Land of brown heath and Shaggy Wood
Land of the Mountain and the Flood."
MACDOUGALL & C9
42, SACKV^Lh
I860
IAIN
191
,00941
)449
NORTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
Conservation of Ihts book provided by the
MunjiinT CIcvfK Syiruvitis
Northwestern University-1926
PrrsirytiriiVi ^Immnn
Macdougall & Co.
Inverness a42,SackvilleSt.Piccadilly, London
A
DESCRTPTIVEACCOUNT
ofthe
Rise, Progress & Special Character
OFTHE
Manufactures
ofthe
Highlands of Scotland,
with Illustrations
of
Various Styles of Costumes
of
Fabrics of highland Manufacture
FOR
Ladies & Gentlemen.
McKay Bulru^h.
McKenzie ... .Deer Grass.
McKinnon ....St. John's Wort.
McLachlan .. Mountain Ash.
McLean Holly.
McLeod Red Whortleberry.
McNab Fraoch.
McNaücíHTON..Ground Ivy.
McNeil Samphire.
McPhbrson . .Water lily.
McQuaris ....BlackThorn.
McRab ....... .Moss.
Mbnzibs Ash.
Munro Eagle's Feathers.
Bruce Roscniary.
Buchanan ....Birch—Bilberry
Cameron Oak—Crowberry.
t Club-Fir-Moss—
Campbell ... ¡Myrtle.
Chisholm Fern—Alder.
COLQUHO'JN . .Bearberry—Hazel.
CuMMiNG Common Fallow.
DAV.nsoN....
Drummond ... .Wild Tliyme.
Duff Red Whortleberry.
Erskinb Red Rose.
Farquharson..Purple Fox Glove.
Fbrguson Poplar—Sunflower.
Forbes Broom.
Frasbr Yew.
Gordon Rock Ivy.
Graham Laurel.
Grant Cranberry Heath.
Gunn Juniper—Rosewort.
Hav Mystletoe.
Hamilton Bayleaf.
Lamont Crab Apple Tree.
McAlistbr .... Five-leaved Heath.
McAlpin Guas.
McDonald ... .Bell Heath.
McDonnell ..Mountain Heath.
McDougall .. .Cypress
McFarlane ...Cloud Berry Bush.
McGregor Pine.
McIntosh Boxwood
Murray Tods Tails.
Oci lvib Hawthorn.
Oliphant The Great Maple.
Ramsay Harebell
Robertson .... Five-leaved Heather.
Rose Briar Rose.
Ross Bearbeiries.
Scott Blueberry.
Shaw Lily.
Sinclair Fir.
Stuart White Rose.
Sutherland ..Cat's-tail Grass.
MACDOUGALL & CO. have been at
considerable pains in the compilation of the
Notice of Highland Costume and Manufactures
to which this forms the Introduction. They will
have their reward should the perusal of it cause
the renewal of pleasant memories, or the
awakening of new sensations in the bosom of
the lover of the "tartan"; and they would
also fain hope, now when the interest in High¬
land topics is so wide-spread and so firmly
rooted, that those who are unconnected with
the North by other ties than those of good
feeling, cordiality, and occasional residence, will
not esteem an hour given to the perusal of
this brochure as time utterly misspent.
THE INDUSTRIES
OF THE
MOUNTAIN AND GLEN.
For more than two generations after the hapless re¬
bellion of 1745, the mist of ignorance and prejudice
which clouded the Saxon mind, with regard to the
Highlands of Scotland and their inhabitants, was dense
in the extreme. Thus it was that for many a year after
the first half of the last century had passed away the
dwellers in our northern glens and straths were set down
by the Southron as " rieving caterans," " semi-barbarous
malcontents," and utterly beyond the pale of southern
refinement and civilisation. This estimate, founded as it
was greatly on narrow-minded prejudice, was in a large
measure erroneous, and was fiercely resented by the
proud Highlanders, who, wedded to their wild free life
by tradition-hallowed ties, looked down with a lofty con¬
tempt on the "peddlers" and "gutter-blood huxterers"
of the South. It is remarkable that the misappreciation
of the Highland character should have been shared in to
its fullest extent by even such a man as Dr. Johnson,
whose famous Tour to the Hebrides is disfigured by the
manifestations of prejudice and bigotry. Not improbably
a large share in the dissipation of this unnatural feeling
may be credited to the heroic exploits of the Highland
Regiments in the Peninsula and at Waterloo. Our
gallant clansmen did England right good service there,
of whom the poet writes glowingly ;
" And wild and hirb the Camerons' ntherine rose,
The war note ofTxichiel ; which Albyn's hüls have heard,
And heard too have her Saxon foes ;
How in the hour of night that pibroch thrills, savage and shrill.
But with the breath that fills their mountain pipe, m fill
The Mountaineers with the fierce native daring which instils
The stirring memory of a thousand years, «
And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears f
In the noble task of placing the Highlands of Scotland
in their true light, hand in hand with the clansmen war¬
riors, went the pen of the great master of fiction. In a
gorgeous succession of glowing poems and novels did
the author of Wavert^ throw the light of genius, and the
brilliant halo of romance, over the lochs and glens and
mountains and streams, and wild fastnesses, and shaggy
rocks of the land of the Gael. The magic strokes of his
pen changed the " semi-barbarous cateran " into a hero
of romance, a man of noble thoughts, of proud aspira¬
tions, of a courage worthy of a long and untainted
descent, of culture in many cases, wonderful for one
labouring under disadvantages so great. Englishmen
read the glowing page of the wizard, and became alive
to the hitherto ignored fact, that within the girdle of the
sea which laves our island there was a district and a
people, the former better worth visiting by reason of
scenery, of tradition, and of romantic association, than
the hackneyed continental round; the latter a race worth
stud)dng, worth cleaving to, worth calling brethren in
reality as they already were in name. The world has
moved with rapidity since this conviction began to come
home to the Southron mind in the earliest part of the
century. At this present writing there are few indeed
among the educated and leisurely classes of England,
who have not sojourned for a time, or at the least
travelled over some portion of the hills and glens and
lochs of Northern Scotland. The increased travelling
facilities which have gradually developed themselves
have had much to do in opening up the Highlands to
the great bulk of Southron scenery-lovers facilities un¬
dreamt of in the days of our forefathers. Now the
whistle of the steam engine echoes among the solitary
places of the North, wont erstwhile to resound only to
the scream of the majestic eagle as he circled round his
high-perched eyrie. Now the capital of the empire is
within less than twenty hours journey from the hoary
capital of the Highlands. Such is the facility of inter¬
communication that the fabrics of the Highlands can be
sent to country houses in almost any part of England in
as short a time as but comparatively a few years ago
was spent in fetching goods from the neighbouring market
town.
The wild sports of the North—^grouse shooting, deer
stalking, and salmon fishing—annually attract hosts of
the noblest and worthiest of England's sons to the High¬
lands ; and the crowning testimony to their beauty and
desirability as a residence, has been bestowed on them
by our gracious Queen, who, wdth her ever-to-be-lamented
Consort, early appreciated the various charms of High¬
land scenery. Not a summer elapses that she does not
spend months of quiet, placid seclusion at the favoured
" Highland Home ; " and it is not too much to say,
that the lowly denizens of the straths and glens around
Balmoral, are more familiar with the kindly features of
Britain's Royalty, than the most august subjects of the
southern realm. Many an humble cottager has had reason
to bless the day that the Queen took up her summef
quarters on beautiful Dee-side. The Leaves from her
Journal, which Her Majesty has lately given to the world,
are at once a lasting memento of her tender womanhood,
and the proudest compliment ever paid by sovereign to
a district where she is known so widely, and loved with
a loyalty so fond. And it is yet another evidence of
our Gracious Queen's considerate solicitude for her
Highland subjects, that she has lately assigned to a
Celtic gentleman the grateful task of translating that
Journal into the Gaelic tongue.
But the Highlands of Scotland can do much more
than merely gratify the senses of the visitor—than show
him beautiful scenery, and kindle in him the associations
of tradition and romance. Not only has the land of the
claymore and the targe turned its spear into a pruning-
hook, and its sword into a ploughshare, it has achieved
for itself a position—a creditable and honourable one—
among the "manufacturing districts" of the Empire.
English visitors, seeking health, and change, and plea¬
sure in its mountain air, and in the combination—wholly
unique — which it presents of the beautiful and the
sublime in scenery, have been moved into the expression
of genuine surprise, to see the fabrics produced by the
humble and the poor, but peaceful and industrious
descendants of a warlike and turbulent race. From
small beginnings, from the excitement of pleasurable
surprise in the bosom of the casual stranger, the reputa¬
tion of these fabrics has gone abroad " through all the
earth, even to the world's end." The highest and the
noblest ones of our sea-girt isle take a pride in wearing
them ; thus—we would fain hope, not unconsciously—
fostering the humble Highland artisan. The children of
our Sovereign have long acknowledged the strain of
gallant Stuart blood which flows in their veins by
adopting the Highland costume, not only on State occa¬
sions, but now for ordinary wear. The Emperor of the
French complacently sees the young hope of his heart
arrayed in the "garb of old Gaul;" the leading Courts of
Europe are free and constant patrons of Highland
manufactures.
A word or two as to the Highland dress itself, may
not be out of place here. The origin of this unique style
of costume is involved in some mystery; but this much
is certain, that from a very remote period the inhabitants
of the Highlands have been wont to clothe themselves in
woollen stuffs of home manufacture, dyed in various
patterns. A distinct combination of colours and patterns
came in process of time to be adopted as the special
belonging and distinctive mark of each Highland clan or
tribe. Each clan thus came to wear its own special
pattern of tartan with so much exclusiveness, as to
acquire, as it were, a vested right in the same ; and the
members of another clan would as soon have thought of
pirating their neighbour's tartan, as an English nobleman
would dream of stealing a fellow peer's coat-of-arms.
The plaid is believed to have been the parent and proto¬
type of the present less simple and more elaborate style
of costume. By arranging it in a peculiar manner, it was
so contrived as to form body clothing and philabeg all in
one. But the march of improvement, in process of time,
affected this use of the plaid as it has done everything.
The kilt came to be made in one detached piece, the
plaid of another, and the doublet or jacket of a third,
and thus we have arrived at the Highland dress as it is
wont ttrw— the most suited of all costumes to the pur-
poses of mountaineers, and withal the most picturesque,
perhaps, in the known world. Its accessories and orna¬
ments are all of the same stamp, with a savour of semi-
savagery about some of them which takes them out of
the region of commonplace. Thus the small skean d'hu
worn at the garter, though it looks a harmless little
instrument enough now, only there to show off to advan¬
tage a Scotch pebble, or a Cairngorm, was originally
located in this part of the dress that it might be handy
within reach of the wearer when engaged in the deadly
grip of a close combat, possibly disarmed, and, at all
events, hard pushed for a convenient friend-in-need. The
plaid, which depends in graceful folds from the shoulder,
was the wrap in storm by day, and the simple blanket by
night of the hardy mountaineer ; and to this day it is
esteemed in the North a convincing proof that the man
is a true son of the heather, who knows how to bestow
the folds of this trusty garment in the way that the
experience of years, by flood and field, has proved to be
the most serviceable.
The original tartan cloth of the Highland costume
was a woollen stuff, and this material, since no substitute
of value approaching to it has been or is likely to be
found, still remains in general use for this purpose. It is
as well that it should be distinctly understood that the
word "tartan" is not properly used to designate any
particular fabric, but that its correct meaning has ex¬
clusive reference to that species of patterns, in variegated
colours, which Highlanders have from time immemorial
adopted as the distinguishing emblem of their clanship.
This much may be needful in explanation of the fact
that Macdouoall & Co. are daily producing, not alone
the stereotyped tartan woollen textures for gentlemen's
Highland costume, but also tartans in almost every
known fabric for ladies' wear as well. The require¬
ments of the latter are studied by the manufacture of
tartans in silks, in satins, and in moire antiques, of
the most rich, gorgeous, and expensive, as well as of
the most economical materials. Thus dresses in these
historical patterns are furnished, adapted as thoroughly
for the warmest weather as are the conventional
woollen tartans of the original Highland make for
exposure to a cold temperature. And while every
variety and phase of clan tartan is faithfully reproduced,
novel combinations of the established patterns have been
made, appearing under the generic appellation of "Fancy
Tartans," the many and beautiful designs of which this
liberty taken with the conventionalities admits of, being
specially adapted for feminine costume in the finer fabrics
above alluded to, and also for shawls, scarves, and travel¬
ling wrappers. These fancy tartans likewise meet with
extensive acceptance for the making up of Highland
costumes for children of English ancestry, whose parents,
not being "clansmen," do not care to assume any-
particular clan tartan.
So much for the " tartan," to which every Highland
heart warms with such fervent spontaneity. It must not
be imagined, however, that the Highlands of Scotland
exhaust their manufacturing skill and energy in the pro¬
duction of this staple ; on the contrary, they have many
another string to their bow. For example, they have for
many years past enjoyed quite a specialty in the manu¬
facture of Scotch Tweeds, of a very superior description.
This fabric, hardly known to our grandfathers, has struck
a severe blow at the monopoly of broad cloth. For
shooting and fishing, for every purpose of the sportsman
i
and tourist, for " roughing it " in general, Tweed is now
the situ qua non. More and more, too, are the more
sombre patterns of this material coming into use for
habitual wear among the dwellers in towns, who are
gaining courage to rebel against the despotism of broad¬
cloths. There are Tweeds and Tweeds. They are
manufactured of materials so warm as to be in demand
with Arctic voyagers. Stout, serviceable sorts, are
reckoned indispensable by Alpine climbers, tourists, and
British Sportsmen. The habitues of English watering
places, and foreign spas and brunnens, take it easy in
thinner but still tough and durable varieties; while, again,
a Tweed of a mixture so fine and light as to have gone
far, wherever it has been introduced, to supersede linens
and twills, is pushing its way rapidly in the East.
Macdougall & Co. have brought all the thought and
ingenuity at their command to the perfecting of this most
useful and beautiful material for clotiiing. In Tweeds
for sporting purposes, they have been careful students of
the amenities in colour of the different localities, pro¬
ducing to harmonise with these. Tweeds of all tints—
brown and red heather, granite and otlier stone mixtures,
and many other special tints, definitely meant to be in
accord with the prevalent hue of the hill, the glen, the
corrie, the moor, the loch, and the river. Encouraged
by medical and practical testimony of a high order as to
the salubrity of the wear in warm climates, they have
devoted great attention to the attainment of a Tweed of
a texture sufficiently fine and light to meet the require¬
ments of Eastern climates, and this manufacture is
assuming important dimensions, as all who have adopted
its use concur in testifying to its superiority to the
ordinär)' fabrics in coolness, durability, power of absorp-
tion, and ease of drying. Nor is the wear of these
Highland-manufactured Tweeds confined to the sterner
sex. Year by year the finer qualities are coming more
and more into vogue for ladies and children, both for
travelling and country wear at home ; and also for
habitual and healthy costume for the femalé members of
British families resident in the East. In order to foster
this taste as much as possible, these delicate Tweeds are
manufactured in pretty and variegated tints, so as to
please the eye as well as give satisfaction in all other
essentials. That Tweeds of the Inverness manufacture
are superior to the Yorkshire-made article of the same
name which is usually sold in London, is simply beyond
question. The higher qualities rival the English cassi-
meres, while they are only half the price, and a cardinal
recommendation is that they may be washed and re-
washed without injury to their appearance.
Macdougall & Co. have been engaged for many
years in cultivating and ministering to the public taste
in respect of the manufactures indigenous to their
native land, which are alluded to above. They have
been instrumental in guiding public attention to their
different varieties and their many excellent qualities, and
they are proud to say that their name has long been a
" household word," when the garb of Scotia has been the
topic of conversation. Without thinking it necessary
to follow up this subject further in such a notice as
the present, they would just note, that although the
distinctive title of their business premises is "Tartan
and Tweed Warehouse," there are numberless indis¬
pensable accessories, in supplement of these staples,
which are all of native manufacture, and without
calling attention to which, they do not think they would
be doing full justice to the progress in the peaceful arts
which the "land of the mountain and the flood" has
made and is making. The strides made in the North of
Scotland in the manufacture of hosiery have been gigantic.
From the first, the workmanship of the Shetland goods
of this class astonished all who saw them ; and now the
hand-knit shawls and stockings can compare with the
greatest marvels of the loom. Macdougall & Co. have
caused the textures to be varied, and have introduced
important improvements in the patterns, colours, and other
details. The " Gairloch " hand-knit stockings and socks
are as well known to every sportsman as the face of his
favourite pointer. These are made—the sheep sheared,
the wool spun, and the stockings knitted—in the Strath
01 Keste, in Ross-shire, and the colours used in dyeing
them are extracted from natural dyes—heather-bloom,
crotal, and moss. They are produced in numerous
colours and are especial favourites with the sportsman ;
because, besides the fact that they are comfortable and
durable, it has been a specialty with these as with
Tweeds, that there should be a choice of colour, har¬
monizing with the pervading character of whatever
district of country the wearer may reside in. These
Highland hand-knit socks were worn by many British
officers during the Crimean war, and gave unqualified
satisfaction. They—and Macdougall & Co.'s " Indus¬
trial " hand-knit stockings as well—are made in finer
textures for wear in either town or country, and are pro¬
nounced by medical men to be more healthy, for either
summer or winter wear, than cotton or merino goods,
and especially to be of value as a preventative of
rheumatism.
To obtain honours when the distinctions are being
awarded at such gatherings of the nations as the two Exhi¬
bitions of 1851 and 1862, cannot fail to be gratifying to the
exhibitor's own spirit of emulation ; and a special value is
attachable to such honours for the.reason that they stand
in the eye of the consumer as an unimpeachable badge of
merit, certifying to him at once the sterling cliaracter of
the productions of the successful exhibitor, apd having
more weight ivith the discriminating than pages of high
flown encomia unsupported by such authoritative fiat of
excellence. Macdougall & Co. have therefore a pecu¬
liar pride in alluding to their success in the achievement
of these impartial testimonies to the excellence of their
manufactures. At the Exhibition of 1851 a medal was
awarded for "Hosiery Knitted by the Scottish Peasantry."
Highland manufacturers under their auspices made giant
progress in the interval of eleven years, between 1851
and 1862, as is evidenced by the fact that at the latter
Exhibition, the first-class prize medal falling to them
was awarded not alone for hosiery, (their speciality for
1851) but, to quote from the report, "for Tweeds,
Tartans, Shawls, Hosiery, &c., also for LinSey Wool-
seys." This indicates progress; but to gauge the full
measure of the advance it is necessary to remember
that the competition was much keener and more arduous
in the second than in the first Exhibition. At the
latter there were three classes of medals; at the
former only one. The number of Exhibitors in 1862
was double that of 1851. It is obvious that a far
higher standard of excellence was necessary to take a
medal in 1862 than in 1851. In corroboration, if it
be needed, of this, the remark of the Times may be
quoted, that " Those who have singled themselves out
from the multitude m such a competition as the Inter¬
national Exhibition afforded, may not unreasonably pre¬
sume that public patronage will attend on a merit tested
by such an ordeal." Five years have elapsed since the
Exhibition thus spoken of, and the public may accept
Macdougall & Go's assurance that they have been
years of progress in Highland manufactures to the full as
rapid as were the preceding eleven. Improvements and
novelties, many and great, have been introduced and
elaborated since this last medal was won. To stand
still in the race for public favour would produce the
inevitable result of being left behind.
In this connection it is worthy of observation that
" Linsey Woolsey," an article not previously alluded
to, was included in the award made in favour of Mac¬
dougall & Co. in 1862. This fabric was in its infancy
as an article of commerce in 1851. It has been for
many years, and now continues, a highly popular material
for ladies' dresses and petticoats. It had long been
manufactured for home consumption in the Highlands,
but until the idea was conceived of improving materially
the fabric itself, and of producing it in a variety of colours
and patterns, it had not succeeded in attracting the notice
of tlie general public Macdougall & Co. have it now
in all the clan and fancy tartans, and in many other
colours and different textures specially adapted for
different uses. The demand for it has been and still is
steadily on the increase, and considering how well it
wears, the moderation of its price, and the great beauty
of the many varieties, there can be no doubt that its
success is fully deserved. The rapidity with which that
success has been achieved, has been in a great measure
owing to the liberal patronage it has met with from the
Court and aristocracy, not alone of .this but of other
countries ; but this very popularity proves that it pos¬
sesses the intrinsic merits which entitle it to its wide and
permanent acceptance.
Space does not admit of more than the mere allusion
to some of the many other articles, all genuine extracts
from the Trans-Grampian soil, which Macdougall & Co.
manufacture, make up, and keep in stock indifferently
at their Inverness and London establishments. Among
these may be briefly enumerated their famous " High¬
land Cloak,'' known to so many as a sure guarantee
against wet and cold ; Ladies' Travelling Cloaks in
various textures ; Ladies' Jackets for promenade, riding,
and driving, of the most elegant patterns in Tweeds
and other materials, and of thoroughly unique style,
favourable specimens of which are the "Alexandra"
and "Abergeldie" Jackets, as made by special com¬
mand for H. R. H. the Princess of Wales ; beautiful
and highly finished Serges for Ladies' dresses ; Wrap¬
pers ; Carriage Rugs of diverse patterns on either
side ; Carpets, Crumbcloths, &c. ; Highland Bonnets,
Badges, Ornaments, &c., &c. All these, and many other
articles are certified to be of exclusively Highland
manufacture, made ab initio, under Macdougall &
Co.'s own supervision, and for the quality of which
they are therefore in a position to vouch in the rnost
unqualified manner
" Buirdly chields," stalwart, handsome, athletic men are not rare
in any part of Her Majest/s realm. But where is the costume
which sets off a ñne ñgure, confers an additional majesty and dig*
nity on the human form divine, like the full Highland dress, of
which an illustration is g^ven opposite? Would the stately cMeftain
on the next page, with his brawny breadth of shoulder, defined at
once and softened by the flovdng drapery of the plaid, with his
sinewy, muscular limbs showing out from below the kilt and sporran,
look so unmistakeably the avax were he clad in a Noab*s
Ark" great coat, and the place of the bonnet and eagle's plume taken
by the conventional " chimney-pot"? There is, indeed, no dress at
once so becoming, so imposing, and admitting of so much Intimate
ornamentation without the suspicion of ostentation, as the Highland
garb. We speak now of the full dress, with plaid and sporran,
broadsword, dirk, and skean ä*Äu, all complete, and all more or less
elaborate according to taste ; but this costume is of a very accommo¬
dating nature, and, shorn of its more warlike features, forms an
everyday garb, either for grown man or youth, unequalled in pictu
resqueness, in freedom, and in adaptability for general country wear.
Ask the kilted soldier, the man of the Black Watch, or of the
gallant 93rd, of whom Scott writes :
'* And yon, loved warriors of my rugged land,
. Yonder your bonnets nod, your tartans wave,"
whether he would be inclined to resign his distinctive garb for the
trews and tunic, and mark the emphatic not to say contemptuous
negative with which the man of the hairy, brawny, bare knees, will
meet your question.
Non omnibus contigit adiré Connthum^ which, being freely reii-
jF dered, may be taken as signifying that we cannot all be mighty hun¬
ters such as NimroJ or Rowaleyn Gordon Gumming was. It is not
given to the ordinary sportsman to make a bag of lions or to bring
down a brace of elephants right and left. Indeed, however enthu¬
siastic in sport, we cannot all join that notable limited liability
scheme brought out by a certain Frenchman the other day, the
theatre of which was to be Algeria, and the game fera natura in
general from tigers down to stoats, seeing that the inexorable
Frenchman limited his list to but 150 members, or shareholders, or
whatever is the proper name. It may well be a moot point, never¬
theless, whether the deprivation is a heartbreaking one, seeing that
within our own " tight little island" there is sport enough, and of
the noblest class, to satisfy any save the most exigeant votaries of the
rifle, who are not satisfied unless their game register contains entries
of lions, hippopotami, Bengal tigers, elephants, and such like "small
deer." The miles of noble deer forests in the Highlands of Scotland
—Glenmore, Mar, Glenfiddoch, Reay, and many another of equal
repute—are tenanted by antlered denizens, the stalking of which in
their native wilds and corries is held fitting sport by the noblest
in our land. And the wide-spreading moors, clad in the
" Bonnie purple heather,"
are trodden season after season by the aristocracy and gentry of
Britain, who enjoy to their heart's core " trampling the heath," in
the quest after the speckled grouse and the glossy whirring black¬
cock. It might, indeed, be a subject for speculation whether the
Derby Day or the 12th of August is the more engrossing eagerly
anticipated event in the British gentleman's calendar.
The true sportsman, the man who means real business in the
forest or on the moor, values the serviceability of his costume as
much as he does the excellence of his weapon, since comfort and
durability in the one is as necessary to his success as correctness in
the other. He would no more tîmik of taking to the hill arrayed in
jean and velvet, like the Paris show shooter who goes out to pop at
birds, than he would of walking down Pall Mall in a dressing-gown
and with peacock's feathere in his hat. The experience of years
has proved »to him that Tweed—tough, warm, durable, and tinted
in harmony with the ground he is on—is the wear for the moor or
the forest, and, sensible man as he is, he wears nothing else. Tweed
does him, and every man who appreciates a really serviceable wrap,
another good turn in storm or rain. It is the material out of which
is constructed the famous Highland cloak," the veritable triumph
of art, which combines every element a snug wrap should have with
perfect freedom to the wearer's limbs.
i:
It Js passing strange hi>w the simple prosaic-sounding word,
" plaid," galvanises the Highlander who is far away from home. It
falls on bis ear like the sound of gurgling water to the parched
pilgrim over the desert, as he nears the pleasant oasts ; for it is the
key-note to mfiny a loved memory of the land he cherishes. When
he hears it, or, better still, sees the veritable "swatch of the tartan,"
his mind goes back to days when his foot was on the heath, when
the wild wail of the pibroch was carried past him on the wind, when
he took a pride in putting the stone, in tossing the caber, and being
able to dance Ghillie Galium without touching the sword-blade,
lie is a clansman again, and the rocks, and the conies, and the
waicr-falls of his own wild fatherland spring up before his mind's
eye. The mal Je pays comes over him, tugging him homeward by
the heart-strings, and for the moment, till he hardens again in the
chafe of the matter-of-fact world, he has mentally renounced every¬
thing which keeps him from revisiting his home.
The plaid has the credit of having been the original, from the
savage simplicity of which, as worn by our wild ancestry, has been
elaborated the present completeness of the Highland dress. Yet it
has not shared the fate which usually befalls a nucleus, it has not
sunk into oblivion, merged in wliat it lias been the germ of. On the
contrary, the plaid, as now worn, is an all-important feature of the
Highland dress. It occupies almost the same relation to it as the
graceful waving banner-folds bear to the sturdy staff which forms the
standard, softening with its flowing graceful drapery what might
otherwise be lines too rugge'd and abrupt to please the eye.
The Highland costume must not be supposed to be a chary
and exclusive monopoliser of the Scottish plaid. By no means ; the
plaid, besides being " a thing of beauty " as an appurtenance to the
national dress, is also " a joy for ever" to many a son of the thistle
who is not an habitual wearer of the kilt. " A rose by any other
name will smell as sweet," according to the poet, and the plaid's
value is thoroughly appreciated by the drover, who styles it afyack^
and by the shepherd, who knows it under the appellation of a maud.
Many is the weary tramp over trackless hills undertaken by the
former in his long Journeys with his shaggy " nowt " from the Muir
of Ord to Falkirk, Lockerby, or Northallerton. When nightfall
comes, he does not trouble himself about byres and beds, not he ; he
looks out for a piece of sappy pasture for the " beasts," and then,
selecting the " bieldy side " of a dyke or a hillock, he curls himself
up in his " fyack " in some such fashion as a hedgehog, and sleeps
more soundly than the sybarite on his bed of down. Give him his
" fyack " and his meal wallet, and he is sublimely indifferent to the
luxuries which are necessaries to less hardy subjects.
The shepherd, again, would indeed be a forlorn character without
his " maud." Read any tale or poem by the Ettrick Shepherd, the
best exponent of Scottish shepherd character, and observe how
feelingly the plaid is uniformly spoken of, bow it is mentioned in
every other stanza or paragraph, how plainly it is brought out that
his plaid and his collie are to the shepherd what the compass and
the helm are to ' him whose business is on the great waters.
An eminent statesman had informed the world that there are three
thin^ which constitute the beatitudes of a midland-county peasant
—a porch, a tank, and an oven. The Scottish shepherd is not quite
so easily satisfíed. He has four main desiderata, and with these
gratified he is ha]>py. His cravings are—his lass, his sang-book, his
collie, and his plaid ; and when these are named, the history of his
uneventful life is written in brief. Summer and winter, the " maud "
is his inseparable companion ; when the weather is hot, worn loosely
over his coatless shoulders, or forming a pillow as he basks by the
margin of some wimpling moorland bumie ; but when the storm
howls, and the blinding drifts scour over the uplands, then the maud
enwraps his frame after a different fashion, and envelopes him more
effectually at the same time that it leaves his limbs their needful
freedom than any great coat. The manner, indeed, in which the
shepherd wears his plaid, might be taken as a tolerable weather
calendar. Sir Walter Scott, in his picturesque description of coming
winter, has not failed to include this trait :
The shepherd shifts his mantle's fnld.
And tci-aps him closer'/tvm the cold:
His dogs no merry circles wheel,
But cowering follow at his heel,
A' shivering glance they often cast
As deeper moans the gathering blast
It may be safely alleged that the plaid is worn and appre¬
ciated in perhaps more varied spheres and scenes than any other
article of costume. The member of the Alpine Club knows
its value J how in it he can carry about with him more genuine
warmth and comfort in a less cumbrous fashion than is practicable
with any other wrap, at the same time that the arms are left free to
wield the Alpenstock, and the legs—unhampered by folds of cum¬
brous cloth—are at liberty to make the sudden and nimble springs
so often vitally requisite in Alpine climbing. The pedestrian tourist
knows he is equal to either fortune when he has folded up a plaid
and strapped it to the inside of his knapsack. For railway travel¬
ling, what is so handy at once and so thorough a wrap, whether
in the form of the large wrapping plaid specially manufactured by
Macdougall & Co. for this use, or in the shape of the unique
reversible railway wrappers of this firm, one side of which are
whole coloured, the other striped in a variety of tartan patterns ?
For boating and yachting in our variable climate, for the deck of
the ocean steamer or the outside of a dogcart, for the pic-nic, the
Welsh or Scottish mountains, or the more ambitious incursion Into
the recesses of the Far West, the plaid is at once the most con¬
venient, most adaptable, and most compact of all wraps. Nay,
there is even high warrant for its wear in other scenes, where the
requirements of fashion would be expected to rule paramount. The
world-known sage of Chelsea, that son of Scotia, of whom she is
specially proud, is faithful to the traditions of his fatherland, and in
his lonely walks in the suburb he has helped to make classic the plaid
which is his constant friend in need. There are others besides Thomas
CarlyJc to whom the plaid has been a veritable friend in need, teste
Major Campbell, of the Highland Brigade, who, after the battle of
Alma, picked a rifle bullet out of the innermost fold of his plaid. It
had penetrated the outer folds, but the elastic woollen had deadened
its velocity. Had the plaid not been across his shoulders, the
Russian bullet would have been through his heart.
Reference has hitherto been maüe to the plaid as the exclusive
portion of the sterner sex. But it being a matter utterly beyond the
region of doubt that this article of custuine is a good, graceful, and
useful wear, it would be entirely in antagonism to the attributes
which are proverbially characteristic of the fairer portion of the
creation did they not claim to have a part and lot in the same.
Accordingly we find it highly appreciated by the softer sex, and,
worn in the graceful styles in which fuir hands know so well how to
dispose of its luxuriant folds, it forms at once a natural, elegant,
and useful article of outdoor feminine costume. Ladies' plaids in
the various clan tartans have been in high request ever since the days
of Flora Macdonald and Helen McGregor, and at the present time
they are in the very zenith of their repute, patronised as they are
by the noblest ladies in the land, who, proud of the warm Highland
blood which courses through their veins and mantles their cheeks,
take a pride and pleasure in wearing this incarnation of the indi¬
genous products of the " land o' the leal."
As will be observed from the plate on the opposite page, there are
two fashions adopted by ladies in setting off this elegant national
garment to the best advantage. There used to be a third, but it is
now obsolete. "Bonnie Jean," the famous Duchess of Gordon,
she who
" Sleeps beneath Kinraras willow,"
she, the patriotic lady who raised for the service of her sovereign
the gallant Gordon Highlanders or 92nd Regiment, was wont, when
on her recruiting expeditions, to wear a Gordon tartan plaid disposed
in the same way as it is now worn by the HIghlandmen with the
kilt, and fastened on the left shoulder by a splendid Cairngorm.
This was picturesque, doubtless, but rather too masculine for the
present year of grace; "Bonnie Jean" would be thought decidedly
"fast" in these latter days. But in either of the styles given oppo¬
site, the plaid forms a most graceful and becoming outer garment,
whether in any of the various clan tartans or selected from the large
variety of fancy tartans which the great demand for these beautirul
and lasting fabrics has called into existence
To the axiom^that "loveliness unadorned is loveliness the best,"
we would be the very last to take exception, seeing that we believe
the idea in the poet's mind was not the exclusion of that legitimate
adornment of neatness which lends an enhanced enchantment to
loveliness-, but solely the banishment of that tinsel tawdryness of
decoration which detracts so much from the simple ¿put ensemble of
true loveliness. The same idea was present to Horace when he
describes in one of his odes a fair one as being simplex mundiäts,
and we make bold to assert that the correctness of the theory has
ample conhrmations in our illustrations of female costume on the
opposite page. There is an unique combination of the utile with
the dulce in the ample enveloping drapery of a cloak with its com*
fortable hood, which, waterproof as it is, forms a veritable
** parapluie," at the same time that there is a quiet grace in its
flowing contour which takes away from it the reproach of " down¬
right ugliness" ladies are frequently prone to bestow on an article of
costume designed as a mere ' ' wrap. " The sister waterproof cloak
is cut in such a way as to develop the contour of the figure with
more definiteness, and as a feature of variety it is designed with
sleeves, so that the arms are left at greater liberty, at the same time
that an equal degree of protection against wet and cold is afforded.
Passing over the "Flora Macdonald" cloak, not by reason of its
being unworthy of comment, but from reason» of space, we come to
the fourth illustration, that of the "Highland Cloak." This may
be termed the twin sister of the Highland cloak for gentlemen, an
illustration of which is given on page 19, and is a most picturesque
and comfortable garment, thoroughly adapted for all outdoor pur¬
poses, and especially in acceptance among ladies who make the
Highlands of Scotland their autumnal home.
All these articles are manufactured from Scotch Tweed, the
production of which, with a view at once to strength and beauty, is
one of Macdougall & Co.'s proudest specialties. With a vast
collection of patterns to choose from, no lady need have her taste
as to colour or tint ungratified, and the high and widespread
patronage which is accorded to these elegant and varied styles of
cloaks is one of the special gi-atifications of the firm, who may,
without undue boasting, claim to be the exclusive originators an
purveyors
There is, probably, no article of female outdoor costume, which,
by reason of its espiegkrie, and the extreme beauty and variety of
textures in which its making up is admissible, meets with so much
acceptance among ladies of taste and fashion as the Jacket. Not
only is the range of material for this beautiful garment practically
illimitable, but the diversity of style and shape is Proteus-like. On
the opposite page are a few illustrations out of the many varieties,
each tasteful and pretty, which are in vogue. For ladies who are
fond of exercising their skill in charioteering, the Driving Jacket,
designed as it is to give unhampered freedom to the whip-arm, at
the same time that it at once effectually and gracefully envelopes
the bust, is thoroughly adapted in every respect to the use for which
it is designed. The "Abergeldie" Jacket, christened after the
whilom autumnal residence of a most august and gracious patroness,
commends itself to ladies of taste at the first glance, by reason of
its unique and graceful style; and the "Promenade Suit," which
forms the third illustration, Macdougall & Co. claim as a
distinct specialty of their own, made as it is, the jacket, tunic,
and robe, en mile, irom the serge, linsey-woolseys, or tweeds,
which have won for this firm medals and expressions of high
approval at two International Exhibitions. All ladies know how
much the " style ' of these graceful articles of dress owes to the skill
—we might almost say the genius—of the cutter, which can confer
an additional beauty on the most intrinsically handsome material
Macdougall & Co., thoroughly awake to this, retain in their
exclusive employment an individual, of whom, with reference
to his craft in stylish cutting out, it may be said as of the poet,
■ nascHur nan fit "
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