Just as it doth their sheep protect.
William Sacheverell, governor of the Isle of Man, made an excursion in 1688 through the Isle of Mull, and thence to Icolmkill. An account of this he published in 1702, in which he describes from observation, the dress, armour, and appearance of the Highlanders.
During my stay, I generally observed the men to be large-bodied, stout, subtle, active, patient of cold and hunger. There appeared in all their actions a certain generous air of freedom, and contempt of those trifles, luxury and ambition, which we so servilely creep after. They bound their appetites by their necessities, and their happiness consists, not in having much, but in coveting little. The women seem to have the same sentiments with the men; though their habits were mean, and they had not our sort of breeding, yet in many of them there was a natural beauty and a graceful modesty, which never fails of attracting. The usual outward habit of both sexes is the pladd; the women’s much finer, the colours more lively, and the squares larger than the men’s, and put me in mind of the ancient Picts. This serves them for a veil, and covers both head and body. The men wear theirs after another manner, especially when designed for ornament: it is loose and flowing, like the mantles our painters give their heroes. Their thighs are bare, with brawny muscles. Nature has drawn all her strokes bold and masterly; what is covered is only adapted to necessity—a thin brogue on the foot, a short buskin of various colours on the leg, tied above the calf with a striped pair of garters. What should be concealed is hid with a large shot-pouch, on each side of which hangs a pistol and a dagger, as if they found it necessary to keep those parts well guarded. A round target on their backs, a blue bonnet on their heads, in one hand a broadsword, and a musquet in the other. Perhaps no nation goes better armed; and I assure you they will handle them with bravery and dexterity, especially the sword and target, as our veteran regiments found to their cost at Killiecrankie.
The following minute description of Highland dress is contained in Martin’s Western Isles of Scotland:—
The first habit wore by persons of distinction in the islands, was the leni-croich, from the Irish word leni, which signifies a shirt, and croch, saffron, because their shirt was died with that herb: the ordinary number of ells used to make this robe was twenty-four; it was the upper garb, reaching below the knees, and was tied with a belt round the middle; but the islanders have laid it aside about a hundred years ago.
They now generally use coat, wastcoat, and breeches, as elsewhere, and on their heads wear bonnets made of thick cloth, some blew, some black, and some gray.
Many of the people wear trowis. Some have them very fine woven like stockings of those made of cloath; some are coloured and others striped; the latter are as well shap’d as the former, lying close to the body from the middle downwards, and tied round with a belt above the haunches. There is a square piece of cloth which hangs down before. The measure for shaping the trowis is a stick of wood whose length is a cubit, and that divided into the length of a finger, and half a finger; so that it requires more skill to make it, than the ordinary habit.
The shooes anciently wore, was a piece of the hide of a deer, cow, or horse, with the hair on, being tied behind and before with a point of leather. The generality now wear shooes having one thin sole only, and shaped after the right and left foot; so that what is for one foot, will not serve the other.
But persons of distinction wear the garb in fashion in the south of Scotland.
The plad wore only by the men, is made of fine wool, the thread as fine as can be made of that kind; it consists of divers colours, and there is a great deal of ingenuity requir’d in sorting the colours, so as to be agreeable to the nicest fancy. For this reason the women are at great pains, first to give an exact pattern of the plade upon a piece of wood, having the number of every thread of the stripe on it. The length of it is commonly seven double ells; the one end hangs by the middle over the left arm, the other going round the body, hangs by the end over the left arm also. The right hand above it is to be at liberty to do any thing upon occasion. Every isle differs from each other in their fancy of making plaids, as to the stripes in breadth and colours. This humour is as different thro’ the main land of the Highlands, insofar that they who have seen those places, is able at the first view of a man’s plaid, to guess the place of his residence.