When they travel on foot, the plaid is tied on the breast with a bodkin of bone or wood, (just as the spina wore by the Germans, according to the description of C. Tacitus;) the plaid is tied round the middle with a leather belt; it is pleated from the belt to the knee very nicely; this dress for footmen is found much easier and lighter than breeches, or trowis.
The ancient dress wore by the women, and which is yet wore by some of the vulgar, called arisad, is a white plade, having a few small stripes of black, blew, and red; it reached from the neck to the heels, and 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 an hundred marks value; it was broad as any ordinary pewter plate, the whole curiously engraven with various animals, &c. There was a lesser buckle which was wore in the middle of the larger, and above two ounces weight; it had in the center a large piece of chrystal, or some finer stone, and this was set all round with several finer stones of a lesser size.
The plad being pleated all round, was tied with a belt below the breast; the belt was of leather, and several pieces of silver intermix’d with the leather like a chain. The lower end of the belt has a piece of plate about eight inches long, and three in breadth, curiously engraven; the end of which was adorned with fine stones, or pieces of red corral. They wore sleeves of scarlet cloth, clos’d at the end as mens vests, with gold lace round ’em, having plate buttons set with fine stones. The head dress was a fine kerchief of linen strait about the head, hanging down the back taper-wise; a large lock of hair hangs down their cheeks above their breast, the lower end tied with a knot of ribbands.
The ancient way of fighting was by set battles, and for arms some had broad two handed swords, and head-pieces, and others bows and arrows. When all their arrows were spent, they attack’d one another with sword in hand. Since the invention of guns, they aere very early accustomed to use them, and carry their pieces with them wherever they go: they likewise learn to handle the broad sword, and target. The chief of each tribe advances with his followers within shot of the enemy, having first laid aside their upper garments; and after one general discharge, they attack them with sword in hand, having their target on their left hand, (as they did at Kelicranky) which soon brings the matter to an issue, and verifies the observation made of ’em by our historians,
Aut mors cito, aut victoria læta.
The following is taken from Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland, written by Captain Burt, an English officer of Engineers, engaged under Marshal Wade on the military roads through the Highlands, begun in the year 1726:—
The Highland dress consists of a bonnet made of thrum without a brim, a short coat, a waistcoat, longer by five or six inches, short stockings, and brogues, or pumps without heels. By the way, they cut holes in their brogues, though new made, to let out the water, when they have far to go and rivers to pass: this they do to preserve their feet from galling.
Few besides gentlemen wear the trowze,—that is, the breeches and stockings all of one piece, and drawn on together; over this habit they wear a plaid, which is usually three yards long and two breadths wide, and the whole garb is made of chequered tartan, or plaiding: this, with the sword and pistol, is called a full dress, and, to a well-proportioned man, with any tolerable air, it makes an agreeable figure; but this you have seen in London, and it is chiefly their mode of dressing when they are in the Lowlands, or when they make a neighbouring visit, or go anywhere on horseback; but when those among them who travel on foot, and have not attendants to carry them over the waters, they vary it into the quelt, which is a manner I am about to describe.
The common habit of the ordinary Highlanders is far from being acceptable to the eye: with them a small part of the plaid, which is not so large as the former, is set in folds and girt round the waist, to make of it a short petticoat that reaches half way down the thigh, and the rest is brought over the shoulders, and then fastened before, below the neck, often with a fork, and sometimes with a bodkin or sharpened piece of stick, so that they make pretty nearly the appearance of the poor women in London when they bring their gowns over their heads to shelter them from the rain. In this way of wearing the plaid, they have sometimes nothing else to cover them, and are often barefoot; but some I have seen shod with a kind of pumps, made out of a raw cowhide, with the hair turned outward, which being ill made, the wearer’s foot looked something like those of a rough-footed hen or pigeon: these are called quarrants, and are not only offensive to the sight, but intolerable to the smell of those who are near them. The stocking rises no higher than the thick of the calf, and from the middle of the thigh to the middle of the leg is a naked space, which, being exposed to all weathers, becomes tanned and freckled. This dress is called the quelt; and, for the most part, they wear the petticoat so very short, that in a windy day, going up a hill, or stooping, the indecency of it is plainly discovered.
I have observed before that the plaid serves the ordinary people for a cloak by day and bedding at night: by the latter it imbibes so much perspiration, that no one day can free it from the filthy smell; and even some of better than ordinary appearance, when the plaid falls from the shoulder, or otherwise requires to be re-adjusted, while you are talking with them, toss it over again, as some people do the knots of their wigs, which conveys the offence in whiffs that are intolerable;—of this they seem not to be sensible, for it is often done only to give themselves airs.