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Part I
A Sketch of the
Moral and Physical Character, and of the Institutions and Customs of the
Inhabitants of the Highlands of Scotland
Sketches of the Highlanders
Section V.
The Highland Garb.
Among the circumstances
that influenced the military character of the Highlanders, we must not
omit their peculiar garb, which, by its lightness and freedom, enabled
them to use their limbs, and handle their arms with ease and dexterity,
and to move with great speed when employed with either cavalry or light
infantry. In the wars of Gustavus Adolphus, in the civil wars of Charles
L, and on various other occasions, they were often mixed with the cavalry,
affording to detached squadrons the incalculable advantage of support from
infantry, even in their most rapid movements. The author of "Memoirs of a
Cavalier," speaking of the Scottish army in 1640, says, "I observed that
these parties had always some foot with them, and yet if the horses
galloped or pushed on ever so forward, the foot were as forward as they,
which was an extraordinary advantage. These were those they call
Highlanders; they would run on foot with all their arms and all their
accoutrements, and keep very good order too, and kept pace with the
horses, let them go at what rate they would." The almost incredible
swiftness of these people, owing, in a great measure, no doubt, to the
lightness of their dress, by which their movements were totally
unencumbered, constituted the military advantage of the garb; although, in
the opinion of Lord President Forbes, it possessed others, which his
Lordship stated in a letter addressed to the Laird of Brodie, at that time
Lord Lyon for Scotland. "The garb is certainly very loose, and fits men
enured to it to go through great marches, to bear out against the
inclemency of the weather, to wade through rivers, to shelter in huts,
woods, and rocks, on occasions when men dressed in the Low country garb
could not endure. And it is to be considered, that, as the Highlanders are
circumstanced at present, it is, at least it seems to me to be, an utter
impossibility, without the advantage of this dress, for the inhabitants to
tend their cattle, and go through the other parts of their business,
without which they could not subsist, not to speak of paying rents to
their landlords."
The following account of
the dress is from an author who wrote prior to the year 1597. "They," the
Highlanders, "delight in marbled cloths, especially that have long
stripes of sundrie colours; [From "Remarks on the Chartularies of
Aberdeen," by John Graham Dalyell, Esquire, we learn that these
Chartularies contain general Statutes and Canons of the Scottish Church
for the years 1242 and 1249, as also private regulations and ordinances
for the See of Aberdeen from 1256 downwards. In these ordinances it is
enacted, that "Ecclesiastics are to be suitably apparelled, avoiding red,
green, and striped clothing, and their garments shall not be shorter than
to the middle of the leg," that is, they are not to wear tartan plaids,
and kilts.] they love chiefly purple and blue; their predecessors used
short mantles, or plaids of divers colours, sundrie ways divided, and
among some the same custom is observed to this day; but, for the most part
now, they are brown, most near to the colour of the hadder, to the effect
when they lye among the hadders, 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 fields, in such sort, that in a
night of snow they sleep sound." [Certayne Mattere concerning Scotland.
London, printed 1603.] The dress of the Highlanders was so peculiarly
accommodated to the warrior, the hunter, and the shepherd, that, to say
nothing of the cruelty and impolicy of opposing national predilections,
much dissatisfaction was occasioned by its suppression, and the rigour
with which the change was enforced. People in a state of imperfect
civilization retain as much of their ancient habits, as to distinguish
them strongly from the lower orders in more advanced society. The latter,
more laborious, less high-minded, and more studious of convenience and
comfort, are less solicitous about personal appearance, and less willing
to bear personal privations in regard to food and accommodation. To such
privations the former readily submit, that they may be enabled to procure
arms and habiliments which may set off to advantage a person unbent and
unsubdued by conscious inferiority, with limbs unshackled, and accustomed
to move with ease and grace. The point of personal decoration once
secured, it mattered not to the Highlander that his dwelling was mean, his
domestic utensils scanty, and of the simplest construction, and his
household furniture merely such as could be prepared by his own hands. He
was his own cooper, carpenter, and shoemaker, while his wife improved the
value of his dress by her care and pride in preparing the materials. To be
his own tailor or weaver he thought beneath him; these occupations were
left to such as, from deficiency in strength, courage, or natural ability,
were disqualified for the field or the chase. Gentlemen on horseback, old
men, and others, occasionally wore the truis. [See Appendix, L. My
grandfather always wore the Highland garb except when in mourning; that
is, the truis on horseback, and the kilt when at home.] These were both
breeches and stockings in one piece, made to fit perfectly close to the
limbs, and were always of tartan, though the coat or jacket was sometimes
of green, blue, or black cloth. The waistcoat and short coat were adorned
with silver buttons, tassels, embroidery, or lace, according to the
fashion of the times, or the taste of the weaver. But the arrangements of
the belted plaid were of the greatest importance in the toilet of a
Highlandman of fashion. This was a piece of tartan two yards in breadth,
and four in length, which surrounded the waist in large plaits, or folds,
adjusted with great nicety, and confined by a belt, buckled tight round
the body, and while the lower part came down to the knees, the other was
drawn up and adjusted to the left shoulder, leaving the right arm
uncovered, and at full liberty. In wet weather, the plaid was thrown
loose, and covered both shoulders and body; and when the use of both arms
was required, it was fastened across the breast by a large silver bodkin,
or circular brooch, often enriched with precious stones, or imitations of
them, having mottos engraved, consisting of allegorical sentences, or
mottos of armorial bearings. These were also employed to fix the plaid on
the left shoulder. A large purse of goat's or badger's skin, answering the
purpose of a pocket, and ornamented with a silver or brass mouth-piece,
and many tassels, hung before. [The ladies have recently adopted this
purse, as a substitute for the female pocket, which has disappeared. The
form and mouth-pieces of the Reticule are a perfect model of the
Highlanders' purses. In 1824, the ladies have farther followed the fashion
of the ancient Highlanders, by adopting, as a new fashion, a belt with a
square buckle, exactly of the same form and manufacture as that used in
old times, only that the modern belt is of course not so broad, and the
size of the buckle is less.] A dirk, with a knife and fork stuck in the
side of the sheath, and sometimes a spoon, together with a pair of steel
pistols, were essential accompaniments. The bonnet, which gentlemen
generally wore with one or more feathers, completed the national garb. The
dress of the common people differed only in the deficiency of finer or
brighter colours, and of silver ornaments, being otherwise essentially the
same; a tuft of heather, pine, holly, oak, &c. supplying the place of
feathers in the bonnet. The garters were broad, and of rich colours,
wrought in a small primitive kind of loom, the use of which is now little
known,—and formed a close texture, which was not liable to wrinkle, but
which kept the pattern in full display. [These garters are still made on
the estate of General Campbell of Monzie, and on the banks of Lochow in
Argyleshire.] The silver buttons [The officers of the Highland regiments
of Mackay's and Monroe's, who served under Gustavus Adolphus, in the wars
of 1626 and 1638, "in addition to rich buttons, wore a gold chain round
the neck to secure the owner, in case of being wounded or taken prisoner,
good treatment, or payment for future ransom." In the Highlands, buttons
of large size, and of solid silver, were worn, that, in the event of
falling in battle, or dying in a strange country, and at a distance from
their friends and their home, the value of the buttons might defray the
expenses of a decent funeral.] were frequently found among the better and
more provident of the lower ranks,—an inheritance often of long descent.
["The women," says Martin, "wore sleeves of scarlet cloth, closed at the
end as men's vests, with gold lace round them, having plate buttons set
with fine stones. The head dress was a fine kerchief of linen strait about
the head. (This is still worn by old women in Breadalbane, Fortingal, and
other districts in Perthshire; and the silver buckles or brooch, richly
ornamented with stones, are still preserved in families as relics of
ancient fashions.) The plaid 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 one hundred merks value, with the figures of various
animals curiously engraved. A lesser buckle was worn in the middle of the
larger. It had in the centre a large piece of crystal, or some finer
stone, and this was set round with several precious stones of a lesser
size."] The belted plaid, which was generally double, or in two folds,
formed, when let down so as to envelop the whole person, a shelter from
the storm, and a covering in which the wearer wrapt himself up in full
security, when he lay down fearlessly among the heather. This, if
benighted in his hunting excursions, or on a distant visit, he by no means
considered it a hardship; nay, so little was he disturbed by the petty
miseries which many feel from inclement weather, that, in storms of snow,
frost, or wind, he would dip the plaid in water, and, wrapping himself up
in it when moistened, lie down on the heath. The plaid thus swelled with
moisture was supposed to resist the wind, so that the exhalation from the
body during sleep might surround the wearer with an atmosphere of warm
vapour. Thus their garb contributed to form their constitutions in early
life for the duties of hardy soldiers, while their habits, their mental
recollections, and the fearless spirit they nourished, rendered them
equally intrepid in the attack, and firm in resisting an enemy.
In dyeing and arranging the
various colours of their tartans, they displayed no small art and taste,
preserving at the same time the distinctive patterns (or sets, as they
were called) of the different clans, tribes, families, and districts. Thus
a Macdonald, a Campbell, a Mackenzie, &c. was known by his plaid; and in
like manner the Athole, Glen-orchy, and other colours of different
districts, were easily distinguishable. Besides those general divisions,
industrious housewives had patterns, distinguished by the set, superior
quality, and fineness of the cloth, or brightness and variety of the
colours. In those times when mutual attachment and confidence subsisted
between the proprietors and occupiers of land in the Highlands, the
removal of tenants, except in remarkable cases, rarely occurred, and
consequently, it was easy to preserve and perpetuate any particular set,
or pattern, even among the lower orders. [At Inch Ewan, in Breadalbane, a
family of the name of Macnab occupied the same farm, for nearly four
centuries, till within these few years, the last occupier resigned. A race
of the name of Stewart, in Glenfinglas, in Menteith, has for several
centuries possessed the same farms, and, from the character and
disposition of the present noble proprietor, (the Earl of Moray) it is
probable that, without some extraordinary cause, this respectable and
prosperous community will not be disturbed. It would be endless to give
instances of the great number of years during which the same families
possessed their farms, in a succession as regular and unbroken as that of
the landlords. The family of MacIntyre possessed the farm of Glenoe, in
Nether Lorn, from about the year 1500 down till 1810. They were originally
foresters of Stewart Lord Lorn, and were continued in their possession and
employments after the succession of the Glenorchy and Breadalbane families
to this estate by a marriage with a co-heiress of the last Lord Lorn of
the Stewart family in the year 1435.]
I have dwelt the longer on
the particulars of this costume, as much of the distinctive character of
the people was connected with it. In Eustace's Classical Tour, he has some
ingenious strictures on the European habit contrasted with the Asiatic
costume. The former, he says, is stiff, formal, confined, full of right
angles, and so unlike the drapery which invests the imperishable forms of
grace and beauty left us by ancient sculptors, as to offer a revolting
contrast to all that is flowing, easy, and picturesque in costume. The
Asiatic dress, he observes, is only suited to the cumbrous pomp, and
indolent effeminacy of Oriental customs: it impedes motion, and incumbers
the form which it envelops. In one corner of Great Britain, he continues,
a dress is worn by which these two extremes are avoided: it has the easy
folds of a drapery, which takes away from the constrained and angular air
of the ordinary habits, and is, at the same time, sufficiently light and
succinct to answer all the purposes of activity and ready motion. With
some obvious and easy alterations, he thinks it might, in many cases, be
adopted with advantage. |
