Wrapping the Braveheart kilt

[jhockin]

Re: the "Belted Plaid":
From: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...dsketches5.htm

"... they love chiefly purple and blue; their predecessors used short mantles, or plaids of divers colours, sundrie ways divided, and among some the same custom is observed to this day; but, for the most part now, they are brown, most near to the colour of the hadder, to the effect when they lye among the hadders, the bright colour of their plaids shall not bewray them, with the which rather coloured than clad, they suffer the most cruel tempests that blow in the open fields, in such sort, that in a night of snow they sleep sound."

" The belted plaid, which was generally double, or in two folds, formed, when let down so as to envelop the whole person, a shelter from the storm, and a covering in which the wearer wrapt himself up in full security, when he lay down fearlessly among the heather. This, if benighted in his hunting excursions, or on a distant visit, he by no means considered it a hardship; nay, so little was he disturbed by the petty miseries which many feel from inclement weather, that, in storms of snow, frost, or wind, he would dip the plaid in water, and, wrapping himself up in it when moistened, lie down on the heath. The plaid thus swelled with moisture was supposed to resist the wind, so that the exhalation from the body."

.. Seems to me that he is saying that the cloth was folded in half (i.e.: fold the Length in half, then wrap in it. ). There is also a painting of a clan piper ( which I can't find right now) that seems to show two edges, at the edge of the over apron, which would support this idea.

(Found an image of the painting; grant piper - notice, on his right side, how a fold clearly shows the fabric doubled?)
image.jpg
.. Just saying ....

[Dughlas mor]

I`m fascinated by the discussion. It occurs to me that these ancient highlanders had homes, and I doubt they sought out opportunities to wrap themselves in their great kilts and sleep on the ground in sub freezing conditions. I believe cattle, for the most part, were worked from spring through fall. They were hardy souls, no doubt, but even hardy souls will die of exposure at some point. I`m sure they new the limits of their gear, and I would think that the great kilt would be, at most, the equivalent of a modern three season sleeping bag. I have slept in such at about -20F, and it wasn`t a very good sleep.

[Calgacus]

I`m fascinated by the discussion. It occurs to me that these ancient highlanders had homes, and I doubt they sought out opportunities to wrap themselves in their great kilts and sleep on the ground in sub freezing conditions. I believe cattle, for the most part, were worked from spring through fall. They were hardy souls, no doubt, but even hardy souls will die of exposure at some point. I`m sure they new the limits of their gear, and I would think that the great kilt would be, at most, the equivalent of a modern three season sleeping bag. I have slept in such at about -20F, and it wasn`t a very good sleep.

They did have homes, though they were very basic by modern standards. In winter, they lived in houses in the lower glens and tended their crops. Their cattle lived inside the house with them for mutual warmth, sectioned off at one end of the house. Here's a photo from inside one of these houses, now a museum-

normal_Blackhouse 2 Interior 2.JPG

In summer, they drove their cattle up into pastures called 'sheilings' high in the hills. There, they lived in huts called 'bothies' which may or may not have had stone walls, some being made of branches and covered with turf and heather, and shaped either like beehives or tepees.

The times when they would have had to sleep out of doors include travel, when herding the cattle in summer (the word for a herdsman is 'buachaille'), when droving cattle, which took place in the autumn (fall) and involved travelling from the Highlands to the lowlands, or even into England, buying cattle in ones and twos as you went, then selling them in the lowland markets at Creiff and Falkirk, or in England. Finally, they would have slept out of doors when reiving (cattle rustling) or when campaigning in battle. There as a campaigning 'season' which ran from roughly some time in April to some time in September, however they did fight outwith that season, as attested to by battles such as Culloden.

Here are a couple of excerpts which give a flavour-

"The garb is certainly very loose, and fits men inured to it to go through great marches, to bear out against the inclemency of' the weather, to wade through rivers, to shelter in huts, woods, and rocks, on occasions when men dressed in the low country garb could not endure. And it is to be considered, that, as the Highlanders are circumstanced at present, it is, at least it seems to me to be, an utter impossibility, without the advantage of this dress, for the inhabitants to tend their cattle, and go through the other parts of their business, without which they could not subsist, not to speak of paying rents to their landlords."


One from before 1597-

"They delight in marbled cloths,especially that have long stripes of sundrie colours; they lovechiefly purple and blue ; their predecessors used short mantles, orplaids of divers colours, sundrie ways divided, and among some thesame custom is observed to this day ; but, for the most part now,they are brown, most near to the colour of the hadder (heather), tothe effect when they lye among the hadders, the bright colour oftheir plaids shall not betray them, with the which, rather colouredthan clad, they suffer the most cruel tempests that blow in theopen fields, in such sort, that in a night of snow they sleepsound."


From 1822, pieced together from a number of older sources?-

"The point of personal decoration once secured, it mattered not to the Highlander that his dwelling was mean, his domestic utensils scanty and of the simplest construction, and his house and furniture merely such as could be prepared by his own hands. He was his own cooper, carpenter, and shoemaker, while his wife improved the value of his dress by her care and pride in preparing the materials. To be his own tailor or weaver he thought beneath him; these occupations were left to such as, from deficiency in strength, courage, or natural ability, were disqualified for the field or the chace.
One part of the Highland habit consisted of truis. These were both breeches and stockings in one piece, were made to fit perfectly close to the limbs, and were worn principally by gentlemen on horseback. The waistcoat and short coat were adorned with silver buttons, tassels, embroidery, or lace, according to the fashion of the times. But the arrangements of the belted plaid were of greatest importance in the toilet of a Highlandman of fashion. This was a piece of tartan two yards in breadth, and four in length, which surrounded the waist in large plaits, or folds, adjusted with great nicety, and confined by a belt, buckled tight round the body. While the lower part came down to the knees, the other was drawn up and adjusted to the left shoulder, leaving the right arm uncovered, and at full liberty.

In wet weather, the plaid was thrown loose, and covered both shoulders and body; and when the use of both arms was required, it was fastened across the breast by a large silver bodkin, or circular brooch, often enriched with precious stones, or imitations of them, having mottos engraved, consisting of allegorical and figurative sentences. These were also employed to fix the plaid on the left shoulder. A large purse of goat's or badger's skin, answering the purpose of a pocket, and ornamented with a silver or brass mouth-piece, and many tassels, hung before. A dirk, with a knife and fork stuck in the side of the sheath, and sometimes a spoon, together with a pair of steel pistols, were essential accompaniments. The bonnet, which gentlemen generally wore with one or more feathers, completed the national garb.

The dress of the common people differed only in the deficiency of finer or brighter colours, and of silver ornaments, being otherwise essentially the same; a tuft of heather, pine, holly, or oak, supplying the place of feathers in the bonnet. The garters were broad, and of rich colours, wrought in a small primitive kind of loom, the use of which is now little known, and formed a close texture, which was not liable to wrinkle, but which kept the pattern in full display, f The silver buttons were frequently found among the better and more provident of the lower ranks,-an inheritance often of long descent. The belted plaid, which was generally double, or in two folds, formed, when let down so as to envelope the whole person, a shelter from the storm, and a covering in which the wearer wrapt himself up in full security, when he lay down fearlessly among the heather. This, if benighted in his hunting ,excursions, or on a distant visit, he by no means considered a hardship; nay, so little was he disturbed by the petty miseries which others feel from inclement weather, that, in storms of snow, frost, or wind, he would dip the plaid in water, and, wrapping himself up in it when moistened, lie down on the heath. The plaid thus swelled with moisture was supposed to resist the wind, so that the exhalation from the body during sleep might surround the wearer with an atmosphere of warm vapour.

On dyeing and and arranging the various colours of their tartans, they displayed no small art and taste, preserving at the same time the distinctive patterns (or sets, as they were called) of the different clans, tribes, families, and districts. Thus a Macdonald, a Campbell, a Mackenzie, &c. was known by his plaid and in like manner the Athole, Glenorchy and other colours of different districts, were easily distinguishable. Besides those general divisions, industrious housewives had patterns, distinguished by the set, superior quality, and fineness of cloth, or brightness and variety of the colours. In those times when mutual attachment and confidence subsisted between the proprietors and occupiers of land in the Highlands, the removal of tenants, except in remarkable cases, rarely occurred, and consequently it was easy to preserve and perpetuate any particular set or pattern, even among the lower orders."



From 1878, but informative none the less-

"The life of a Highland poacher is a far different one from that of an Englishman following the same profession. Instead of a sneaking night-walking ruffian, a mixture of cowardice and ferocity, as most English poachers are, and ready to commit any crime that he hopes to perpetrate with impunity, the Highlander is a bold fearless fellow, shooting openly by daylight, taking his sport in the same manner as the Laird, or the Sassenach who rents the ground. He never snares or wires game, but depends on his dog and gun. Hardy and active as the deer of the mountain, in company with two or three comrades of the same stamp as himself, he sleeps in the heather wrapped in his plaid, regardless of frost or snow, and commences his work at daybreak. When a party of them sleep out on the hill side, their manner of arranging their couch is as follows:—If snow is on the ground, they first scrape it off a small space; they then all collect a quantity of the driest heather they can find. The next step is for all the party excepting one to lie down close to each other, with room between one couple for the remaining man to get into the rank when his duty is done, which is to lay all the plaids on the top of his companions, and on the plaids a quantity of long heather; when he has sufficiently thatched them in, he creeps into the vacant place, and they are made up for the night. The coldest frost has no effect on them when bivouacking in this manner. Their guns are laid dry between them, and their dogs share their masters' couch."

[figheadair]

Although not that interested in the OP, I've been watching this thread for a while and feel the need to comment on a couple of issues:

Yarn Weight - I have examined many 18th century pieces and the quality of the yarn spinning never ceases to amaze me. The yarn was generally 'singles' i.e. not plied. The woven weight of the extant specimens equates roughly to a range from 12-16oz. The Dunollie plaid for example is extremely fine and definitely at the lighter end. Such a fine plaid was undoubtedly the preserve of the gentry and so may be considered 'best clothes' and was not something intended to sleep out in.

Joined Plaids - joining two lengths of single width cloth was the only way to get a double width tartan before the mid-1800s. Therefore all old plaids were joined.

Finished Quality - All the old pieces I've examined have been in-the-grease to some degree; that is, the yarn still contained a lot of lanolin. I've even read references to plaids in the Western Isles being smeared with Fulmer oil to 'proof' them.

I`m fascinated by the discussion. It occurs to me that these ancient highlanders had homes, and I doubt they sought out opportunities to wrap themselves in their great kilts and sleep on the ground in sub freezing conditions. I believe cattle, for the most part, were worked from spring through fall. They were hardy souls, no doubt, but even hardy souls will die of exposure at some point. I`m sure they new the limits of their gear, and I would think that the great kilt would be, at most, the equivalent of a modern three season sleeping bag. I have slept in such at about -20F, and it wasn`t a very good sleep.

The point is well made. People generally live in houses so the only time that there would have been a need to sleep rough would have been if one was caught out on the hill or was away on campaign or stealing cattle etc. Even today under such circumstances (camping/on campaign not cattle thieving) one puts up with a level of discomfort that is not normal.

Double Plaids - I have some difficulty with the practical application of doubling cloth and to my mind it seems impractical and illogical. One has to be careful in interpreting the historical accuracy of portraits. Firstly one needs to remember that the artist was painting a form of dress that was completely foreign to them and the frequently get elements wrong, especially the tartan bits. Secondly, most of the portraits were produced as a form of social statement and so the 'costume' was sometimes arranged to reference an ancient style, often classical, so as to suggest a level of education and/or social standing. I know of no contemporary description of cloth being doubled and in the case of a draw-string plaid, I can't see how it would work.

[Calgacus]

Double Plaids - I have some difficulty with the practical application of doubling cloth and to my mind it seems impractical and illogical. One has to be careful in interpreting the historical accuracy of portraits. Firstly one needs to remember that the artist was painting a form of dress that was completely foreign to them and the frequently get elements wrong, especially the tartan bits. Secondly, most of the portraits were produced as a form of social statement and so the 'costume' was sometimes arranged to reference an ancient style, often classical, so as to suggest a level of education and/or social standing. I know of no contemporary description of cloth being doubled and in the case of a draw-string plaid, I can't see how it would work.

Thank you for taking the time to give input to this thread, Peter.

As for the practical application, to my mind doubling the cloth could be considered both practical and logical. Doubling the cloth makes it much easier to lay out and pleat on the ground. For a 6 yard plaid, assuming you are not pleating the aprons, you have to pleat about 5 yards of it. If you first double the cloth, you only need to pleat two yards of it, or about 6 pleats. When doubled, the cloth provides better weather protection than when in a single layer. The aprons are four layers thick, and when the upper portion is drawn up as a cloak, it is two layers thick instead of one.

I'm not saying all belted plaids were doubled, I suspect not, but I do think there is the intriguing possibility that at least some were.

I rather wish I had not sold my 6 yards of double width. I would happily have done a bit of 'living archaeology' experimentation to try out which configuration works best 'in the field'. As for the Macgregor plaid, I'd love to find the time to recreate it with cheap dust sheets to show you exactly how it would work. I think if you saw it you'd 'get it'.

As for the portrait of William Cunning, Piper to Lord Grant, 1715, yes it's a portrait and could be factually incorrect, but it shows the material to be apparently doubled in two areas as shown below-

Grant piper big highlight.jpg

As for descriptions, the best we have is " The belted plaid, which was generally double, or in two folds..." as posted above. This description seems to come from 'The Character, Manners and present State of the Highlanders of Scotland; With Details of The Military Service of The Highland Regiments', by Major-General David Stewart, dated 1822. Page 79. He appears to be recounting tales from the second half of the 18th century. He states that his grandfather always "wore the highland garb".

[IsaacW]

As for the portrait of William Cunning, Piper to Lord Grant, 1715, yes it's a portrait and could be factually incorrect, but it shows the material to be apparently doubled in two areas as shown below-

Grant piper big highlight.jpg

.

Maybe I am misunderstanding your point, but isn't that "doubling" simply the upper half of the plaid, drooping down over the belt before being pulled up to the shoulder??

[Calgacus]

Maybe I am misunderstanding your point, but isn't that "doubling" simply the upper half of the plaid, drooping down over the belt before being pulled up to the shoulder??

No, if you look very closely, you can see two parallel edges of the cloth depicted. This indicates a fold of cloth that is two layers thick.

*Edit* Here's the image highlighted in a different way. I have highlighted all the edges in the cloth in BLUE for the outer layer of cloth, and RED for the under layer of cloth.

Grant piper big edges.jpg

You'll have to click on the image to enlarge it and see the highlights. Anything not highlighted is folds, not actual edges of the cloth.

[OC Richard]

As for the portrait of William Cunning, Piper to Lord Grant, 1715, yes it's a portrait and could be factually incorrect, but it shows the material to be apparently doubled in two areas as shown below

I have a fairly large print of that portrait in front of me now, and it appears to me that the plaid has a plain red binding around the entire edge, and that it's quite clearly doubled. (The accompanying portrait shows pale green binding, used on Army kilts till the present day.)

I would accept the portrait as accurate. How on earth could an artist invent such a specific minor detail? The artist is obviously trying his best to depict what's in front of his eyes.

Lest we forget, different periods of art place importance on different things, and portraits of that period put great stress on rendering clothing in minute detail. And that portrait has a wealth of such, from each lace rosette on the jacket being meticulously rendered, to even showing with great accuracy bagpipe's sheepskin bag! An artist couldn't make up a bag that is the precise colour of sheepskin and even has the seam (where the leather is sewn) accurately rendered; once again it's obvious that the artist is doing everything in his power to paint exactly what he sees. (There are exceptions! It was the style of the period to minimise anything in the face, and thus the bagpipe's blowpipe's mouthpiece is made impossibly thin. Also it was the style of the period to depict the fingers as being thin and delicate; I doubt if the piper actually used his fingertips on the chanter.)

I've drawn careful diagrams of the pipes, which are very important in piping history, being the earliest clear depiction of the Great Highland Bagpipe. My dream is to one day have a set made that looks like that.

[IsaacW]

I've drawn careful diagrams of the pipes, which are very important in piping history, being the earliest clear depiction of the Great Highland Bagpipe. My dream is to one day have a set made that looks like that.

If you ever do, I would love to seen them. I have a piper friend that worked with me at the same historic site that did a lot of piping and research on piping and dress at that site. He would also love seeing them!! His current pipes are based off a set that were early 1800ish played by a MacKay that was at Waterloo (IIRC) and may have been the same piper (if not a relative) as played for the fur company here in North America that was HQ'd were we worked.

IW

[Calgacus]

I have a fairly large print of that portrait in front of me now, and it appears to me that the plaid has a plain red binding around the entire edge, and that it's quite clearly doubled. (The accompanying portrait shows pale green binding, used on Army kilts till the present day.)

I would accept the portrait as accurate. How on earth could an artist invent such a specific minor detail? The artist is obviously trying his best to depict what's in front of his eyes.

Lest we forget, different periods of art place importance on different things, and portraits of that period put great stress on rendering clothing in minute detail. And that portrait has a wealth of such, from each lace rosette on the jacket being meticulously rendered, to even showing with great accuracy bagpipe's sheepskin bag! An artist couldn't make up a bag that is the precise colour of sheepskin and even has the seam (where the leather is sewn) accurately rendered; once again it's obvious that the artist is doing everything in his power to paint exactly what he sees. (There are exceptions! It was the style of the period to minimise anything in the face, and thus the bagpipe's blowpipe's mouthpiece is made impossibly thin. Also it was the style of the period to depict the fingers as being thin and delicate; I doubt if the piper actually used his fingertips on the chanter.)

I've drawn careful diagrams of the pipes, which are very important in piping history, being the earliest clear depiction of the Great Highland Bagpipe. My dream is to one day have a set made that looks like that.

Just to be clear, I conceded that the portrait could be inaccurate, but I believe it to be accurate.

As for the chalice-topped pipes, I remember Barnaby Brown playing a set made by Julian Goodacre, if I remember correctly.