Border wear (and an introduction)

[DougNZ]

As in the Gentle Johnstons, as they were known. Funny story, Baeau.

Returning to Border wear, I used to have some photos on my old computer of Border men in the early twentieth century wearing Border check (Shepherd check) trousers. One, from memory, was of a road worker whose Border check trousers were patched with a piece woven with larger squares.

In the same period but at the other end of the socio-economic scale, Border check trousers became fashionable in London for wear with a stroller or morning coat.



From the mid-nineteenth century, the maud evolved into tweed country suits of Estate check (or gun club check) in natural, muted colours. Just as tartan has a myriad of patterns formed of intersecting lines, Estate check was woven with contrasting rows of colour to produce individual patterns. In some cases, staff on Border estates were outfitted in the Estate check of their landlord employer in much the same way as clansmen began to wear the tartan of their chief from about the same period. The earliest estate tweed is said to be the Glenfeshie, designed by Janie Ellice about 1840, for the estate her father, General Balfour, rented. This simple tweed is of black and white Border check with a simple over check of red.



Popularity spread, leading to a trend of district checks thoughout all the lands north of the Border.

[Bruce Scott]

Page 53 (at the link) of George Macdonald Fraser's 'The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers' has some information. The period he is discussing is not entirely clear to me although reiving was probably at it's peak in the 1500s.

https://books.google.com.au/books?id...derers&f=false