Ghillie brogues - why the dislike and resentment..?

[OC Richard]

The reasons I suspect the brothers (them of numerous aliases) are:

1) iconographic evidence. The pictures of them are AFAIK the earliest representation of things akin to the Victorian Ghillie brogues

2) timing. Ghillie brogues appear in photos appear around the time that the brothers' tartans are seen being worn.

3) Modus Operandi. The brothers were known to come across old references and use them as inspirations for their creations. With circuitous logic they could then point to the historic reference to support the historicity of their fraud.

With tartans, they came across a reference of cloth payable as feu-duty by a MacLean in 1587, the requirement being for black, white, and green cloth. Assuming that this meant tartan (and not three separate pieces of plain cloth) the brothers quickly invented a tartan to match https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/ta...tails?ref=2617 squeezing the MacLean listing into a margin of their fake manuscript. (Evidently it would have been too much work to re-write the whole page.)

They then bring attention to this 16th century document in their Introduction. What could go wrong? They have a 16th century document to prove the authenticity of their bogus manuscript! Unfortunately for the brothers, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder had already made his own transcription of the brothers' manuscript in which the MacLean listing doesn't appear in that sequence. MacLean originally appeared elsewhere, but the brothers crudely changed MacLean into MacIan to try to cover their tracks.

Just as they got Clan Chiefs to appear at functions in tartans invented by the brothers, lending their creations a false air of authenticity, I assume that the brothers appeared at functions wearing their pseudo-ancient Highland footwear (which they're seen wearing regularly) which inevitably led to others adopting it.