About The Sporran
Taken from the 40th annual commemorative program.

If you’ve ever wondered why a Scotsman wears a sporran, you’ve not looked closely at a kilt. It’s a hard job to put pockets in a blanket and a pleated one at that!
But we wanted a name for our directory of Scottish products, not just classified ads — too mundane. So we settled on sporran, since it really is a carry-all and a catch-all and of no small value, which we hope our directory will be to those who require Scottish products or services.
Interestingly enough the sporran in its modern form hasn’t been around that long. Oh, a few hundred years, but that’s hardly a tick of time when compared to the age of the tartan. Following are what two authorities have to say about the sporran.

SPORAN (sic) The pouch worn by the Scottish Highlanders, and at present a distinguishing feature of their national costume, but its first adoption in the peculiar and ornamental form now worn is of very recent date. That of Simon Frazer, Lord Lovat, executed in 1746, is said by Mr. Logan (History of the Gael) to have been smaller and less decorated. Some such appendage to the girdle is of very early occurrence in the costume of most nations, but the tasselled sporan is more like the pouch of a North American Indian than the European gipicierre or aulmoniere of the Middle Ages, and its position in front is an additional peculiarity.
— James Robinson Planche, Esq., 1876
A Cyclopaedia of Costume

The Army is... responsible for perpetuating the monstrous horsehair sporrans, with shaving brush tassels, which appealed to early 19th century Gothic taste. To be fair, the latest Army issues are, their blanco whiteness apart, much nearer the traditional sporran, which began as a leather purse with a thong as a drawstring, and looped over the belt, and in the late 17th century followed the late mediaeval purse by becoming a leather or sealskin bag sewn to a brass top. The tops, often with cunning locks, were either rounded or angular, one in the National Museum incorporates two small double-barrelled flintlock pistols to surprise the unwary “pickpurse.”
— Stuart Maxwell & Robin Hutchinson
Scottish Costumes 1550-1850

Reprinted from Colonial Highland Gathering Program,
June 3, 1978