Chapter II: Part 2

As for their Apparel; next the skin, they wear a short linnen Shirt, which the great Men among them sometimes dye of saffron Colour. They use it short, that it may not incumber them, when running or travelling. Major says the common People among them went out to Battle, having their Body cover’d with Linnen of many Folds sewed together and done over with Wax or Pitch, with a covering of Hart’s Skin; but that the English and common lowland Scots fought in Clokes. In the sharp Winter weather the Highland Men wear close trowzes, which cover the Thighs, Legs, and Feet. To fence their feet they put on Rullions or raw leather shoes. Above their Shirt they have a single Coat, reaching no farther than the Navel. Their uppermost Garment is a loose Cloke of several Ells, striped and party colour’d (the tartan plaid), which they gird breadth-wise with a Leathern Belt so as it scarce covers the knees, and that for the above-mention’d Reason, that it may be no Lett to them, when on a Journey or doing any Work. Far the greatest part of the Plaid covers the uppermost parts of the Body. Sometimes it is all folded round the Body about the Region of the Belt, for disengaging and leaving the Hands free; and sometimes ’tis wrapped round all that is above the Flank. The trowzes are for Winter use; at other Times they content themselves with short Hose, which scarce reach to the knees. When they compose themselves to Rest and Sleep, they loose the Belt, and roll themselves in the Plaid, lying down on the bare Ground, or putting Heather under them nicely set together after their Manner; or, for want of that, they use a little Straw or Hay.[39]

It has been already noted that the Scottish auxiliaries who went to France in 1552 were in trews (“hois”), and, similarly, when the northern army invaded England in 1639, no reference is made to the kilt or to the bare legs, the first peculiarity to impress strangers. It would thus appear that the kilt did not at this time form part of the military dress. The following description is extracted from Defoe’s _Memoirs of a Cavalier_, which evinces considerable acquaintance with military habits and equipments:—

I confess, the soldiers made a very uncouth figure, especially the highlanders: the oddness and barbarity of their garb and arms seemed to have something in it remarkable. They were generally tall swinging fellows; their swords were extravagantly and I think insignificantly broad, and they carried great wooden targets, large enough to cover the upper part of their bodies. Their dress was as antique as the rest; a cap on their heads, called by them a bonnet, long hanging sleeves behind, and their doublet, breeches, and stockings, of a stuff they called plaid, striped across red and yellow, with short cloaks of the same. These fellows looked, when drawn out, like a regiment of merry-andrews, ready for Bartholomew Fair. They are in companies all of a name and therefore call one another only by their christian names, ... and they scorn to be commanded but by one of their own clan or family.... There were three or four thousand of these in the Scots’ army, armed only with swords and targets; and in their belts some of them had a pistol, but no musquets at that time among them.[40]

Here again there appears to be evidence of the plaid, under the designation of “short cloak,” as a separate garment, which, taken in conjunction with Taylor’s description in 1618, affords a strong presumption that its use, along with, but detached from, kilt or trews, was quite common.

In the act and decreet in favour of Thomas M’Kenzie of Pluscardin against a band of Highlanders who had plundered him and his tenants in the month of June 1649, there are enumerated as among the articles taken away or destroyed:—

Item ane whyt plaid worth eight punds With coat and trews and shoes worth four pund scots with four pair of lining sheits worth four pund the pair, ane pair of bed plaids worth twentie four punds tuo coverings worth four punds the peice Ten elne of new lining worth twentie shilling the elne. Item ten elnes of tartan at threttie shilling the elne.[41]

In 1669 the Rev. James Brome, M.A., Rector of Cheriton in Kent, visited Scotland, and in 1700 he published his work. His description of Highland dress and arms is largely adapted from Buchanan, whose work is, indeed, appropriated by many other writers. Brome’s note is as follows:—

The _Highlanders_, who inhabit the West part of the Country, in their Language Habit and Manners agree much with the Customs of the Wild _Irish_, and their chief City is _Elgin_, in the County of _Murray_, seated upon the Water of _Lossy_, formerly the Bishop of _Murray’s_ Seat, with a Church sumptuously built, but now gone to decay. They go habited in Mantles striped, or streaked with divers colours about their Shoulders, which they call _Plodden_, with a Coat girt close to their Bodies, and commonly are naked upon their Legs, but wear Sandals upon the Soles of their Feet, and their Women go clad much after the same Fashion: They get their Living mostly by Hunting, Fishing, and Fowling; and when they go to War, the Armour wherewith they cover their Bodies, is a Morion or Bonnet of Iron, and an Habergeon, which comes down almost to their very Heels; their Weapons against their Enemies are Bows and Arrows, and they are generally reputed good Marks-Men upon all occasions; their Arrows for the most part are barbed or crooked, which once entred within the Body cannot well be drawn out again, unless the Wound be made wider; some of them fight with broad Swords and Axes, and in the room of a Drum make use of a Bag-pipe. They delight much in Musick, but chiefly in Harps and Clarishoes of their own Fashion, the strings of which are made of Brass-Wire, and the strings of their Harps with Sinews, which strings they strike either with their Nails growing long, or else with an Instrument appointed for that use.[42]

Thomas Kirk, of Cookridge, Yorkshire, who made an extensive tour in Scotland in 1677, kept a journal of his observations, and, thanks to his minute description, it becomes possible to demonstrate that the story of the modern invention of the feilebeg or kilt as a separate article of dress is a fabrication. For not only does he describe the kilt precisely, but he notes with great exactness the manner of wearing the plaid, which corresponds in every particular with its use at the present time. Writing at Inverness, he says:—

Here we may note the habit of a Highlander: their doublets are slashed in the sleeves, and open on the back; their breeches and stockings are either all on a piece, and straight to them, plaid colour; or otherwise, a sort of breeches, not unlike a petticoat, that reaches not so low, by far, as their knees, and their stockings are rolled up about the calves of their legs, and tied with a garter, their knee and thigh being naked. On their right side they wear a dagger, about a foot or half-a-yard long, the back filed like a saw, and several kinnes (? skeans) struck in the sheath of it; in either pocket a case of iron or brass pistols, a sword about a handful broad, and five feet long, on the other side, and perhaps a gun on one shoulder and a sack of luggage on the other. Thus accoutred, with a plaid over the left shoulder and under the right arm, and a cap a-cock, he struts like a peacock, and rather prides in than disdains his speckled feet.[43]

It is somewhat remarkable that this testimony, which decides the vexed question of the separate use of kilt and plaid prior to the eighteenth century, has hitherto escaped the notice of all writers on the subject.

During the turbulent period of the wars of Montrose and Dundee many bodies of armed Highlanders were imported into the Lowlands. One of the largest, known as the Highland Host, consisted of ten thousand men employed in the repression of the Western Shires. A letter in the Wodrow MSS., Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, written under date 1st February 1678, states:—

We are now all quartered in and about this town [? Ayr], the Highlanders only in free quarters. It would be truely a pleasant sight, were it at an ordinary weaponshaw, to see this Highland crew. You know the fashion of their wild apparel, not one of ten of them hath breaches, yet hose and shoes are their greatest need and most clever prey, and they spare not to take them every where: In so much that the committee here, and the Counsel with you (as it is said) have ordered some thousands of pairs of shoes to be made to stanch this great spoil. As for their armes and other militarie acoutrements, it is not possible for me to describe them in writing; here you may see head-pieces and steel-bonnets raised like pyramides, and such as a man would affirme they had only found in chamber-boxes; targets and shields of the most odde and anticque forme, and pouder hornes hung in strings, garnished with beaten nails and plates of burnished brass. And truely I doubt not but a man, curious in our antiquities, might in this host finde explications of the strange pieces of armour mentioned in our old lawes, such as bosnet, iron-hat, gorget, pesane, wambrassers, and reerbrassers, panns, leg-splents, and the like, above what any occasion in the Lowlands would have afforded for several hundereds of yeers. Among their ensignes also, besides other singularities, the Glencow men were very remarkable, who had for their ensigne a faire bush of heath, wel-spred and displayed on the head of a staff, such as might have affrighted a Roman eagle.[44]

This letter is especially noteworthy as containing an early reference to the badge or ensign used to distinguish particular clans. The “Glencow” men—no doubt the Mac Ians of Glencoe, a sept of the Clan Mac Donald—“had for their ensign a fair bush of heath,” and the badge of the Mac Donalds is still Fraoch or heath. The writer’s description implies that the rank and file of the Highland Host wore the kilt or the belted plaid; those who did not being, of course, the officers, who would wear the trews. That such was the fact is confirmed by what follows.

A sarcastic and amusing description of the Highlanders concerned in the expedition of 1678 was written by Lieut.-Colonel William Cleland (1661-1689), of the Cameronian or Earl of Angus’s Regiment, who was killed fighting the remnant of Viscount Dundee’s army. Not only does it confirm the description in the Wodrow letter, but it furnishes information of a detailed character as to dress and accoutrements, as the following quotation shows:—

But to discrive them right surpasses
The art of nine Parnassus Lasses.

* * * * *

Their head, their neck, their leggs and thighs:
Are influenced by the skies,
Without a clout to interrupt them
They need not strip them when they whip them;
Nor loose their doublet, when they’re hang’d
If they be miss’d, its sure they’re wrong’d.

* * * * *

Their durks hang down between their leggs
Where they made many slopes and geggs;
By rubbing on their naked side,
And wambling from side to side.
But those who were their chief Commanders,
As such who bore the pirnie standarts,
Who led the van, and drove the rear,
Were right well mounted of their gear;
With brogues, trues, and pirnie plaides,
With good blew bonnets on their heads,
Which on the one side had a flipe
Adorn’d with a tobacco pipe.
With durk, and snap-work, and snuff-mill,
A bagg which they with onions fill,
And, as their strick observers say,
A tupe horn fill’d with usquebay;
A slasht out coat beneath her plaides,
A targe of timber, nails and hides;
With a long two handed sword,
As good’s the country can affoord;
Had they not need of bulk and bones,
Who fight with all these arms at once?
It’s marvelous how in such weather,
Ov’r hill and hop they came together;
How in such stormes they came so farr;
The reason is, they’re smear’d with tar,
Which doth defend them heel and neck,
Just as it doth their sheep protect;
But least ye doubt that this is true,
They’re just the colour of tar’d wool.[45]

Here we have two distinct forms of dress—that of the men, the kilt or the belted plaid, and that of the “chief Commanders,” who “were right well mounted of their gear; with brogues, trues, and pirnie plaides.”

But perhaps the most striking evidence that two forms of dress were in use in the Highlands at this time is that supplied by the supporters of the arms of Skene of that Ilk. The blazon of the supporters in the Lyon Register is:—

On the dexter by a highland man in his proper garb holding a skene with his right hand in a guarding posture, and on the sinister be another in a servill habit his target on the left arm and the darlach by his side.[46] ]

In the Introduction to the _Nisbet Plates_,[47] the work from which the illustration is taken, it is pointed out that in the Nisbet MS. the description of the supporters runs as follows:—

Supported on the dexter by a highland gentleman in his proper garb, holding a skein with his right hand in a guarding posture, and on the sinister by another highlandman in a servill habit, with his target on his left arme and his dorloch be his side.[48]

It is impossible to conceive of evidence of a more conclusive and satisfactory character than that here adduced of the existence of both modes of dress at this period and of the rank of the respective wearers. The original illustration is the work of Robert Wood, an Edinburgh engraver, and in Mr Ross’s Opinion was executed, and Alexander Nisbet’s description above quoted written, 1695-1704.[49]

_The Grameid_, written in 1691, contains many references to the clothing and uniforms of the Highland army serving under Viscount Dundee. From the shoulder of Keppoch “hung the tartan plaid.” The inhabitants of the Hebrides are clothed “in yellow and blue.” Dundee, addressing the leaders, bids them “draw out your clans in their saffron array upon the plain,” and speaks of “the plaided race of Grampian giants.” General Mackay is represented as concluding “that he had subdued the tartaned bands of ancient Albion.” A most explicit description is that of the followers of Glengarry, “three hundred illustrious youths in the first flower of vigorous manhood, each of whom a tartan garb covers, woven with Phrygian skill in triple stripe, and as a garment clothes their broad chests and flanks. A helmet defends the temples of the men. A coloured plaid veils their shoulders, and otherwise they are naked.... Following him closely comes his brother Allan, the brave, with a hundred men all clothed in garments interwoven with the red stripe, their brawny calves bound with the red buskin.” Of Locheil, the poet says, “his tartan hose are gartered round his calf.” M’Martin in “variegated array advances with lofty mien”; the garter ribbons “hanging at his leg were dyed with Corycian saffron, and with the tint of the Tyrian shell, as was his plaid.” Of Mac Lean of Duart and his brother Alexander “the flowing plaid with yellow stripe covers the shoulders of both the brothers.” Mac Neill of Barra “displays as many colours woven into his plaid as the rainbow in the clouds shows in the sunlight.” The Mac Leods of Raasay advance “with plumed heads erect, and shoulders covered with girded plaid.” The Dougals of Craignish “all carry the brazen-hilted sword, and wear the girded plaid.” “The whole plaided forces of the Highland chiefs, both horse and foot, the entire body take post.” Dundee beholds his “bands gleaming with brass, and admires the companies in their brilliant colours, and is refreshed by the sharp note of the pipe.” The “tartaned host” pours itself out upon the field. In sight of their opponents the Highland warriors “draw their swords, and, extended on the plain, they move in ordered ranks; they cast their brogues of bull’s hide, and make a pile of their plaids, and thus stripped, prepare for the battle.” General Mackay takes counsel how he “will overwhelm the tartaned lines of the target-bearing Scot”; while the poet writes of the march of his opponents, “the whole body of the Highlanders is formed into one column, and forthwith the cavalry mount their horses, and the whole plaided army, with floating banners, went forth from the deserted camp into the open plain.”[50]

It appears from various references that the trews and the belted plaid were sometimes worn together. On a powder-horn which belonged to the late James Drummond, R.S.A., and now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh, there are figures in the Highland dress, and one of these seems to illustrate this mode. As to the age of the relic, Mr Drummond, in a communication to the Society in April 1872, gave various reasons for believing it to have been the property of Sir George Mackenzie of Tarbat, who was born in 1630. Again, in an extract from a MS. stated to have been in the possession of Dr. Mac Lean, Oban, giving an account of the battle of Killiecrankie, it is stated that John Macrae of Inversheil, having been struck in the thigh by a musket shot—

The ball having carried into the wound the cloth of his belted plade, and the trewes that he wore under them, the woolen did so wrankle the flesh, that with his hard travail, and need of a chirurgeon, it was long after before he got cured.[51]

In fact, so late as 1746, when Prince Charles Edward embarked on his return to France, a letter written by Colonel Warren, and preserved among the Stuart papers, records that he was dressed in “a threadbare coat of coarse black frieze, tartan trews, and over them a belted plaid.”

In 1688 William Sacheverell, Governor of the Isle of Man, visited Mull and other Western Islands, and his account is valuable and interesting because it is fair in its criticism and accurate in its description; and it affords evidence of the general use of the belted plaid, to the exclusion of the trews, among the common people. Sacheverell superintended the efforts made to recover the guns and other fittings of the _Florida_, one of the scattered vessels of the Spanish Armada, blown up, according to the traditions of the Mac Leans, by Donald Glas, son of Mac Lean of Morvern, in Tobermory Bay in 1588. Thus he had ample opportunity of noting the costume and manners of the natives of Mull and other Highlanders, of whom he writes:—

During my stay I generally observed the men to be large-bodied, stout, subtle, active, patient of cold and hunger. There appeared in all their actions a certain generous air of freedom, and contempt of those trifles, luxury and ambition, which we so servilely creep after. They bound their appetites by their necessities, and their happiness consists, not in having much, but in coveting little. The women seem to have the same sentiments with the men; though their habits were mean and they had not our sort of breeding, yet in many of them there was a natural beauty and a graceful modesty, which never fails of attracting. The usual habit of both sexes is the pladd; the women’s much finer, the colours more lively, and the squares larger than the men’s, and put me in mind of the ancient Picts. This serves them for a veil, and covers both head and body. The men wear theirs after another manner; especially when designed for ornament, it is loose and flowing, like the mantles our painters give their heroes. Their thighs are bare, with brawny muscles. Nature has drawn all her strokes bold and masterly; what is covered is only adapted to necessity; a thin brogue on the foot, a short buskin of various colours on the legg, tied above the calf with a striped pair of garters. What should be concealed is hid with a large shot-pouch, on each side of which hangs a pistol and a dagger; as if they found it necessary to keep those parts well guarded. A round target on their backs, a blew bonnet on their heads, in one hand a broadsword, and a musquet in the other, perhaps no nation goes better armed; and I assure you they will handle them with bravery and dexterity, especially the sword and target, as our veteran regiments found to their cost at Gille Crankee.[52]

In the closing years of the seventeenth century the Western Isles of Scotland were visited by a traveller, who has left the most complete account of the people and their manner of life which had been written up to that date. The author, Martin, undertook the journey with the specific purpose of recording particulars concerning the people; and, as his work evinces careful observation, reliance may be placed on his description of their dress at the time of his visit. It supplies the first indication, in any book of travel, of the use of special colours or setts for tartans used in different localities.

The first Habit wore by Persons of Distinction in the Islands, was the _Leni-Croich_, from the _Irish_ word _Leni_, which signifies a Shirt, and _Croich_ Saffron, because their Shirt was dyed with that Herb: the ordinary number of Ells us’d to make this Robe, was twenty four; it was the upper Garb, reaching below the Knees, and was tied with a Belt round the middle: but the Islanders have laid it aside about a hundred Years ago.

They now generally use Coat, Wastcoat, and Breeches, as elsewhere; and on their Heads wear Bonnets made of thick Cloth, some blue, some black, and some grey.

Many of the People wear _Trowis_: some have them very fine woven like Stockings of those made of Cloth; some are colour’d, and others striped: the latter are as well shap’d as the former, lying close to the Body from the middle downwards, and tied round with a Belt above the Haunches. There is a square Piece of Cloth which hangs down before. The Measure for shaping the _Trowis_ is a Stick of Wood, whose Length is a Cubit, and that divided into the Length of a Finger, and half a Finger; so that it requires more Skill to make it than the ordinary Habit.

The Shoes antiently wore, were a piece of the Hide of a Deer, Cow, or Horse, with the Hair on, being tied behind and before with a Point of Leather. The generality now wear Shoes, having one thin Sole only, and shaped after the right and left Foot; so that what is for one Foot, will not serve the other.

But Persons of Distinction wear the Garb in Fashion in the South of _Scotland_.

The _Plad_ wore only by the Men, is made of fine Wool, the Thred as fine as can be made of that kind; it consists of divers Colours, and there is a great deal of Ingenuity requir’d in sorting the Colours, so as to be agreeable to the nicest Fancy. For this reason the Women are at great pains, first to give an exact Pattern of the _Plad_ upon a piece of Wood, having the number of every Thred of the Stripe on it. The Length of it is commonly seven double Ells; the one end hangs by the Middle over the left Arm, the other going round the Body, hangs by the end over the left Arm also; the right Hand above it is to be at liberty to do any thing upon occasion. Every Isle differs from each other in their Fancy of making _Plads_, as to the Stripes in Breadth, and Colours. This Humour is as different thro the main Land of the _Highlands_, in-so-far that they who have seen those Places, are able, at the first View of a Man’s _Plad_, to guess the Place of his Residence.

When they travel on foot, the _Plad_ is tied on the Breast with a Bodkin of Bone or Wood (just as the _Spina_ wore by the _Germans_, according to the Description of _C. Tacitus_:) the _Plad_ is tied round the middle with a Leather Belt; it is pleated from the Belt to the Knee very nicely: this Dress for Footmen is found much easier and lighter than _Breeches_, or _Trowis_.

The antient Dress wore by the Women, and which is yet wore by some of the Vulgar, called _Arisad_, is a white _Plad_, having a few small Stripes of black, blue, and red; it reach’d from the Neck to the Heels, and was tied before on the Breast with a Buckle of Silver, or Brass, according to the Quality of the Person. I have seen some of the former of an hundred Marks value; it was broad as any ordinary Pewter Plate, the whole curiously engraven with various Animals, _&c._ There was a lesser Buckle, which was wore in the middle of the larger, and above two Ounces weight; it had in the Center a large piece of Chrystal, or some finer Stone, and this was set all round with several finer Stones of a lesser size.

The _Plad_ being pleated all round, was tied with a Belt below the Breast; the Belt was of Leather, and several Pieces of Silver intermix’d with the Leather like a Chain. The lower end of the Belt has a Piece of Plate about eight Inches long, and three in breadth, curiously engraven; the end of which was adorned with fine Stones, or Pieces of Red Coral. They wore Sleeves of Scarlet Cloth, clos’d at the end as Mens Vests, with Gold Lace round ’em, having Plate Buttons set with fine Stones. The Head-dress was a fine _Kerchief_ of Linen strait about the Head, hanging down the Back taper-wise; a large Lock of Hair hangs down their Cheeks above their Breast, the lower end tied with a Knot of Ribbands....

The antient way of Fighting was by set Battles; and for Arms some had broad two-handed Swords and Head-pieces, and others Bows and Arrows. When all their Arrows were spent, they attack’d one another with Sword in hand. Since the Invention of Guns, they are very early accustomed to use them, and carry their Pieces with them where-ever they go: They likewise learn to handle the broad Sword and Target. The _Chief_ of each Tribe advances with his Followers within shot of the Enemy, having first laid aside their upper Garments; and after one general Discharge, they attack them with Sword in hand, having their Target on their left Hand (as they did at _Kelicranky_) which soon brings the Matter to an Issue, and verifies the Observation made of ’em [by] your Historians:

_Aut Mors cito, aut Victoria læta_.[53]

Certainly this is evidence of the employment of fixed designs and special colours in the tartans, as well by the Islanders as by the Highlanders of the mainland; and many have held it to settle the question of their use as clan distinctions at that period. At all events, it shows that district tartans were in use in Martin’s day, and that their colourings furnished an indication of the localities whence the wearers came.

It is out of the question to suppose that the tartans described by Martin sprang into being in his day. On the contrary, all the evidence we possess—proving, as it does, the extremely conservative character of the inhabitants of the Western Islands—points to the conclusion that Martin was the witness, at the end of the seventeenth century, of habits and customs in use long previously.

Of the existence of a uniform clan pattern at the very commencement of the eighteenth century there is a complete chain of evidence. Captain Hamilton writes from Inverness, 23rd July 1703, to Brigadier-General Maitland, Governor of Fort-William:—

I wrote to you Tuesday last in answer to your last letter to me, but I neglected to acquaint you of our news here. The thing is there is a match of Hunting to be as is said against 2nd of next month amongst several of our great folks, particularly the Duke of Hamilton is to be there, the Marquis of Athole, and our neighbour the Laird of Grant, who has ordered 600 of his men in arms, in good order, with Tartane Coats all of one colour and fashion. This is his order to his people in Straithspey. If it be a match at Hunting only I know not, but I think it my duty to acquaint you, whatever may fall out, of any such body of men in arms, particularly in our Northern Parts.[54]

The following entries in the Court Books of the Regality of Grant, 1703-1710, are given in full, because they are of the utmost importance, and have never hitherto been accurately quoted. Among others, Sir William Fraser, in his _Chiefs of Grant_, refers merely to the second entry, and that incorrectly:—

Court of the Lordship of the parochine of Duthell holden at Duthell the 20 July 1704 be Duncan Grant of Mullochard bailie constitute be the Right Hono^{ll} Alex^r Grant of that Ilk your bailie principall of the Regalitie of Grant David Blair notar and clerk to the said Regalitie Court of the District of Duthell. Suites called and the Court lawfullie fenced and affirmed.

* * * * *

The said day Ronald Makdonald of Gelloway and Archibald Makdonald of Tulloch Crombie wassales of Lugan in Badzenoch to the Right Hono^{ll} Ludovick Grant of that Ilk and the tennantes and indwellers on these landes are ordained to have readie tartan short coates trewes and short hose of red and grein set dyce all broad springed betuixt and the eight of August nixt and to be readie upon 48 hours advertisement to rendevouze when the Laird of Grant shall call them for his hosting or hunteing under the failie of fyve pounds sterling.

(Signed) D. GRANT, B.

Court of the Landes of Tulchine and Skeiradvey, holdine at Delay upon the 27 July 1704 be William Grant of Delay bailie of the saids lands constitute be the Right Hono^{ll} the Laird of Grant heretor of the saidis landis, David Blair notar and clerk; James Gedlie officer. Suites called and the court lawfully fenced and affirmed.

* * * * *

The said day by ordor from the Laird of Grant younger the said bailie ordanes and enacts that the haill tennantes cottars malenders tradesmen and servantes within the saidis landis of Skearadvie Tulchine and Calender that are fencible men shall provyd and have in readiness against the eight day of August nixt ilk ane of them Heighland coates trewes and short hoes of tartane of red and greine sett broad springed and also with gun sword pistoll and durk, and with these present themselves to ane rendewouze when called upone 48 hours advertisement within the country of Strathspey, for the said Laird of Grant or his faither their hosting and hunteing. And this under the failie of twenty poundes Scotis ilk ane that shall faill in the premisses. And the Master to outrig the servantes in the saids coates trewes and hose out of their fies.[55]

A very curious and somewhat puzzling state of affairs is disclosed by a minute examination of the fine series of family portraits preserved at Castle Grant.[56] Of these portraits no fewer than ten were painted by Richard Waitt, namely, Brigadier Grant of Grant and Donald Grant of Glenbeg, in 1713; Patrick Grant of Miltown, Mungo Grant of Mulloch-hard, —— Grant of Delbuaick, David Grant of Delbuaick, Patrick Grant of Tullochgriban, Alister Grant “Mohr,” and the Piper to the Laird of Grant, in 1714; and John Grant of Burnside, in 1725. Besides these, Waitt painted other Grant portraits in tartan attire. By permission of the Countess of Seafield, coloured drawings of these have been made, and comparison discovers a variety of design well-nigh as great as would be the case in an equal number of examples selected at random from as many different families. In one particular alone do they agree, and that is in the absence of any completely dark-coloured sett, such as is usually designated “uaine” or green. It is not till after the ’45 that there is an instance of any member of the clan wearing the so-called undress Grant tartan, now the familiar “Forty-Second” or Black Watch pattern.

Similar remarks might be made concerning other family portraits. For example, in the Mac Donald portraits at Armadale there are at least six distinct setts of tartan. The Campbell portraits at Loudoun Castle and Langton House exhibit equal diversity, while differing at the same time from any of the Campbell setts at present in use. In the same way the pictures of the Sutherland family at Dunrobin and Barrogill, the Mac Donell portraits at Balgownie, the Mac Leod at Dunvegan, the Drummond at Gordon Castle and Drummond Castle, the Macpherson at Cluny, the Frasers in Inverness-shire, show remarkable variety of arrangement and colouring. Whatever the reason of this, it assuredly did not arise from carelessness or ignorance on the part of the artists employed. On the contrary, in the great majority of the pictures referred to, painful attention has been paid to minuteness and accuracy in details of the dress, and the sett of a tartan is reproduced in different portions of the costume with a faithfulness which leaves no room for doubt that the artists were studiously copying distinct patterns.

The importance of the tartan manufacture to Scotland in the beginning of the eighteenth century is evident from the following:—

In this place it’s proper to mention their Plaids, a Manufacture wherein they exceed all Nations, both as to Colour and Fineness. They have of late been pretty much fancy’d in England, and are very ornamental as well as durable for Beds, Hangings, Window-Curtains and Night-Gowns for Men and Women; so that Attempts have been made in England to resemble them, at Norwich and elsewhere, but they fall much short both in Colour, Fineness, and Workmanship, as is evident at first sight. A good improvement may be made of this manufacture for domestick use and export, now that the prohibition is remov’d by the Union. The stronger sort of those Plaids is the usual Cloathing for their Men in the Highlands, where they never alter the form of their Habit, which, to other People, seems uncouth, because not us’d elsewhere; yet it must be own’d, that as they are us’d by those of the better sort in the Highlands, they make a manly as well as a decent Habit.[57]

In _A Journey through Scotland_, undertaken between 1716 and 1723, occurs this description of the cattle fair at Crieff and of the dress of the Highland gentlemen and their followers, which confirms in all particulars the other accounts of the use of tartan at the period, and the distinction between the dress of the upper and lower orders:—

The Highland Fair of Criff happening when I was at Stirling, I had the Curiosity to go see it. There were at least Thirty Thousand Cattle sold there, most of them to English Drovers; who paid down above Thirty Thousand Guineas in ready Money to the Highlanders; a Sum they had never seen before, and proves one good Effect of the Union. The Highland Gentlemen were mighty civil, dress’d in their slash’d short Wastcoats, a Trousing, (which is, Breeches and Stockings of one Piece of strip’d Stuff) with a Plaid for a Cloak, and a blue Bonnet. They have a Ponyard Knife and Fork in one Sheath, hanging at one side of their Belt, their Pistol at the other, and their Snuff-Mill before; with a great broad Sword by their side. Their Attendance [attendants] were very numerous, all in belted Plaids, girt like Womens Petticoats down to the Knee; their Thighs and Half of the Leg all bare. They had also each their broad Sword and Ponyard, and spake all Irish, an unintelligible Language to the English.[58]

It appears from the regulations issued to the retainers of the Clan Grant anent the wearing of a uniform tartan that distinctive patterns were in use, at least for military purposes, or on occasions of great gatherings, early in the eighteenth century. That widespread attention was at that period bestowed upon particular arrangements of tartan appears from a letter quoted by Sir Walter Scott, dated from the Manse of Comrie, 2nd July 1717:—

I give your lady hearty thanks for the highland plaid. Its good cloath but it does not answer the sett I sent some time agoe with M^cArthur.

This implies, at the least, in a district on the southern border of the Highlands, adhesion to particular patterns, just as in Martin’s account of the Western Islands, already quoted, the existence of district setts is proved by the use of the words “able, at the first view of a man’s plad, to guess the place of his residence.”

Alexander Nisbet, the great herald, referring to the supporters of Macpherson of Cluny, writes:—

The family has been in use to have their arms supported with two Highland men with steel helmets on their heads and cut out short doublets azure, thighs bare, their shirts tied between them, and round targets on their arms, being the dress wherein those of this clan were wont to fight in many battles for the crown being always loyal.[59]

That the dress thus described by Nisbet was intended by him to represent what we know to be the usual dress of the Highlanders at that period, viz., the belted plaid, is proved by another allusion of his to the Cluny arms in a portion of his work not yet published, and preserved in the Lyon Office, in which, treating generally of supporters, he writes:—

M^cPherson of Clunie two highlandmen in their belted plaids with targets.[60]

An almost contemporary example of the peculiar mode of wearing the dress, described as “shirts tied,” is to be found in the portrait of Sir Stuart Threipland of Fingask, by Delacour, painted about this period.[61]

Without exception the most complete description of the Highlands and the dress worn there, written during the eighteenth century, is that given by Burt. The account has been frequently the subject of criticism, but it is now generally accepted as presenting a faithful picture of the state of the country at the period to which it relates. As it traverses a wide field, a lengthened extract is given, for the purpose of comparison with earlier descriptions of the costume and manners of the people already quoted:—

The plaid is the undress of the ladies [writing of Inverness]; and to a genteel woman, who adjusts it with a good air, is a becoming veil. But as I am pretty sure you never saw one of them in England, I shall employ a few words to describe it to you. It is made of silk or fine worsted, chequered with various lively colours, two breadths wide, and three yards in length; it is brought over the head, and may hide or discover the face according to the wearer’s fancy or occasion; it reaches to the waist behind; one corner falls as low as the ankle on one side; and the other part, in folds, hangs down from the opposite arm.

I have been told, in Edinburgh, that the ladies distinguish their political principles, whether Whig or Tory, by the manner of wearing their plaids;—that is, one of the parties reverses the old fashion, but which of them it is, I do not remember, nor is it material.

As I was travelling in a very wild part of the country, and approaching the house of one of those gentlemen, who had notice of my coming, he met me at some distance from his dwelling, with his Arcadian offering of milk and cream, as usual, carried before him by his servants. He afterwards invited me to his hut, which was built like the others, only very long, but without any partition, where the family was at one end, and some cattle at the other. By the way (although the weather was not warm), he was without shoes, stockings, or breeches, in a short coat, with a shirt not much longer, which hung between his thighs, and just hid his nakedness from two daughters, about seventeen or eighteen years old, who sat over against him. After some compliments on either side, and his wishing me _good weather_, we entered into conversation, in which he seemed to be a man of as good sense as he was well-proportioned. In speaking of the country, he told me he knew I wondered how any body would undergo the inconveniences of a Highland life.

The Highland dress consists of a bonnet made of thrum without a brim, a short coat, a waistcoat, longer by five or six inches, short stockings, and brogues, or pumps without heels. By the way, they cut holes in their brogues, though new made, to let out the water, when they have far to go and rivers to pass: this they do to preserve their feet from galling.

Few besides gentlemen wear the _trowze_,—that is, the breeches and stockings all of one piece, and drawn on together; over this habit they wear a plaid, which is usually three yards long and two breadths wide, and the whole garb is made of chequered tartan, or plaiding: this, with the sword and pistol, is called a _full dress_, and, to a well-proportioned man, with any tolerable air, it makes an agreeable figure; but this you have seen in London, and it is chiefly their mode of dressing when they are in the Lowlands, or when they make a neighbouring visit, or go anywhere on horseback; but when those among them who travel on foot, and have not attendants to carry them over the waters, they vary it into the _quelt_ [kilt], which is a manner I am about to describe.

The common habit of the ordinary Highlanders is far from being acceptable to the eye: with them a small part of the plaid, which is not so large as the former, is set in folds and girt round the waist, to make of it a short petticoat that reaches half way down the thigh, and the rest is brought over the shoulders, and then fastened before, below the neck, often with a fork, and sometimes with a bodkin or sharpened piece of stick, so that they make pretty nearly the appearance of the poor women in London when they bring their gowns over their heads to shelter them from the rain. In this way of wearing the plaid, they have sometimes nothing else to cover them, and are often barefoot; but some I have seen shod with a kind of pumps, made out of a raw cow-hide, with the hair turned outward, which being ill made, the wearer’s foot looked something like those of a rough-footed hen or pigeon: these are called _quarrants_, and are not only offensive to the sight, but intolerable to the smell of those who are near them. The stocking rises no higher than the thick of the calf, and from the middle of the thigh to the middle of the leg is a naked space, which, being exposed to all weathers, becomes tanned and freckled, and the joint being mostly infected with the country distemper, the whole is very disagreeable to the eye. This dress is called the _quelt_; and, for the most part, they wear the petticoat so very short, that in a windy day, going up a hill, or stooping, the indecency of it is plainly discovered....

Various reasons are given both for and against the Highland dress. It is urged against it, that it distinguishes the natives as a body of people distinct and separate from the rest of the subjects of Great Britain, and thereby is one cause of their narrow adherence among themselves, to the exclusion of all the rest of the kingdom; but the part of the habit chiefly objected to is the plaid (or mantle), which, they say, is calculated for the encouragement of an idle life, in lying about upon the heath, in the day-time, instead of following some lawful employment; that it serves to cover them in the night when they lie in wait among the mountains, to commit their robberies and depredations; and is composed of such colours as altogether, in the mass, so nearly resemble the heath on which they lie, that it is hardly to be distinguished from it until one is so near them as to be within their power, if they have any evil intention; that it renders them ready, at a moment’s warning, to join in any rebellion, as they carry continually their tents about them: and, lastly, it was thought necessary, in Ireland, to suppress that habit by act of parliament, for the above reasons, and no complaint for the want of it now remains among the mountaineers of that country.

On the other hand, it is alleged, the dress is most convenient to those who, with no ill design, are obliged to travel from one part to another upon their lawful occasions, viz.—That they would not be so free to skip over the rocks and bogs with breeches as they are in the short petticoat; that it would be greatly incommodious to those who are frequently to wade through waters, to wear breeches, which must be taken off upon every such occurrence, or would not only gall the wearer, but render it very unhealthful and dangerous to their limbs, to be constantly wet in that part of the body, especially in winter-time, when they might be frozen: and with respect to the plaid in particular, the distance between one place of shelter and another, is often too great to be reached before night comes on; and, being intercepted by sudden floods, or hindered by other impediments, they are frequently obliged to lie all night in the hills, in which case they must perish, were it not for the covering they carry with them. That even if they should be so fortunate as to reach some hospitable hut, they must lie upon the ground uncovered, there being nothing to be spared from the family for that purpose.

And to conclude, a few shillings will buy this dress for an ordinary Highlander, who, very probably, might hardly ever be in condition to purchase a Lowland suit, though of the coarsest cloth or stuff, fit to keep him warm in that cold climate.

I shall determine nothing in this dispute, but leave you to judge which of these two reasonings is the most cogent.

The whole people are fond and tenacious of the Highland clothing, as you may believe by what is here to follow.

Being, in a wet season, upon one of my peregrinations, accompanied by a Highland gentleman, who was one of the clan through which I was passing, I observed the women to be in great anger with him about something that I did not understand: at length, I asked him wherein he had offended them? Upon this question he laughed, and told me his great-coat was the cause of their wrath; and that their reproach was that he could not be contented with the garb of his ancestors, but was degenerated into a Lowlander, and condescended to follow their unmanly fashions.[62]

To the edition of the _Letters_ from which the above is quoted the editor appended some notes on the Highland dress, which, though open to criticism on many points, are sufficiently interesting to justify their insertion here:—

The chequered stuff, commonly worn by the Highlanders, by them called _breacan_ (_parti-coloured_), and by the Lowlanders _tartan_ (Fr. _tiretaine_), is neither peculiar to Celts nor Goths, and is to be found, at this day, although not in such general use, among many of the Sclavonic tribes, who have no connection with either. The wife of every Russian boor, in the north-western provinces at least, who can make her such a present at her marriage (and it is often a _sine quâ non_), has a _tartan plaid_, which she wears just as the Scotish women, in our author’s time, did theirs: it is of massy silk, richly varied, with broad cross-bars of gold and silver tissue, and makes a very splendid appearance.

That the Lowlanders had their _tartan_ from the _French_, at a time when it was fashionable in other countries, may be presumed from the _name_; and to imagine that the manufacture began among the Highlanders would be ridiculous.

The Highland _field-dress_ of the men was of a coarser texture, and thickened by fulling; it was called _cadda_ (_cath da’_, the war colour), and was a _tartan_ of such colours as were least likely to betray the wearer, among the woods and heaths, either to the game he was in quest of, or to his enemies. The dyes were mostly extracted from woad, when it could be got, and from heath-tops, the bark and tender twigs of the alder, and other vegetable substances. As to the ancient _form_ of the dress, nothing could be more simple: the _gentlemen_, having less frequent occasion to use their _full suit_ as a _blanket_, wore a yellow shirt, a vest, trowsers, and mantle, of the same fashion as their neighbours. In Ireland, a few centuries ago, the _lower class_ seldom encumbered themselves with dress of any kind within doors; and there is every reason to suppose that this was also the case among their brethren in Scotland. When they went out, they threw a light blanket round their shoulders, the upper part made tight with skewers, and the lower gathered up into folds, which they secured under the girdle, from which the sword, dagger, purse, &c., were suspended; this they called _feile_, a word of the same origin with the Scotish _fell_, English, _peel_; Old English, _pilche_; German and Northern, _peltz_, _pels_, &c.; and the Latin, _pellis_, all which signified an _external surface_, _skin_, or _covering_ of any kind. _Skins_, in the modern acceptation of the term, were, no doubt, the first _covering_; and the name was afterwards properly enough applied to a covering of cloth. At night they took out the skewers, unbuckled the girdle, and reduced the _feile_ to its primary form of a blanket, to sleep in. The women wore a petticoat, or trowsers, of skin, cloth, or what they could get, and a cloth thrown round their bodies when they went out. As civilization advanced, a shirt, with a tunic, or short jacket, was introduced; the plaits of the _feile_ were rendered permanent by sewing, and the _plaid_, to be used either as a mantle or blanket, was added. The _kilt_, _feilebeg_ (_little feile_), or petticoat, now worn, has succeeded to the folded-up ends of the original blanket; _it is all that remains of the ancient costume_, and was reduced to its present form some time in the beginning of the last century. The _bonnet_, or flat, blue thrum cap, is of a very modern date, and was introduced from the Lowlands. The gentlemen of the Highlands wore such hats and caps as were worn by gentlemen of their times in neighbouring countries; and, in the days of our grandfathers, the lower class of Highlanders were, by their Lowland neighbours (in the north-east Lowlands, at least), denominated _humblies_, from their wearing no covering on their head but their hair, which, at a more early period, they probably matted and felted, for horror and defence, as the Irish did in Queen Elizabeth’s time. The helmet-looking bonnet, now worn, was introduced within the memory of persons still living.

From this simple account of the Highland dress, it will be seen that it has in itself nothing peculiar to one country more than another; as the different improvements upon the manner of girding the loins, and trussing up a blanket, can hardly be called a _national costume_. The dress of the Romans began in the same manner, and went through nearly the same varieties of form; but, for a long time after the Romans left Britain, it can hardly be imagined, that the inhabitants of the more remote Highlands had either wool or cloth of their own produce. Scattered as their sheep, if they had any, must have been upon the mountains, they had no means of protecting them from the wolves; and they had not then patient industry enough to look after tame animals that could not take care of themselves.