Too young?

[Zardoz]

[FONT="Georgia"][COLOR="DarkGreen"][B]Something like this?

I like their flatcaps too!

[Lallans]

Until recently, Irish boys wore kilts in Irish step-dancing contests but about a year back I heard they had gone to trousers. (What they should have banned were those girls' wigs, which in North America at least apparently add megabucks to the cost for the parents.)

[Pleater]

That must be the one - though I believe the version I saw did not have the watermark on it, and it was possible to see more detail.

Thank you Terry.

Notice how perfectly made their feet are, and how the feet rotate from splayed to parallel with the increase in age and skeletal development?

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[lethearen]

Notice how perfectly made their feet are, and how the feet rotate from splayed to parallel with the increase in age and skeletal development?

I think my feet have done the opposite, starting somewhat parallel but now are askew

[BoldHighlander]

That must be the one - though I believe the version I saw did not have the watermark on it, and it was possible to see more detail.

Thank you Terry.

Notice how perfectly made their feet are, and how the feet rotate from splayed to parallel with the increase in age and skeletal development?

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

I was rather flat footed as a child (a family trait on my mother's side). The doc's decided I needed an arch & placed supports in my shoes.

Anyhooo....I don't mean to hijack the thread, but thought Anne (& others?) might like more info on the photo of the 3 school boys:

From the website:
Record Number DWT-100
Title Aran Islands.
Collection D W Thompson D W Thompson
Image Type lantern slide
Originator D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
Location Co Galway, Ireland
Date 1935

Description
Three barefoot children in skirts or kilts and cloth caps, by drystone wall in village lane, cottages behind.

Notes
DWT-100 (ms 45721/iv) pc/
D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson teaching slides.

DETAIL: Two of the children have what appear to be school exercise books, the other has a shoulder bag.

BIOG: D'arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948), Professor of Biology at University College, Dundee from December 1884 to December 1917, when he took up a chair in Natural History at the University of St Andrews, remaining here until his death in 1948. His main areas of research were evolutionary cell structure and fisheries. He was also a mathematician, bibliophile and classicist, writer and lecturer of renown and was knighted in 1937.

ADD: The tradition of dressing boys as girls on the Aran Islands until about seven years of age possibly began as a protective measure and dates back to the times when Viking raiders would plunder the islands and kidnap male children to use as slaves. Although it may also be a form of Celic kilt. A fable then grew up that the boys were dressed as girls to prevent the fairies taking them away.

[BoldHighlander]

I like their flatcaps too!

Don't tell Jock Scot, he might send them to the woodshed out back!!

[NewGuise]

The tradition of dressing boys as girls on the Aran Islands until about seven years of age possibly began as a protective measure and dates back to the times when Viking raiders would plunder the islands and kidnap male children to use as slaves. Although it may also be a form of Celic kilt. A fable then grew up that the boys were dressed as girls to prevent the fairies taking them away.

As noted in at least one earlier thread, the practice of dressing boys and girls more or less alike until age seven (when boys started wearing trousers) was still fairly common in Victorian England. Shakespeare and his contemporaries occasionally refer to "breeching" in this sense, and my students are always surprised, but a few have later come back with stories or pictures of their own forebears as children in skirts or dresses.

So ... one may be too old for a skirt, but no lad is too young for a kilt.

[BoldHighlander]

As noted in at least one earlier thread, the practice of dressing boys and girls more or less alike until age seven (when boys started wearing trousers) was still fairly common in Victorian England. Shakespeare and his contemporaries occasionally refer to "breeching" in this sense, and my students are always surprised, but a few have later come back with stories or pictures of their own forebears as children in skirts or dresses.

Thanks for the additional info.
What I posted in blue (previous above) came from the info w/ the photo (none of it is my own). The date of the photo however is 1935, not Victorian era, but be that as it may I find both your additional info & the story about the Aran Isles as interesting (though I really doubt that strategy would've really worked in the time of viking raids ). Anyhow, we're going way off topic....

So ... one may be too old for a skirt, but no lad is too young for a kilt.

I agree
(& its a great photo too! )

[BoldHighlander]

Sorry about the watermark, I haven't been able to locate a clear copy yet:



Record Number LHG-1-33
Title: Douglas [Gilmour] and Netta [Gilmour] fishing.
Collection: Lady Gilmour
Image Type: full plate glass negative
Originator: Lady Henrietta Gilmour
Location: Fife, Scotland
Date: ca.1891

Description:
Two children fishing off rocky riverbank, the girl in summer dress and boater, with a net, boy in kilt and sporran, with rod.

Notes:
LHG-1-33 pc/
BIOG: Douglas Gilmour (1889-1916), the fifth and youngest son of the photographer and Sir John Gilmour, 1st baronet of Lundin and Montrave; died of wounds received in action during World War I. Seen with his sister, Henrietta (1884-1962), younger daughter of the family; married Robert Purvis of Gilmerton, youngest son of John Purvis of Kinaldy, in 1904.

Think anyone told him he was too young to wear a kilt?

[NewGuise]

That is a lovely photograph - thanks for posting it.

Douglas Gilmour fought with the Seaforth Highlanders, and is buried in the Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, not far from Lille in northern France, where I've been spending part of the summer each year. Unfortunately I don't have a photograph of that particular headstone.