Chapter XL: Appendix: To Chapter Xviii.,

Containing notices by contemporary writers, from the 11th century
downwards, of the dress and arms of the Highlanders; extracted
from the Iona Club publication, _Collectanea de rebus Albanicis_.

Magnus Berfaet’s Saga.

A.D. 1093. It is said when King Magnus returned from his
expedition in the west, that he adopted the costume in use in the
western lands, and likewise many of his followers; that they went
about barelegged having short tunics (W. kyrtles), and also upper
garments; and so many men called him Barelegged or Barefoot.

Andrew Wyntoun (1420), referring to the combat on N. Inch, says,

At Sanct Johnstone beside the Freris,
All thai entrit in Barreris
Wyth Bow and Ax, Knyf and Swerd,
To deil amang them their last werd.

John Major (1512).

From the middle of their thigh to the foot they have no covering
for the leg, clothing themselves with a mantle instead of an
upper garment, and a shirt dyed with saffron. They always carry a
bow and arrows, a very broad sword with a small halbert, a large
dagger, sharpened on one side only, but very sharp, under the
belt. In time of war they cover their whole body with a shirt of
mail of iron rings, and fight in that. The common people of the
Highland Scots rush into battle, having their body clothed with a
linen garment manifoldly sewed and painted or daubed with pitch,
with a covering of deerskin.

In another place he speaks much to the same purport.

In the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, in August 1538, we find the following entries regarding a Highland dress made for King James V., on the occasion of that monarch making a hunting excursion into the Highlands:--

ITEM in the first for ii elnis ane quarter elne of variant
cullorit velvet to be the Kingis Grace are schort _Heland_
coit price of the elne vi^{lib} summa xiii^{lib} x^s.

ITEM for iii elnis quarter elne of grene taffatys to lyne
the said coit with, price of the elne x^s summa xxxii^s vi^d.

ITEM for iii elnis of _Heland tartane_ to be hoiss to
the Kingis Grace, price of the elne iiii^s iiii^d summa xiii^s.

ITEM for xv elnis of holland claith to be syde Heland sarkis
to the Kingis Grace, price of the elne viii^s summa vi^{lib}.

ITEM for sewing and making of the said sarkis ix^s.

ITEM for twa unce of silk to sew thame x^s.

ITEM for iiii elnis of rubanis to the handis of thame ii^s.

Letter written by John Elder, a Highland priest, to Henry VIII. (1543).

Moreover, wherefor they call us in Scotland Reddshankes, and in
your Graces dominion of England, roghe footide Scottis, Pleas it
your Maiestie to understande, that we of all people can tollerat,
suffir, and away best with colde, for boithe somer and wyntir
(excepte when the froest is most vehemonte), goynge alwaies bair
leggide and bair footide, our delite and pleasure is not onely
in huntynge of redd deir, wolfes, foxes, and graies, whereof we
abounde, and have greate plentie, but also in rynninge, leapinge,
swymmynge, shootynge, and thrawinge of dartis: therfor, in so
moche as we use and delite so to go alwaies, the tendir delicatt
gentillmen of Scotland call us _Reddshankes_. And agayne in
wynter, whene the froest is mooste vehement (as I have saide)
which we can not suffir bair footide, so weill as snow, whiche
can never hurt us whene it cummes to our girdills, we go a
huntynge, and after that we have slayne redd deir, we flaye of
the skyne, bey and bey, and settinge of our bair foote on the
insyde therof, for neide of cunnyge shoemakers, by your Graces
pardon, we play the sutters; compasinge and mesuringe so moche
thereof, as shall retche up to our anclers, pryckynge the upper
part therof also with holis, that the water may repas when it
entres, and stretchide up with a stronge thwange of the same,
meitand above our said ancklers, so, and please your noble Grace,
we make our shoois: Therfor, we usinge such maner of shoois, the
roghe hairie syde outwart, in your Graces dominion of England,
we be callit roghe footide Scottis; which maner of schoois (and
pleas your Highnes) in Latyne be called perones, whereof the poet
Virgill makis mencioun, sayinge, That the olde auncient Latyns in
tyme of warrs uside suche maner of schoos. And althoughe a great
sorte of us Reddshankes go after this maner in our countrethe,
yeit never the les, and pleas your Grace, when we come to the
courte (the Kinges Grace our great master being alyve) waitinge
on our Lordes and maisters, who also, for velvettis and silkis,
be right well araide, we have as good garmentis as some of our
fellowis whiche gyve attendaunce in the court every day.

John de Beaugué, a Frenchman, who wrote a history of the campaigns in Scotland in 1549, printed in Paris in 1556, states that, at the siege of Haddington, in 1549, “they (the Scottish army) were followed by the Highlanders, and these last go _almost naked_; they have painted waistcoats, and a sort of woollen covering, variously coloured.”

Lindsay of Pitscottie (wrote about 1573):--

The other pairts [of Scotland] northerne are full of mountaines,
and very rud and homlie kynd of people doeth inhabite, which is
called the Reidschankis or Wyld Scottis. They be clothed with ane
mantle, with ane schirt saffroned after the Irisch manner, going
bair-legged to the knee. Thair weapones ar bowis and dartes, with
ane verie broad sword and ane dagger scharp onlie at the on edge.

John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, who published his work _De origine, moribus et rebus gestis Scotorum_ at Rome in 1578, thus describes the arms and dress of the old Scots, which were still in his time used by the Highlanders and Islanders:--

In battle and hostile encounter their missile weapons were a
lance and arrows. They used also a two-edged sword which, with
the foot soldiers was pretty long, and short for the horse;
both had it broad, and with an edge so exceeding sharp that at
one blow it would easily cut a man in two. For defence, they
used a coat of mail, woven of iron rings, which they wore over
a leather jerkin, stout and of handsome appearance, which we
call an aeton. Their whole armour was light, that they might the
more easily slip from their enemies’ hands if they chanced to
fall into such a strait. Their clothing was made for use (being
chiefly suited to war), and not for ornament. All, both nobles
and common people, wore mantles of one sort (except that the
nobles preferred those of several colours). These were long and
flowing, but capable of being neatly gathered up at pleasure
into folds. I am inclined to believe that they were the same as
those to which the ancients gave the name of brachal. Wrapped up
in these for their only covering they would sleep comfortably.
They had also shaggy rugs, such as the Irish use at the present
day, some fitted for a journey, others to be placed on a bed.
The rest of their garments consisted of a short woollen jacket
with the sleeves open below for the convenience of throwing their
darts, and a covering for the thighs of the simplest kind, more
for decency than for show or a defence against cold. They made
also of linen, very large shirts, with numerous folds and wide
sleeves, which flowed abroad loosely to their knees. These, the
rich coloured with saffron, and others smeared with some grease
to preserve them longer clean among the toils and exercises of a
camp, which they held it of the highest consequence to practise
continually. In the manufacture of these, ornament and a certain
attention to taste were not altogether neglected, and they
joined the different parts of their shirts very neatly with silk
threads, chiefly of a green or red colour.

Their women’s attire was very becoming. Over a gown reaching to
the ancles, and generally embroidered, they wore large mantles of
the kind already described, and woven of different colours. Their
chief ornaments were the bracelets and necklaces with which they
decorated their arms and necks.

George Buchanan (pub. 1582, thus translated by Monypenny 1612).

They delight in marled clothes, specially that have long stripes
of sundry colours; they love chiefly purple and blew. Their
predecessors used short mantles or plaids of divers colours
sundry waies devided; and amongst some, the same custome is
observed to this day; but for the most part now they are browne,
more nere to the colour of the hadder; to the effect when they
lie amongst the hadder the bright colour of their plaids shall
not bewray them; with the which, rather coloured than clad,
they suffer the most cruel tempests that blow in the open field
in such sort, that under a wrythe of snow they slepe sound....
Their armour wherewith they cover their bodies in time of werre,
is an iron bonnet and an habbergion side (long) almost even to
their heeles. Their weapones against their enemies are bowes and
arrowes. The arrows are for the most part hooked, with a bauble
on either side, which once entered within the body cannot be
drawn forth againe, unlesse the wounde be made wider. Some of
them fight with broad swords and axes.

Nicolay d’Arfeville, Cosmographer to King of France, pub. 1583, a vol. on Scotland, speaks thus:--

They [wild Scots] weir like the Irish, a long large and full
shirt, coloured with saffron, and over this a garment hanging
to the knee, of thick wool, after the manner of a cassock. They
go with bare heads, and allow the hair to grow very long, and
they wear neither stockings nor shoes, except some who have
buskins made in a very old fashion, which come as high as their
knees. Their arms are the bow and arrow, and some darts, which
they throw with great dexterity, and a large sword, with a
single-edged dagger. They are very swift of foot, and there is no
horse so swift as to outstrip them, as I have seen proved several
times, both in England and Scotland.

In 1594, when Red Hugh O’Donnell, Lord of Tirconall in Ulster, was in rebellion against Queen Elizabeth, he was assisted for some time by a body of auxiliaries from the Hebrides. These warriors are described in the following terms in the Life of Hugh O’Donnell, originally written in Irish by Peregrine O’Clery, and since translated by the late Edward O’Reilly, Esq.

The outward clothing they (the auxiliaries from the isles) wore,
was a mottled garment with numerous colours hanging in folds
to the calf of the leg, with a girdle round the loins over
the garment. Some of them with horn-hafted swords, large and
military, over their shoulders. A man when he had to strike with
them, was obliged to apply both his hands to the haft.

John Taylor, the Water Poet, made an excursion to Scotland in 1618, of which he published an amusing account under the title of _The Pennylesse Pilgrimage_. He describes the dress of the Highlanders in the following account he gives of his visit to Braemar for the purpose of paying his respects to the Earl of Mar and Sir W. Moray of Abercairney.

Thus, with extreme travell, ascending and descending, mounting
and alighting, I came at night to the place where I would be,
in the Brae of Marr, which is a large county all composed of
such mountaines, that Shooters hill, Gads hill, Highgate hill,
Hampstead hill, Birdlip hill, or Malvernes hills, are but
mole-hills in comparison, or like a liver, or a gizzard under
a capon’s wing, in respect to the altitude of their tops, or
perpendicularite of their bottomes. There I saw mount Benawne
with a furrd’d mist upon his snowy head instead of a night-cap;
for you must understand, that the oldest man alive never saw
but the snow was on the top of divers of those hills, (both in
summer as well as in winter). There did I find the truely noble
and Right Honourable Lords John Erskine, Earle of Marr, James
Stuart, Earle of Murray, George Gordon, Earle of Engye, sonne and
heire to the Marquise of Huntley, James Erskin, Earle of Bughan,
and John, Lord Erskin, sonne and heire to the Earle of Marr, and
their Countesses, with my much honoured, and my best assured
and approved friend, Sir William Murray, Knight, of Abercarny,
and hundred of others, knights, esquires, and their followers;
_all_ and every man in generall, in one habit, as if Licurgus
had been there, and made lawes of equality. For once in the
yeere, which is the whole moneth of August, and sometimes part of
September, many of the nobility and gentry of the kingdome (for
their pleasure) doe come into these Highland countries to hunt,
where they doe conforme themselves to the habite of the Highland
men, who, for the moste part, speake nothing but Irish; and in
former time were those people which were called the _Red-shanks_.
Their habite is shooes with but one sole apiece; stockings (which
they call short hose) made of a warme stuff of divers colours,
which they call tartane. As for breeches, many of them, nor their
forefathers, ever wore any, but a jerkin of the same stuffe that
their hose is of, their garters being bands or wreathes of hay or
straw, with a plaed about their shoulders, which is a mantle of
divers colours, much finer and lighter stuffe than their hose,
with blue flat caps on their heads, a handkerchiefe knit with two
knots about their necke; and thus are they attyred. Now, their
weapons are long bowes and forked arrowes, swords and targets,
harquebusses, muskets, durks, and Loquhabor-axes. With these
armes I found many of them armed for the hunting. As for their
attire, any man of what degree soever that comes amongst them,
must not disdaine to weare it; for if they doe, then they will
disdaine to hunt, or willingly to bring in their dogges; but
if men be kind unto them, and be in their habit, then are they
conquered with kindnesse, and the sport will be plentifull. This
was the reason that I found so many noblemen and gentlemen in
those shapes. But to proceed to the hunting.

My good Lord of Marr having put me into that shape, I rode with
him from his house, where I saw the ruines of an old castle,
called the castle of Kindroghit. It was built by king Malcolm
Canmore (for a hunting house), who raigned in Scotland when
Edward the Confessor, Harold, and Norman William raigned in
England; I speak of it, because it was the last house that I saw
in those parts; for I was the space of twelve dayes after, before
I saw either house, corne-field, or habitation for any creature,
but deere, wild horses, wolves, and such like creatures, which
made me doubt that I should never have seene a house againe.

Defoe, in his _Memoirs of a Cavalier_, written about 1721, and obviously composed from authentic materials, thus describes the Highland part of the Scottish army which invaded England in 1639, at the commencement of the great civil war. The Cavalier having paid a visit to the Scottish camp to satisfy his curiosity, thus proceeds:--

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,
stripped across red and yellow, with short cloaks of the same.

William Cleland, Lieutenant-Colonel to the Earl of Angus’s regiment, who was killed whilst gallantly defending his post at Dunkeld, against a party of Highlanders, soon after the Revolution, wrote a satirical poem upon the expedition of the Highland host in 1678, from which the following extract is taken:--

Their head, their neck, their legs, their 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 hanged.

* * * * *

But those who were their chief Commanders,
As such who bore the pirnie standards,
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 strik observers say,
A tupe horn fill’d with usquebay;
A slasht out coat beneath her plaids,
A targe of timber, nails and hides;
With a long two-handed sword,
As good’s the country can affoord.

* * * * *

they’re smear’d with tar,
Which doth defend them heel and neck,
Just as it doth their sheep protect.

William Sacheverell, governor of the Isle of Man, made an excursion in 1688 through the Isle of Mull, and thence to Icolmkill. An account of this he published in 1702, in which he describes from observation, the dress, armour, and appearance of the Highlanders.

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 outward 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 leg, 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 blue 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 Killiecrankie.

The following minute description of Highland dress is contained in Martin’s _Western Isles of Scotland_:--

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 _croch_, saffron, because their shirt was
died with that herb: the ordinary number of ells used 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 blew, some black, and some gray.

Many of the people wear _trowis_. Some have them very fine woven
like stockings of those made of cloath; some are coloured 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 shooes anciently wore, was 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 shooes 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 thread
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 plade upon a piece of wood, having the
number of every thread 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 plaids, as to the stripes in
breadth and colours. This humour is as different thro’ the main
land of the Highlands, insofar that they who have seen those
places, is able at the first view of a man’s plaid, to guess the
place of his residence.

When they travel on foot, the plaid 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 plaid 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 ancient dress wore by the women, and which is yet wore by
some of the vulgar, called _arisad_, is a white plade, having
a few small stripes of black, blew, and red; it reached 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 corral. 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 ancient 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
aere very early accustomed to use them, and carry their pieces
with them wherever 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 our
historians,

Aut mors cito, aut victoria læta.

The following is taken from _Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland_, written by Captain Burt, an English officer of Engineers, engaged under Marshal Wade on the military roads through the Highlands, begun in the year 1726:--

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_, 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 cowhide,
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. 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.

I have observed before that the plaid serves the ordinary people
for a cloak by day and bedding at night: by the latter it imbibes
so much perspiration, that no one day can free it from the filthy
smell; and even some of better than ordinary appearance, when
the plaid falls from the shoulder, or otherwise requires to be
re-adjusted, while you are talking with them, toss it over again,
as some people do the knots of their wigs, which conveys the
offence in whiffs that are intolerable;--of this they seem not
to be sensible, for it is often done only to give themselves airs.

The plaid is the undress of the ladies; 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.

The ordinary girls wear nothing upon their heads until they are
married or have a child, except sometimes a fillet of red or blue
coarse cloth, of which they are very proud; but often their hair
hangs down over the forehead like that of a wild colt. If they
wear stockings, which is very rare, they lay them in plaits one
above another, from the ancle up to the calf, to make their legs
appear as near as they can in the form of a cylinder; but I think
I have seen something like this among the poor German refugee
women and the Moorish men in London.

Mr. Gough, in his additions to Camden’s _Britannia_, gives the following accurate description of the Highland dress and armour, as they were to be found in the district of Breadalbane previous to the proscription of the dress:--

The dress of the men is the _brechan_ or plaid, 12 or 13 yards
of narrow stuff wrapped round the middle, and reaching to the
knees, often girt round the waist, and in cold weather covering
the whole body, even on the open hills, all night, and fastened
on the shoulders with a brooch; short stockings tied below the
knee; _truish_, a genteeler kind of breeches, and stockings of
one piece; _cueranen_, a laced shoe of skin, with the hairy side
out, rather disused; _kilt_ or fillibeg, g. d. little plaid, or
short petticoat, reaching to the knees, substituted of late to
the longer end of the plaid; and lastly, the pouch of badger or
other skins, with tassels hanging before them.

The women’s dress is the _kerch_, or white linen pinned round
behind like a hood, and over the foreheads of married women,
whereas maidens wear only a _snood_ or ribbon round their heads;
the _tanac_ or plaid fastened over their shoulders, and drawn
over their heads in bad weather; a plaited long stocking, called
_ossan_, is their high dress.

The following detail of the complete equipment of a Highland chief was communicated by a Highland gentleman to _Charles Grant, Vicomte de Vaux_, by whom it was printed in his _Mémoires de la Maison de Grant_, in 1796:--

No. 1. A full-trimmed bonnet.
2. A tartan jacket, vest, kilt, and cross-belt.
3. A tartan belted plaid.
4. -------- pair of hose, made up [of cloth].
5. A tartan pair of stockings, ditto, with yellow
garters.
6. Two pair of brogs.
7. A silver-mounted purse and belt.
8. A target with spear.
9. A broadsword.
10. A pair of pistols and bullet-mould.
11. A dirk, knife, fork, and belt.

FOOTNOTES:

[465] For much of the matter in this chapter we must confess ourselves indebted to General Stewart’s admirable and interesting _Sketches of the Highlanders_, a well-stored repository of information on all points connected with the ancient manners and customs of the Highlands.

[466] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. pp. 7, 8.

[467] Martin’s _Western Islands_, 2d edit. pp. 194, 195.

[468] Logan, vol. i. pp. 404, 405.

[469] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 74.

[470] _Highlands_, vol. i. p. 180.

[471] Martin’s _Western Islands_, 2d edit. p. 80.

[472] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 78.

[473] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 76.

[474] Graham’s _Sketches of Perthshire_.

[475] Idem.

[476]
“It was a wild and strange retreat,
As e’er was trod by outlaw’s feet.
The dell, upon the mountain’s crest,
Yawned like a gash on warrior’s breast;
Its trench had staid full many a rock,
Hurl’d by primeval earthquake shock
From Ben-Venue’s grey summit wild,
And here, in random ruin piled,
They frowned incumbent o’er the spot,
And formed the rugged sylvan grot.
The oak and birch, with mingled shade,
At noontide there a twilight made,
Unless where short and sudden shone
From straggling beam on cliff or stone,
With such a glimpse as prophet’s eye
Gains on thy depth, Futurity.

No murmur wak’d the solemn still,
Save tinkling of a fountain rill;
But when the wind chafed with the lake,
A sullen sound would upward break,
With dashing hollow voice, that spoke
The incessant war of wave and rock.
Suspended cliffs, with hideous sway,
Seem’d nodding o’er the cavern grey.

* * * * *

Grey Superstition’s whisper dread,
Debarred the spot to vulgar tread;
For there, she said, did fays resort,
And satyrs hold their sylvan court,
By moon-light tread their mystic maze,
And blast the rash beholder’s gaze.”

_Lady of the Lake_, c. iii. s. 26.

[477] Graham’s _Sketches_.

[478] The belief in _Fairies_ is a popular superstition among the Shetlanders. The margin of a small lake called the Sandy Loch, about two miles from Lerwick, is celebrated for having been their favourite resort. It is said that they often walk in procession along the sides of the loch in different costumes. Some of the natives used frequently, when passing by a knoll, to stop and listen to the music of the fairies, and when the music ceased, they would hear the rattling of the pewter plates which were to be used at supper. The fairies sometimes visit the Shetland barns, from which they are usually ejected by means of a _flail_, which the proprietor wields with great agility, thumping and thrashing in every direction.

[479] ROBERTUS KIRK, A. M., LINGUÆ HIBERNII(C)Æ LUMEN, OBIIT, &c.

[480] The Fairies of Shetland appear to be bolder than the Shi’ichs of the Highlands, for they are believed to carry off young children even after baptism, taking care, however, to substitute a cabbage stock, or something else in lieu, which is made to assume the appearance of the abstracted child. The unhappy mother must take as much care of this phantom as she did of her child, and on no account destroy it, otherwise, it is believed, the fairies will not restore her child to her. “This is not my bairn,” said a mother to a neighbour who was condoling with her on the wasted appearance of her infant, then sitting on her knee,--“this is not my bairn--may the d--l rest where my bairn now is!”

[481] Graham’s _Sketches_.

[482] MS. No. IV. noticed in the Appendix to the Report on the Poems of Ossian, p. 310.

[483] _Western Islands_, 2d ed. p. 86.

[484] Martin, 2d ed. p. 112.

[485] Martin, 2d ed. p. 112.

[486] _Western Islands_, p. 122.

[487] _Journey to the Hebrides_, p. 166.

[488] Id.

[489] Martin, p. 300.

[490] _Journey to the Western Islands_, pp. 167, 168.

[491] “On that occasion, sanctified by the puritanical cant of the times, there was one marquis, three earls, two lords, sixteen barons, and eight ministers present at the solemnity, but not one musician; they liked yet better the bleating of the calves of Dan and Bethel--the ministers’ long-winded, and sometimes nonsensical graces, little to purpose--than all musical instruments of the sanctuaries, at so solemn an occasion, which, if it be lawful at all to have them, certainly it ought to be upon a wedding-day, for divertisement to the guests, that innocent recreation of music and dancing being much more warrantable and far better exercise than drinking and smoking tobacco, wherein the holy brethren of the Presbyterian (persuasion) for the most part employed themselves, without any formal health, or remembrance of their friends, a nod with the head, or a sign with the turning up of the white of the eye, served for the ceremony.”--Stewart’s _Sketches--Memoirs of the Sommerville Family_.

[492] “Playing the bagpipes within doors,” says General Stewart, “is a Lowland and English custom. In the Highlands the piper is always in the open air; and when people wish to dance to his music, it is on the green, if the weather permits; nothing but necessity makes them attempt a pipe-dance in the house. The bagpipe was a field instrument intended to call the clans to arms, and animate them in battle, and was no more intended for a house than a round of six-pounders. A broadside from a first-rate, or a round from a battery, has a sublime and impressive effect at a proper distance. In the same manner, the sound of bagpipes, softened by distance, had an indescribable effect on the mind and actions of the Highlanders. But as few would choose to be under the muzzle of the guns of a battery, so I have seldom seen a Highlander, whose ears were not grated when close to pipes, however much his breast might be warmed, and his feelings roused, by the sounds to which he had been accustomed in his youth, when proceeding from the proper distance.”--_Sketches_, App. xxiii.

[493] Dr. M’Queen’s Dissertation.

[494] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 86.

[495] Stewart’s _Sketches_.

[496] Two remarkable instances of the regard paid by the Highlanders to their engagements, are given by General Stewart. “A gentleman of the name of Stewart, agreed to lend a considerable sum of money to a neighbour. When they had met, and the money was already counted down upon the table, the borrower offered a receipt. As soon as the lender (grandfather of the late Mr. Stewart of Ballachulish) heard this, he immediately collected the money, saying, that a man who could not trust his own word, without a bond, should not be trusted by him, and should have none of his money, which he put up in his purse and returned home.” An inhabitant of the same district kept a retail shop for nearly fifty years, and supplied the whole district, then full of people, with all their little merchandise. He neither gave nor asked any receipts. At Martinmas of each year he collected the amount of his sales, which were always paid to a day. In one of his annual rounds, a customer happened to be from home; consequently, he returned unpaid, but before he was out of bed the following morning, he was awakened by a call from his customer, who came to pay his account. After the business was settled, his neighbour said, “You are now paid; I would not for my best cow that I should sleep while you wanted your money after your term of payment, and that I should be the last in the country in your debt.” Such examples of stern honesty are now, alas! of rare occurrence. Many of the virtues which adorned the Highland character have disappeared in the vortex of modern improvement, by which the country has been completely revolutionized.

[497] On the Superstitions of the Highlanders.

[498] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 82.

[499] Id.

[500] Stewart’s _Sketches_.

[501] Mrs. Grant’s _Superstitions of the Highlanders_.

[502] _Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland_, p. 189.

[503] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 22.

[504] The power of the chiefs over their clans was, from political motives, often supported by the government, to counteract the great influence of the feudal system which enabled the nobles frequently to set the authority of the state at defiance. Although the Duke of Gordon was the feudal superior of the lands held by the Camerons, M’Phersons, M’Donells of Keppoch and others, he had no influence over those clans who always obeyed the orders of Lochiel, Clunie, Keppoch, &c.

[505] Martin observes that in the Western Islands, “every heir, or young chieftain of a tribe, was obliged in honour to give a public specimen of his valour before he was owned and declared governor or leader of his people, who obeyed and followed him upon all occasions. This chieftain was usually attended with a retinue of young men of quality, who had not beforehand given any proof of their valour, and were ambitious of such an opportunity to signalize themselves. It was usual for the captain to lead them, to make a desperate incursion upon some neighbour or other that they were in feud with, and they were obliged to bring, by open force, the cattle they found on the lands they attacked, or to die in the attempt. After the performance of this achievement, the young chieftain was ever after reputed valiant, and worthy of government, and such as were of his retinue acquired the like reputation. This custom being reciprocally used among them, was not reputed robbery, for the damage which one tribe sustained by this essay of the chieftain of another, was repaired when their chieftain came in his turn to make his specimen; but I have not heard an instance of this practice for these sixty years past.”--_Western Islands_, 2d edit. pp. 101, 102.

[506] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 30.

[507] Idem, vol. i. pp. 30, 31.

[508] General Stewart says that the families of the name of Stewart, whose estates lay in the district of Athole, and whose chief, by birth, was at a distance, ranged themselves under the family of Athole, though they were themselves sufficiently numerous to raise 1000 fighting men.

[509] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. pp. 33, 34.

[510] “When a quarrel begins in words between two Highlanders of different clans, it is esteemed the very height of malice and rancour, and the greatest of all provocations, to reproach one another with the vices or personal defects of their chiefs, or that of the particular branch whence they sprung”--Burt’s _Letters_.

[511] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 35.

[512] For an account of this notorious individual, see the history of the clan Macgregor in the second part of this work.

[513] General Stewart observes, that the Marshal had not at this period been long enough in the Highlands to distinguish a cearnach, or “lifter of cattle,” from a highwayman. “No such character as the latter then existed in the country; and it may be presumed he did not consider these men in the light which the word would indicate,--for certainly the Commander-in-chief would neither have associated with men whom he supposed to be really highwaymen, nor partaken of their hospitality.”

[514] _Culloden Papers._

[515] This was noticed by Dr. Johnson. He thus describes a meeting between the young laird of Coll and some of his “subjects:”--“Wherever we roved, we were pleased to see the reverence with which his subjects regarded him. He did not endeavour to dazzle them by any magnificence of dress,--his only distinction was a feather in his bonnet; but as soon as he appeared, they forsook their work and clustered about him: he took them by the hand, and they seemed mutually delighted. He has the proper disposition of a chieftain, and seems desirous to continue the customs of his house. The bagpiper played regularly when dinner was served, whose person and dress made a good appearance; and he brought no disgrace upon the family of Rankin, which has long supplied the lairds of Coll with hereditary music.”--_Journey to the Western Islands._

[516] _Stewart’s Sketches_, vol. i. p. 46, &c.--Dalrymple’s _Memoirs_.

[517] Stewart, vol. i. p. 50.

[518] A picture of the horse was in the possession of the late General Stewart of Garth, being a legacy bequeathed to him by the daughter of Mr. Menzies. “A brother of Macnaughton,” says the General, “lived for many years on the estate of Garth, and died in 1790. He always went about armed, at least so far armed, that when debarred wearing a sword or dirk, he slung a large long knife in his belt. He was one of the last I recollect of the ancient race, and gave a very favourable impression of their general manner and appearance. He was a smith by trade, and although of the lowest order of the people, he walked about with an air and manner that might have become a field-marshal. He spoke with great force and fluency of language, and, although most respectful to those to whom he thought respect was due, he had an appearance of independence and ease, that strangers, ignorant of the language and character of the people, might have supposed to proceed from impudence. As he always carried arms when legally permitted, so he showed on one occasion that he knew how to handle them. When the Black Watch was quartered on the banks of the rivers Tay and Lyon, in 1741, an affray arose between a few of the soldiers and some of the people at a fair at Kenmore. Some of the Breadalbane men took the part of the soldiers, and, as many were armed, swords were quickly drawn, and one of the former killed, when their opponents, with whom was Macnaughton, and a smith, (to whom he was then an apprentice,) retreated and fled to the ferry-boat across the Tay. There was no bridge, and the ferryman, on seeing the fray, chained his boat. Macnaughton was the first at the river side, and leaping into the boat, followed by his master, the smith, with a stroke of his broadsword cut the chain, and crossing the river, fixed the boat on the opposite side, and thus prevented an immediate pursuit. Indeed no farther steps were taken. The Earl of Breadalbane, who was then at Taymouth, was immediately sent for. On inquiry, he found that the whole had originated from an accidental reflection thrown out by a soldier of one of the Argyle companies against the Atholemen, then supposed to be Jacobites, and that it was difficult to ascertain who gave the fatal blow. The man who was killed was an old warrior of nearly eighty years of age. He had been with Lord Breadalbane’s men, under Campbell of Glenlyon, at the battle of Sheriffmuir; and, as his side lost their cause, he swore never to shave again. He kept his word, and as his beard grew till it reached his girdle, he got the name of Padric-na-Phaisaig, ‘Peter with the Beard.’”

[519] The following amusing anecdote of this man is related by General Stewart:--“On one occasion he met with an officer of the garrison of Fort-William on the mountains of Lochaber. The officer told him that he suspected he had lost his way, and, having a large sum of money for the garrison, was afraid of meeting the sergeant Mor; he therefore requested that the stranger would accompany him on his road. The other agreed; and, while they walked on, they talked much of the sergeant and his feats, the officer using much freedom with his name, calling him robber, murderer.--‘Stop there,’ interrupted his companion, ‘he does indeed take the cattle of the whigs and you Sassanachs, but neither he nor his cearnachs ever shed innocent blood; except once,’ added he, ‘that I was unfortunate at Braemar, when a man was killed, but I immediately ordered the _creach_ (the spoil) to be abandoned, and left to the owners, retreating as fast as we could after such a misfortune!’ ‘_You_,’ says the officer, ‘what had _you_ to do with the affair?’ ‘I am John Du Cameron,--I am the sergeant Mor; there is the road to Inverlochay,--you cannot now mistake it. You and your money are safe. Tell your governor to send a more wary messenger for his gold. Tell him also, that, although an outlaw, and forced to live on the public, I am a soldier as well as himself, and would despise taking his gold from a defenceless man who confided in me.’ The officer lost no time in reaching the garrison, and never forgot the adventure, which he frequently related.”