0:00:02 > 0:00:07CHANTING AND SINGING
0:00:15 > 0:00:18This is Hunting Stewart of Appin,
0:00:18 > 0:00:23which was right in the middle of the main charge at Culloden.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26They said, "charge",
0:00:26 > 0:00:28and unfortunately they all got slaughtered.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30They got stuck in the mud.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34MUSIC
0:00:34 > 0:00:38This is the story of a fabric that tells stories.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41MUSIC
0:00:41 > 0:00:43Unlike any other material in the world,
0:00:43 > 0:00:45tartan tells tales,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51tales you can't entirely trust.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53The Sobieski Stuarts claimed they had the book
0:00:53 > 0:00:58that showed exactly what each clan wore.
0:00:58 > 0:00:59The fact it was made up,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02the fact it was made up by two lads from Surrey
0:01:02 > 0:01:05is just one of these wonderful paradoxes of Scottish culture.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07CANNON BLASTS
0:01:09 > 0:01:12The story of tartan is a story of Highland clans,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16ousted monarchs, military valour, queens with their tartan fetish,
0:01:16 > 0:01:20musical performers and outright frauds.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24Tartan is so woven into the Scottish national story
0:01:24 > 0:01:30that it's quite difficult to distinguish fact from semi fact
0:01:30 > 0:01:31from outright fiction.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33And in some ways, that's the glorious thing about tartan
0:01:33 > 0:01:35because it doesn't really matter!
0:01:36 > 0:01:39All countries seek to elaborate a national history
0:01:39 > 0:01:42that has one foot in fiction and one foot in fact.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45MUSIC
0:01:58 > 0:02:03In a side gallery of Edinburgh's National Museum of Scotland,
0:02:03 > 0:02:07hidden away, vanishingly small - blink and you'll miss it -
0:02:07 > 0:02:09is the earliest surviving physical evidence
0:02:09 > 0:02:13that Scots have always been in love with chequered things.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22Found in 1934,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26popularly known as, 'the Falkirk Tartan',
0:02:27 > 0:02:31this piece of fabric has been firmly dated to the late third century AD.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35But look closer.
0:02:35 > 0:02:36The label says,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39" Woollen cloth fragment with check pattern,"
0:02:39 > 0:02:42and the reconstruction has a herringbone.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44It looks decidedly tweedy.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50What we think of as tartan is really very simple indeed.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52It's an ordinary woven cloth.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57Threads of different coloured wool combined in a pattern that repeats,
0:02:57 > 0:02:59known as a "sett" or "thread count",
0:02:59 > 0:03:01producing squares and lines of different sizes
0:03:01 > 0:03:03and contrasting colours.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05The possibilities are literally infinite.
0:03:07 > 0:03:08This is Elliot tartan.
0:03:10 > 0:03:11This is Lamont tartan.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17If you look back in history, tartan is very definitely a Celtic art form.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22Very many descriptions, in Roman times, of tartan.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24They didn't use the word 'tartan',
0:03:24 > 0:03:27but they would explain it in different ways,
0:03:27 > 0:03:29'speckled', 'variegated', 'this way and that'.
0:03:30 > 0:03:35The difference in those times and until relatively recently,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38is that tartan didn't actually mean anything.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40Tartan, many, many years ago,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43would have been a tartan which was more to do
0:03:43 > 0:03:44with the district or the region
0:03:44 > 0:03:46that the family perhaps lived.
0:03:46 > 0:03:47And that's because
0:03:47 > 0:03:50they were only able to get colours from local plants,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53And they'd be woven by a local tradesperson, a weaver,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55on an old loom of some description.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58So, they would just be colours that were really to do with the region,
0:03:58 > 0:04:00and you'd probably find that lots of families
0:04:00 > 0:04:02might have worn similar colours.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06MUSIC
0:04:08 > 0:04:11Ancient tartans had nothing to do with clans.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15They were loosely associated with Highland regions
0:04:15 > 0:04:17and a Highland lifestyle that Lowlanders -
0:04:17 > 0:04:19whose choice of fabric was limited
0:04:19 > 0:04:22to the simple shepherd check or Lowland drabs -
0:04:22 > 0:04:24tended to be rude about.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26MUSIC
0:04:28 > 0:04:30Highlanders were seen as primitive, lawless,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33Gaelic-speaking cattle rustlers.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37They wore their tartans as a single piece of cloth - the braecanfaile,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40or great kilt - belted at the waist, and pinned over the shoulder.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46When tartan finally acquired the power of speech,
0:04:46 > 0:04:48the language it spoke was politics.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53It expressed your support for a Scottish line of kings -
0:04:53 > 0:04:55the Stuarts.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57The Stuarts had held the English throne as well
0:04:57 > 0:05:01since Elizabeth I died childless in 1603.
0:05:01 > 0:05:06But in 1688, the last Stuart king - James II - was deposed
0:05:06 > 0:05:09because he was a Catholic, in the Glorious Revolution.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15In 1707, the Act of Union turned England and Scotland
0:05:15 > 0:05:17into a single kingdom
0:05:17 > 0:05:20and one of the first protests was in woven form.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27We see it with the creation of the Jacobite set of tartan
0:05:27 > 0:05:29in Edinburgh, shortly after 1707.
0:05:29 > 0:05:30It's fairly bright.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33So it has white, which is the white rose -
0:05:33 > 0:05:36the badge of the House of Stuart.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40It has red, which is also the battle standard of the Jacobites,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42for example in 1745.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44So, strongly linked with the Stuarts,
0:05:44 > 0:05:46strongly linked with Stuart patriotism.
0:05:46 > 0:05:47You can buy them again today.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53SINGING
0:05:53 > 0:05:55Tartan expressed your belief
0:05:55 > 0:05:58that the Stuarts should still be running both countries.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00Englishmen wore it too.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08In 1744, as another Jacobite rebellion approached,
0:06:08 > 0:06:12English MP Sir John Hynde-Cotton visited Edinburgh
0:06:12 > 0:06:16and treated himself to a suit of Highland clothes.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23This was a political statement on the grandest scale.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25Sir John was a salad dodger,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29who stood six feet four in his vibrant trews.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Well, this is the only surviving Highland suit of this period,
0:06:35 > 0:06:36so it's extremely rare.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39And it does have very interesting things to tell us about tartan.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43The jacket and the trews are made of the same tartan,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45in terms of the legs of the trews,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48but the trews also have two other tartans that they're made from.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50And the plaid, again, is a different tartan.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55So it shows us that the idea of being dressed head to toe in a clan tartan
0:06:55 > 0:06:57did not exist at this period,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01that it's very much choosing a tartan according to your individual taste.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03MILITARY DRUM BEAT
0:07:06 > 0:07:08Jacobite supporters wore tartan.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11Their candidate for the throne did not.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13Charles Edward Stuart was painted
0:07:13 > 0:07:16as a permanently bonnie candidate for the British throne,
0:07:16 > 0:07:18with no trace of tartan at all.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23That kind of image of youth was kept right through
0:07:23 > 0:07:27because it was an image of potential.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Effectively, youth is what restoration is about,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32and restoration is what youth is about.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35So this image, was perpetuated right the way through
0:07:35 > 0:07:37for the next 20 years.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40He didn't really age in many of his pictures,
0:07:40 > 0:07:44particularly the ones that were painted for propaganda purposes.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48MILITARY DRUMBEATS
0:07:48 > 0:07:53Said propaganda required a reboot for Charlie's graphic identity.
0:07:55 > 0:07:56He stayed young.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59His clothes went north.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01# We are hundred pipers an' all, an' all
0:08:01 > 0:08:04# We are hundred pipers an' all, an' all
0:08:04 > 0:08:06# We'll up an' gie them a blaw, a blaw
0:08:06 > 0:08:09# We are hundred pipers and all and all... #
0:08:09 > 0:08:11On the 16th of April, 1746,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15the real Bonnie Prince Charlie - a man in his mid twenties -
0:08:15 > 0:08:17stood with 7,000 Jacobites,
0:08:17 > 0:08:22facing 8,000 government troops on Culloden Moor.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24# O! Our sodger lads looked braw, looked braw
0:08:24 > 0:08:26# Wi' their tartan kilts an' a' an' a'
0:08:26 > 0:08:29# Wi' their bonnets feathers an' glitt'rin' gear
0:08:29 > 0:08:31# An pibrochs sounding loud and clear. #
0:08:33 > 0:08:36At the battlefield museum, the film recreating the battle
0:08:36 > 0:08:39is shown in something close to black and white.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42The reality will have been too colourful to bear.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Both sides wore tartan.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49On Charlie's side, the tartans clashed.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Doublets were unrelated to the plaid.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54Hose bore no relation to either.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Highlanders fought on the government side as well.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02These Highland regiments wore tartan too -
0:09:02 > 0:09:05in a sett that had been designed in 1739 -
0:09:07 > 0:09:09the Black Watch tartan.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10A tartan loyal to the Union,
0:09:10 > 0:09:13a restrained tartan in darker blues and greens.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15EXPLOSION
0:09:15 > 0:09:21Original Black Watch tartan, it's a regiment of the Scottish army.
0:09:21 > 0:09:26It's very respected in the services.
0:09:26 > 0:09:27It's well known.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29It's a nice tartan.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32It's not as colourful as some of the other ones,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36but it's known throughout the world. Scotland's a fantastic place.
0:09:39 > 0:09:40I was, years ago.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47The Black Watch Scots Guards.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49It's now the Scots Guards, it's called.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51They're all joined together now,
0:09:51 > 0:09:53the government's changed them.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57CHANTING: Scotland! Scotland! Scotland!
0:09:57 > 0:09:59Scotland! Scotland! Scotland!
0:10:07 > 0:10:10The Jacobites were defeated in little more than an hour.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13Bonnie Prince Charlie's tartan regalia
0:10:13 > 0:10:15became the stuff of souvenirs.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17There was no longer any hope
0:10:17 > 0:10:20of restoring an independent kingdom of Scotland -
0:10:20 > 0:10:23and as the most visible sign of Jacobite allegiance,
0:10:23 > 0:10:25tartan was banned.
0:10:34 > 0:10:35It was seen as such an icon
0:10:35 > 0:10:38to the Scottish population at the time
0:10:38 > 0:10:41that by banning it, it took away part of their souls.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45It was part of their unity, part of their identity
0:10:45 > 0:10:47so to ban it was pretty serious.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50It was a major part of their lives, just disappeared.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56# Come and dance Let's all be merry
0:10:56 > 0:10:59# Come and learn Let's all be merry... #
0:10:59 > 0:11:01All the opportunities were elsewhere.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06London slowly filled with expatriate Scottish aristocrats
0:11:06 > 0:11:07who now needed a history
0:11:07 > 0:11:10that had nothing to do with Jacobite rebellion.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17Take one: In 1778 they formed the Highland Society of London.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21A fan club for the recently discovered writings of Ossian -
0:11:21 > 0:11:24an ancient Scottish bard.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26These texts -
0:11:26 > 0:11:29proof that Scotland had an ancient, epic history -
0:11:29 > 0:11:32had, it seemed, been discovered and translated
0:11:32 > 0:11:35by one James MacPherson.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37Only they hadn't!
0:11:37 > 0:11:40MacPherson had largely made them up from genuine Irish epics.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Clearly, for people reading it in its first edition,
0:11:43 > 0:11:44they thought they were reading,
0:11:44 > 0:11:46for the first time,
0:11:46 > 0:11:51the publication of this fantastic, er, Gaelic epic,
0:11:51 > 0:11:54which describes the early history of Scotland
0:11:54 > 0:11:58and it put Scotland on the map in the way that other countries
0:11:58 > 0:12:01which had their great verse epics of the early romantic period,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04and why shouldn't Scotland have one of its own?
0:12:04 > 0:12:07- So, he supplied it? - Yes, absolutely.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09The curious thing about Scotland
0:12:09 > 0:12:11is that it's creating a useable national past,
0:12:11 > 0:12:16a national past at the point where it ceased to be a nation state.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18So, that's what's remarkable about this.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20There's this kind of nation building thing going on, almost,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23almost the creation of a Scottish nationhood at the point
0:12:23 > 0:12:25decades after the state has ceased to exist.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29That's unique. But the actual process isn't unique.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31And its quite wrong, I think, to think of Scotland
0:12:31 > 0:12:34as being... having a particularly invented past or history.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36Most nations do this.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45With Ossian exposed, the Highland Society tried take two -
0:12:45 > 0:12:46tartan.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48They called for an end to the tartan ban.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52Tartan had never really been political, they said,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54it was all about clans.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57This cosy notion wasn't entirely new.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01Some MacDonalds had taken to wearing a particular tartan
0:13:01 > 0:13:03during Jacobite times.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05The ban was revoked.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07And one or two other clans
0:13:07 > 0:13:10began forming links with particular tartans.
0:13:10 > 0:13:11The MacGregors.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14The Gordons.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19That's a Scotland tartan. That's a real Gordon tartan.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21Pride!
0:13:21 > 0:13:24I'm wearing a kilt, and a MacGregor kilt, yeah.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26# Now the fiddler's ready Let us all begin
0:13:26 > 0:13:29# So step it out and step it in
0:13:29 > 0:13:31# To the merry music of the violin
0:13:31 > 0:13:34# We'll dance the hours away... #
0:13:34 > 0:13:38For 30 or 40 years, William Wilson's of Bannockburn -
0:13:38 > 0:13:39the leading weavers of tartan -
0:13:39 > 0:13:41had done very nicely thank you
0:13:41 > 0:13:45out of government tartan orders for the Highland regiments.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47# So step it out and step it in
0:13:47 > 0:13:49# To the merry music... #
0:13:49 > 0:13:52By the 1790s, two or three families were forming a habit,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55as far as particular tartans were concerned.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59But for everyone else, tartan was simply nice to look at.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01# We'll dance the hours away... #
0:14:01 > 0:14:05These were being ordered to be sent to the Duke of Beaufort in London
0:14:05 > 0:14:08which instantly takes you into fashionable London society
0:14:08 > 0:14:10and gives a real context to it.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13This one's being ordered from Fort William.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17This swatch has been sent. They're asking to change some of the colours.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20It shows the sort of dialogue between the client and Wilson's,
0:14:20 > 0:14:22in terms of designing the tartans,
0:14:22 > 0:14:25that things were being constantly, not just invented,
0:14:25 > 0:14:27but it was part of a design process, basically,
0:14:27 > 0:14:32giving the client what they want, but also contributing Wilson's expertise
0:14:32 > 0:14:34in terms of colour and pattern.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37# Cope sent a challenge frae Dunbar
0:14:37 > 0:14:39# 'Charlie, meet me an' ye daur,
0:14:39 > 0:14:42# An' I'll learn you the art o' war
0:14:42 > 0:14:43# If you'll meet me i' the morning... #
0:14:43 > 0:14:47What Wilson's customers wanted wasn't tradition.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50They wanted novelty and vibrant colour.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53Imported dyes, indigo blue,
0:14:53 > 0:14:57red cochineal from squashed Mexican beetles.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59This colour here's very close to the colour
0:14:59 > 0:15:03that was being produced back in the mid 18th century
0:15:03 > 0:15:06on the tartans that was analysed at the museum.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11We were able to look at records from the Wilson of Bannockburn
0:15:11 > 0:15:13and in them we found some remarkable evidence,
0:15:13 > 0:15:14where it was saying
0:15:14 > 0:15:17the price they were paying for the cochineal,
0:15:17 > 0:15:19how they wanted it at any expense,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22they wanted it for its bright red scarlet colour.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24Being able to take that evidence we're finding materially,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27matching it up with this historical documentation
0:15:27 > 0:15:29that we have from some of the makers,
0:15:29 > 0:15:33we get this better view of tartan as being
0:15:33 > 0:15:38a much better quality, fashionable, very brightly coloured, textile.
0:15:43 > 0:15:48# White waves on the water
0:15:48 > 0:15:54# Gold leaves on the tree... #
0:15:54 > 0:15:56Tartan was fashionable.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59By definition, it was for the rich.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02But people weren't sure how to wear it.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06A tartan Gok Wan was required.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10People like Alastair Ranaldson MacDonnell of Glengarry
0:16:10 > 0:16:11began to make up the rules
0:16:11 > 0:16:13according to which it should be worn.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18The most essential accessory of all was impeccable breeding.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22The Gaels, Glengarry declared, were a romantic race.
0:16:22 > 0:16:28But not romantic enough to be worth keeping on his Highland estates.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33Glengarry reduced his tenantry from 1,500 people to 35
0:16:33 > 0:16:35and replaced them with sheep,
0:16:35 > 0:16:40whose contribution to Glengarry's favourite fabric was anonymous
0:16:40 > 0:16:42but fundamental.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46In 1815, Glengarry formed
0:16:46 > 0:16:50the Society of True Highlanders in Edinburgh.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52He had competition - the Celtic Society,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55who Glengarry saw as a bunch of self-deluding Lowlanders
0:16:55 > 0:16:58with no right to wear tartan at all.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01# She came at your crying... #
0:17:01 > 0:17:04Sir Walter Scott - a founding member of the Celtic Society -
0:17:04 > 0:17:06was indeed a Lowlander
0:17:06 > 0:17:11and the author of historical novels such as Waverley and Rob Roy.
0:17:11 > 0:17:12# Sighing
0:17:12 > 0:17:15# Made music... #
0:17:15 > 0:17:19His fictional heroes flirted with the tartan-clad romance
0:17:19 > 0:17:21of Scotland's Jacobite past.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24But ultimately, Scott was a tourist
0:17:24 > 0:17:28who always returned to a sensible Unionist present.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32Scott is a man whose deeply embedded in the Scottish ruling class -
0:17:32 > 0:17:34he knows most of the people in it -
0:17:34 > 0:17:36He was majorly in support of the Union.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38What he did want to do within the Union
0:17:38 > 0:17:40was maintain the notion of Scottish separateness,
0:17:40 > 0:17:42of a Scottish cultural identity.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44He had a very strong Scottish national consciousness,
0:17:44 > 0:17:47but that didn't mean that he was opposed to the Union.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50He saw that as absolutely essential and there was no alternative to it.
0:17:50 > 0:17:55# She came at your keening... #
0:17:55 > 0:17:56In the summer of 1822,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59the citizens of Edinburgh received word
0:17:59 > 0:18:02that they were about to be visited by King George IV.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04# And your sleep had new dreaming... #
0:18:04 > 0:18:08As kings go, George was unusually ludicrous.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11# And splendour and bloom... #
0:18:11 > 0:18:13But he was the only king they had,
0:18:13 > 0:18:18and Scotland hadn't seen a ruling monarch for 172 years.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21A special welcome was required,
0:18:21 > 0:18:26and Edinburgh's great and good knew that only one man could run the show.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28He was a consummate showman, Scott,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31but he was also a marvellous PR man.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33He knew what his audience wanted,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36and clearly they wanted romantic history.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39They wanted it wrapped in tartan,
0:18:39 > 0:18:40and they wanted it, somehow,
0:18:40 > 0:18:46in a non-threatening way to establish their Scottishness.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49And, yet again, what Scott was doing was taking fact
0:18:49 > 0:18:53and wrapping it in, you know, in spin.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58I suppose, if you put a modern, erm, spin on it -
0:18:58 > 0:19:01he was a wonderful 19th century spin doctor.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07Spin was certainly required.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10From a present in which the king was a comedy figure,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14in which working class protesters increasingly demanded the vote,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18Scott wanted to weave a new Britain out of materials from its past.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22He saw that tartan was the answer.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26After all, it showed that Scots were good at loyalty.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28Loyalty was the national dress.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30# Wi' a hundred pipers, an' a', an' a'
0:19:30 > 0:19:32# Wi' a hundred pipers, an' a', an' a',
0:19:32 > 0:19:34# We'll up an' gie them a blaw, a blaw
0:19:34 > 0:19:37# Wi' a hundred pipers, an' a', an' a'... #
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Thanks to Sir Walter Scott, George IV's visit to Edinburgh
0:19:41 > 0:19:44turned into a sort of tartan farce.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46MUSIC: The Hundred Pipers
0:19:46 > 0:19:50Scottish aristocrats attended, with retinues of servants,
0:19:50 > 0:19:52all wearing tartans which - in most cases -
0:19:52 > 0:19:58had been official clan tartans for about 48 hours.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00The king wore tartan too -
0:20:00 > 0:20:03a suit of Royal Stewart, specially made.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06But he didn't look this good.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09The artist had to leave out about five stone of king
0:20:09 > 0:20:10to achieve this image.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13DRUMBEATS
0:20:13 > 0:20:15But wrapped, as he was, in the fabric of those
0:20:15 > 0:20:18who had once been his dynasty's greatest enemies,
0:20:18 > 0:20:23George IV had indeed somehow become both a Jacobite monarch
0:20:23 > 0:20:26and the ruler of a unified England and Scotland.
0:20:26 > 0:20:31DRUMBEATS AND BAGPIPES
0:20:31 > 0:20:34I mean, yes, a lot of people viewed it as completely ridiculous,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37but like a lot of things that people view as completely ridiculous,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40the propaganda stuck.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43I think if he'd thought about it with his, you might say,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45serious historical head on, he might have realised
0:20:45 > 0:20:48what an appalling thing he had done.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50In a sense, Scott was a man of two minds, you know,
0:20:50 > 0:20:52there's the historical novelist who, actually,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55was quite a serious attempt to interpret Scottish history
0:20:55 > 0:20:56and then there's this fantasy,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58and the two things cannot be reconciled.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01They are quite separate bits of his head.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07MUSIC
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Almost certainly, Sir Walter Scott expected the effects of 1822
0:21:15 > 0:21:19to last no longer than the royal visit itself.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21But they lasted rather longer.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25All Scott had really done
0:21:25 > 0:21:28was lift the lid on 50 years of cultural change.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32But now several more clans had particular tartans
0:21:32 > 0:21:35and tartan stood for all of Scotland,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39even though Lowland Scots had no real connection with tartan at all.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42MUSIC
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Scott himself was woven in as well.
0:21:49 > 0:21:50On Edinburgh's Princes Street,
0:21:50 > 0:21:55at the foot of the largest monument to a writer on the entire planet,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57there he sits,
0:21:57 > 0:21:59wrapped in plaid.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01He looks slightly depressed.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08In 1829, Walter Scott heard news of two brothers
0:22:08 > 0:22:11who claimed to have an original manuscript,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15called the Vestiarium Scoticum or Wardrobe of the Scots.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18This manuscript, they claimed,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22listed 75 tartans traditionally connected with certain clans
0:22:22 > 0:22:26and could be traced all the way back to the 1580s,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30which would mean that the association
0:22:30 > 0:22:34between clans and tartans was at least hundreds of years old,
0:22:35 > 0:22:37instead of about 50.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49When Scott sees the Vestiarium Scoticum,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53he's well aware that this cannot be a 15th century manuscript.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55He, when he reads it says that he thinks
0:22:55 > 0:22:57it may have been put together by a tartan weaver,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00trying to drum up trade and, in effect,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03trying to sort of swath the whole country in tartan.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06MUSIC
0:23:11 > 0:23:15The Vestiarium Scoticum was not the work of a weaver.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19It had been written by two brothers, the sons of a Welsh naval officer.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24They had been born in Surrey and christened John and Charles Allen.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27But by the time Scott got a glimpse of their work,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30they'd already changed their names several times.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38In the 1830s, they changed their name once more
0:23:38 > 0:23:41to John and Charles Sobieski Stuart.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46I'm sure, when they started off, they didn't think they were really
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Bonnie Prince Charlie's legitimate grandchildren.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52But the more they pretended, the realer it became.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56The Scottish gentry took to the Sobieski Stuarts
0:23:56 > 0:23:59with surprising alacrity.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02Lord Lovat offered them the use of a house on Eilean Aigas,
0:24:02 > 0:24:05a private island in the River Beauly,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07somewhere to the West of Inverness.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10The house is rather hard to find.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14There's something wonderfully and ironically appropriate
0:24:14 > 0:24:17about how well hidden Eilean Aigas is
0:24:17 > 0:24:20because the Sobieski Stuarts, who lived here,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24in some way are the hidden history of how two lads from Surrey
0:24:24 > 0:24:28invented what the world thinks of as Scottishness.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Can we actually see the hunting lodge from here?
0:24:36 > 0:24:37No.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Can we actually see any of it from here?
0:24:48 > 0:24:52Gosh that water is so black down there.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56You know, it looks like the archetypal Scottishness,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59this deep gorge, these Scots pines.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01You couldn't have a more perfect image
0:25:01 > 0:25:04of what the world thinks Scotland is like,
0:25:04 > 0:25:07than this river, this forest and yet,
0:25:07 > 0:25:11it's the...it's the centrepiece
0:25:11 > 0:25:15of how fake Scottish identity can be.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30This is Vestiarium Scoticum,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34which was a brilliant work by the Sobieski Stuarts.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37Most of it is false.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40But we don't know which bits are false.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43They produced tartan, beautiful tartan designs,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47and even allocated tartans to families,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49particularly down in the Scottish borders,
0:25:49 > 0:25:51who'd never had a tartan before,
0:25:51 > 0:25:53and, of course, they were delighted,
0:25:53 > 0:25:55because they were no longer disadvantaged
0:25:55 > 0:25:58compared to their Highland cousins.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01So I think what happens with the Sobieski Stuarts is, you know,
0:26:01 > 0:26:03they look, and they forget a lot of families too,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07and they've got a systematic view of who should be included
0:26:07 > 0:26:11and there are a lot of gaps, so they fill them in
0:26:11 > 0:26:13with what they should look like!
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Here we have the Dress Stuart.
0:26:20 > 0:26:26Even though, erm, Walter Scott cast serious doubt
0:26:26 > 0:26:28on the veracity of this,
0:26:28 > 0:26:30people accepted them.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34It was just, came along at the right time,
0:26:34 > 0:26:38and most of these tartans are the ones that we have today,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41for clan tartans.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43MacDonald of the Isles.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46There's MacLeod, the loud MacLeod.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Clan Ross.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53Rosses are very lucky, they've got a lot of options.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55You've got this bright option.
0:26:55 > 0:26:56Muted Ross, which is stunning.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58Then you've got Red Rosses.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00But then you've also got the weathered range as well.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05So this here is absolutely gorgeous in the weathered.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10That's, that's...That is the same tartan as that.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12But then you also get dress tartans as well.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14So there's Red Ross again.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17That's another version of Red Ross, and then,
0:27:17 > 0:27:18that's another version of Red Ross.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20The more of these lines you have,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23the more segmented the market is,
0:27:23 > 0:27:27the more potential there is to stratify the market
0:27:27 > 0:27:29and to reach the widest market possible.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31I mean, after all, some people might be entitled
0:27:31 > 0:27:33to three different family setts.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37They might want them all, depending on the social function they're at!
0:27:37 > 0:27:40I would try and push people to Muted Hunting Ross,
0:27:40 > 0:27:42as opposed to that, because it is pretty garish.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44But then again if you stick it with a jacket like that,
0:27:44 > 0:27:46it's going to look absolutely stunning.
0:27:46 > 0:27:52Fraser and that's exactly the same as it is today.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54This top one here is modern Red Fraser.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56Quite vibrant in its colours.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Now, some people call these tartans the dress tartans as well.
0:27:59 > 0:28:00You know, in some cases,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03they're taking hints from contiguous or related families,
0:28:03 > 0:28:05or hunting tartan,
0:28:05 > 0:28:08or they're interpreting a dress tartan from a hunting tartan.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12And here we have it here, this is modern Hunting Fraser, much darker.
0:28:12 > 0:28:13Or they're inventing the fact
0:28:13 > 0:28:16that there were different hunting and dress and so on, tartans.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18Still follows the same sett,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20same pattern as the red and the orange one,
0:28:20 > 0:28:23but it's darker in colour because obviously it's a hunting tartan.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27But, often, they're just making it up?!
0:28:28 > 0:28:30Wallace.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34Nothing to do with William.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40MacQueen, and, of course, that's been used to a huge degree
0:28:40 > 0:28:45by Alexander MacQueen in very many of his modern fashion.
0:28:47 > 0:28:48And Bruce.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52We'd hate anyone to think that Robert the Bruce wore that tartan
0:28:52 > 0:28:57because that would be chronologically impossible.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59They just got a bee in their bonnet about tartans,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02and they followed it through quite brilliantly,
0:29:02 > 0:29:06they took some existing tartans and modified the design.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10In some cases, the whole tartan was pure invention.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12They're making history.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15It's the creation of a charismatic textile
0:29:15 > 0:29:18by a process of fictionalisation.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22They talked about ancient manuscripts in France
0:29:22 > 0:29:24and manuscripts in other places,
0:29:24 > 0:29:29but they were never able to actually produce the manuscripts,
0:29:29 > 0:29:31which really just confirmed what Walter Scott
0:29:31 > 0:29:35and many other serious historians thought at the time.
0:29:35 > 0:29:36Which was?
0:29:36 > 0:29:38Which was that they were fakes.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40But God bless them!
0:29:40 > 0:29:48# Peaceful flows the winding river
0:29:48 > 0:29:56# By the weeping willow tree... #
0:29:58 > 0:30:02The Sobieski Stuarts quite cleverly go to ground for a decade
0:30:02 > 0:30:07before they actually reveal the whole book, once Scott is dead.
0:30:07 > 0:30:08Once the person who really knows
0:30:08 > 0:30:10that this must be a fake is out the way,
0:30:10 > 0:30:12that's when they bring it back.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14Well, we've come round to the other side of the island
0:30:14 > 0:30:18and just beyond the pylon, you can see Eilean Aigas,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20the house where the Sobieski Stuarts lived.
0:30:20 > 0:30:21Some of the tartans they invented
0:30:21 > 0:30:23would have been invented on that island.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25Not quite sure which ones,
0:30:25 > 0:30:27but there's a good chance at least one of them was there.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29Scott.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32I think one that they probably definitely did there
0:30:32 > 0:30:33was the Scott tartan.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36When they spoke to Walter Scott and showed him this book,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39he was well aware that it was phoney,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42and in a kind of revenge they invented a Scott tartan
0:30:42 > 0:30:44and maybe that whole fantasy
0:30:44 > 0:30:46of them being the heirs to the British throne
0:30:46 > 0:30:49began with Scott's rather pursed-lipped critique
0:30:49 > 0:30:51of their behaviour.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, the great 19th century diarist,
0:30:58 > 0:31:00claims that the Sobieski Stuarts
0:31:00 > 0:31:02actually reigned in the north country.
0:31:02 > 0:31:04She describes how they built
0:31:04 > 0:31:06an artificial waterfall on this island,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08where the wife of the elder of the Sobieski Stuarts
0:31:08 > 0:31:11would sit playing a harp.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13It's a kind of Disneyfied version of Scotland.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16If you're looking for where the Brigadoon idea of Scotland starts,
0:31:16 > 0:31:18it's on that island.
0:31:18 > 0:31:24MUSIC
0:31:28 > 0:31:32Two years after the publication of Vestiarium Scoticum,
0:31:32 > 0:31:35the Sobieski Stuarts produced the equally lavish
0:31:35 > 0:31:36Costumes of the Clans.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41MUSIC
0:31:41 > 0:31:45In it, they claimed that the Vestiarium had now been firmly dated
0:31:45 > 0:31:47to the 16th century,
0:31:47 > 0:31:50and produced images of how tartans, trews and kilts
0:31:50 > 0:31:53would have been worn by Scots in times gone by.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55It's quite convincing.
0:31:55 > 0:31:59There's a splendid set of hose tops on this character's...
0:31:59 > 0:32:03Lovely trews cut on the cross.
0:32:03 > 0:32:04Tremendous.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07Imagine being allowed to dress like that for parties.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Every single tartan shop on the Royal Mile
0:32:10 > 0:32:12still uses their patterns.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15What's really remarkable isn't just they invented it,
0:32:15 > 0:32:17but that we swallowed it so wholeheartedly.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21I think people like to have rules and regulations
0:32:21 > 0:32:24and believe things are authentic, don't they,
0:32:24 > 0:32:26and how it's done, people don't really like change
0:32:26 > 0:32:28and they like to think it was always done like that
0:32:28 > 0:32:30and they're doing the right thing.
0:32:30 > 0:32:32It's convention, isn't it!
0:32:32 > 0:32:36So you can see why people bought into it. They're rather good.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39But also terribly good for the textile industry, don't you think?
0:32:39 > 0:32:41There's a lot of cloth in some of these, so, you know,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44if you can persuade somebody that that's what they need to be wearing,
0:32:44 > 0:32:46it's got to be good for business.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49But weren't they just a bit naughty?
0:32:49 > 0:32:53And what was wrong with that? What was wrong with being naughty?
0:32:53 > 0:32:59Surely the, you know... Tartan is essentially romantic, isn't it?
0:32:59 > 0:33:03And romance goes with naughtiness, at least it does in my book.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06And, I think, if we had been very Presbyterian about it,
0:33:06 > 0:33:08which we could easily have been, because that again
0:33:08 > 0:33:10is another part of Scotland's history,
0:33:10 > 0:33:12then it would have been very dull.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16MUSIC
0:33:43 > 0:33:47So here we have the grave
0:33:47 > 0:33:52of John Sobieski Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54The one thing we can say with certainty
0:33:54 > 0:33:56is that the two men buried here
0:33:56 > 0:33:59were not John Sobieski Stuart and not Charles Edward Stuart.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02Their real names were John Carter Allen
0:34:02 > 0:34:07and Charles Manning Allen, born in Godalming in Surrey.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10MUSIC
0:34:17 > 0:34:20What's exciting about the Sobieski Stuarts
0:34:20 > 0:34:23is getting away from this idea that our national myths must be true.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25If you can re-write the myth,
0:34:25 > 0:34:29you stand a good chance of being able to change your history
0:34:29 > 0:34:30to change your future,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34to have a more inclusive, a more open-minded approach to nationalism,
0:34:34 > 0:34:36rather than these tired, old,
0:34:36 > 0:34:40sometimes rather dangerous attachments to myth.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42MUSIC
0:35:00 > 0:35:03A few tens of miles to the south-east of Eilean Aigas,
0:35:03 > 0:35:04in Speyside,
0:35:04 > 0:35:06the re-branded Hanoverians, the Windsors,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09were embarking on an equally fictional project.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15Both Victoria and Albert loved Scotland
0:35:15 > 0:35:17and everything it now stood for.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21They had a lot more money to spend than the Sobieski Stuarts
0:35:21 > 0:35:24and tartan was the answer to almost every question
0:35:24 > 0:35:26as far as design was concerned.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29Curtains and carpets were tartan.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32Seats and servants wore similar costumes.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36Like a cheery virus,
0:35:36 > 0:35:39tartan spread outwards from Balmoral,
0:35:39 > 0:35:41and to the Queen's enormous satisfaction,
0:35:41 > 0:35:44infected the local aristocracy.
0:35:46 > 0:35:47Naturally enough,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50the Queen wanted some sort of visual record of it all.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52But photography was in its infancy,
0:35:52 > 0:35:55and besides, tartan's charms lay in a world of colour
0:35:55 > 0:35:57that early photographs couldn't capture.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03Well, these volumes were published by command of Queen Victoria.
0:36:03 > 0:36:05They're called, The Highlanders of Scotland.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09They're in two volumes and, er, the marvellous illustrations
0:36:09 > 0:36:13were by Kenneth MacLeay, who was a Victorian miniaturist,
0:36:13 > 0:36:17and they cost 18 guineas!
0:36:17 > 0:36:21And they contain some of the most accurate
0:36:21 > 0:36:24and beautiful portraits of highlanders.
0:36:24 > 0:36:30All the individuals here were either local worthies around Balmoral
0:36:30 > 0:36:32or were members of staff
0:36:32 > 0:36:35and they all dressed up specially for the sittings.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37But the detail is excellent.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39Because McLeay was a miniaturist,
0:36:39 > 0:36:43the tartans are painted very accurately here,
0:36:43 > 0:36:47whereas, conventionally, portrait painters
0:36:47 > 0:36:52would just do the face and the body and they would go back to the studio
0:36:52 > 0:36:55and pull out a bit of old tartan, some of them,
0:36:55 > 0:36:57and then paint the tartan on.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00But here, the tartans are extremely accurate
0:37:00 > 0:37:05and it's also very interesting to see the bits and pieces, the sporrans,
0:37:05 > 0:37:08the style of the sporrans, the swords, the belts,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12and just generally how they were, how they were dressed.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16There's another lovely one here with four of them in it.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19Ah, there we are look at that one.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23Beautiful array of tartans.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29That's, from the left, that's er John McCoughlan, Hugh Graham,
0:37:29 > 0:37:33James MacFarlane and Angus Colquhoun.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35MUSIC
0:37:38 > 0:37:40Tartan Army uniform, there's no kind of rules.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43That's the one thing with the Tartan Army, it's all very fluid.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45But you'll often find us wearing the Glengarry.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48You have to have the current Scotland strip.
0:37:48 > 0:37:49That's a requirement.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51Then, obviously, as a girl, I wear the mini-kilt.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54This is my family tartan, which is Anderson,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58and it means I can easily spot fellow Andersons in the crowd.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02DRUMBEATS AND BAGPIPES
0:38:02 > 0:38:04The association between tartan and the Army
0:38:04 > 0:38:07grew stronger throughout Victoria's reign.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09As the Empire reached its fullest extent,
0:38:09 > 0:38:11the kilted soldiers of the Highland regiments
0:38:11 > 0:38:13were always in the vanguard...
0:38:13 > 0:38:16MUSIC
0:38:18 > 0:38:20..wherever the action was hottest
0:38:20 > 0:38:25and lives were expended in proper imperial style.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28This is one of the most important pieces
0:38:28 > 0:38:30of Scottish military iconography
0:38:30 > 0:38:32and it features an incident
0:38:32 > 0:38:36during the battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, 1854.
0:38:36 > 0:38:41And what we see here is the famous Thin Red Line.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43The 93rd Highlanders,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46who'd been tasked by their commanding general,
0:38:46 > 0:38:48General Colin Campbell,
0:38:48 > 0:38:53to defend this piece of land against the attacking Russian cavalry.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56Campbell said to them in no uncertain terms before the battle began,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00"There is no retreat from here men. You must die where you stand."
0:39:00 > 0:39:04And when the painting was produced and shown to the wider public,
0:39:04 > 0:39:10it seals for ever the great notion of the Highland soldier.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14I mean, look at them here, wearing their government kilts,
0:39:14 > 0:39:18ostrich-feathered bonnets, spats, diced hose.
0:39:18 > 0:39:24They are the epitome of the courage of the Victorian soldier
0:39:24 > 0:39:25and they're Highlanders.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28MUSIC
0:39:35 > 0:39:37It's largely hokum, I'm afraid to say.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40This rifle they're using, the Minie rifle, killed over a long distance.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43So, the Russian cavalry would have been nowhere near them.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46They would have been well back down the battlefield.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53So firm did the association become
0:39:53 > 0:39:57between glamorous military action and the Highland regiments,
0:39:57 > 0:40:00that the Scottish Lowland regiments sought to emulate them.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05They stopped short of wearing the kilt,
0:40:05 > 0:40:09but they took to tartan wherever else they could.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13Scottish Lowland regiments started wearing tartan trews,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16feathered bonnets, Highland doublets.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18Their officers carried claymores.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22In fact, they were dressed in a pastiche of the Highland soldier
0:40:22 > 0:40:25which was totally and utterly ridiculous.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28Because a lot of these Highland regiments were the descendants
0:40:28 > 0:40:31of people who had fought under Prince Charles at Culloden
0:40:31 > 0:40:35and the Lowland regiments were amongst those who had to put it down.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39And lo and behold, what we have are the Lowland regiments
0:40:39 > 0:40:41aping their Highland brothers,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44whereas 150 years earlier, they would have dismissed these people
0:40:44 > 0:40:49as bare-arsed banditti wearing kilts and nothing under them.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52MUSIC
0:40:53 > 0:40:56By the second half of the 19th century,
0:40:56 > 0:41:00tartan was telling tales of British military supremacy.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06MUSIC
0:41:06 > 0:41:10The first war photographers captured them too.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13Blunt instruments of imperial policy
0:41:13 > 0:41:14in ceremonial Highland dress.
0:41:16 > 0:41:22At home, tartan spoke of your aristocratic background,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25or your role as a servant to the aristocracy.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29It was the very fabric of the establishment.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34In the Highlands themselves, people reacted quite strongly
0:41:34 > 0:41:36against the elevation of the kilt and the tartans,
0:41:36 > 0:41:38because they saw it as being associated with the regiments,
0:41:38 > 0:41:41who would be marched off to war, for young men to go off and die.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44They also saw it as being something which was a plaything
0:41:44 > 0:41:47of the lairds and the kind of ruling classes.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49Most of them didn't wear kilts or tartan,
0:41:49 > 0:41:51they wore trousers, quite sensibly.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55Those who wore Highland dress were very privileged.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58They were the gentry of the country,
0:41:58 > 0:41:59the vast majority of them.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03Only they could afford the hugely expensive outfits.
0:42:03 > 0:42:09They obviously wanted to guard that jealously and zealously
0:42:09 > 0:42:16and a whole series of fashion rules grew up over the decades,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19particularly during Victoria's time.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22That you must do this and you mustn't do that,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26and you could only wear a tartan if your surname was that of the clan
0:42:26 > 0:42:28whose tartan you were wearing.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30But just looking at it historically,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34there is no reason why such rules and regulations should exist.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37I've had to kind of create my own rules and etiquette
0:42:37 > 0:42:40to what I'm doing and how the kilt should sit.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44So, a traditional kilt, and this is more the Victorian era kilt,
0:42:44 > 0:42:49the military version, being eight yards, very, very tight and high,
0:42:49 > 0:42:54was all about military clothing and very, very smart and formal.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58So, what I did, and this happened up a mountain in Israel,
0:42:58 > 0:43:00I just got a bit sick because the kilt was so high and tight,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03but I lowered it and wore it on my hip.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05But then the kilt was too long at the other end,
0:43:05 > 0:43:07so, I dropped about an inch and a half
0:43:07 > 0:43:08off my own personal kilt length.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11So, I go from the hip bone to the top of the knee.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15So, that's the formal height is onto the kneecap,
0:43:15 > 0:43:17well, Queen Victoria's formal height,
0:43:17 > 0:43:18before that it was actually worn longer.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22She was a bit pervy and wanted to see more leg and that stuck.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25MUSIC
0:43:32 > 0:43:34With every year that passed,
0:43:34 > 0:43:37Scotland's aristocracy made up more and more elaborate,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41unbreakable rules controlling the wearing of tartan.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49And Scottish soldiers in kilts and tartan trews
0:43:49 > 0:43:54continued to lose their lives in foreign parts and places.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02Somehow, the image was part of the arsenal.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05The kilted soldier was as bizarre and unsettling to the enemy
0:44:05 > 0:44:07as the skirl of the pipes.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16But in the trenches of the First World War,
0:44:16 > 0:44:19the kilt was a beloved liability.
0:44:19 > 0:44:20It caught on barbed wire,
0:44:20 > 0:44:22became muddy and waterlogged,
0:44:22 > 0:44:26provided little or no protection from corrosive mustard gas.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39One of the many casualties
0:44:39 > 0:44:42was the son of music hall star, Harry Lauder.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47# Roamin' in the gloamin'
0:44:47 > 0:44:49# On the bonnie banks o' Clyde
0:44:49 > 0:44:52# Roamin' in the gloamin'
0:44:52 > 0:44:54# Wi' ma lassie by ma side
0:44:54 > 0:44:56# When the sun has gone to rest
0:44:56 > 0:44:58# That's the time that I like best
0:44:58 > 0:45:01# O, it's lovely roamin'. #
0:45:01 > 0:45:03Now the chorus, everybody, hey!
0:45:03 > 0:45:05# Roamin' in the gloamin... #
0:45:05 > 0:45:08Never in the history of human tailoring
0:45:08 > 0:45:11has so much cloth been used to so little purposeful effect.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15You've got nine yards of material which doesn't keep your legs warm.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17It has no useful function.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25We see a Scotch comedian sucking up to the Prime Minister.
0:45:25 > 0:45:30There's a sense in which Winston Churchill looks slightly bemused
0:45:30 > 0:45:32by the attention he's getting.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34But that's not to get away from the fact
0:45:34 > 0:45:39that Lauder made a massive contribution in the Second World War,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41but especially in the First World War.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45He was knighted for his services primarily for troop morale
0:45:45 > 0:45:50and a large of that was because of his kilted persona.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53He appears in shows in the West End of London.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56There's one called The Laddies Who Fought and Won,
0:45:56 > 0:45:59which the finale was the kilted Highlanders
0:45:59 > 0:46:01all marching up onto the stage.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03In some senses it was very kitschy,
0:46:03 > 0:46:06but in the other senses, it was actually very moving.
0:46:06 > 0:46:08# There's a dear old lady
0:46:08 > 0:46:10# Mother Britain is her name
0:46:10 > 0:46:15# And she's all the world to me... #
0:46:15 > 0:46:17This small, sort of wizened man in a kilt
0:46:17 > 0:46:21did speak for the British soldier more generally
0:46:21 > 0:46:24as well as, specifically, the Scottish soldier.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27# The lasses were beloving of their laddies
0:46:27 > 0:46:31# The laddies who fought our war. #
0:46:31 > 0:46:34CHEERING
0:46:34 > 0:46:40Lauder was marmite. The Unionist faithful enjoyed him at face value.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42But to those who sought home rule for Scotland,
0:46:42 > 0:46:44Lauder was an embarrassing grotesque,
0:46:44 > 0:46:45a kilted jackass,
0:46:45 > 0:46:49a Lowlander whose stage persona made mock of Scotland and its people.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56Lauder was loathed with particular intensity
0:46:56 > 0:47:01by one of the founders in 1928 of the Scottish National Party,
0:47:01 > 0:47:02the poet Hugh MacDiarmid,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09real name, Christopher Murray Grieve, a Lowlander himself,
0:47:09 > 0:47:10born in Langholm,
0:47:10 > 0:47:15a little less than 15 miles inside the Scottish border.
0:47:15 > 0:47:17And he, at the beginning of 1922,
0:47:17 > 0:47:21is even writing diatribes against the use of dialect Scots.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23To some extent you might describe him,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26if slightly unfairly, as a minor English poet.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29And somehow he got converted to the idea of dialect Scots.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33The only way he could effect a Scottish national literary renaissance
0:47:33 > 0:47:39was to adopt a Highland persona, take on the name of Hugh MacDiarmid
0:47:39 > 0:47:44and develop a form of poetry which uses a synthetic Scots,
0:47:44 > 0:47:47a Scots which no-one had ever spoke before,
0:47:47 > 0:47:51but which he thought epitomised the essence of Scottish culture,
0:47:51 > 0:47:53and in some senses the kind of the language,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55the synthetic Scots that MacDiarmid develops
0:47:55 > 0:47:59is not unlike a form of linguistic tartan in itself.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04MUSIC
0:48:13 > 0:48:15No' her, wha in the how-dumb-deid o' nicht
0:48:15 > 0:48:18Kyths like Eternity in Time's despite.
0:48:18 > 0:48:24No' her, withooten shape, wha's name is Daith,
0:48:24 > 0:48:28No' Him, unkennable abies to faith
0:48:28 > 0:48:30God whom, gin e'er He saw a man, 'ud be
0:48:30 > 0:48:33E'en mair dumfooner'd at the sicht than he.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38MacDiarmid felt that the performance of the persona
0:48:38 > 0:48:40that he had developed in 1922
0:48:40 > 0:48:44was an important strategy in creating a more serious idea of Scotland,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47and he actually said in his letters
0:48:47 > 0:48:49that he was deliberately being humourless,
0:48:49 > 0:48:54because this is something, that he felt his purpose was so strong,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57that it couldn't be deflected by humour.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59So Hugh MacDiarmid is a fiction?
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Yes, again, this is a very contentious issue in Scottish culture,
0:49:02 > 0:49:04the extent to which Scottish culture
0:49:04 > 0:49:10is always being re-invented by persona who are not in fact real.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15MUSIC: The Campbells are Coming
0:49:19 > 0:49:24Innes of Learney was real enough.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29Between 1945 and 1969 he was Lord Lyon King of Arms.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33It was his job to faithfully register coats of arms,
0:49:33 > 0:49:36the heraldic identities of Scotland's aristocracy,
0:49:36 > 0:49:38tartan included.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42MUSIC
0:49:42 > 0:49:46Unlike MacDiarmid, he approved of both Union and Empire.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49MUSIC
0:49:50 > 0:49:54In a robust footnote in his book, 'The Tartans of the Clans and Families of Scotland',
0:49:54 > 0:49:56he asserted that the British Empire was,
0:49:56 > 0:49:59"really the creation of the Scots,
0:49:59 > 0:50:03"for prior to the Union, England could not even retain
0:50:03 > 0:50:06"the territories which it from time to time inherited."
0:50:06 > 0:50:11And there's a lovely section here which I could read for you
0:50:11 > 0:50:13"For formal wear,
0:50:13 > 0:50:17"the Highland dress naturally lends itself to glittering ornaments,
0:50:17 > 0:50:20"cairngorms, braiding, and velvet or tartan doublets,
0:50:20 > 0:50:22"which combine with the tartans
0:50:22 > 0:50:25"that enhance the rich variety of costume which accords
0:50:25 > 0:50:27"with the history and instincts of the highlander."
0:50:27 > 0:50:30And then you really get a sense of the man,
0:50:30 > 0:50:32"Attempts by self-conscious Lowlanders
0:50:32 > 0:50:37"to convert the picturesque dress of the Gael into a 'quiet style'
0:50:37 > 0:50:39"and to deprive the garb of its ornament
0:50:39 > 0:50:41"or reduce it to the drab monotony
0:50:41 > 0:50:46"of Anglo Saxon evening clothes are un-Scottish and contemptible."
0:50:46 > 0:50:50MUSIC
0:50:53 > 0:50:56It's entirely appropriate that the tartan of Learney's own clan
0:50:56 > 0:50:58was a slap in the eye.
0:51:01 > 0:51:05For Innes of Learney, tartan was a sign of Scottish superiority,
0:51:05 > 0:51:08a costume proudly worn by the natural aristocrats
0:51:08 > 0:51:10of an essentially Scottish empire.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18For MacDiarmid, tartan was a sign of independent Scottish nationhood.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23And for Walter Scott, it was the fabric through which Scots
0:51:23 > 0:51:26declared themselves loyal and subject to the Union.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33All three of these Scotlands can't be true at the same time
0:51:33 > 0:51:35but there's a tartan for them all.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42Tartan sticks to all our stories.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45And it just can't help telling them back to us.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49MUSIC
0:51:51 > 0:51:55In 2009, the Scottish Parliament
0:51:55 > 0:51:58created the Scottish Register of Tartans,
0:51:58 > 0:52:01an attempt to bring some order to the chaos.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04In the main we get a lot of people registering tartans
0:52:04 > 0:52:05for their own personal use
0:52:05 > 0:52:09so things like if they've got a forthcoming wedding coming up.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12We have the Miss Emma Halford MacLeod tartan
0:52:12 > 0:52:15and actually this one is for a marriage.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18You can imagine they wore this at their wedding.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21For years to come they'll be hoping
0:52:21 > 0:52:23their children and things wear the tartan.
0:52:23 > 0:52:28And this one, we have the UPS, one tartan which is a corporate tartan.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32Companies do register for their branding and marketing purposes.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34There's lots of different things in here.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36And Canine All Dogs tartan.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40MUSIC
0:52:42 > 0:52:45There's a searchable online database.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48It tells you, where it can, where the tartan first appeared.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51There's even a Scottish Register of Tartans tartan.
0:52:51 > 0:52:55A tartan that declares our loyalty to tartan itself.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59MUSIC
0:53:00 > 0:53:03# Wi' a hundred pipers, an' a', an' a'... #
0:53:03 > 0:53:04We've arrived, at last,
0:53:04 > 0:53:07in a world where tartan's history doesn't matter.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11# Wi' a hundred pipers, an' a', an' a'. #
0:53:11 > 0:53:13I am not really playing with history at all.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15I think of it entirely as another way of painting.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18Because I trained as a painter, I wanted to use my own colours,
0:53:18 > 0:53:21so I broke with the tradition and just started weaving
0:53:21 > 0:53:24in colours that I thought worked well together.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28MUSIC
0:53:28 > 0:53:31Because of where we live, it sounds a bit corny,
0:53:31 > 0:53:35but, I suppose, because of the landscape and the light
0:53:35 > 0:53:41it's a sort of distilled view of what's outside.
0:53:41 > 0:53:42My son is very rude and tells me
0:53:42 > 0:53:45I've been trotting out the same thing for years.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49He's absolutely right, but there's endless possibilities. I never get bored with it
0:53:49 > 0:53:51# Wi' a hundred pipers, an' a', an' a'
0:53:51 > 0:53:53# We'll up an' gie them a blaw, a blaw
0:53:53 > 0:53:56# Wi' a hundred pipers, an' a', an' a'. #
0:53:56 > 0:53:59With tartan, I like to imagine it as a painter's palette.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03It's all about it being elegant and subtle
0:54:03 > 0:54:06and a lot more weathered and muted and washed out,
0:54:06 > 0:54:10so the whole thing of say bright tartans, erm,
0:54:10 > 0:54:13like these oranges and reds,
0:54:13 > 0:54:16I tend to go more to what we call muted colours
0:54:16 > 0:54:17which is a deeper darker red.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20There's some very bright tartans. There is indeed.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22Let me just see if I can find one for you.
0:54:22 > 0:54:27Let's say the kilt was in that check, with the red.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31The jacket in that and the waistcoat and tartan, cut on the angle.
0:54:31 > 0:54:32So that you get,
0:54:32 > 0:54:33oh, it's not here,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36so, you're getting a...oh, I do have one.
0:54:38 > 0:54:40This is a MacLeod of Lewis,
0:54:40 > 0:54:43or we call this Loud MacLeod.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45And again, it's a lovely, lovely tartan.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49I would certainly wear this as a tartan suit
0:54:49 > 0:54:52because I think this is a fabulous tartan.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54It's that whole thing of just being completely timeless,
0:54:54 > 0:54:59I want my grooms, this is if time travel existed, obviously,
0:54:59 > 0:55:02to be able to go back to 1908 in their kilt outfit
0:55:02 > 0:55:05and stand and have a whisky with this guy.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07Because I know this guy from 1908
0:55:07 > 0:55:10could easily be walking about the streets today.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13This here is the 21st century tartan.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16It's a tartan suit, similar to what I'm wearing,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19slightly longer, being a three-quarter length jacket.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23The groom should be, I often use the term, Bondesque.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26You know, you want to kind of look like Bond on your wedding day,
0:55:26 > 0:55:27as much as possible.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29Just, really, everything sharp.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32This is, you know, a bit more outrageous than a kilt would be.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35This is about, you know, being a bit of a show stopper,
0:55:35 > 0:55:38getting yourself noticed for the right or the wrong reasons.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40But, that's what this is kind of about,
0:55:40 > 0:55:42it's putting yourself out there and being noticed.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45So, yeah, there's ways that you can use tartan
0:55:45 > 0:55:46but have a plain kilt.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48Tweed kilts have always existed.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51Maybe denim kilts haven't, leather kilts have
0:55:51 > 0:55:52and those are my babies.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55Even transparent PVC, but that was a definite experiment.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01What if I came in and said I wanted a tartan onesie?
0:56:01 > 0:56:04Well, never says never.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06Anything is possible at Geoffrey Tailor's.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12And there's all this debate at the moment about independence
0:56:12 > 0:56:14and I'm always happy to say
0:56:14 > 0:56:16I don't mind England being part of Scotland.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19Because we have all the kind of cultural identity here anyway.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23You know, the beautiful landscape, and, you know, the national drink
0:56:23 > 0:56:25and the national dress.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28I always feel sorry for English people
0:56:28 > 0:56:30because although you look a bit daft in a kilt,
0:56:30 > 0:56:33you look a lot more silly dressed as a Morris dancer.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36MUSIC: Shang-a-lang by the Bay City Rollers
0:56:36 > 0:56:39# Well we sang shang-a-lang and we ran with the gang
0:56:39 > 0:56:43# Doin' doo wop be dooby do ay... #
0:56:43 > 0:56:45And remember next year,
0:56:45 > 0:56:49we have the whole nation faces the question of independence.
0:56:49 > 0:56:50so that is the change of Scotland,
0:56:50 > 0:56:52whether they choose independence or not
0:56:52 > 0:56:54the Scottish psyche has changed
0:56:54 > 0:56:57and part of it is reflected in the football fan.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01# With the jukebox playing and every body saying that
0:57:01 > 0:57:05# "Music like ours couldn't die." #
0:57:05 > 0:57:07Let's hear you!
0:57:07 > 0:57:11It's become so much the emblem of Scotland
0:57:11 > 0:57:16in a way that no other country has this colourful image.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19You can look at tartan and go, "That's Scotland" immediately.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23Does it matter that its past is slightly murky?
0:57:23 > 0:57:26No, I don't think so.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28I think it adds to the gaiety of the nation
0:57:28 > 0:57:32and to the importance of tartan as a cultural symbol.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36# Aye! The children of Scotia
0:57:36 > 0:57:39# May roam the world o'er
0:57:39 > 0:57:42# But their thoughts aye return... #
0:57:42 > 0:57:46Tonight, it's a symbol of defeat.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49Scotland lose 2-1 to Wales,
0:57:49 > 0:57:52but it doesn't matter.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56Tartan will always have more tales to tell.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00"This piece of McBean tartan was flown to the moon
0:58:00 > 0:58:04"in our Apollo 12 command module Yankee Clipper.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08"It was then transferred to our lunar module Intrepid
0:58:08 > 0:58:12"and was landed on the moon, November 19th, 1969.
0:58:12 > 0:58:16"I am entrusting this valuable piece of tartan history to your care,
0:58:16 > 0:58:18"Alan Bean, lunar module pilot."
0:58:18 > 0:58:22# And the Cameron men have a right to be proud
0:58:22 > 0:58:24# With the Campbells and Stewarts
0:58:24 > 0:58:26# MacLeod of MacLeod
0:58:26 > 0:58:29# Then it's hey for the tartan
0:58:29 > 0:58:31# And ho for the tartan
0:58:31 > 0:58:33# The stamp O' the hielands
0:58:33 > 0:58:35# From Skye to Dundee
0:58:35 > 0:58:37# And it's proud I am bearing
0:58:37 > 0:58:40# The tartan I'm wearing
0:58:40 > 0:58:42# The pride O' my clan
0:58:42 > 0:58:44# And the tartan for me
0:58:44 > 0:58:46# The pride O' my clan
0:58:46 > 0:58:49# And the tartan for me. #
0:58:49 > 0:58:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd