Tea at Trianon: A Brief History of the Scottish Tartan

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

A Brief History of the Scottish Tartan

From Vintage News:

The early tartans had only two or three colors extracted from local trees, berries, roots and plants growing in certain local areas. So, certain colors became symbols of and associated with clans. The clan tartans became widespread during the 19th century. However these “clan tartans” are more of an invented tradition that started probably around the end 18th century. It is known that there weren’t such distinctions during the time of the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

It is supposed that the idea of groups of men being associated with certain tartan originates from the military units in the 18th century. So, before everyone could wear any tartan they preferred and it rather depended on the one’s location, but with time, its design became a symbol of identity with certain clans.

Some of the most popular clan tartans are, for example, Mackenzie’s one which is the uniform of Seaforth Highlanders, an infantry regiment of the British Army from Northern Scotland, established by the Earl of Seaforth in 1778. Today, the Pipes and Drums Band of the Royal Military College of Canada wears the Mackenzie tartan. (Read more.)