Harris Tweed standard definition became essential. Groups of merchants in both Lewis and Harris applied to the Board of Trade for a registered trade mark. When this trade mark, the Orb, was eventually granted, the Board insisted that it should be granted to all the islands of the Outer Hebrides i.e. to Lewis, North and South Uist, Benbecula and Barra, as well as to Harris, the rationale for this decision being that the tweed was made in exactly the same way in all those islands. In 1909, after much negotiation and a degree of acrimony from merchants in Harris who felt that
Isle of Lewis carried out in the Scottish Gaelic language. Almost all of the Gaelic speakers are bilingual. Most of the place names in Lewis and Harris come from Old Norse. The name "Lewis" is the English spelling of the Scottish Gaelic "Leòdhas" which comes from the Old Norse "Ljóðhús", as Lewis is named in medieval Norwegian maps of the island. Various suggestions have been made as to a Norse meaning such as "song house". The name is not of Gaelic origin, the Norse credentials are questionable and it may have a pre-Celtic root. As well as regularly playing host to the Royal