Old and rare Scottish tartans

by Donald William Stewart

Here we have two distinct forms of dress—that of the men, the kilt or the belted plaid, and that of the “chief Commanders,” who “were right well mounted of their gear; with brogues, trues, and pirnie plaides.”

But perhaps the most striking evidence that two forms of dress were in use in the Highlands at this time is that supplied by the supporters of the arms of Skene of that Ilk. The blazon of the supporters in the Lyon Register is:—

On the dexter by a highland man in his proper garb holding a skene with his right hand in a guarding posture, and on the sinister be another in a servill habit his target on the left arm and the darlach by his side.[46]

In the Introduction to the Nisbet Plates,[47] the work from which the illustration is taken, it is pointed out that in the Nisbet MS. the description of the supporters runs as follows:—

Supported on the dexter by a highland gentleman in his proper garb, holding a skein with his right hand in a guarding posture, and on the sinister by another highlandman in a servill habit, with his target on his left arme and his dorloch be his side.[48]

It is impossible to conceive of evidence of a more conclusive and satisfactory character than that here adduced of the existence of both modes of dress at this period and of the rank of the respective wearers. The original illustration is the work of Robert Wood, an Edinburgh engraver, and in Mr Ross’s Opinion was executed, and Alexander Nisbet’s description above quoted written, 1695-1704.[49]

The Grameid, written in 1691, contains many references to the clothing and uniforms of the Highland army serving under Viscount Dundee. From the shoulder of Keppoch “hung the tartan plaid.” The inhabitants of the Hebrides are clothed “in yellow and blue.” Dundee, addressing the leaders, bids them “draw out your clans in their saffron array upon the plain,” and speaks of “the plaided race of Grampian giants.” General Mackay is represented as concluding “that he had subdued the tartaned bands of ancient Albion.” A most explicit description is that of the followers of Glengarry, “three hundred illustrious youths in the first flower of vigorous manhood, each of whom a tartan garb covers, woven with Phrygian skill in triple stripe, and as a garment clothes their broad chests and flanks. A helmet defends the temples of the men. A coloured plaid veils their shoulders, and otherwise they are naked.... Following him closely comes his brother Allan, the brave, with a hundred men all clothed in garments interwoven with the red stripe, their brawny calves bound with the red buskin.” Of Locheil, the poet says, “his tartan hose are gartered round his calf.” M’Martin in “variegated array advances with lofty mien”; the garter ribbons “hanging at his leg were dyed with Corycian saffron, and with the tint of the Tyrian shell, as was his plaid.” Of Mac Lean of Duart and his brother Alexander “the flowing plaid with yellow stripe covers the shoulders of both the brothers.” Mac Neill of Barra “displays as many colours woven into his plaid as the rainbow in the clouds shows in the sunlight.” The Mac Leods of Raasay advance “with plumed heads erect, and shoulders covered with girded plaid.” The Dougals of Craignish “all carry the brazen-hilted sword, and wear the girded plaid.” “The whole plaided forces of the Highland chiefs, both horse and foot, the entire body take post.” Dundee beholds his “bands gleaming with brass, and admires the companies in their brilliant colours, and is refreshed by the sharp note of the pipe.” The “tartaned host” pours itself out upon the field. In sight of their opponents the Highland warriors “draw their swords, and, extended on the plain, they move in ordered ranks; they cast their brogues of bull’s hide, and make a pile of their plaids, and thus stripped, prepare for the battle.” General Mackay takes counsel how he “will overwhelm the tartaned lines of the target-bearing Scot”; while the poet writes of the march of his opponents, “the whole body of the Highlanders is formed into one column, and forthwith the cavalry mount their horses, and the whole plaided army, with floating banners, went forth from the deserted camp into the open plain.”[50]

It appears from various references that the trews and the belted plaid were sometimes worn together. On a powder-horn which belonged to the late James Drummond, R.S.A., and now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh, there are figures in the Highland dress, and one of these seems to illustrate this mode. As to the age of the relic, Mr Drummond, in a communication to the Society in April 1872, gave various reasons for believing it to have been the property of Sir George Mackenzie of Tarbat, who was born in 1630. Again, in an extract from a MS. stated to have been in the possession of Dr. Mac Lean, Oban, giving an account of the battle of Killiecrankie, it is stated that John Macrae of Inversheil, having been struck in the thigh by a musket shot—