The bonnet, of which there were various patterns, completed the national garb, and those who could afford had also, as essential accompaniments, a dirk, with a knife and fork stuck in the side of the sheath, and sometimes a spoon, together with a pair of steel pistols.

The garb, however, differed materially in quality and in ornamental display, according to the rank or ability of the wearer. The short coat and waistcoat worn by the wealthy, were adorned with silver buttons, tassels, embroidery, or lace, according to the taste of the wearer or fashion of the times, and even “among the better and more provident of the lower ranks,” as General Stewart remarks, silver buttons were frequently found, which had come down to them as an inheritance of long descent. The same author observes, that the reason for wearing these buttons, which were of a large size and of solid silver, was, that their value might defray the expense of a decent funeral in the event of the wearer falling in battle, or dying in a strange country and at a distance from his friends. The officers of Mackay’s and Munroe’s Highland regiments, who served under Gustavus Adolphus in the wars of 1626 and 1638, in addition to rich buttons, wore a gold chain round the neck, to secure the owner, in case of being wounded or taken prisoner, good treatment, or as payment for future ransom.[472]

Although shoe buckles now form a part of the Highland costume, they were unknown in the Highlands 150 years ago. The ancient Highlanders did not wear neckcloths. Their shirts were of woollen cloth, and as linen was long expensive, a considerable time elapsed before linen shirts came into general use. We have heard an old and intelligent Highlander remark, that rheumatism was almost, if not wholly, unknown in the Highlands until the introduction of linen shirts.

It is observed by General Stewart, that “among the circumstances which influenced the military character of the Highlanders, their peculiar garb was conspicuous, which, by its freedom and lightness, enabled them to use their limbs, and to handle their arms with ease and celerity, and to move with great speed when employed with either cavalry or light infantry. In the wars of Gustavus Adolphus, in the civil wars of Charles I., and on various other occasions, they were often mixed with the cavalry, affording to detached squadrons the incalculable advantage of support from infantry, even in their most rapid movements.” “I observed,” says the author of ‘Memoirs of a Cavalier,’ speaking of the Scots army in 1640, “I observed that these parties had always some foot with them, and yet if the horses galloped or pushed on ever so forward, the foot were as forward as they, which was an extraordinary advantage. These were those they call Highlanders; they would run on foot with all their arms, and all their accoutrements, and kept very good order too, and kept pace with the horses, let them go at what rate they would.”

The dress of the women seems to require some little notice. Till marriage, or till they arrived at a certain age, they went with the head bare, the hair being tied with bandages or some slight ornament, after which they wore a head-dress, called the curch, made of linen, which was tied under the chin; but when a young woman lost her virtue and character she was obliged to wear a cap, and never afterwards to appear bare-headed. Martin’s observations on the dress of the females of the western islands may be taken as giving a pretty correct idea of that worn by those of the Highlands. “The women wore sleeves of scarlet cloth, closed at the end as men’s vests, with gold lace round them, having plate buttons set with fine stones. The head-dress was a fine kerchief of linen, strait about the head. The plaid was tied before on the breast, with a buckle of silver or brass, according to the quality of the person. I have seen some of the former of one hundred merks value; the whole curiously engraved with various animals. There was a lesser buckle which was worn in the middle of the larger. It had in the centre a large piece of crystal, or some finer stone, of a lesser size.” The plaid, which, with the exception of a few stripes of red, black, or blue, was white, reached from the neck almost to the feet; it was plaited, and was tied round the waist by a belt of leather, studded with small pieces of silver.

The antiquity of the tartan has been called in question by several writers, who have maintained that it is of modern invention; but they have given no proofs in support of their assertion. In the [appendix to this chapter] it will be seen that, as far back as the years 1538 and 1597, mention is made of this species of cloth; and in the account of charge and discharge of John, Bishop of Glasgow, Treasurer to King James III. in 1471, the following entries occur:—

“An elne and ane halve of blue tartane
to lyne his gowne of cloth of gold,		£1 10 6
“Four elne and ane halve of tartane for a
sparwurt abun his credill, price
ane elne, 10s.,		 2 5 0
“Halve ane elne of duble tartane to lyne
collars to her lady the Quene, price
8 shillings.”

It is not at all improbable that Joseph’s well-known “coat of many colours” may have been somewhat of the same nature as tartan; and the writer of the article Tartan in Chambers’s Encyclopædia says, “this is probably the oldest pattern ever woven; at all events the so-called shepherd’s plaid of Scotland is known to have a very remote antiquity amongst the eastern nations of the world.” It has been proved by Logan, from Diodorus, Pliny, and other ancient writers, that variegated cloth was in common use for purposes of dress among the continental Celts.

When the great improvements in the process of dyeing by means of chemistry are considered, it will appear surprising, that without any knowledge of this art, and without the substances now employed, the Highlanders should have been able, from the scanty materials which their country afforded, to produce the beautiful and lasting colours which distinguish the old Highland tartan, some specimens of which are understood still to exist, and which retain much of their original brilliancy of colouring. “In dyeing and arranging the various colours of their tartans, they displayed no small art and taste, preserving at the same time the distinctive patterns (or sets, as they were called) of the different clans, tribes, families, and districts. Thus, a Macdonald, a Campbell, a Mackenzie, &c., was known by his plaid; and, in like manner, the Athole, Glenorchy, and other colours of different districts, were easily distinguishable. Besides those general divisions, industrious housewives had patterns, distinguished by the set, superior quality, and fineness of cloth, or brightness and variety of the colours. In those times, when mutual attachment and confidence subsisted between the proprietors and occupiers of land in the Highlands, the removal of tenants, except in remarkable cases, rarely occurred; and, consequently, it was easy to preserve and perpetuate any particular set or pattern, even among the lower orders.”[473]

The Highlanders, in common with most other nations, were much addicted to superstition. The peculiar aspect of their country, in which nature appears in its wildest and most romantic features, exhibiting at a glance sharp and rugged mountains, with dreary wastes—wide-stretched lakes, and rapid torrents, over which the thunders and lightnings, and tempests, and rains, of heaven, exhaust their terrific rage, wrought upon the creative powers of the imagination, and from these appearances, the Highlanders “were naturally led to ascribe every disaster to the influence of superior powers, in whose character the predominating feature necessarily was malignity towards the human race.”[474]