Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, December 20, 1994                   TAG: 9412200059
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: STEVE URQUHART SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IT'S A LOT MORE THAN JUST FABRIC

Tartan is believed to have evolved from the simple black-and-white-checked cloth worn by shepherds.

A less widely accepted theory held that tartan migrated from ancient Palestine, the Celts being one of the lost tribes of Israel. Joseph's coat of many colors, therefore, was nothing more that a common shepherd's plaide.

The people who subscribed to this belief during the end of the last century were called the British Israelites, but not much has been heard from them since the death of Queen Victoria, their most famous supporter.

However obscure its origins, tartan remains a very popular fabric. Coats, caps, golf pants, boxer shorts, dog blankets and even athletic shoes are just some uses for tartan's patterns, called setts. Although originally wool, fabrics from flannel to silk bear the familiar patterns. But tartan is not limited to cloth. The designs can be found on Thermos bottles, tape dispensers, Christmas ribbons, and signs for motels, named appropriately, Scottish Inns.

Every Scottish clan has at least one tartan. Not surprisingly, Clan Stewart with its many branches and royal connections, has 18 tartans. Tartan varieties include hunting, dress, ancient, old and weathered. Other versions of clan tartans are called red, green, brown, black, and black-and-white.

Clan tartans evolved from district tartans, representing an area as small as a mountain valley or as large as a modern Scottish shire. One district, called Argyll, spawned so many clan tartans that its green and blue squares and thin red overstripe was used for sweaters, vests and socks to complement similar tartans, thus, Argyll socks.

Cities and shires may have tartans, as do all Canadian provinces except Quebec. Clergy, the British and Canadian armies, pipe bands, civic organizations and even some major corporations have their own tartans. The American Saint Andrews tartan has been available since the American Bicentennial for any would-be Highlander with no known clan connection. It is red, white and blue - of course!

It may be no surprise, then, that there are more than 500 tartans listed for sale in one Scottish catalog alone. But sadly, some tartans are lost forever and exist only as a collection of numbers on a weavers chart or as colored threads on a pattern stick.

Tartan became more than just fabric after the failed Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.

To crush the Scots after Culloden, Parliament passed the Act Against Highland Dress in 1746, banning tartan, highland clothing, bagpipes and any weapons larger than the sgian dubh stocking knife. The first offense cost six months in jail. The second offense meant seven years as a slave in Virginia, considered by the English to be the same as a death sentence.

In defiance, Lowland Scots and even some Englishmen of Scottish descent wore tartans. When the Dress Act was abolished 35 years later, tartan, once taken for granted, took on a meaning undreamed of before the '45 Rebellion.

It remains a source of inspiration and pride to Scots and Scottish-Americans to this day.