Quote Originally Posted by Steve Ashton View Post

The first attempt to standardize and record Tartans was done in London. In Scotland there seems to have been far less interest in the whole concept of "I'm of Scottish ancestry so I, of course, should be able to find what Clan I belong to".
Steve, not quite. Yes it was the Highland Society of London that is generally credited with being the first to attempt to record the Highland clan tartans. However; notwithstanding the name, most of the members at the time were Scots, many Highlanders, such as David Stewart of Garth who was the Secretary and based in Scotland at the time.

There was also a slightly earlier attempt to collate tartans, the Cockburn Collection of 1810-15 although it's not clear whether this was a personal flight of fancy by General Cockburn, himself a member of the HSL at some point.