Just as among the Scots we find two distinct tongues, so we likewise find two different ways of life and conduct. For some are born in the forests and mountains of the north, and these we call men of the Highland, but the others men of the Lowland. By foreigners the former are called Wild Scots, the latter householding Scots. The Irish tongue is in use among the former, the English tongue among the latter. One half of Scotland speaks Irish, and all these as well as the Islanders we reckon to belong to the Wild Scots. In dress, in the manner of their outward life, and in good morals, for example, these come behind the householding Scots.... From the mid-leg to the foot they go uncovered; their dress is, for an over garment, a loose plaid, and a shirt saffron-dyed. They are armed with bow and arrows, a broadsword, and a small halbert. They always carry in their belt a stout dagger, single-edged, but of the sharpest. In time of war they cover the whole body with a coat of mail, made of iron rings, and in it they fight. The common folk among the Wild Scots go out to battle with the whole body clad in a linen garment sewed together in patchwork, well daubed with wax or with pitch, and with an over-coat of deerskin. But the common people among our domestic Scots and the English fight in a woollen garment.[11]
From these and other passages in Major’s work it may be inferred that the chiefs and upper classes of the Highlands alone wore the plaid, or any woollen clothing whatever, and that the lower orders were prevented by poverty from obtaining luxuries of this sort. Writing of the clan battle at Perth in 1396, Major states:—
Thirty men, naked but for a doublet that hung from one side, made for the field of battle, armed with bow and double-axe; and these forthwith met the encounter of a like number, armed in the same fashion.... One of the combatants made his escape from the fight.... And there was not found any man who would take the place of the runaway; and ’twas no marvel, since to fight for your life, naked but for a plaid, is no trifle.[12]
In his account of the revolt of Alexander, Lord of the Isles, against the king, describing the Wild Scots, and particularly Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron, Major observes:—
They lead a life of blissful ease; from the poor people they take what they want in victual; bows they have, and quivers, and they have halberts of great sharpness, for their iron ore is good. They carry a stout dirk in their belts; they are often naked from the knee down. In winter for an over garment they wear a plaid.[13]
Perhaps the first indisputable reference to the Highland breacan occurs in the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland in August 1538:—
The Expensis on the Kingis Persoun Deliverit to Thomas Arthure.
| Item in the first for ij elnis ane quarter elne of variant cullorit velvet to be the Kingis Grace ane schort Heland coit price of the elne vjlib summa | xiijlib xs. |
| Item for iij elnis quarter elne of grene taffatyis to lyne the said coit with, price of the elne xs summa | xxxijs vjd. |
| Item for iij elnis of Heland tertane to be hoiss to the Kingis Grace, price of the elne iiijs iiijd summa | xiijs. |
| Item for xv elnis of holland claith to be syde Heland sarkis to the Kingis Grace, price of the elne viijs summa | vjlib. |
| Item for sewing and making of the said thre sarkis | ixs. |
| Item for twa vnce of silk to sew thame | xs. |
| Item for iiij elnis of rubeins to the handis of thame[14] | ijs. |
The costume thus consisted of a short “variant cullorit” Highland coat, tartan hose—that is, trews and stockings combined—and three “syde” or low-hanging Highland shirts (each of which, it would appear, contained five ells), with ties of ribbons at the cuffs. The trews, described in the extract as “hoiss,” extended from the waist to the foot, and were tied with a garter below the knee.