"As to the plaid, there is no reason to believe it more ancient
than the philibeg. In the sixteenth century Fordun (lib. ii. cap.
9.) only mentions the Highland people as 'amictu deformis,' a term
conveying the idea of a vague savage dress of skins.
"In the book of dress printed at Paris in 1562, the Highland chief
is in the Irish dress wearing a mantle. The woman is dressed in
sheep and deer skins. Lesley, in 1570, is the first who mentions
the modern Highland dress, but represents the tartan as even then
being exclusively confined to the use of people of rank.
"Buchanan, 1580, mentions the plaids, but says they are _brown_;
even as late as 1715 the remote Highlanders were only clothed in a
long coat buttoned down to the mid-leg; this information was
derived from the minister of Mulmearn (father of the Professor
Ferguson), who said 'that those Highlanders who joined the
Pretender from the most remote parts, were not dressed in
party-coloured tartans, and had neither plaid nor philibeg.'"
So much for the assumed antiquity of the Scottish national costume. More
interesting matter on this subject will be found in Pinkerton's
_Correspondence_, vol. i. pp. 404-410.