Oh dear - here we go again with now Andrew perpetuating the MYTH that an Englishman "invented" the modern (little) kilt.

For Andrew's (and other's) information, I have brought over from another heading a previous posting on this very subject; copied below (regretably without the author's consent!) is an extract from an article entitled "The Early History of the Kilt", which in turn is taken from a book called "Early Highland Dress" by Matthew AC Newsome. The whole article can be found on www.scottishtartans.org/kilt.html

"Just a few quick notes on how this large wrap became the kilt of today. I will only touch on this briefly since this takes us well out of the early period. One story commonly repeated is that an Englishman named Thomas Rawlinson opened an iron-smelting factory in the Highlands around the year 1730. His workers all dressed in the belted plaids, which proved too hot and cumbersome for close work in his factory. He solved the problem by cutting the garment in half. The lower part could now be worn separately and the upper part discarded when coming indoors. This is considered proof that an Englishman invented the Scottish national dress.
The problem with this story is that we know of numerous illustrations of Highlanders wearing the only the bottom part of the belted plaid that date long before Rawlinson ever set foot in Scotland. Remember that the belted plaid consisted of two widths of material stitched together. If one neglects to stitch the two together, and only the bottom 4 yards are worn, pleated and belted around the waist, the resulting garment is called the feilidh-beag (little wrap). The word is often spelled in English “phillabeg.” I will not go into detailed evidence of the wearing of the phillabeg here, but I will say that there is some suggestion of its use in the late 17th century, and it was definitely being worn in the early 18th century. It most likely came about as a natural evolution of the belted plaid and Rawlinson probably observed it and quickly deduced its usefulness in his situation and introduced it among his workers."

Can we now kill this Rawlinson myth off for once and all, please!!