D. W. Stewart


"Donald William Stewart was the son of a factor on an Irish estate and a member of the Edinburgh 'literati'. He was a partner in the firm of Romanes & Paterson, the 'Royal Tartan Warehouse'. His book, 'Old and Rare Scottish Tartans' was published in 1893 and contained a selection of forty five setts of special interest or antiquity woven in silk,. Many of the illustrated tartans owe their present day popularity to the publication of this work. A second book, on the subject of the Sobieski brothers 'Costumes of the Clans' was planned but not completed.

He was virtually ruined by the failure of a hosiery business for which he stood as guarantor and his marriage broke up as a result, his wife taking the family to Beckenham in Kent, where she joined a sister in a millinery business.

Sadly. he took to the bottle and was eventually packed off to Australia as a remittance man and thereafter disappeared from view.

Jamie Scarlett.

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