To avoid confusion I have in this book described clan tartans more or less as they exist today. This is not strictly accurate. To begin with, in 1644 clans had not yet adopted specific tartans to be worn by all their members, and probably none of the tartans were the same, in either pattern or color, as they are today. In fact, it is very difficult to
 
 know just what they did look like, for all kinds of vegetable dyes were used, and the remnants of old tartans that we find today are so faded and changed in color that they seem mostly gray or gray-brown, and it is hard to tell what colors they once were.