The plaid is the undress of the ladies; and to a genteel woman, who adjusts it with a good air, is a becoming veil. But as I am pretty sure you never saw one of them in England, I shall employ a few words to describe it to you. It is made of silk or fine worsted, chequered with various lively colours, two breadths wide, and three yards in length; it is brought over the head, and may hide or discover the face according to the wearer’s fancy or occasion: it reaches to the waist behind; one corner falls as low as the ankle on one side; and the other part, in folds, hangs down from the opposite arm.

The ordinary girls wear nothing upon their heads until they are married or have a child, except sometimes a fillet of red or blue coarse cloth, of which they are very proud; but often their hair hangs down over the forehead like that of a wild colt. If they wear stockings, which is very rare, they lay them in plaits one above another, from the ancle up to the calf, to make their legs appear as near as they can in the form of a cylinder; but I think I have seen something like this among the poor German refugee women and the Moorish men in London.

Mr. Gough, in his additions to Camden’s Britannia, gives the following accurate description of the Highland dress and armour, as they were to be found in the district of Breadalbane previous to the proscription of the dress:—

The dress of the men is the brechan or plaid, 12 or 13 yards of narrow stuff wrapped round the middle, and reaching to the knees, often girt round the waist, and in cold weather covering the whole body, even on the open hills, all night, and fastened on the shoulders with a brooch; short stockings tied below the knee; truish, a genteeler kind of breeches, and stockings of one piece; cueranen, a laced shoe of skin, with the hairy side out, rather disused; kilt or fillibeg, g. d. little plaid, or short petticoat, reaching to the knees, substituted of late to the longer end of the plaid; and lastly, the pouch of badger or other skins, with tassels hanging before them.

The women’s dress is the kerch, or white linen pinned round behind like a hood, and over the foreheads of married women, whereas maidens wear only a snood or ribbon round their heads; the tanac or plaid fastened over their shoulders, and drawn over their heads in bad weather; a plaited long stocking, called ossan, is their high dress.

The following detail of the complete equipment of a Highland chief was communicated by a Highland gentleman to Charles Grant, Vicomte de Vaux, by whom it was printed in his Mémoires de la Maison de Grant, in 1796:—

No.1.A full-trimmed bonnet.
2.A tartan jacket, vest, kilt, and cross-belt.
3.A tartan belted plaid.
4.——— pair of hose, made up [of cloth].
5.A tartan pair of stockings, ditto, with yellow garters.
6.Two pair of brogs.
7.A silver-mounted purse and belt.
8.A target with spear.
9.A broadsword.
10.A pair of pistols and bullet-mould.
11.A dirk, knife, fork, and belt.

FOOTNOTES:

[465] For much of the matter in this chapter we must confess ourselves indebted to General Stewart’s admirable and interesting Sketches of the Highlanders, a well-stored repository of information on all points connected with the ancient manners and customs of the Highlands.

[466] Stewart’s Sketches, vol. i. pp. 7, 8.