Trevor Leggett was head of the Japanese Department of the BBC and this  is a part of one of his broadcasts

Zubari for July 16 1988

Hullo Listeners!

Scholars are generally harmless people. But occasionally a scholar drops a sort of bombshell. He reveals something shocking, about some traditional history. But occasionally a scholar

For instance, in a recent BBC programme, some historians have shown that the famous traditional Scottish kilt was not originally a Scottish garment but invented by an Englishman, a manufacturer.

For a time, it was forbidden in Scotland, because it was associated with a revolutionary movement. But later it was adopted by the Scottish regiments, and then by people generally.

As soon as we recovered from this tremendous shock, we another shock. The famous tartan patterns are not ancient at all. They were invented in the 19th century, and some of them were invented by Englishmen, and Englishwomen. The Royal Stuart tartan was invented by Queen Victoria herself, or at least, she approved the design.

Last week I played you one of the famous Scottish folksongs, and you heard how that had been ’improved’ by the Scots woman who first published it.

Of course, some of these things had been known to scholars for a longtime. But the general public did not know them.

Well, we shall probably forget the shock very quickly. We like, the ’romance of Scotland’ and we do not like shocks. We are afraid of them. We do not want to hear the story that a Spanish or German manufacturer invented out traditional English bowler hat.

© Trevor Leggett