An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America: Maclean

[Bugbear]

Not sure how I over looked this for so long, but here is: An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America, by J.P. Maclean (Project Gutenberg EBook #25879).
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25879...-h/25879-h.htm

It looks like 1898 to 1900 is the time period in which this was written, for context. There is discussion of kilts and much more,, but I will have to look over it in more detail: too much reading on my plate right now.

[O'Searcaigh]

Great find. I just added it to my book marks too. A welcomed, valuable and fun diversion from my other reading. Thanks!

[CopperNGold]

Thanks for the link, Bugbear. I've been up nights for a week watching over a friend who just returned home from the hospital, and I've been running out of good reading material. This is perfect!

[Bugbear]

I am keeping in mind this was written in 1900; it can show me what an academician had to say about the subject at that period in time etc.

[Dale-of-Cedars]

After the Dedication and before the Preface, a poem:

"There's sighing and sobbing in yon Highland forest;
There's weeping and wailing in yon Highland vale,
And fitfully flashes a gleam from the ashes
Of the tenantless hearth in the home of the Gael.
There's a ship on the sea, and her white sails she's spreadin',
A' ready to speed to a far distant shore;
She may come hame again wi' the yellow gowd laden,
But the sons of Glendarra shall come back no more.

The gowan may spring by the clear-rinnin' burnie,
The cushat may coo in the green woods again.
The deer o' the mountain may drink at the fountain,
Unfettered and free as the wave on the main;
But the pibroch they played o'er the sweet blooming heather
Is hushed in the sound of the ocean's wild roar;
The song and the dance they hae vanish'd thegither,
For the maids o' Glendarra shall come back no more."

[FatherWilliam57]

Wistful and true for so many who left their homes to come to these shores. Thanks for printing that.

[Downunder Kilt]

Thanks for the link Bugbear. People like yourself who put links up for them, make them available for those who would never have known they existed.
Cheers to you Sir.

[Bugbear]

Thanks for the link Bugbear. People like yourself who put links up for them, make them available for those who would never have known they existed.
Cheers to you Sir.

You're welcome and thank you, Downunder Kilt. I have actually dug up, and am still digging up, several old history books on Australia that deal with Scots in part. These are looked up from citations in the history book I just reviewed in this thread:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...library-69790/

I'm still reading the book, and it's nice to have them on hand to make sure I understand the discussion and context of a quote here and there. I will consider posting links to these history books and accounts, but they probably do not discuss kilts.

[Bugbear]

Ok, I've had a better chance to look at a little bit of this book.

Maclean gives a description of the Highlander's garb in the first chapter,* picking an example, and it is replete with mythology about clan tartan etc. I am sure a lot of that, considering the time period that is the subject of the book: 1783 and before, is incorrect. Maclean is, of course, a Ph.D., as pointed out a few times at the beginning.

What I find interesting, and I have come across this in a different historical subject or two overlapping this 1900 time period, is that some academicians have either added credibility to, or started mythologies regarding history. I could point to this document and say see, a Ph.D. is saying that every clan had it's own tartan before 1783. He appears to give no citation for that claim, though. It does suggest to me what people may have believed about historical Highland garb at the time of the writing of the book, on the other hand

* The paragraphs I am referring to begin with, "No portraiture of a Highlander would be complete without a description of his garb." It is difficult to tell exactly which time period's garb he is discussing in the passage, but look at what he says about wives and setts as another example of the mythology.
For future reference, I will just add the quote about the tartan and setts, which I should have done in the first place.

No portraiture of a Highlander would be complete without a description of his garb. His costume was as picturesque as his native hills. It was well adapted to his mode of life. By its lightness and freedom he was enabled to use his limbs and handle his arms with ease and dexterity. He moved with great swiftness. Every clan had a plaid of its own, differing in the combination of its colors from all others. Thus a Cameron, a Mac Donald, a Mac Kenzie, etc., was known by his plaid; and in like manner the Athole, Glenorchy, and other colors of different districts were easily discernible. Besides those of tribal designations, industrious housewives had patterns, distinguished by the set, superior quality, and fineness of the cloth, or brightness and variety of the colors. The removal of tenants rarely occurred, and consequently, it was easy to preserve and perpetuate any particular set, or pattern, even among the lower orders. The plaid was made of fine wool, with much ingenuity in sorting the colors. In order to give exact patterns the women had before them a piece of wood with every thread of the stripe upon it. [...]

[PEEDYC]

An ancestor of mine moved from Scotland (The Lowlands) to Dubuque in 1863 with two of his sisters. He became well known in that area.
http://www.encyclopediadubuque.org/i...RRANCE%2C_Hugh