I see by my calendar that today, April 6, is National Tartan Day. How fitting for me as I investigate my Scottish family history. Unfortunately, the only piece of tartan I have is a wool scarf and thankfully, now it is too warm outside to wear it! My dad brought back this tourist souvenir from Scotland several years ago. He searched high and low for some MacNab tartan in honour of his sweet little granny, born of Scottish immigrants.

Some people, my dad included, do not know that today’s clan tartans are recent inventions, dating not to time immemorial but to the Victorian era instead. Queen Victoria was a big fan of Scotland, due initially to her enjoyment of the novels of Sir Walter Scott and subsequently to her vacations in the Highlands. Her husband, Prince Albert, purchased a large estate (Balmoral) there in 1852 and built a new castle in the Scottish style. The Queen decorated the interior in tartan and had the servants dressed in tartan kilts (the men) and shawls (the women). The Royal Family loved it there, as it was a  private, family-oriented life with outdoor pursuits amidst beautiful and rugged landscapes. After Albert died, Victoria published portions of her diary: Leaves from the journal of our life in the Highlands from 1848-1861. Victoria’s love of the Highlands was a huge influence on popular culture and thus, all things Scottish became the rage. It wasn’t until her predecessor (George IV) had visited Edinburgh in 1822 and dressed up in a kilt that naming tartans after specific Highland clans was invented. By Victoria’s time a tartan pattern book had been fabricated linking patterns to specific clans. So, really, our modern concept of clan tartans dates to this English fad.

Ironic, since it was the English who banned the wearing of tartan and kilts after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. This slaughter marked the final defeat of the Scottish rebels (the Jacobites), who wanted the return of the dynasty of the exiled Scottish/English king (James Stuart) to the throne of England. It was his son, Bonnie Prince Charlie, who had returned to Scotland to fight. The rebels had been organized along clan lines. We think of a clan as a family, but it was a much more extensive and complicated system of power, influence, fealty, responsibility, and territory.

The victorious English vowed to subdue the Highland Scots once and for all, and the resulting English laws virtually destroyed the Gaelic culture of the Highlands and the clan system central to its structure. Also, economic changes led to the Highland Clearances, where entire areas were forcibly and brutally depopulated by landowners, so they could raise sheep instead of relying on tenants to pay rent. These clearances contributed significantly to immigration in North America. My ancestors came to Canada at the end of the roughly hundred year period of clearances, so they may have sought Canada as a refuge of hope, like so many others.

Canada was deeply influenced by Scottish immigrants and a great book called How the Scots Invented the Modern World discusses the Scottish origins of modern political systems as well as economic, scientific, and moral theory and philosophy. I had no idea how much of our modern culture we owe to ideas formulated by great Scottish thinkers. The ramifications of our cultural Scottish ancestry are so wide-spread, we take them for granted today.

Sometimes Scottish influences can be seen on the small scale too. As often happens, once I get interested in a topic, references to it seem to pop up everywhere. I recently found a little book about Scottish immigrants to Manitoba. I was most interested in the glossary of Scottish terms. I read the list aloud to hear what the words sounded like and tested myself to see if I knew their meaning. I was surprised to find a word I have known since my childhood on the list: blatherskite. I had no idea of its Scottish origin, I had just grown up with it.  After realizing most people I know had never heard it, I found that my father had learned it from his mother and grandmother.

I am thrilled to discover that I retain some of my family’s original Scottish heritage, embedded in my linguistic perception of the world. I may even take a short walk with my modern tartan scarf proudly wrapped around me.

P.S. I hope you don’t find this article to be evidence that I am a blatherskite!

This article was originally printed in the BERGEN NEWS and is being reprinted with permission.

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