Hmm, that is interesting! The post-Jacobite militarisation of the Highlands is a strange, sad and fascinating story, and I suppose it makes sense that the tartans would fit into that (weren't military uniforms the one exception made to the 1746 act prohibiting Highland dress?).
Sounds like an interesting book in general, too—is it good?
Well, there were other exceptions--women could wear Highland dress all they wanted. Also, it seems allowances were made for poor people, which I've read elsewhere as well. Quote from the book:
"This is how the legislation was interpreted by James Erskine, sheriff depute for Perthshire, writing to his sheriff substitute at Killin: You may take all the opportunities you can of letting it be known that tartan may still be worne in cloaks, westcoats, breeches or trews, but that if they use loose plaids they may [be] of tartan but either all of one colour, or strip’ed with other colours than those formerly used, and if they have a mind to use their old plaids, I don’t see but they may make them into the shape of a cloak and so wear them in that way, which tho’ button’d or tied about the neck, if long enough, may be taken up at one side and thrown over the other shoulder by which it will answere most of the purposes of the loose plaid. And if they could come in to the way of wearing wide trowsers like the sailor’s breeches it would answere all the conveniences of the kilt and philibeg for walking or climbing the hills."
And there's this: "Those who commented on the passing of the Highland plaid and philibeg were not always that interested in the politics of the matter. A gentlewoman poet, Margaret Campbell, an Argyllshire minister’s wife who wrote in Gaelic, was more concerned with the aesthetics of masculinity than the Stuart cause when she noted that Highland women were being denied the sight of their men folk’s naked legs."
Hee. Presumably a Presbyterian minister's wife, too, since she's a Campbell! Not what I would have expected. : )
As for the book, I'm skimming it for useful details--some of it is rather dry and perhaps more general than I want.
Thanks for the quotes, that is very interesting stuff. Hmm, that letter sounds a lot like trying to interpret the letter of the law as accommodatingly as possible. I suppose people had different perspectives on things—Margaret Campbell's is certainly another one :D
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Sounds like an interesting book in general, too—is it good?
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"This is how the legislation was interpreted by James Erskine, sheriff depute for Perthshire, writing to his sheriff substitute at Killin: You may take all the opportunities you can of letting it be known that tartan may still be worne in cloaks, westcoats, breeches or trews, but that if they use loose plaids they may [be] of tartan but either all of one colour, or strip’ed with other colours than those formerly used, and if they have a mind to use their old plaids, I don’t see but they may make them into the shape of a cloak and so wear them in that way, which tho’ button’d or tied about the neck, if long enough, may be taken up at one side and thrown over the other shoulder by which it will answere most of the purposes of the loose plaid. And if they could come in to the way of wearing wide trowsers like the sailor’s breeches it would answere all the conveniences of the kilt and philibeg for walking or climbing the hills."
And there's this: "Those who commented on the passing of the Highland plaid and philibeg were not always that interested in the politics of the matter. A gentlewoman poet, Margaret Campbell, an Argyllshire minister’s wife who wrote in Gaelic, was more concerned with the aesthetics of masculinity than the Stuart cause when she noted that Highland women were being denied the sight of their men folk’s naked legs."
Hee. Presumably a Presbyterian minister's wife, too, since she's a Campbell! Not what I would have expected. : )
As for the book, I'm skimming it for useful details--some of it is rather dry and perhaps more general than I want.
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