Quote Originally Posted by Gradatim Vincemus View Post
Thanks Bugbear, as I say it's been a while since I did Professor Chris Berry's Scottish Enlightenment class at Glasgow University (13 years ago) Not that Hume was speaking of the Kilt you understand, just that custom and habit are efficacious although he was less explicit on this than Burke.

As to the Rawlinson tale, I first heard it closer to 30 years ago when Hugh Trevor-Roper (Lord Dacre) was having one of his Scotophobic episodes. As Matt Newsome's article states, it proves very little one way or the other.

My response to CDNSushi, was basically one of agreement, but merely pointing out where traditionalists are coming from, and why they deserve to be heard. I for one have never believed the Kilt should remain only in Scotland (or the UK), or that it's use should only be restricted to certain groups of people.

I can see what you are referring to in Hume's writing from what I have read so far; happen to have several of his writings handy for something I am researching. I am not a scholar nor academic, though...

I very much like Matt Newsome's point that it was within ideas and perceptions, within people's minds and concepts, and at the level of the individual that the kilt developed; rather than the kilt developing on it's own in an almost dehumanized, top-down way. He writes:

The story recounts an Englishman who journeys to the Gaelic Scottish Highlands, observes and adopts the indigenous dress, and suggests an adaptation that apparently proved to be very popular with the native wearers. The chief of the MacDonells of Glengarry is said to have enjoyed wearing the feilidh-beag, and thus helped to spread the fashion. The kilt developed the way that it did, into the form we know today, because those developments were accepted and thought useful by those that wore the kilt - the Highland Scots.

He uses the same approach in the rest of the article. I apologize that I was not clearer in relating that point to CDNSushi's post. Oddly, Hume might be making a similar point in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. I'll keep reading.