Tartanry is a word used to describe the kitsch elements of Scottish culture that have been over-emphasised or super-imposed on the country first by the emergent Scottish tourist industry in the 18th and 19th centuries, and later by an American film industry. The earliest use of the word "tartanry" itself is said to have been in 1976.
Tartanry refers to often mispresented or invented aspects of Scotland such as clan tartans, kilts, bagpipes, Scottish Gaelic and Highland culture more generally.
The repeal of the Dress Act in 1782 saw a romantic revival of tartan, kilts, bagpipes and Highland traditions, both genuine and imagined, which in time became seen as Scottish traditions, famously celebrated during the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822. Lord Macauley wrote of the displays on that occasion that:
The last British king who held court at Holyrood thought that he could not give a more striking proof of his respect for the usages which had prevailed in Scotland before the Union, than by disguising himself in what, before the Union, was considered by nine Scotchmen out of ten as the dress of a thief.
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