Oxford, Nov. 8.
_Kilt_ (Vol. ii., p. 62.).--Your correspondent [Sigma]. will find some
information regarding the introduction of the _kilt_ into Scotland in a
volume entitled _Notes to assist the Memory in various Sciences_, 2d
edition, London, Murray, 1827. I quote the passage, p. 297.:
"_The Pheliebeg._ Thomas Rawlinson, an iron-smelter and an Englishman,
was the person who, about or prior to A. D. 1728, introduced the
pheliebeg, or short kilt, worn in the Highlands. This fact, very little
known, is established in a letter from Ewan Baillie, of Oberiachan,
inserted in the _Edinburgh Magazine_ for 1785, and also by the Culloden
Papers."
The writer of that work, and of that _daring_ statement, was, I have been
informed, a Scottish military gentleman of the name of Hamilton. This
origin of the kilt is also mentioned by Mr. Robert Chambers in his _Life of
Duncan Forbes, of Culloden_. See his _Biographical Dictionary of Eminent
Scotsmen_.