Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society - Electric Scotland

228 NOTES AND COMMENTS.
Had there been such recognition, it is further objected,
the Gaelic-speakin*^ people would have liad a Gaelic
name for tlie Tiindsays. Mr Jolm Lindsay, Arrochar,
and others say indued that they had such a name and
that it was Macllliuntaig. This opinion appears to be
founded on a quotation from tlie Gaelic poet Allan
Dall, who lived at the end of the 18th century;
but for the purpose in view the passage is of very
doubtful authority.
Another point dealt with in the correspondence
mentioned, as one having an important bearing on the
general question, is the age of the Lindsay tartan.
That the tartan so named is later than 1739 has been
maintained on the ground that when the inde})endent
companies of the Black Watch were formed into a
regiment of the line under the conmiand of the Earl of
Crawford-Lindsay, the earl had the })rivllege of choos-
ing the uniform tartan, and would have cho.sen that of
Lindsay had there been any such in existence. The
argument is not convincing. One would like to know
whether it is a fact, or only an assumption, that the
commander of the newly formed regiment had the
unrestricted privilege of choosing the uniform tartan
and one would like to know whether it is offered as a
fact that there was no Lindsay tartan, or whether its
non-existence is merely an inference IVom the Black
Watch tartan not being the Lindsay tartan. The
inference certainly does not follow from the premises.
Supposing that there was then in existence a recognised
Lindsay tartan, and that the earl could have put the
regiment into it, there was very good reason for his
not doing so. The tartan would be that used by the
chief of the name, the Laird of Edzell, and his followers,
;