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The Immeasurable Wilds: Travellers to the Far North of Scotland

The Sobieski Brothers: Magnificent Frauds!

The Sobieski brothers, John Carter Allen and Charles Manning Allen, provide a fascination cul-de-sac in Scottish history. In the most audacious fashion, they successfully tapped into a sentiment prevalent at the time, a need to establish a Scottish history, which they milked for all it was worth. In doing so, they found some influential patronage, including the 14th Lord Lovat, who found a house for them on his estate Eilean Aigas, the 10th Earl of Moray, and Thomas Dick-Lauder. 

The basis of their fame was a claim that they were the grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Their father, the only legitimate child of the Prince and his wife Princess Louise, had been discretely sent from Italy to England for fear of being kidnapped or done away with - or so they maintained. The power of the Jacobite cause and the Stuart claim was still very much alive in Scotland, and the decision to change their names to John Sobieski Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart drew the sort of attention that they craved. The photographs of them reveal splendidly languid types with long moustaches, and for seven years they relished an existence in the public eye, based near Inverness.


In 1842, they published the first of two important books, the first called Vestiarium Scoticum, which was said to be a reproduction of a 1571 manuscript that John had come across. It purported to show the tartan patterns of many of the Scottish clans, and indeed it is one of the works that the kilt industry has, over the years, resorted to for information when offering designs to its clients. It was, of course, a complete fabrication. However, three years later they published an even more glossy book, Costume of the Clans, which proved to be even more popular.

I obtained a copy of this second book last year. It is a huge volume, with a comprehensive text that seeks to portray a Scottish history in earlier times, and in particular it describes in detail what was worn. . The National Gallery of Scotland calls it "a curious mixture of real scholarship and fantasy." The historian Hugh Trevor-Roper dismisses both this book and Vestiarium as "shot through with pure fantasy and bare faced forgery."

Francis Groome in the Dictionary of National Biography describes the book as " sumptuous but grotesquely illustrated", and it is these illustrations that makes the book so special for me. There are 31 full-page plates, some containing more than one image, and most have been meticulously handcoloured. The result is a set of prints the like of which I have not seen elsewhere in the 19th century. Walt Disney has not exceeded them for sheer colour and impact!

Title page of Costume of the Clans.

George, Second Earl of Seaforth.                       

From the original portrait in possession of the Witt family, Amsterdam.

Sir Donald Gormsone.

From the original in the possession of the Duc de Tarentum.

Conflict: Katheran:...Clan Kaye et Clan Quhatten.

From the original Drawing in the splendid MS. copy of Boethius' Hist. in possession of Mr Hawkesly, Wardour Street, London.


We would now know these clans as MacKay and Chattan. The conflict is described in Scott's Fair Maid of Perth.

1644: The Marquis of Montrose.

From the original painting preserved in the Nairn family.

Portrait of a Highland Chief.

From a painting in the possession of Glengarrie at Inverruie.

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.

Left, From a very scarce woodcut, 1630;  Middle, A 'Carnach' from the Glengarrie picture, Plate VIII; Right, From the die of a medal of HRH the Prince Charles Edward, 1745, in possession of Mr Rettie, ironmonger, Argyll Street, Glasgow.

Andrew MacPherson of Clunie.

Sixth Chief of the Clan Chattan, from the original Painting at Clunie Castle.

John, 3rd Earl of Breadalbane.

From the original Painting in the possession of the Earl de Grey, St James' Square, London.

Kenneth, 3rd Lord Duffus.

From the original Painting in the possession of the Countess-Dowager of Caithness.

A Highland Chieftain.

From a very rare, and probably unpublished Print in the Collection of the late Annabella, Countess de Grey.

"God Save King James."

From the same.

Domhnuill Mor Boidhche.

Piper to the Earl of Mar and to King James VIII, from the original in the possession of Mr Donald MacGarrow, Forres.

Left, 1713 Brigadier Grant,                                                    and Right, 1714 David Grant of Dalbuic.

                                   From the original Paintings at Castle Grant.

Patrick Grant of Miltoun.....                                                  .....and 'Old Glenbucket'.

From the original Painting at Castle Grant, 1714           From the original Painting 1745, in the                                                                                                         possession of Chevalier Gordon, Versailles.                                                                                                   

Rob Roy, 1704.

From the original Painting at Broomhill, near Hamilton.

Rob Roy, 1714.

From the Painting in the Society of Antiquaries, Edinburgh.


Rob Roy, 1734.

From the original Painting in the possession of George Buchanan Esq. of  Arden, at Arden on Loch Lomond side.

Major Fraser of Castle Leathers, 1723.

From the original in the possession of Miss Grant of Kilminavaig, Inverness.

His Royal Highness, The Prince Charles Edward.

From the original Picture in our possession.

William Cunning, 1714.

Piper to the Lord of Grant, from the original Portrait at Castle Grant.

Portrait of a Highland Chieftain.

From the originals in the possession of His Grace, the Duke of Leeds, and of Mr G.A. Williams, Librarian, Cheltenham.

Alasdair Ruadh of Glengarrie.

From the original Portrait in the possession of Glengarrie at Inverruie

Sir Alexander MacDonald, 7th Baronet of Sleit, and 14th Chieftain of the Clan Donald North.

From the original Portrait at Armidall, c.1745.

Robert Grant of Larg.

From the original at Castle Grant, c.1775.

His Grace, the Duke of Perth.

From the original Portrait at Drummond Castle.

Alexander, First Lord Macdonald.

In a 'Hill dress', from the original portrait at Armidall.

Sir Alexander MacDonald, Sir James' brother [top right] and successor, afterwards first Lord MacDonald, from the original picture at Armidall.

Sir James MacDonald, 8th Baronet of Sleit and 15th Chieftain of the Clan Donald North.

Norman MacLeod, 20th Chief of the Shiol Thormaid, or MacLeods of Harris. 

[From left to right] 1 Irish, from Derrick's Image of Ireland; 2 A Greek, from a drawing by the late H.H. Williams; 3 From the Picture of 'Sir Donald Gormsone', Pl. VI; 4 Irish, from the Douce engraving.

For completeness I add these black and white images taken from Costume of the Clans.

[From left to right] 1 Tabbed Bonnet, Falluinn, and Shoulder Plaid, from a sculpture at the castle of Inch Connel, Loch Awe; 2 Belted Plaid and Falluinn, from a sculpture in the Castle of Carnaserai in Argyllshire; 3 Plaited Jerkin and Truis, from a gravestone in the ruined churchof Kiel in Morven.

[Top left to right] 1Breacan Clag, or Cochal, from a gravestone in the burial-ground of Clun-na-mac-Righ in Lorn; 2 Hood, from the fragment of a gravestone in the ruined church of Arisaig; 3 From the fragments of a sculpture among the ruins of Iona; 4 From the fragment of a gravestone in the island of Dalalia, Loch Sheal.

[Bottom, left to right] 5 Irish Figure, from Speed's Theatre of Brit.; 6 From a sculpture in the ruined chapel of Dunstaffnage; 7-8 From the ruins of Iona.

Breacon Spreighte, Falluinn, and Truis.

From a sculpture among the ruins of Iona, 13th Century.

16th Century, the Breacan Spreighte, Falluinn, and Truis, from a gravestone in the cemetery of Relig-Ouran, Iona.

Breacan Clag, Falluinn and Hose.

From the fragment of a gravestone in the girth of the ruined church Innisaile in Loch Awe.

Irish Figures.

From a very scarce engraving in the Douce Collection in the Bodleian Library.

[Top left to Bottom right]: 1 A Gaul from Montfausen; 2 Ivory Chess King, preserved in the family of Dunstaffnage; 3 Corbel head in the ruins of Iona; From the fragment of a sculpture in the burial ground of Dalalia, Loch Sheal; 5 Of a Highland Chief of the 16th century, from the 'Recueil de la Diversite des Habits' &c.; 6 French Sleeve, from the Recueil, plate cxvii; 7 Skirts of a French Paltock, from the Roman de la Rose; 8 Ditto of an English Surcoat, from an illum. Bible; 9-12 Irish Figures, from Derrick's Image of Ireland; 13 Irish, from a fresco in the Abbey of Knockmoi; 14 From a gravestone in the ruined church of Arisaig; 15 From the gravestone of Allan MacEachan in the yard of the ruined church of Pennigobhan, near Salin, in Mull; 16   Irish, from the print of the Capture of the Earl of Ormond, Trin. Col. Dubl.; 17 Bonnet, from a portrait of the 16th century at Tarnaway Castle; 18 Figure of an ancient Irish Breacan Clag, in possession of C. Walker, Esq, Dubl.; 19 The Belted Plaid, from Burt's Letters, 1726; 20-21 Irish, from Illuminations in the MS. of Giraldus Cambrensis, in possession of Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart. of Middle Hill, Worcestershire.