From the middle of their thigh to the foot they have no covering for the leg, clothing themselves with a mantle instead of an upper garment, and a shirt dyed with saffron. They always carry a bow and arrows, a very broad sword with a small halbert, a large dagger, sharpened on one side only, but very sharp, under the belt. In time of war they cover their whole body with a shirt of mail of iron rings, and fight in that. The common people of the Highland Scots rush into battle, having their body clothed with a linen garment manifoldly sewed and painted or daubed with pitch, with a covering of deerskin.
In another place he speaks much to the same purport.
In the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, in August 1538, we find the following entries regarding a Highland dress made for King James V., on the occasion of that monarch making a hunting excursion into the Highlands:—
| Item in the first for ii elnis ane quarter elne of variant cullorit velvet to be the Kingis Grace are schort Heland coit price of the elne vilib summa | xiiilib xs. |
| Item for iii elnis quarter elne of grene taffatys to lyne the said coit with, price of the elne xs summa | xxxiis vid. |
| Item for iii elnis of Heland tartane to be hoiss to the Kingis Grace, price of the elne iiiis iiiid summa | xiiis. |
| Item for xv elnis of holland claith to be syde Heland sarkis to the Kingis Grace, price of the elne viiis summa | vilib. |
| Item for sewing and making of the said sarkis | ixs. |
| Item for twa unce of silk to sew thame | xs. |
| Item for iiii elnis of rubanis to the handis of thame | iis. |
Letter written by John Elder, a Highland priest, to Henry VIII. (1543).
Moreover, wherefor they call us in Scotland Reddshankes, and in your Graces dominion of England, roghe footide Scottis, Pleas it your Maiestie to understande, that we of all people can tollerat, suffir, and away best with colde, for boithe somer and wyntir (excepte when the froest is most vehemonte), goynge alwaies bair leggide and bair footide, our delite and pleasure is not onely in huntynge of redd deir, wolfes, foxes, and graies, whereof we abounde, and have greate plentie, but also in rynninge, leapinge, swymmynge, shootynge, and thrawinge of dartis: therfor, in so moche as we use and delite so to go alwaies, the tendir delicatt gentillmen of Scotland call us Reddshankes. And agayne in wynter, whene the froest is mooste vehement (as I have saide) which we can not suffir bair footide, so weill as snow, whiche can never hurt us whene it cummes to our girdills, we go a huntynge, and after that we have slayne redd deir, we flaye of the skyne, bey and bey, and settinge of our bair foote on the insyde therof, for neide of cunnyge shoemakers, by your Graces pardon, we play the sutters; compasinge and mesuringe so moche thereof, as shall retche up to our anclers, pryckynge the upper part therof also with holis, that the water may repas when it entres, and stretchide up with a stronge thwange of the same, meitand above our said ancklers, so, and please your noble Grace, we make our shoois: Therfor, we usinge such maner of shoois, the roghe hairie syde outwart, in your Graces dominion of England, we be callit roghe footide Scottis; which maner of schoois (and pleas your Highnes) in Latyne be called perones, whereof the poet Virgill makis mencioun, sayinge, That the olde auncient Latyns in tyme of warrs uside suche maner of schoos. And althoughe a great sorte of us Reddshankes go after this maner in our countrethe, yeit never the les, and pleas your Grace, when we come to the courte (the Kinges Grace our great master being alyve) waitinge on our Lordes and maisters, who also, for velvettis and silkis, be right well araide, we have as good garmentis as some of our fellowis whiche gyve attendaunce in the court every day.
John de Beaugué, a Frenchman, who wrote a history of the campaigns in Scotland in 1549, printed in Paris in 1556, states that, at the siege of Haddington, in 1549, “they (the Scottish army) were followed by the Highlanders, and these last go almost naked; they have painted waistcoats, and a sort of woollen covering, variously coloured.”
Lindsay of Pitscottie (wrote about 1573):—
The other pairts [of Scotland] northerne are full of mountaines, and very rud and homlie kynd of people doeth inhabite, which is called the Reidschankis or Wyld Scottis. They be clothed with ane mantle, with ane schirt saffroned after the Irisch manner, going bair-legged to the knee. Thair weapones ar bowis and dartes, with ane verie broad sword and ane dagger scharp onlie at the on edge.
John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, who published his work De origine, moribus et rebus gestis Scotorum at Rome in 1578, thus describes the arms and dress of the old Scots, which were still in his time used by the Highlanders and Islanders:—