This second sort of dress, namely, a short woollen jacket, with plaited skirts, and long trowsers, made tight to the body, and chequered with various colours, was precisely that of a Highland gentleman, the plaid coming in place of the mantle.[25]
Of the dress and arms of the Highlanders at the close of the sixteenth century some details are furnished by M. Nicolay d’Arfeville, Cosmographer to the King of France, in an account of a visit to Scotland, published at Paris in 1583. The following is a translation of a portion of his description:—
Those who inhabit Scotland to the south of the Grampian chain, are tolerably civilized and obedient to the laws, and speak the English language; but those who inhabit the north are more rude, homely, and unruly, and for this reason are called savages [or Wild Scots.] They wear, like the Irish, a 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 their 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.[26]
One of the most striking and specific references to tartan is to be found in the year 1587, and it occurs in connection with the lands of Norraboll, in the island of Islay. In the Crown charter of Novodamus, dated 19th March 1587-8, granted to Hector Makclene, son and heir-apparent of Lauchlan Makclene of Dowart, the feu-duty for these lands is specified as:-
Pro Nerrabollsadh 60 ulnas panni, albi, nigri, et grosei coloris respective, et ulnam panni in augmentationem rentalis (vel 8 den pro qualibet ulna).[27]
John Sobieski Stuart, who first drew attention to this entry,[28] quotes the word “grosei” as “grisei,” and adds “in this enumeration there appears a slight error, from a presumption that the third colour should have been green. The word undoubtedly in each case is “grosei,” and is so printed in the Record Issue. What was meant by “grosei” we learn from two sources. In the signature upon which the Crown charter above quoted proceeds, the lands and the feu-duty exigible are thus described:—
All and haill the foirnamit fyve merk landis of Nerrabolsadh with the pertinentis the sowme of lx ellis claith quhite blak and grene cullouris respective or viiid vsuall money of this realme for ilk ell at the optioun of the said Hector and his foirsaidis at the termes foirsaidis be equal portiounis and ane el claith or viiid for the price thereof in augmentation of the rentale mair nor euir the same payit of befor.[29]
These lands formerly belonged to the “Abbot of the Isle of Iona.” They were annexed to the Crown at the period of the alteration of the State religion in Scotland in the sixteenth century, and feued out to Makclene of Dowart on the conditions referred to, and they appear in the Register of Temporalities belonging to the Crown in this form:—
Charge. Argile and Tarbart. Item, the comptar charges him with the fewmaillis of the fyve merk lands of Narraboll liand within the said shirefdome set in few to Hector McClane of Dowart extending yeirlie in claith of quhite blak and grene cullouris respective to lx elnis. The eln sauld be infeftment at viiid with the new augmentation of the same extending to 1 eln of clayth sauld as said is Inde the yeir comptit in money to xls. viiid.[30]