Whereas by an act made in the nineteenth year of the reign of his
late majesty King George the Second, entituled “An act for the more
effectual disarming the Highlands in Scotland and for more effectually
securing the peace of the said Highlands; and for restraining the
use of the Highland dress;” ... it was, among other things, enacted
that from and after the first day of August one thousand seven
hundred and forty-seven, no man or boy, within that part of Great
Britain called Scotland, other than such as shall be employed as
officers and soldiers in his Majesty’s forces [&c., as quoted, pp.
36-7]. And whereas it is judged expedient that so much of the acts
above mentioned as restrains the use of the Highland dress should
be repealed: Be it therefore enacted by the King’s most Excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal
and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority
of the same, That so much of the acts above mentioned, or any other
act or acts of Parliament, as restrains the use of the Highland dress,
be, and the same are hereby repealed.
The repeal of the enactment, received so joyously by the Highlanders,
was celebrated by the famous poet, Duncan Ban M’Intyre, in the
following lines, which are freely adapted from the Gaelic:—
Indulgent laws at last restore
The noble dress our fathers wore.
Exulting, let us then resume
The bonnet blue and eagle plume;
The tartan coat and jaunty vest
And belted plaid become us best.
With limbs unchained and footsteps free,
The pleated kilt just shows the knee;
In hose and brogues we’ll roam at will
O’er purple moor and heather hill.
How quickly the dress was resumed—at all events in certain portions of
the country—is shown by the following testimony. One of the Hebridean
missionaries of the Church of Scotland, whose travels among the people
extended over the eight years from 1782 to 1790, observes:—
The men wear the short coat, the feilabeg, and the short hose, with
bonnets sewed with black ribbons around their rims, and a slit behind
with the same ribbon in a knot. Their coats are commonly tartan,
striped with black, red, or some other colour, after a pattern made,
upon a stick, of the yarn, by themselves, or some other ingenious
contriver. Their waistcoats are either of the same, or some such
stuff; but the feilabegs are commonly of breacan, or fine Stirling
plaids, if their money can afford them.
At common work they use either short or long coats and breeches made
of striped cloth, and many of them very coarse, according to their
work. Their shirts are commonly made of wool; and however coarse
they may appear to strangers, they are allowed to conduce much to
the health and longevity for which this country is famous; as I have
known them eighty, ninety, and some even a hundred years old, in these
islands, and able to do their daily work.
When they go in quest of the herring, they dress something like the
sailors, but of coarser cloth, with hats over their eyes, to mark the
fish the better. They are careful about drying their nets, and other
fishing tackle.
Their brogues (shoes) are made of cow or horse leather, and often of
seals skins, that are commonly well tanned by the root of tormintile,
which they dig out from the hillocks, and uncultivated lands, about
the sea-side. This, properly pounded and prepared, without either lime
or bark, is sufficient to make the hides pliant and fit for wearing.
It answers their purpose much better than leather tanned with lime
or bark, because they seldom grow hard or shrink when dried, even
though wet all day; which is not the case with such as are burnt with
lime. They never use tan-pits, but bind the hides fast with ropes,
and hold them for several days in some remote solitary stream, until
the hair begins to come off, of its own accord; and after that, the
tormintile roots are applied for bark, as above described. Such of
the men as can afford them, wear large forest coats above their other
garb, especially on Sundays, or at the public meetings, as weddings,
burials, or fairs. Either in this or a coarse breacan (_i.e._ the
plaid) with their best apparel, they appear on these solemn occasions;
but many of those who are poor, and cannot afford it, often do and
must appear in their tattered clothes and dirty shirts, without either
stockings or brogues, quite bare-footed, even in frost and snow, in
distress sufficient to extort compassion from every person, but such
tyrants as are the cause of so much misery to those starved creatures,
who are often creeping along with white or striped petticoats
belonging to their wives, or daughters and sisters, about their
shoulders.
The women wear long or short gowns, with a waistcoat and two
petticoats, mostly of the stripes or tartan, as already described,
except the lower coat, which is white. The married wives wear linen
mutches, or caps, either fastened with ribbons of various colours, or
with tape straps, if they cannot afford ribbons. All of them wear a
small plaid, a yard broad, called _guilechan_, about their shoulders,
fastened by a large broach. The broaches are generally round, and of
silver, if the wearer be in tolerable circumstances: if poor, the
broaches, being either circular or triangular, are of baser metal and
modern date. The first kind has been worn time immemorial even by the
ladies. The _arrisats_ are quite laid aside in all this country, by
the different ranks of women; being the most ancient dress used by
that class. It consisted of one large piece of flannel, that reached
down to the shoe, and fastened with clasps below, and the large silver
broach at the breast, while the whole arm was entirely naked. The
ladies made use of the finer, while common women used coarser kinds
of flannel, or white woollen cloths. The married women bind up their
hair with a large pin into a knot on the crown of their heads, below
their linens; and the unmarried frequently go bare-headed, with their
hair bound up with ribbons, or garters. They often wear linen caps,
called mutches, particularly on Sabbaths. Many of the more wealthy
appear at church with a profusion of ribbons and head-dresses, with
cloaks and high-heeled shoes. Those whose circumstances cannot admit
of that, must appear with one of their petticoats, either tartan,
or of one colour, around their shoulders, on Sundays, as well as on
week days. They seldom travel any where without this appendage; nay,
in the house, when at such work as will admit of it; seeing it would
be thought naked in a woman to go without it: it also defends them
from the inclemency of the weather. Most of them wear napkins, or
handkerchiefs, on their necks; and many of the richest of them use
silk ones, whether black or spotted, as suits their fancies.
Frequently the old women wear little _guilechans_, (small plaids)
about their shoulders, and woollen hoods about their heads, with very
coarse linen under them fastened with a pin below their chins. The
_breeid_, or curtah, a fine linen handkerchief fastened about married
women’s heads, with a flap hanging behind their backs, above the
guilechan, is mostly laid aside.
Most of the poorer tenants cannot afford to wear brogues in Summer,
unless they are obliged to be treading among the sharp rocks on the
shores, at their master’s kelp, when the master must supply them,
except they can afford to provide for themselves. It would be too
great a luxury for a poor one to use them, unless at the same, or
similar rugged employment. Nothing short of extreme necessity obliges
them to appear in public meetings in these humiliating garbs; for
otherwise their pride would revolt at the very thought of such shabby
dresses.[77]
Gough thus describes the dress of the Highlanders in the district of
Breadalbane about 1789:—
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
broche: short stockings tied below the knee; truish, a genteeler kind
of breeches, and stockings of one piece; cuoranen, a laced shoe of
skin with the hairy side out, rather disused; kelt or fillebeg, q. 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 Lochaber axe, used
now only by the town guard of Edinburgh, was a tremendous weapon. Bows
and arrows were in use in the middle of the last century, now as well
as the broadsword and target laid aside since the disarming act, but
the dirk, or ancient _pugio_, is still worn as a dress with the knife
and fork.... The women’s dress is the _kirch_, 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.[78]
These notes bring us down to the present century, and the account of
works written on the subject which follows will give our readers some
idea of the present state of the literature relating to tartan. Before
concluding, however, it is worth while to make some special references
to one of these works, the _Vestiarium Scoticum_.[79] John Sobieski
Stuart’s account of the origin of the work is as follows:—
The tract now published in the following volume, is printed from a
MS. in my possession, collated with the transcript of another in the
Library of the Monastery of St Augustine in Cadiz. It is a small
black-letter quarto of the sixteenth century, containing thirty-four
pages of vellum, illuminated with small, plain, capitals, such as the
ordinary initials of inferior missals. It was once in the possession
of the historian and faithful adherent of Queen Mary, John Lesley,
bishop of Ross, as appears by his signature in the first leaf—“Jo.
Rossen.” Immediately below is noted, in his small neat hand, “Primo
Maii, 1571, I tuck my feaver and ageu at ix huris at ny^t.”... Some
of the many calamities which scattered the adherents of the house of
Stuart, and brought together many of their persons and their remains
in the Catholic seclusions of the Continent, conveyed the _Vestiarium
Scoticum_, and many papers of the Bishop of Ross into the Library of
the Scots College at Douay. During the long incognito of the prince
Charles Edward, between the years 1749 and 1754, he visited that
seminary, for purposes which expired in the obscurity wherein they
were planned; and, during his stay, he received from the fathers many
papers which had belonged to Queen Mary, her adherents, and King James
the Seventh. Among others, of a very different nature, was found the
Bishop of Ross’s copy of the _Vestiarium Scoticum_. This copy, now in
my possession, being the oldest and the most perfect, has served as
the original to the present publication.
The next in value, that which belonged to the Library of the Convent
of St Augustine, is a small paper folio, bound in panel, written in
the ordinary running hand of the time of James the Sixth. By the
signature and date, it had at one time belonged to “ane honerabil man
Maister James Dunbarre w^tin y^e burg of Innernesse, in y^e yeir of
God ain thousand sax hunder and aucht yeirs.” By a subsequent name
upon the cover—“_Johan O’Neil_, cleric”—it had probably passed
into the hands of one of the many expatriated Irish priests, who
were driven to the Continent, during the reigns of Elizabeth and
James the Sixth; and, in this revolution, probably found its way into
the Monastery of St Augustine. Spain was at that time the principal
sanctuary for the Irish and Island refugees; and it is not improbable
that the possessor of the volume might have been one of the followers
of the unfortunate James M^cDonald of Isla and the Glens, who, on his
expulsion from Ulster and the Isles, fled to the Court of Philip the
Third. Between this copy and that of the Bishop of Ross there are but
very few variations, and almost all, apparently, accidental omissions
of the copyist: wherever they occur they have been noted on the margin
of this edition.
Besides these copies, there is, also, in my possession, a third, of a
much lower character and later period, obtained from an old Ross-shire
Highlander named John Ross, one of the last of the sword-players, who
may yet be remembered by those who recollect the porters of Edinburgh
twenty years ago. It is an inferior, modern copy, bearing the stigmats
of various barbarous hands, which have inflicted upon its pages divers
attempts to transmit to posterity the names of a certain John and
Marye Inglis, who have borne testimony to their familiarity with its
leaves in the year 1721. It is written with negligence and inaccuracy,
in a very ill hand, and with several substitutions, variations, and
omissions, which, in some instances, appear to have been the result
of carelessness; in others, the attempts of an illiterate transcriber
to adapt the work to his ideas of the clans in his own time. It may,
indeed, be conjectured that it was transcribed from an original which,
in some degree, differed from the copies of the Bishop of Ross and
the Library of St Augustine, since the names of several clans and
low-country families follow in a succession different from these MSS.
This, however, might have been the result of accidental omission and
subsequent re-entry.... These last [the three preceding copies] are
the only MSS. of that work which have fallen under my observation;
but, according to a notice communicated by Lord Lovat, it appears that
another was long in possession of the Frasers of Inchberry. Since the
removal of that family it is supposed to have been taken to America,
and is described as a small quarto MS. in black letter, containing not
only a description, but illuminations, of all the clan tartans. If
this tract was not the _Vestiarium Scoticum_, it must have been one
containing a more elaborate illustration of tartans than the work of
Sir Richard Urquhart, and of which I have discovered no other copy.
Of the author of the _Vestiarium_ I have discovered no illustration,
and of his period there is little evidence. In his Envoi, he intimates
that he had spent the greater part of his life in military service,
and that, at various times, he had composed some works upon heraldry,
hunting, and the use of arms; but of these productions I am not aware
of any existing notices; and I know of no one of his name who has
pursued such studies, except the genealogical knight, _Sir Thomas_,
who deduced the descent of his family from Adam.[80]
The contents of the _Vestiarium_ are remarkable. In a short
introduction the author rebukes his countrymen for their adoption of
foreign modes to the neglect of those of their ancestors, and, lest
the old Scots fashions should sink into oblivion, as in the case
of other nations, “I have taken on hande to compil accordant to my
pvir habylitye, a trewe ensample off alle or the maiste parte, the
pryncyppul tartanis of Scotlonde sic as I may discerne them.” A short
treatise “of the settiss or stryppis and coullouris of terteinis”
follows. Then come in succession the tartans of the chief Highland
clans, each tartan being described with a technical minuteness which
permits of their representation, either by way of illustration or in a
fabric, with perfect ease and certainty. The tartans of the clans of
the lesser families or houses in the Highlands, and, after them, those
of the Low Country or Border clans, are detailed in a similar manner.
Short notes on the plaids worn by women, and on hose and trews, with a
list of the badges of clans and families, and a poetical conclusion,
complete the volume.
As to the dates when the three works on which the _Vestiarium_ is based
came into his possession, the editor is explicit in reference to only
one—that obtained from John Ross, the old swordsman, of which he got
possession in 1819.[81] The two others were, however, several years in
his possession before publication, and he had apparently no intention
of giving their contents to the world until urged to do so by the late
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder. In 1829 Sir Thomas was staying at Relugas House
in Morayshire, while John Sobieski Stuart and his brother, Charles
Edward Stuart, under the name of Hay, or Hay Allan, were occupants of
Logie, about a mile from Relugas. Sir Thomas brought the MSS. under
Sir Walter Scott’s notice in a letter dated from Relugas 1st June
1829, in which he gives a general account of the only one of the three
manuscripts referred to in the introduction to the _Vestiarium_ which
was ever in his possession—viz., John Ross’s copy[82]—from which the
transcript now in possession of Miss Dick Lauder was made.[83] It was
lent him for the purpose by John Sobieski Stuart, and it contains
those skits which it was prophesied at the time would cast ridicule on
the original.[84] He writes to Sir Walter:—
I wish to communicate to you an account of a very curious manuscript
which I have great hope may interest you as much as it has done me.
It is entitled _Liber Vest[i]arium Scotia, otherwise clippit the
Garderope of Scotland, Beand ane Mirrour to shewe the true Tertaynis
of the principal Scottyshe famylies, be Schyr Richarde Urquharde
Knychte_. The original belongs to Mr Allan Hay, father to the Messrs
Hay, now residing at Logie House, within a mile of this place. It is
written in beautifully clear and distinct black letter, and belonged
to Lesly, Bishop of Ross, the historian, whose autograph is on it in
the shape of a curious memorandum. To give you some idea of the style
of the manuscript I shall copy the following commencement of the
preface, in which the time when it was written is sufficiently marked
by internal evidence:—
Forasmeikle, &c. [The remainder of the quotation from the introduction
is not written into the copy of Sir Thomas’s letter retained by him.]
After this follows a dissertation on the rules for making tartan,
which is prefaced thus:—
First, for the manner of making and devising of tertennis, &c. [Here
again the quotation stops short.]
From this last quotation we are made aware of a fact of which I
confess myself to have been always very sceptical hitherto. I
mean that tartans were some centuries ago in use universally over
Scotland, and accordingly the author of the manuscript, after giving
us first descriptions of thirty-eight different tartans belonging
to the principal Highland families, and eleven of the “terteinis of
lesser famylies or houses, the quhilk be comand frae the cheff houses
and original clannes,” goes on with “Here begynnethe off the Laich
Cuntre Pairtes and Border clannes,” of which families he gives us the
description of twenty-nine tartans. Among these last you may believe
the tartan of the illustrious family of Scott is not forgotten. The
descriptions are all so very particular that it is quite impossible
to mistake them, and as I wished to possess myself of a copy of the
manuscript (which I wrote out myself), Mr Charles Stuart Hay, with
very great politeness, agreed to illuminate it for me, with drawings
of all the tartans, a work which occupied him unceasingly for above
three weeks, by which labour he has made me a most beautiful book.
There is no printed copy of the manuscript, but the Messrs Hay,
Junior, are in possession of a manuscript copy which is very old,
and I have heard of another manuscript copy of it which did exist
somewhere in Strathglass, but which has been ineffectually sought for
as yet. The original came into the family of Mr Allan Hay from the
unfortunate Prince Charles Stuart. So far as I know it is now the
oldest and best authority (perhaps I should say the only authority)
on the subject of tartans; and in these times of rage for tartans,
when the most uncouth spurious modern “coats of many colours” are
every day invented, manufactured, christened after particular names
and worn as genuine, a book of this kind containing authority so
invaluable must become extremely popular. At present a woful want
of knowledge on the subject prevails. Some of the clans are at this
moment ignorantly disputing for the right to the same tartans, which,
in fact, belongs to none of them, but are merely modern inventions for
clothing Regimental Highlanders. Hardly does one of the clans now wear
its tartan with its legitimate sets, stripes, and spranges perfect in
all their parts. The Messrs Hay have already instructed several of
the chiefs of clans who have had webs of their true tartans made; and
as one instance of this I may mention that Cluny Macpherson appeared
at the late fancy ball at Edinburgh in his beautiful and genuine
tartan as taken from the MS.: viz., “thre wyde stryppes of black
upon a white fielde, and throuchout the mydward black ain yellowe,
and upon the quite sett twa spranges of crimsoun of ten thredis;”
which excited universal admiration. Macleod has got a sketch of his
splendid tartan, “three black stryps upon ain yellow fylde,” &c. His
and MacLauchlane’s, both families of Norwegian origin, being the
only yellow fields. Comyn, who was quite ignorant of his tartan, has
now worn more than ever at the Caledonian balls in London his “twa
wyd strypis of greine upon ain scarlatt field,” &c.; and so of many
more whom the Messrs Hay have enlightened as being their particular
friends. A curious cor[r]oboration of the accuracy of the manuscript
(if cor[r]oboration had been wanting) occurred in the case of Lovat.
Talking of his tartan, he told the Messrs Hay that, although the
tartan he then wore was that which was always worn by the Clan Fraser
as their clan tartan, yet some old people of the name maintained
that there should be a white sprainge through it. The Messrs Hay, on
consulting the manuscript, found the tartan to be exactly as worn
by Lovat, with the addition of the white sprainge, and described
as follows:—“Frizzel hath fovr strippes upone ain scarlatt fyeld
quhairoff the outerward be of greine, and the innerward of blewe,
and upon the scarlatte sette ys ane sprainge of quhite of saxteine
threids,” &c., &c. I need not mention any more but that of Scott,
which is as follows:—“Scott hathe four stryppis upon ain fyeld,”
&c., &c. But to illustrate this perfectly to you I have begged of
my friend, Mr Charles Stuart Hay, to make for you the accompanying
colored drawing, on the back of which you have the different colors
accurately laid down of their proper relative breadths, and the
whole of the proper size for weaving, so that you have only to send
the sheet to Messrs Wilson, Carpet and Tartan manufacturers at
Bannockburn, who will make you any quantity of the tartan, soft, hard,
or delicately fine merino, as you may specify, and in every respect
perfectly correct as to pattern, they having already executed many
orders from similar drawings and directions by Mr Hay. So I hope
to see both you and Miss Scott doing honour to the ancient garb of
your antecessors (_sic_), though ladies, as you will afterwards see,
being rather difficult to fix, were left very much to their “awin
fauntasyes” in such matters. That I may complete the account of this
curious manuscript I may add that after the tartans have been gone
through we have a dissertation of “womenis quhite plaids clyppit
Arryssadis, the quhilk are not orderit after their clannes, but after
their awin conceits and as it liketh them.” Then we have a short
treatise of “Hoses and Trewsis,” and then “Hereafter followethe of
senyes of divers clannes,” &c., in the list of which I find “Scotte,
Blaeberrye,” with which I hope Miss Scott will adorn her head at the
next ball she honours with her presence, and so make war fairly under
her proper badge. The whole concludes, as most books of those times
were wont to do, with a L’Envoy in the following lines:—
Dames and Lordyngis. [Here the quotation ends in Sir Thomas’s copy. It
has been considered unnecessary to reprint the lines with which the
_Vestiarium_ concludes.]
What Sir Richard Urquhart the author was I have not yet made out, but
presume that he was of the Cromarty family, though I confess I cannot
find one of the name corresponding to the times in the celebrated
Urquhart genealogy, which begins with Adam. I think I have now told
you enough of this curious MS. to lead you to approve of the advice I
have given to the brothers Messrs Hay, that they ought to publish it
without one moment’s delay, illustrated with minute specimens of all
the tartans described in it, with a scale attached to each, so as to
make one aware of the proper size the cloth should be wrought. This,
I am happy to say, I have prevailed on them to do, and the plan they
think of is to print it at their own expense after they shall have
got as many subscribers as will ensure their being no losers; and as
engravings would not only be deadly as to cost, but totally inadequate
to the purpose of giving specimens of the tartans, and, indeed,
useless where the effect cannot be given without colouring them with
the same trouble that is bestowed on a drawing, they have resolved to
get a given number of yards of silk ribbon woven of each pattern of
the breadth of ladies sash ribbons, whence pieces of perhaps four or
six inches in length may be cut and neatly laid down with paste on
drawing paper, which will make a cheap, novel, very beautiful, and
most satisfactory illustration to the work, and render it in every
respect a popular as it will be an elegant national work for the
drawing-room table, which cannot fail to be much in request.[85] I
mean to write to Mr Cadell and the Taits to get information for the
gentlemen as to the expense of printing and publishing the work, and
they have already written to Wilson at Bannockburn about the silk
ribbons. If you should happen to see Mr Cadell, your noticing the
work to him would be very obliging; and if you find my description
of it sufficiently interesting to induce you to talk of it to your
friends, and, above all, if you could notice it publicly at the Royal
and Antiquarian Societies, and at the Highland Society, and Celtic
Society, Border Club, &c., you would do more good in paving the way
for its success than a thousand advertisements, and would confer a
very great obligation on the Messrs Hay.[86]
Sir Walter’s reply is dated 7th June 1829. That portion of it relating
to the present subject is here transcribed:—
I need not say I have the greatest interest in the MS. which you
mention, in case it shall really prove an authentic document. There
would not be the least difficulty in getting the Bannatyne Club to
take, perhaps, 100 copies, or obtaining support enough so as at the
least to preclude the possibility of loss to the ingenious Messrs Hay
Allans. But I think it indispensable that the original MS. should be
sent for a month or so to the Register House, under the charge of the
Deputy Register, Mr Thomson, that its antiquity be closely scrutinised
by competent persons. The art of imitating ancient writing has got
to a considerable perfection, and it has been the bane of Scottish
literature and disgrace of her antiquities that we have manifested an
eager propensity to believe without inquiry and propagate the errors
which we adopt too hastily ourselves. The general proposition that
the Lowlanders ever wore plaids is difficult to swallow. They were of
twenty different races, and almost all distinctly different from the
Scoto-Irish, who are the proper Scots, from which the Royal Family
are descended. For instance, there is scarce a great family in the
Lowlands of Scotland that is not to be traced to the Normans, the
proudest as well as most civilised race in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. Is it natural to think that, holdin[g] the Scots in the
contempt in which they did, they would have adopted their dress?...
I could shew, I think, that there is no period in Scottish history
when the manners, language, or dress of the Highlanders were adopted
in the low country. They brought them with them from Ireland, as
you will see from the very curious prints in Derricke’s picture of
Ireland, where you see the chief and followers of the wild Irish in
the ordinary Highland dress _tempore_ Queen Elizabeth. Besides this,
where has slept this universal custom that nowhere, unless in this
MS., is it even heard of? Lesley knew it not, though the work had
been in his possession, and his attention must have been called to
it when writing concerning the three races of Scots, Highlanders,
Lowlanders, and bordermen, and treating of their dress in particular.
Andrew Borde knows nothing of [it], nor the Frenchman who published
the geographical work from which Pinkerton copied the prints of the
Highlander and Lowlander, the former in a frieze plaid or mantle,
while the Lowlander strides away in a cloak and trunk hose, like his
neighbour the Fleming. I will not state other objections, though so
many occur, that the authenticity of the MS. being proved, I would
rather suppose the author had been some tartan weaver zealous for
his craft, who wished to extend the use of tartan over the whole
kingdom. I have been told, and believe till now, that the use of
tartan was never general in Scotland (Lowlands) until the Union, when
the detestation of that measure led it to be adopted as the national
colour, and the ladies all affected tartan screens.