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A short hiostory of the Scottish dress


A Short History Of The Scottish Dress:
The Saffron Tunic and the Tartan Plaid

John Major gives our earliest detailed description of the
dress worm by the most remote of the people: 'From the
middle of the 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 and 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 wild Scots rush
into battle having their bodies clothed with a linen
garment sewed together in patchwork and daubed with pitch,
with a covering of deerskin.' (1521)

Here again, there is no mention of tartan and their paids
are still made of deerskin. Later he adds: 'Their legs
are frequently naked under the thigh; in winter they carry
a mantle for an upper garment.' Their dress was simple
and it might have been this that was worn by the people of
Galloway at the Battle of the Standard. They would
certainly have appeared to a refined Englishman as
'unclothed'.

Pierre de Ronsard writes of the marriage of James V and
Princess Madeleine: 'Ces deux grands Reys, l'un en robe
francoyse, et l'autre revestu d'une mantle escossoise.'
(1537) We know that James V wore tartan in the form of a
coat and trews from the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer
of Scotland: '2 1/4 ells of various coloured velvet for one
short Highland coat; 3 ells of Highland 'tertane'
[tartan?] to be hose; 15 ells of Holland clothe to be long
Highland shirts.' (1538) (The old Scots terms have been
translated into modern English.)

This is the first reference to 'Highland Tartan', and from
this we might assume that the use of tartan was
now spreading to the Highlands, or that Highland had a
different meaning from what it has today. It seems he
wore for hunting a tartan coat and tartan trews since hose
meant 'a species of pantaloons fitting closely to the
limbs and attached to the waistcoat by strings or laces
tipped with metal points'. (Dr. C.B. Gunn, RECORDS OF THE
BARON COURT OF STITCHILL, 1905) Nothing is said of a
plaid but this, we learnt from Ronsard, he probably had.

Compared with the description by John Major--and others
written in later years--this is certainly a very civilized
form of the costume generally worn at this time in the
Highlands.

James V was very fond of hunting not only in the North
Highlands but also in the Southern Uplands. Lindsay of
Pitscottie tells us how he 'made proclamation to all
lords, barons, gentlemen, landward-men, and free-holders,
to compear at Edinburgh, with a month's victual, to pass
with the king to daunton the thieves of Teviotdale, etc.,
and also warned all gentlemen that had good dogs to bring
them, that he might hunt in the said country; the Earl of
Argyll, the Earl of Huntly, the Earl of Atholl, and all
the rest of Highlands did, and brought their hounds with
them, to hunt with the king'. Next year he went to hunt in
Atholl.

The Highlands and Southern Uplands were looked upon as
great hunting areas and the old Scottish dress was ideally
suited to this sport, being light and free.

It has never been decided to what extent of the country
the name 'Highland' applied. The above mentions the Earl
of Huntly as being a Highlander, and in 1385, when Robert
II was at Stirling, he was considered to be in the
Highlands. That the term covered a far greater area than
today is certain. Since the hills were the hunting
grounds, there is a strong suggestion that it referred to
all hilly country, and it is likely that the word
'highland' was often used to denote 'hunting'. In old
documents an 'uplandis man' meant a man who lived in the
country as distinguished from one who lived in town. In
the Statute (1594), 'for punishment of theft, oppression,
the barbarous cruelties, etc., of the clans and surnames
inhabiting the Highlands and Isles', after naming the
clans and surnames, there is added 'and others inhabiting
the shires of Argyll, Bute, Dumbarton, Stirling, Perth,
Forfar, Aberdeen, Banf, Elgin, Forres, Nairne, Inverness,
Cromarty, etc.'.

The suitability of the dress for hunting was pointed out
by John Elder, a priest, in a letter he wrote to King Henry
VIII (1543). 'Moreover, wherefore they call us in
Scotland Redshanks, and in your Grace's dominion of England
rough footed Scots. Please it your Majesty to understand,
that we of all people can tolerate, suffer, and alway best
with cold, for both summer and winter, except when the
frost is most vehement, going always bare legged and bare
foot, our delight and pleasure is not only in hunting of
red deer, wolves, foxes, and graies [badgers], whereof we
abound and have great plenty, but also in running,
leaping, swimming, shooting and throwing of darts:
therefore in so much as we use and delight so to go always,
the tender, delicate gentlemen of Scotland call us
Redshanks....And although a great sort of us Redshanks go
after this manner in our country, yet nevertheless, and
please your Grace, when we come to the Court (the King's
Grace our great master being alive) waiting on our Lords
and masters, who also, for velvet and silks be right well
arrayed, we have as good garments as some of our fellows
which give attendance in the court every day.'

Here it will seem that the dress in its old form was not
considered suitable for 'town wear'. To attend court
'bare legged and bare foot' would shatter that Lothian
culture.

The 16th century is most prolific in references to
tartans, plaids, detailed descriptions of the dress. It is
now possible to build up a better picture of its
composition and of its general popularity throughout
Scotland.

From the BURGH COURT BOOK OF ELGIN, we find 'ane plaid of
ten ells price 20s' (1543), 'touching the claim of one
tartan plaid clamed by Andrew Bruce from Janet Leslie...'
(1544). Three years later: 'Murrell Gowre was decerned to
pay Sir William Sutherland, person of May, 4s. for one
plaid' (1547) and next year 'Sanders Duff was decerned to
deliver a plaid to John Baxstair as good as when he got
it' (1548). In December of the following year 'Master
Slaitter was decerned to deliver one tartan plaid to William
Adam' (1549).

Meanwhile, the Provincial Council held by the Prelates and
Clergy at Edinburgh was doing its best to quieten the
dress of its members: 'The clergy wear only round birettas
and shall always take off their caps in churches,
especially in choirs and in time of divine service and not
dress, as for example, in top-boots and double-breasted or
oddly-cut coats, or of forbidden colours, as yellow, green
and such kinds of parti-colour.' (1549)

Monsieur Jean de Beauque, when describing the Scottish army
at the seige of Haddington, says: 'Several wild Scots
followed them [the Scottish Army] and they were naked
except their stained shirts, and a certain light covering
made of various colours; carrying large bows and similar
swords and bucklers to the others.' (1549)

About this time it was not usual to let these 'wild Scots'
go abroad in their 'stained shirt'. An Act of Privy
Council was passed for the levy of two regiments of
Highlanders for service in France. The Earl of Huntly was
directed to see that the men were 'substantiouslie
accompturit with jack and plait, steillbonett, sword,
bucklair, new hoiss and new doublett of canvouse at the
lest, and slevis of plait or spenttis, and ane speir of
sax elne lang or thair'by' (1552).

In the more primitive districts, the dress was still in the
form of a long tunic repeated called a shirt. It appears
formerly to have been dyed a saffron colour, but the
plaid, or rug of skins, is slowly being replaced by tartan
material. There is a contemporary French woodcut called
'La Sauvage d'Escosse' (1562), showing a woman draped in a
large cloak of sheepskins and a chief wearing a quaintly
patterned mantle with fringes.

Pierre de Brantome tells us that Mary, Queen of Scots,
insisted more than once on appearing at the French Court
'habillee a la sauvage (comme je, l'ay veue) et a la
barbaresque mode des sauvages de son pays' (1557). She
must have caused a sensation if she looked like the woman
in the woodcut!

It is now generally accepted that this picture is
fanciful, but is it really so when we read from the accounts
of the celebrations at the baptism of King James VI at
Stirling that from twenty-eight goat skins 'was maid four
hieland wyld mens cleithings from heid to fute' (1566)?

From the Records of Inverness, we get many short
references to plaids and tartans, some of them the first to
give actual colours: 'Gilbert Gollan is decernit...to pay
to Arche Anderson or Hendre Kat eldar his factour...an
gude sufficient plad of V double elnis' (1561). John
Cuthbert fails to pay to John Coupland 'ane tartane blew
and greyne in compleit payment' (1561). 'Jane Chapman
decernit to content and pay to William McFaill, son to
Andro MakFaill, alias Textor, ane pair of new schort hois
or ellis ane pair Heland trewis' (1563). Fynla
McConylleir 'to pay to John Bernis within the town of
Pertht the sum of viij gude and sufficient pladdis, fyve
dowbill elne in ilke [each] plad' (1566). Dunsleye is
sued for payment for 'an tartan blak and quheit
[white]...and ane quheit pled quhilk he gaif ane tartan
for' (1566). John Reid, younger son to Sir John Reid, is
ordered to pay to David Johnson of Perth xljs. for three
elns and a half of tartan cloth and a blue bonnet (1567).
Bredach Uykermit damages 'ane tartan' (1567) worth five
marks. Andrew McRobe VcWannycht* is brought to court for
'drawin sowrd and dingyne at him [Willie Cuthbert] and
cutting of his tartan pled' (1568). Johne Morison claims
as son and heir of Donald Morison 'ane blew bonnat, ane
grey coit [coat], ane tartan of blak and quheit, ane pair
of Heland hois' (1569), which has been withheld from him.
John Bur travels to Perth from Inverness and Charles
MacGregor steals from his pack 16 1/2 double ells of
plaiding and 'ane coit of tartan price xxxs' (1573).

* footnote: 'Son of the son is mac mhic (Mc Vc). Thus John,
son of Donald, son of Alan is Iain mac Dhomnuill mhic
Ailein (Ian McConnell VcAllan, as a scribe might
corrupt it.)'- Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk, Bt.

These short excerpts give a glimpse of the many forms in
which tartan and the so-called Highland dress was worn in
the Lowlands. An old Lowland poem called 'Sym and his
Bruder' mentions 'Twa tabartis of the Tartane' (1568).

Although tartan is certainly popular amongst the more
humble of the Lowland folk and has penetrated into the
Highlands, the 'wild Scot' still appears to cling to his
saffron shirt, for Lindsay of Pitscottie says: 'They be
clothed in one mantle, with one shirt saffroned after the
Irish manner, going barelegged to the knee.' (1573)

In the Acts and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the
Kirk of Scotland, the following ordinance is recorded at
the Tolbooth in Edinburgh: 'We think...unseemly...all
using of plaids in the Kirk by Readers and Ministers,'
(1575) and Aberdeen issued orders to prevent the wearing of
plaids by 'burgesses' and 'deakins' of craft 'from the feast
of Saint Martin next to come in any time there-after within
the burgh' (1576).

With such orders and opinions it is easy to see why tartan
had difficulty in surviving in the towns. Repeatedly it
was made quite clear that all good citizens should dress
in more somber clothing. But the unpopularity of this is
also quite clear by the repetition of these sumptuary laws
during the next century or so. It must also have been
most annoying to the city fathers and clergy that Royalty
did not back them up for the inventories of the Royal
Wardrobe and Jewels of Queen Mary have these entries: 'Ane
blue hieland mantill' and 'ane quhite hieland mantill'
(1578).

Bishop Lesley gives an excellent description of the older
form of the dress: 'Their clothing was made for use (being
chiefly for war) and not for ornament. All, both nobles
and common people, wore mantles of one sort (except that
the nobles preferred those of several colours). These
were long and flowing, but capable of being neatly gathered
up at pleasure into folds. I am inclined to believe that
they were the same as those to which the ancients gave the
name of brachae. Wrapped up in these for their only
covering, they would sleep comfortably. They had also
shaggy rugs, such as the Irish use at the present day,
some fitted for a journey, others to be placed on a bed.
The rest of their garments consisted of a short woolen
jacket, with sleeves open below for the convenience of
throwing darts, and a covering for the thighs of the
simplest kind, more for decency than for show or defence
against cold. They made also of linen very large shirts,
with numerous folds and wide sleeves, which flowed abroad
loosely to their knees. These, the rich coloured with
saffron and others smeared with some grease to preserve
them longer clean among the toils and exercises of a camp,
which they held it of the highest consequence to practise
continually. In the manufacture of these, ornament and a
certain attention to taste were not altogether neglected, and
they joined the different parts of their shirts very neatly
with silk thread, chiefly of a red or green colour.' (1578)

In another part, he refers to the Gaelic as the old
Scottish language, and says they 'have hitherto kept the
institutions of their elders so constantly, that not only
more than two thousand years they have kept the tongue
hale and uncorrupt, but likewise the manner of clothing and
living, that old form they unchanged absolutely have
kept. In this such a reverend fear and dread they have
lest they offend in things of honesty, that if their
Princes, or of their nobility, visit the King's Court,
they array themselves of a courtly manner, elegantly; when
they return to their country, casting off courtly decore,
in all haste, they clothe themselves of their country
manner.' (1578)

Here again, it is seen that the older and more crude form
of the Scottish dress is considered as suitable only for
country wear. This style of dress was still very
primitive but it was improving. No longer was it mainly a
long tunic. The tartan plaid was being adopted by the
wealthier of them; the rug--probably of sheep or goat
skin--was still used, but jackets of sorts had been
introduced. Slowly the modern form of Highland dress was
taking shape. It was admirable for fording streams and
walking through wet heather, but certainly not suitable
for town wear, especially when one remembers the steep
stairs and sloping wynds of Edinburgh! This seems to have
been the type of dress that James V bought in 1538 but he
added trews!

Allan Ramsay of Inverness claimed twenty bolls of salt sold
for twenty white plaids. James Farquharson confesses to
selling unlawfully twenty-five plaids to an Edinburgh man
and John Dunbar of Inverness also is hauled over the coals
for selling plaids unlawfully. (1579)

From George Buchanan we find that the use of tartan was
growing very popular now in the Western Isles. It made
excellent camoflage: 'They delight in variegated garments,
especially stripes, and their favourite colours are purple
and blue. Their ancestors wore plaids of many colours
[there is no evidence of this] and numbers still retain
this custom, but the majority now in their dress prefer a
dark brown, imitating nearly the leaves of the heather,
that when lying upon the heath in the day, they may not be
discovered by the appearance of their clothes; in
these wrapped rather than covered, they brave the severest
storms in the open air, and sometimes lay themselves down
to sleep even in the midst of snow.' (1581)

'Thomas Purs, wobstar in Elgin, becom actit to work and
wyff to Patrick Rattray tuentie hand plaidis.' (1583)

The descriptions of the more primitive form of dress are
still very confusing: they tend to contradict one
another. From Nicolay d'Arfeville we understand that the
saffron tunic is still the main garment: 'Those who
inhabit Scotland to the South of the Grampian Mountains are
tolerably civilized and orderly, and speak the English
language; but those who inhabit the North are more rude,
homely and unruly, and for this reason are called "Wild".
They wear like the Irish a large and full shirt, coloured
with saffron, and over this a garment hanging to the knee,
of coarse wool, after the fashion of a cassock. They go
barehead, and let their hair grow very long, and wear
neither hose nor shoes, except some who have boots made in
an old-fashioned way, which come as high as their knees.'
(1583)

To many of the visitors to Scotland 'those who inhabit the
North' appear unruly and wild. Certainly their attire may
have been primitive but it is quite incorrect to suppose
that there was no discipline in the Highlands and that the
Law of the country did not extend to that area. This
common assumption--even by modern writers--is quite
refuted by the records of the Highland districts. It is
surprising to find that the justice administered was very
similar to that found in any Lowland town. The Inverary
Castle manuscripts confirm this.

There is a reference in the Charter of the lands of
Norraboll in Islay in favour of Hector Maclean, in which
it states that the feu duty was payable in the form of
sixty ells of cloth of white, black and green colours. The
recognized Hunting Tartan of the Macleans today contains
the colours white, black and green, but the arrangement of
them is taken from 'Vestiarium Scoticum' (1587), a list of
tartans produced in 1842 by the Stuart brothers, which is
generally accepted as pure imagination on their part, and
whose authors knew of this Charter. Later, the lands were
granted to Rory MacKenzie of Coigeach and the colours were
changed to white, black and grey. The Mackenzie tartan is
quite different, but then the Stuart brothers did not know
of the second charter. It is repeatedly claimed that here
is the first reference to clan tartan: it is difficult to
believe Hector Maclean would have consented to give his
'colours' to the Crown to dispose of as it wished.

What it does show is that the local people were now
weaving coloured cloth and its use was becoming more
general in these parts in place of the usual saffron. 'The
collection of these cumbrous produce rents must have
imposed a heavy burden on the Chamberlain and his
assistants....In 1541, however, there is a note attached
to the Morven rental to the effect that "all the martis,
cheis and mele are sauld for silver to the tennants of the
ground, as Kintyir is", from which we infer that, by this
date, the Crown Chamberlain had found means to commute the
produce rents into money on the spot'--Andrew McKerral,
'The Tacksman And His Holding', SCOTTISH HISTORICAL
REVIEW, April, 1947.

From the Register of St Andrews Kirk Session, we read that
a certain indiscreet Mr Andrew Alanis gave Margret Scott
'ane pair of plaidis and mony tymes silver and last xxxs'
as a bribe. (1589)

The saffron shirt is the common wear among the Highlands,
but there appears a reference in MS HISTORY OF THE GORDONS
which seems to point to a special yellow coat that the
chiefs wore in fights: 'In the meantime, one creeps out
under the shelter of some old ruins, and levels with his
piece at one of the Chanchattan cloathed in a yellow warr
coat (which, amongst them, is the badge of the Chieftanes
or heads of Clans).' (1591)

A body of auxiliaries from Scotland helped Red Hugh
O'Donnel, Lord of Tirconall, in Ulster against Queen
Elizabeth. These warriors were described by Peregrine
O'Clery as wearing 'a mottled garment with numerous colours
hanging in folds to the calf of the leg, with a girdle
round the loins over the garment' (1594).

'Andro Smith [of Moray] was indicted for
receiving...certane littit worsettis of the quhilk
worsettis thow maid ane tartan plaid to they wife,' (1595)
and John Campbell of Auchinryre has to pay yearly L10 Scots,
one gallon aquavite [whisky], one very good coloured cloak
and one common 'fyne hewed brahane [tartan plaid]' (1596).

Moryson in his ITINERARY says: 'The inferior sort of
citizen's wives, and the women of the country, did wear
cloaks made of a coarse stuff, of two or three colours, in
checker work, vulgarly called Ploddean.' (1598) From the
accounts of David Wedderburne of Dundee, we learn that
Lady Westhall bought his wife's plaid. (1598)

This is the period when the dress of the remoter districts
changed quickly. The warmer tartan plaid supersedes the
saffron tunic. Up to now, the costume has changed little
in those districts whose poor communications cut them off
from the 'culture of the Lothians', and the dictates of
the city fathers have had little influence on them.

Some influence it did have in that those people were quite
conscious that their clothes were hardly suitable for town
wear. As communications improved, so did their dress, and
especially amongst their nobility, who mostly wore the
fashions of the more cultured districts. That the towns
were fast forsaking the plaid is only true with regard to
the wealthy: to the very poor it was still their only
outer garment, and in some areas of the so-called Lowland
districts it formed their ONLY clothing.

Glasgow was not slow in trying to remove every trace; to
meet 'his Majestie' it is ordained that the freemen shall
not wear their 'blew bonnettis' (1600).

Thomas Dalgleis, burgess of Inverness, is ordered to pay to
Ferquhar MackAllister of 'Dunzcan croy, ane gray plaid, a
tartan, of five elnis doubil' (1603). So often are these
plaids stated to be five ell double. A Scots ell was 37
inches (in Dunkeld the old Scots ell is portrayed on the
corner of a house in the Square) and so these plaids were
very commodious garments, sufficient to cover quite
loosely the whole body. George Fruid is accused of buying
'white plaids' from unfree men in the 'Chanonrie of Ross'
(1603). Murdo Poulson of Inverness is ordered to restore
a white plaid stolen from John MacAndrew (1606).

Camden, in his BRITANNICA, gives a neat picture of the
'wild Scot': 'They are clothed after the Irish fashion, in
striped mantles, with their hair thick and long. In war
they wear an iron head-piece and a coat of mail woven with
iron rings; and they use bows and barbed arrows and broad
swords.' (1607)

Repeatedly mention is made of white plaids. It appears
that these were generally used for blankets: they were
certainly more expensive than tartan ones. The weavers of
Inverness were fined for 'taiking mair nor sex penneis for
the elne blew and greine tartan weaving and fourtie
penneis for ane quheit [white] plaid weaving, four penneis
for the elne of gray and blaik weaving' (1607). Johne
McVirrick received L4 for 'ane quheit plaid that was
directit be him to James Vinram' (1613), both of
Inverness. One had to have a license to sell plaids.

At the end of the 16th century, Lady Montgomery, wife of
Sir Hugh Montgomery, 'set up and encouraged linen and
woolen manufactory [in Ulster], which soon brought down the
prices of the breakens [tartans] and narrow cloths of both
sorts'.

"The Saffron Tunic And The Tartan Plaid"
from A SHORT HISTORY OF THE SCOTTISH DRESS
by Richard M. D. Grange
The Macmillan Company
New York, 1966

 
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