Old and rare Scottish tartans

by Donald William Stewart

Peculiar interest attaches to the description of John Taylor in The Pennyless Pilgrimage; for his observations, carefully noted down in 1618, in view of the fact that they would come under the cognisance of the king (James VI.), are full and important, as this extract illustrates:—

Thus with extreme travell, ascending and descending, mounting and alighting, I came at night to the place where I would be, in the Brea of Marr, which is a large country, all composed of such mountaines, that Shooter’s hill, Gads hill, Highgate hill, Hampsted hill, Birdlip hill, or Malvernes hill, are but mole-hills in comparison, or like a liver, or a gizzard under a capon’s wing, in respect to the altitude of their tops, or perpendicularitie of their bottomes. There I saw mount Benawne [Benavon in Braemar] with a furr’d mist upon his snowie head instead of a night cap: for you must understand, that the oldest man alive never saw but the snow was on the top of divers of those hills, both in summer, as well as in winter. There did I finde the truely noble and right honourable Lords John Erskin Earle of Marr, James Stuart Earle of Murray, George Gordon Earle of Engye, sonne and heire to the Marquesse of Huntly, James Erskin Earle of Bughan, and John Lord Erskin, sonne and heire to the Earle of Marr, and their Countesses, with my much honoured, and my best assured and approved friend, Sir William Murray knight, of Abercarny, and hundred of others knights, esquires, and their followers; all and every man in generall in one habit, as if Licurgus had beene there, and made lawes of equality. For once in the yeere, which is the whole moneth of August, and sometimes part of September, many of the nobility and gentry of the kingdome (for their pleasure) doe come into these high-land countries to hunt, where they doe conforme themselves to the habite of the High-land-men, who for the most part, speake nothing but Irish; and in former time were those people which were called the Red-shankes. Their habite is shooes with but one sole apiece; stockings (which they call short hose) made of a warm stuffe of divers colours, which they call Tartane: as for breeches, many of them, nor their forefathers, never wore any, but a jerkin of the same stuffe that their hose is of, their garters being bands or wreathes of hay or straw, with a plead about their shoulders, which is a mantle of divers colours, much finer and lighter stuffe than their hose, with blue flat caps on their heads, a handkerchiefe knit with two knots about their necke; and thus are they attyred. Now, their weapons are long bowes and forked arrowes, swords and targets, harquebusses, muskets, durks, and Loquhabor-axes. With these armes I found many of them armed for the hunting. As for their attire, any man of what degree soever that comes amongst them, must not disdaine to weare it: for if they doe, then they will disdaine to hunt, or willingly to bring in their dogges: but if men be kind unto them, and be in their habit; then are they conquered with kindnesse, and the sport will be plentifull. This was the reason that I found so many noblemen and gentlemen in those shapes. But to proceed to the hunting.

My good Lord of Marr having put me into that shape, I rode with him from his house, where I saw the ruines of an old castle, called the castle of Kindroghit. It was built by King Malcolm Canmore (for a hunting house) who raigned in Scotland when Edward the Confessor, Harold, and Norman William raigned in England: I speak of it, because it was the last house I saw in those parts; for I was the space of twelve days after, before I saw either house, corne-field, or habitation for any creature, but deere, wilde horses, wolves, and suche like creatures, which made me doubt that I should never have seene a house againe.[38]

The attachment of the Highlanders to their distinctive attire is conspicuously evident in this account, which deserves careful study in consequence of its profusion of detail. Trews (breeches) were not worn, but in their stead was a tartan “jerkin”; and this had no connection with the plaid, for the people had a “plead about their shoulders, which is a mantle of divers colours, much finer and lighter stuffe than their hose.” Being coarser and thicker than the plaid, the “jerkin” could scarcely have been the shirt, and it was most probably the feilebeg, or little kilt, used as a separate garment.

That the form of the feilebeg was known to the Highlanders before the civil wars of the seventeenth century, and that the belted plaid was thrown occasionally into the form of the feilebeg, is proved by the following extract:—

As for their Apparel; next the skin, they wear a short linnen Shirt, which the great Men among them sometimes dye of saffron Colour. They use it short, that it may not incumber them, when running or travelling. Major says the common People among them went out to Battle, having their Body cover’d with Linnen of many Folds sewed together and done over with Wax or Pitch, with a covering of Hart’s Skin; but that the English and common lowland Scots fought in Clokes. In the sharp Winter weather the Highland Men wear close trowzes, which cover the Thighs, Legs, and Feet. To fence their feet they put on Rullions or raw leather shoes. Above their Shirt they have a single Coat, reaching no farther than the Navel. Their uppermost Garment is a loose Cloke of several Ells, striped and party colour’d (the tartan plaid), which they gird breadth-wise with a Leathern Belt so as it scarce covers the knees, and that for the above-mention’d Reason, that it may be no Lett to them, when on a Journey or doing any Work. Far the greatest part of the Plaid covers the uppermost parts of the Body. Sometimes it is all folded round the Body about the Region of the Belt, for disengaging and leaving the Hands free; and sometimes ’tis wrapped round all that is above the Flank. The trowzes are for Winter use; at other Times they content themselves with short Hose, which scarce reach to the knees. When they compose themselves to Rest and Sleep, they loose the Belt, and roll themselves in the Plaid, lying down on the bare Ground, or putting Heather under them nicely set together after their Manner; or, for want of that, they use a little Straw or Hay.[39]

It has been already noted that the Scottish auxiliaries who went to France in 1552 were in trews (“hois”), and, similarly, when the northern army invaded England in 1639, no reference is made to the kilt or to the bare legs, the first peculiarity to impress strangers. It would thus appear that the kilt did not at this time form part of the military dress. The following description is extracted from Defoe’s Memoirs of a Cavalier, which evinces considerable acquaintance with military habits and equipments:—

I confess, the soldiers made a very uncouth figure, especially the highlanders: the oddness and barbarity of their garb and arms seemed to have something in it remarkable. They were generally tall swinging fellows; their swords were extravagantly and I think insignificantly broad, and they carried great wooden targets, large enough to cover the upper part of their bodies. Their dress was as antique as the rest; a cap on their heads, called by them a bonnet, long hanging sleeves behind, and their doublet, breeches, and stockings, of a stuff they called plaid, striped across red and yellow, with short cloaks of the same. These fellows looked, when drawn out, like a regiment of merry-andrews, ready for Bartholomew Fair. They are in companies all of a name and therefore call one another only by their christian names, ... and they scorn to be commanded but by one of their own clan or family.... There were three or four thousand of these in the Scots’ army, armed only with swords and targets; and in their belts some of them had a pistol, but no musquets at that time among them.[40]

Here again there appears to be evidence of the plaid, under the designation of “short cloak,” as a separate garment, which, taken in conjunction with Taylor’s description in 1618, affords a strong presumption that its use, along with, but detached from, kilt or trews, was quite common.

In the act and decreet in favour of Thomas M’Kenzie of Pluscardin against a band of Highlanders who had plundered him and his tenants in the month of June 1649, there are enumerated as among the articles taken away or destroyed:—