Truibhs – Friend Or Foe ?

[Jock Scot]

The phrase, "tartan egg cup" was, I believe, coined by Jock Scot. While this is a kilt site, it is called X MARKS THE SCOT, and this forum is all about TRADITIONAL HIGHLAND DRESS, which (like it or lump it) encompasses trews. That said, trews wearers seem to be in the distinct-- albeit dashing-- minority when it comes to formal Highland attire.

I don't recall saying that, but perhaps I did! Mind you, it is a very apt description of the wrong shaped body clad in trews.Trews are very elegant in the right circumstances and are often seen in the Highlands at functions, particularly when the midgies are about!

[ccga3359]

I don't recall saying that, but perhaps I did! Mind you, it is a very apt description of the wrong shaped body clad in trews.Trews are very elegant in the right circumstances and are often seen in the Highlands at functions, particularly when the midgies are about!

It was the tranquilizers talking Jock. I do like trews and feel they certainly have a place on this forum.

[Lachlan09]

Thanks folks for your interesting replies and views. I have seen recent-ish photos of a Highland clan chief wearing tight trews (tight-fitting as British cavalry officers overalls) with plaid, dirk etc etc and he looked very smart indeed. I would certainly get a pair as well as kilt(s) if I wasn't so fat ! (OMG I used to be so slim as a younger man - 30 inch waist !). Nowadays when I go for a swim, I’m protected by a Greenpeace ship ! My goal, if I could afford it, would be kilts in Gow ancient (I have now), Hunting Gow (ancient), Clan Chattan (Gow membership – modern colours and a pair of sunglasses), MacPherson (red/blue etc –Gow is sept of MacPherson), Dress MacPherson (for my wife), MacNaughton (paternal grandma), Montgomery (maternal granddad), Clan Donnachaidh/Robertson (maternal grandma).

The avatar photo is of my ancestor (a relation, though not direct as in grandfather x 10 etc), Niel Gow (1727-1807), the Highland fiddler and composer of reels, airs, laments, strathspeys etc. He was born in the Highland village of Inver, Perthshire, near Dunkeld. His father was a tartan weaver, but Niel was taught the fiddle at a young age and entered competitions etc, developing his own unique playing style. There was a blind master fiddler, John MacCraw, who could recognise Niel’s playing instantly, as his downstrokes and upstrokes were equally powerful, whereas other players tended to have one stroke strong and the other weaker. He started composing and soon was sponsored by the Duke of Atholl. He became in demand and played for the well-to-do of Edinbugh etc. At one point, in 1745, he was commandeered/drafted into the Jacobite army, but melted away when an opportunity arose and the army moved on toward England.

In the following years, he became more famous and was became known by gentry in England, for whom he played concerts. Sir Henry Raeburn painted this portrait of Niel Gow in 1787, which I use for my avatar. My kilt is of similar sett to this. He habitually wore tartan trews and hose and plain coat. In all his years of fame, he was unaffected and plain-spoken and became a long-term friend of the Duke of Atholl, who often visited Niel at his cottage in Inver to get plain, country advice from a simple, plain, unassuming man who was not cow-towed by the nobility of his chiefly aristocratic mentor.

Robert Burns also met Niel Gow and admired him, his skills and his solid sense. Like Gow, Burns himself was also unimpressed by titles and advantages of birth and had the same pithy sense of humour. Agnes Lyon (1762-1840). wife of Dr Lyon, Minister of Glamis, put these words to Niel Gow’s composition “Niel Gow’s Fareweel to Whisky”.

Neil Gow's "Fareweel to Whisky"

Ye've surely heard o’ famous Neil,
The man that played the fiddle weel;
I wat he was a canty chiel.
An' dearly lo'ed the whisky, O.
An' aye sin he wore tartan hose,
He dearly lo'ed the Athole Brose;
An' wae was he, you may suppose,
To bid fareweel to whisky, O.

Alake, quo' Neil, I'm frail an' auld,
And find my bluid grows unco cauld,
I think it maks me blythe and bauld,
A wee drop Highland whisky, O.
But a' the doctors do agree
That whisky's no the drink for me;
I'm fleyed they'll gar me tyne my glee,
Should they part me and whisky, O.

But I should mind on 'auld lang syne',
How paradise our friends did tyne,
Because something ran in their min'-
Forbid, like Highland whisky, O.
While I can get both wine and ale,
And find my head and fingers hale,
I'll be content, though legs should fail,
And though forbidden whisky, O.

I'll tak my fiddle in my hand,
And screw the strings up while they stand,
And mak a lamentation grand
For guid auld Highland whisky, O!
O! a' ye pow'rs o music, come.
I find my heart grows unco glum;
My fiddlestrings will hardly bum
To say, 'Fareweel to whisky, O'.

Niel begat children, who displayed varying levels of musical skills, the most famous being Nathaniel (1766-1831), who went on to become an even more famous player and composer than his father. Nathaniel was the darling of the London Caledonian set and played for all the high-society balls and parties at a time when all things Highland became the “in-thing”.

An gravestone epitaph was penned for Niel Gow which goes:-

“Time and Gow are even now,
Gow beat time, now time’s beat Gow”

My Gow’s are the same Perthshire lot ! My direct family ancestors are buried in Blair Atholl, near the Duke of Atholl’s Blair Castle and some are in Dalnaspidal and Dalwhinnie, a wee bit up the Inverness road on the Perthshire/Inverness-shire border.

My great-granddad, from Dalnaspidal, was a deerstalker for the Duke of Atholl and a member of his Atholl Highlanders, my granddad, also from Dalnaspidal, was a gamekeeper in Perthshire, then after service in the 6th Black Watch/ 51st Highland Division in WW1, became a gamekeeper in Cowal and later Kintyre, both in Argyll. He retired to Kirkmichael, Perthshire, near Blairgowrie/Pitlochry etc. My dad was born in Tighnabruaich, Argyll and raised in Kintyre.

[Tobus]

There is a great difference between tartan trousers and tartan trews as worn by the regiments.

Well, that's trew. (pun intended! )

I was just perusing the thread with pictures of Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, and kept noticing something in the pictures. I suppose these would be tartan trousers, not traditional trews, but apparently they still do hold some place in society, or people wouldn't be wearing them to meet HRH. I probably wouldn't have noticed them had it not been for this thread.

[JSFMACLJR]

Well, that's trew. (pun intended! )

I was just perusing the thread with pictures of Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, and kept noticing something in the pictures. I suppose these would be tartan trousers, not traditional trews, but apparently they still do hold some place in society, or people wouldn't be wearing them to meet HRH. I probably wouldn't have noticed them had it not been for this thread.

]

I don't think there is any question about trews "having a place in society." Pretty much anything goes when it comes to dress when meeting members of the Royal Family these days.

[Lachlan09]

The fellow in the 1st photo (with the chain around his neck) looks to be wearing Sutherland clan tartan (not the Black Watch-like regimental Sutherland tartan).

I thought in the 2nd photo the chap was wearing Cameron of Erracht regimental trews (Queen’s Own Highlanders) but I can’t see a yellow line. What tartan is that ? On 2nd look, it’s not MacDonald either. Is it Montgomery by any chance ?

[bigdad1]

I don't find them attractive at all and would never wear them. But then my opinion is seldom considered.

[Arnot]

The trews in the second photo could be in Duke of Fife tartan. I have a kilt in that tartan and the trews look to be of a similar tartan.

[Asser 1]

I think trews are quite striking when worn in the evening with a coatee of some type. To me they are also more comfortable than the kilt at mess type functions where I am sitting the better part of the evening. However, I have never been fond of the look with daywear of any type and would most likely go for my kilt at those functions.

[Jack Daw]

One thing I've learned in my years is to never say never; but, I don't see trews in my near future. I think they look okay, though.