Tartan

Tartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns. Tartan is often called plaid in North America, but in Scotland, a plaid is a tartan cloth slung over the shoulder as a kilt accessory, or a plain ordinary blanket such as one would have on a bed.

Tartan is made with alternating bands of coloured (pre-dyed) threads woven as both warp and weft at right angles to each other. The weft is woven in a simple twill, two over — two under the warp, advancing one thread at each pass. This forms visible diagonal lines where different colours cross, which give the appearance of new colours blended from the original ones. The resulting blocks of colour repeat vertically and horizontally in a distinctive pattern of squares and lines known as a sett.

The Dress Act of 1746 attempted to bring the warrior clans under government control by banning the tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture. When the law was repealed in 1782, it was no longer ordinary Highland dress, but was adopted instead as the symbolic national dress of Scotland.

Sett (surname)

Sett (pronounced "Sheth") is a Bengali surname, derived from "Shreshthi" (which means businessman in Hindi). Shreshthis were the oldest known businessmen in northern India. The name was changed to "Shethi" during the medieval period. After the arrival of the East India Company in India, the surname was anglicised to "Sheth" and later to "Sett".

The Setts originally came from Gujarat during the 15th century and settled in Saptagram, Bengal and were engaged in primarily trading in cotton. In those days Saptagram was a prosperous trading port in the East Indies and it was the Portuguese who were the predominant European merchants there. They used to call it "Porto Pequeno" or Little Haven and predated the British by more than 100 years. The Setts prospered and gradually started to blend into the Bengali culture. Gradual silting caused Saptagram to lose its importance and the Setts moved their business further down to Betor, which was in Howrah, diagonally opposite Calcutta across the Ganges. While in Betor they set up their residences in Gobindapur (present day Dalhousie Square in Calcutta. Those days Gobindapur was a dense marshy jungle inhabited by wild animals. The Setts cleared the area and build their mansions over here. With the advent of the British, Dutch and other European traders, Betor was poised to be a major trading centre and the Setts became the dominating Indian merchants of the region. Job Charnock arrived from Patna towards the end of the 17th century and established a trading post.