A little history please?

[piperdbh]

[QUOTE=Like the sgian dubh the sgian achails was a specific tool, intended for a specific task. Neither was intended as a weapon although, like a hammer (or a bar of soap in the toe of a sock) it could be used as such if the need arose.[/QUOTE]

When my brother was in junior high, there was a girl on the school bus whom the others kids liked to torment. One day, unbeknownst to them, she had a brick in her purse. One connection with an offender's cranium was all it took to gain her some peace on her transport to and from school.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Ahhh! But was it a HIGHLAND brick?!

[Phil]

When my brother was in junior high, there was a girl on the school bus whom the others kids liked to torment. One day, unbeknownst to them, she had a brick in her purse. One connection with an offender's cranium was all it took to gain her some peace on her transport to and from school.

I'm sure my wife still does that - going by the weight of her handbag at least!
As to the origin of the various kilt-related items, most of them appeared in the 19th century when it was customary to dress up in every possible item, sword, pistols, powder horn, dirk and if a sgian dubh was available then that too. Understated was not the guiding principle then. I imagine the kilt pin was much the same but also a way of preserving some modesty when in the company of ladies. I'm not sure that a sgian dubh would have been regarded as a practical item by a gillie, any that I have met seem to prefer something a good deal more substantial - unless they just wanted to sharpen a pencil that is.
The sporran is probably the only item that pre-dates the Victorian era and would have been used to carry oatmeal and a metal plate to cook the oatcakes on. Scotland at one time was known as the Land o' cakes for this reason.

[macwilkin]

The sporran is probably the only item that pre-dates the Victorian era and would have been used to carry oatmeal and a metal plate to cook the oatcakes on. Scotland at one time was known as the Land o' cakes for this reason.

Specifically, it was a line from Burns' poem 'On the Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland':

Hear, Land o' Cakes and brither Scots!

The Capt. Grose in question was Francis Grose, the noted English antiquarian who charged RB with writing a bit o' verse about "Alloway's Auld Haunted Kirk".

Regards,

Todd

[Phil]

Specifically, it was a line from Burns' poem 'On the Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland':

Hear, Land o' Cakes and brither Scots!

The Capt. Grose in question was Francis Grose, the noted English antiquarian who charged RB with writing a bit o' verse about "Alloway's Auld Haunted Kirk".

Regards,

Todd

Even more specifically, Robert Fergusson had already used the expression in his poem 'The King's Birthday in Edinburgh':

"Oh, soldiers! For your ain dear sakes
For Scotland's, alias, Land o' Cakes."

About the middle of the 14th Century Froissart visited Scotland, and in his Chronicles, described the staple diet of the Scots soldier: 'Under the flap of his saddle, each man carries a broad plate of metal; behind the saddle, a little bag of oatmeal. When they have eaten too much... sodden flesh, and their stomach appears weak and empty, they place their plate over the fire, mix with water their oatmeal, and when the plate is heated they put a little of the paste upon it, and make a thin cake, like a crackenel or biscuit, which they eat to warm their stomachs; it is therefore no wonder that they perform a longer day's march than other soldiers.'

[Andrew Cameron Goodman]

Quaint story? I guess my west highland grandfather didn't know what he was talking about