ London, 1797, Vol. I., p. 493.]

[Footnote 7: _Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials_, Vol. I., Part I., p. 114, note.]

[Footnote 8: _Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland_, edited by Thomas Dickson, Curator of the Historical Department of H.M. General Register House, Vol. I., 1473-1498, Preface, p. clxxxv, and note; and Glossary, p. 441.]

[Footnote 9: Scottish Collection of Gaelic MSS. in Advocates’ Library, No. XVI., A.A., line 2. For the correct reading as well as translation of this interesting manuscript the Editor is indebted to Professor Mackinnon. In the “Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the Poems of Ossian” (Edinburgh, 1805), it is, on the authority of Mr Astle, stated to be a writing of the ninth or tenth century (Report, p. 305). In the opinion of Professor Mackinnon the manuscript cannot be assigned to an earlier period than about 1400.]

[Footnote 10: _Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, 1429_, Record Issue, Vol. II., p. 18.]

[Footnote 11: Constable’s edition of Major, published for the Scottish History Society. Edinburgh, 1892, pp. 48, 49.]

[Footnote 12: _Ibid._, p. 333.]

[Footnote 13: _Ibid._, p. 359.]

[Footnote 14: _Lord High Treasurer’s Accounts_, 1537-38, fol. 63, MS., H.M. General Register House.]

[Footnote 15: See letter printed in full in _Bannatyne Miscellany_, Vol. I., and also in _Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis_. The Editor is indebted for a correct transcription of the above portion to Mr Augustus W. Franks, C.B., British Museum.]

[Footnote 16: _Histoire de la Guerre d’Escosse pendant les Campagnes, 1548 et 1549._ Par Jean de Beaugué. Maitland Club. The translation is that of Donald Gregory. See _Transactions of the Iona Club_, p. 31.]

[Footnote 17: _Register of the Privy Council_, Vol. I., p. 136.]

[Footnote 18: _The Chronicles of Scotland_, by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, Edition 1814, Vol. I., Introduction, p. xxiii.]

[Footnote 19: _The Historie of Scotland_, wrytten first in Latin by the most Reverend and Worthy Jhone Leslie, Bishop of Rosse, and translated in Scottish by Father James Dalrymple Religious in the Scottis Cloister of Regensburg the zeere of God 1596. Edited for the Scottish Text Society by the Rev. Father E. G. Cody, O.S.B., 1885, pp. 90-94. This quaint Scots version is given in preference to the ordinary one from the Latin, as it conveys an extremely vivid picture of the ancient dress written by a contemporary.]

[Footnote 20: _Ibid._, p. 377.]

[Footnote 21: Aikman’s translation of _Buchanan’s History of Scotland_, Vol. I., pp. 40, 41. Buchanan’s description was incorporated in _Certeine Matters concerning the Realme of Scotland, composed together as they were Anno Domini 1597_, by John Monipennie, who also included it in the _Summarie of the Scots Chronicles, 1612_.]

[Footnote 22: _The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland_, Vol. I., pp. 331, 335. Bannatyne Club.]

[Footnote 23: _Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen, 1570-1625_, as printed by the Spalding Club, Vol. II., pp. 27, 373.]

[Footnote 24: _The Image of Irelande, 1581._ Reprinted by A. & C. Black, Edinburgh, 1883, p. 50.]

[Footnote 25: _Ibid._ p. 105.]

[Footnote 26: _La Navigation du Roy d’Escosse Iaques Cinquiesme du nom_, referred to in the _Transactions of the Iona Club_, pp. 36, 37.]

[Footnote 27: _The Great Seal Register_, 1580-1593, edited by John Maitland Thomson, M.A., Advocate, No. 1491.]

[Footnote 28: _Vestiarium Scoticum._ William Tait, Edinburgh, 1842, Introduction, p. 59; and _A Reply to the Quarterly Review upon the Vestiarium Scoticum_. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, 1848, p. 23.]

[Footnote 29: _Register of Signatouris in the Office of Comptrollerie_, Vol. XII., 1587-1589, fol. 82.]

[Footnote 30: _Charge of the Temporalitie of Kirklandis: North Side of the Forth._ MS. in H.M. General Register House, fol. 94.]

[Footnote 31: _Register of Signatouris in the Office of Comptrollerie_, Vol. XXXIV., 1617, fol. 120.]

[Footnote 32: _Ibid._, Vol. XLVII., 1630, fol. 208.]

[Footnote 33: _The Pourtrait of True Loyalty exposed in the Family of Gordon without interruption to this present year 1691, with a relation of the Siege of the Castle of Edinburgh in the year 1689._ MS. in Advocates’ Library. It is partially quoted in _De Rebus Albanicis_.]

[Footnote 34: _Iona Club Transactions_, pp. 37, 38.]

[Footnote 35: _Origines Parochiales Scotiæ_, Vol. II., i. 156.]

[Footnote 36: _The Montgomery Manuscripts, containing Accounts of the Colonization of the Ardes in the County of Down in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James._ Printed from the Original Manuscripts and Transcripts of MSS., composed by William Montgomery, Esq., second son of Sir James Montgomery, between the years 1698 and 1704. Belfast, 1830, pp. 53, 54.]

[Footnote 37: _Camden’s Britannia_ (Gough’s Edition, 1789), Vol. III., p. 389.]

[Footnote 38: _The Pennyless Pilgrimage, or the Moneylesse Perumbulation of John Taylor, alias the Kings Majesties Water-Poet: How he travelled on Foot from London to Edenborough in Scotland, not carrying any money to or fro, neither Begging, Borrowing or asking Meate, Drinke, or Lodging._ Hume Brown’s Edition. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1892, pp. 120, 121.]

[Footnote 39: _History of Scots Affairs from 1637 to 1641_, by James Gordon, Parson of Rothiemay. Spalding Club, Vol. III., Appendix to Preface, pp. xliii., xliv.]

[Footnote 40: Defoe’s Works: _Memoirs of a Cavalier_, Vol. II., pp. 112, 113. Bohn, London, 1854. As to the genuine authorship of this work, see Lee’s Bibliography in his edition of Defoe’s Works.]

[Footnote 41: _Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, 1661_, Vol. VII., p. 186.]

[Footnote 42: _Brome’s Travels_, Second Edition, London, 1707, pp. 179, 180.]

[Footnote 43: _Tours in Scotland, 1677 and 1681_, by Thomas Kirk and Ralph Thoresby, edited by P. Hume Brown. Edinburgh, David Douglas, 1892, pp. 28, 29.]

[Footnote 44: See the letter quoted in _Blackwood’s Magazine_, April 1817, p. 69. The present extract has been compared with the original in the Advocates’ Library. In the _Transactions of the Iona Club_ “not one of ten of them hath breaches” is made to read “not one of them hath breaches,” and this very serious error has been duly copied by subsequent writers on the Highland dress.]

[Footnote 45: _A Collection of Several Poems and Verses composed upon various occasions, by Mr William Cleland, Lieutenant-Colonel to my Lord Angus’s Regiment._ Printed in the year 1697, pp. 11-13.]

[Footnote 46: Lyon Register in H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh. Matriculation dated about 1672.]

[Footnote 47: _Alexander Nisbet’s Heraldic Plates, originally intended for his System of Heraldry._ Waterston and Sons, Edinburgh, 1892.]

[Footnote 48: Nisbet MS., Advocates’ Library, pp. 33-35.]

[Footnote 49: Introduction to _Nisbet’s Heraldic Plates_, p. xlvi.]

[Footnote 50: _The Grameid: an Historic Poem descriptive of the Campaign of Viscount Dundee in 1689_, by James Philip of Almerieclose. 1691. Translated by the Rev. Alexander D. Murdoch, F.S.A. Scot., for the Scottish History Society, 1888.]

[Footnote 51: _Some Account of the Battle of Killiecrankie and what Followed thereupon._ The MS. is cited in _The Costume of the Clans_, p. 104.]

[Footnote 52: _An Account of the Isle of Man, ... with a Voyage to I-Columb-Kill_, by William Sacheverell, Esq., late Governor of the Isle of Man. 8vo. Manx Society, 1859, p. 99. The first edition was published in 1702.]

[Footnote 53: _A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, by M. Martin, Gent._ The first edition of this work appeared in 1703, and a second, “very much corrected,” in 1716. It is from this second edition, pp. 206-210, that the extract is taken.]

[Footnote 54: _A Collection of Original Papers about the Scots Plot._ London, 1704, pp. 3, 4.]

[Footnote 55: _Court Books of the Regality of Grant, 1703-1710._ MSS. in H.M. General Register House.]

[Footnote 56: By the courtesy of the families in possession of the portraits referred to in the text, the author, for the purposes of the present work, has had repeated opportunities of making careful examinations of those referred to.]

[Footnote 57: _The Present State of Scotland_, Second Edition, 1711.]

[Footnote 58: _A Journey through Scotland, by the author of The Journey through England_ (John Macky). London, 1723, p. 194.]

[Footnote 59: _System of Heraldry_, Edition 1804, Vol. I., p. 415. The original edition of this work was published in 1722, but was most probably written fifteen or twenty years before that date.]

[Footnote 60: MS., Lyon Office. See facsimile of a portion of the page containing the Cluny reference in the Introduction to the _Nisbet Plates_, p. xlii.]

[Footnote 61: The original is at Fingask. It has been engraved as the frontispiece to _The Threiplands of Fingask_.]

[Footnote 62: Captain Burt’s _Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland_, 1818, Vol. I., pp. 84-5; Vol. II., pp. 7, 84-86, 87-91. Jamieson’s Edition.]

[Footnote 63: Burt’s _Letters_, Vol. II., pp. 102-105. Jamieson’s Edition.]

[Footnote 64: _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century_, from the MSS. of John Ramsay, Esq. of Ochtertyre, edited by Alex. Allardice. Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1888. Vol. I., p. 540; Vol. II., pp. 87, 88.]

[Footnote 65: _Caledonian Mercury_, 14th January 1740.]

[Footnote 66: _Ibid._, 19th February 1740.]

[Footnote 67: _Caledonian Mercury_, 4th October 1745.]

[Footnote 68: A mistake of the writer for “Ness.”]

[Footnote 69: _A Journal of the Expedition of Prince Charles Edward in 1745, by a Highland Officer._ Lockhart Papers, Vol. II., p. 505.]

[Footnote 70: _Stewart’s Sketches_, Vol. I., p. 112, Edition 1822.]

[Footnote 71: _General Orders to the Army in Scotland, 22nd December 1748._]

[Footnote 72: _Stewart’s Sketches_, Vol. I., p. 113.]

[Footnote 73: _Orders to 20th Foot [now the Lancashire Fusiliers], dated Bamff 1752._]

[Footnote 74: _Edinburgh Evening Courant_, February 21, 23, 26, 28, 1760.]

[Footnote 75: _Ibid._, July 9, 14, 1760.]

[Footnote 76: _Stewart’s Sketches_, Vol. I., p. 114.]

[Footnote 77: _Travels in the Western Hebrides from 1782 to 1790_, by the Rev. John Lane Buchanan, Missionary Minister to the Isles from the Church of Scotland. London, 1793, pp. 84-90.]

[Footnote 78: _Camden’s Britannia_ (Gough’s Edition, 1789), Vol. III., p. 390.]

[Footnote 79: _Vestiarium Scoticum._ From the Manuscript formerly in the Library of the Scots College at Douay, with an Introduction and Notes by John Sobieski Stuart. Edinburgh, William Tait, 1842.]

[Footnote 80: Preface to _Vestiarium Scoticum_, pp. i.-vii.]

[Footnote 81: Advertisement annexed to _A Reply to the Quarterly Review upon the Vestiarium Scoticum_. Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1848.]

[Footnote 82: _A Reply to the Quarterly Review_, p. 6.]

[Footnote 83: See notes on p. 47.]

[Footnote 84: _A Reply to the Quarterly Review_, p. 7.]

[Footnote 85: It may be proper to point out here that the Editor discussed the idea of issuing a work on rare tartans, to be illustrated by examples of the actual fabrics, with his publisher several years ago, and it was not until the illustrations for the present work were considerably advanced that he became aware of the existence of Miss Dick Lauder’s copy of the _Vestiarium_, which she has so handsomely placed at his disposal, and which contains the statement in the text.]

[Footnote 86: Copy of original letter in possession of Miss Dick Lauder. Copies of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder’s letters to Sir Walter Scott, along with the originals of the latter’s replies, are bound up with the copy of the _Vestiarium_ made by Sir Thomas in 1828-9, referred to on page 45. The volume, now in possession of Miss Dick Lauder, daughter of Sir Thomas, also contains the cleverly executed water-colours by Charles Edward Stuart referred to in the above letter and the quaint illustrations by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder subsequently referred to.]

[Footnote 87: This, it will be remembered, was the copy which belonged to John Ross, the old sword-player.]

[Footnote 88: _i.e._, the Douay MS.]

[Footnote 89: The words within brackets do not occur in Sir Thomas’s letter to Sir Walter. They appear, however, in the original letter written by the father of the Messrs Hay, and preserved by Sir Thomas in the volume now in Miss Dick Lauder’s possession.]

[Footnote 90: Sir Walter did so, and it is reproduced on page 56.]

[Footnote 91: This, it will be remembered, was the copy got from John Ross with the date 1721.]

[Footnote 92: _Quarterly Review_, No. CLXI., June 1847, Art. II., p. 57, “The Heirs of the Stuarts.”]

[Footnote 93: _Ibid._, pp. 63, 64.]

[Footnote 94: Sir Thomas Dick Lauder.]

[Footnote 95: _A Reply to the Quarterly Review upon the Vestiarium Scoticum._ William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, 1848, pp. 4-7.]

[Footnote 96: See _Reply_, pp. 8-16.]

[Footnote 97: An evident misprint for “Watson” in the _Quarterly Review_ article.]

[Footnote 98: Professor Skene’s reference here is to a statement in the preface to the _Vestiarium_, to the effect that the Bishop of Ross noted his acquisition of Sir Richard Urquhart’s work in his Diary (which he quotes in full) remaining among a portion of the Douay papers, in the possession of the “late Mr Robert Watson, well known in the history of the Stuart papers.” For an account of Watson’s remarkable career see an article by Andrew Lang in the _Illustrated London News_ of 12th March 1892.]

[Footnote 99: _Quarterly Review_ article, p. 67.]

[Footnote 100: _Ante_, p. 49.]

[Footnote 101: _Ante_, p. 51.]

[Footnote 102: Facsimile of John Leslie’s signature as Bishop of Ross in the _Lord Treasurer’s Accounts_, 1564-6, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh. The date of the audit, to which the bishop’s signature is affixed, is 27th June 1566.]

[Footnote 103: Facsimile of the signature contained in the _Vestiarium Scoticum_ referred to on preceding page.]

[Footnote 104: An example from _Nichols’ Autographs_, obtained from the bishop’s letter to Lord Burleigh, dated Paris, 28th February 1579, preserved in the British Museum.]

[Footnote 105: Why the simple red and black check receives the title of Rob Roy is something of a mystery. In _Authenticated Tartans of the Clans and Families of Scotland_ (Smith: Mauchline, 1850) it is asserted, and the statement is repeated in _The Tartans of the Clans of Scotland_ (W. & A. K. Johnston: Edinburgh, 1886) without attempt at verification, that three genuine portraits of Rob Roy represent him as wearing it; but these and other so-called Rob Roy portraits—be their value what it may—afford no sanction whatever for the design. The Editor is not aware on what authority the portraits are classed as Rob Roy. He has seen seven paintings, including the three above referred to, in which the figure is identical, all known as Rob Roy, and in each a separate pattern appears, none of them showing the simple red and black check. The tartan is accepted by sound authorities as the old Macgregor clan pattern. There are fine examples of it in a collection of tartans made by the Highland Society of London in 1816-17, labelled and sealed “The MacGregor Tartan for undress ordinary clothing. The Seal of Arms of Sir John MacGregor Murray of MacGregor, Baronet. [Signed] John M. Murray.”]

NOTES ON WORKS TREATING OF TARTANS.

1. _The Scottish Gaël; or, Celtic Manners as preserved among the Highlanders_: Being an Historical and Descriptive Account of the Inhabitants, Antiquities, and National Peculiarities of Scotland; more particularly of the Northern or Gaëlic Parts of the Country, where the singular habits of the Aboriginal Celts are most tenaciously retained. By James Logan, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 65 Cornhill. 1831. 2 vols. 8vo. Large paper in royal 8vo.

This work contains in an appendix a list of fifty-four tartans, which Logan states were as many as he could procure and authenticate. Along with the name of each tartan is a table stating the colours and relative proportions of the stripes in eighths of an inch. This plan of measurement, it appears, was the joint idea of Logan and Captain Mackenzie of Gruinard. It is really a modification of that of the old Highland weavers of winding on a stick the correct number of threads of each colour in the proper order. One coloured plate (an illustration of the tartan of the Earl of Inverness) is given, with the object of explaining the system of measurement and colouring set forth in the work. Each volume contains a coloured frontispiece representing Highlanders in tartan dress.

A reprint (omitting the plate of the tartan) was issued in 1876, edited, with memoir and notes, by the Rev. Alexander Stewart, of Ballachulish and Ardgour, “Nether Lochaber.” Inverness: Hugh Mackenzie, Bank Lane. Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, South Bridge.

2. _Vestiarium Scoticum._ From the Manuscript formerly in the Library of the Scots College at Douay. With an Introduction and Notes by John Sobieski Stuart. Edinburgh: William Tait, 107 Princes Street. 1842. Imperial 4to.