tioned; but at the time when it was used it would have been impossible to invent a more suitable one for activity and freedom of limb, although the old ballad, on the "Battle of the Bridge of Dee," does say:

"The Highlandmen are pretty men

For target and claymore;
But yet they are but naked men,

To face the cannon's roar."

very

The antiquity of the tartan is supposed to be great. It is dyed, and the colours arranged with the greatest nicety, so as to preserve the patterns, or sets, as they are called, each of which represents a different clan, tribe, family, or district. Thus a Stuart, a Macdonald, a Campbell, &c. &c., was known by the colour and pattern of his plaid; and the Athole, Glenorchy, and other colours of different districts, were easily distinguished. These plaids are now made of the finest wool, and form dresses of the most beautiful texture, being soft, light, and very warm.

It is said that there were formerly different modes of wearing the plaid: one when on a peaceful journey, another when danger was apprehended; one way of enveloping themselves in it for repose, and another which enabled the wearer to start up, sword in hand, ready for the conflict, like the warriors of Roderick Dhu:

"Instant, through copse and heath, arose
Bonnets, and spears, and bended bows;
On right, on left, above, below,
Sprung up at once the lurking foe:
From shingles grey their lances start,
The bracken bush sends forth the dart,

The rushes and the willow wand
Are bristling into axe and brand,
And every tuft of broom gives life

To plaided warrior armed for strife."

The dress of the Highland women was no less characteristic than that of the men. Until they mar

ried they always wore a riband, or, as it was called, a snood, with which alone they were allowed to ornament their hair; after they married they exchanged the snood for a curch, toy, or coif of linen, tied under the chin. Martin, in his observations on their dress, says: "The women wore sleeves of scarlet cloth, closed at the end as men's vests, with gold lace round them, having plate buttons set with fine stones. The

head-dress was a kerchief of fine linen, strait about the head. The plaid was tied before on the breast, with a buckle of silver, or brass, according to the quality of the person. former, of one hundred merks value, the whole curiously engraved with various animals. There was a lesser buckle, which was worn in the middle of the larger; it had in the centre a large piece of crystal, or some fine stone, of a lesser size."

I have seen some of the

Pennant, in his Tour through Scotland, about the year 1769, remarks that, "the Highland women drew the tonnag, or plaid, over their heads in bad weather, or during the church service;" though by an edict made

by James II., in 1457, this habit of concealing the face, either at kirk or at market, was expressly prohibited. From a passage in the same statute, it appears that about that time Scotch head-dresses had risen to the height fashionable in other countries, for the edict goes on to say: "The wives and daughters are to wear on their heads little curchs with hoods; and as to their gowns, no woman is to wear fur of Martin skin, or lace, or tails of an unfit length, or furred, except on a holyday."

The snood, plaid, and brooch, were formerly worn by all women, whether of high or low degree. The material used by the higher orders, instead of wool, was silk or satin, and the brooch of a more precious metal than those worn by the lower classes. Thus we find in the beautiful description of Ellen :—

"A chieftain's daughter seem'd the maid;
Her satin snood, her silken plaid,

Her golden brooch, such birth betray'd."

The plaid was formerly worn hanging from the neck nearly to the feet; it was tied round the waist, and was usually white, with stripes of red, black, or blue. The snood formed the only difference in dress between the matron and the young maiden; for bonnets were quite unknown among the Highland women, and a veil, though worn by women of almost every other nation, appears never to have made part of their

costume.

The higher classes, in the sixteenth century, seem to have followed the English fashions. Sir Walter Scott, aware of this fact, in the "Lay of the Last

Minstrel," describes Margaret as wearing the follow

ing dress :

"Of sable velvet her array;

And on her head a crimson hood,
With pearls embroidered and entwined;
Guarded with gold, with ermine lined,
A merlin sat upon her wrist,

Held by a leash of silken twist."

And, before the battle of Flodden, represents King
James in the following splendid attire:-

"An easy task it was, I trow,
King James's manly form to know,
Although, his courtesy to show,
He doffed, to Marmion bending low,
His broidered cap and plume.
For royal were his garb and mien,

His cloak, of crimson velvet piled,

Trimmed with the fur of marten wild;

His vest, of changeful satin sheen,
The dazzled eye beguiled;
His gorgeous collar hung adown,

Wrought with the badge of Scotland's crown,
The thistle brave, of old renown;

His trusty blade, Toledo right,
Descended from a baldric bright;
White were his buskins, on the heel

In the same poem occurs the description of the Scottish soldiers and their chiefs, giving their Highland dress as then worn :

"Just then the chiefs their tribes arrayed,

And wild and garish semblance made,

The chequered trews, and belted plaid,
And varying notes the war-pipes brayed
To every varying clan;

Wild through their red, or sable hair,

Looked out their eyes, with savage stare,
On Marmion as he passed;

Their legs above the knee were bare;
Their frame was sinewy, short, and spare,
And hardened to the blast;

Of taller race, the chiefs they own
Were by the eagle's plumage known.
The hunted red deer's undressed hide
Their hairy buskins well supplied;
The graceful bonnet decked their head;

Back from their shoulders hung the plaid."

The dress of the unfortunate Mary queen of Scots is thus described in a letter to Lord Burghley: "Hir borrowed haire borne hir attire on hir head, was on this manner: she had a dressing of lawne, edged with bone lace; a pomander chaine, with an Agnus Dei about the neck; a crucifix in her hand; a payer of beads at her girdle, with a goulding crosse at the end of it; a vaile of lawne fastened to her carole, with a bowed out wire, and edged round about with a bone lace; hir gowne of black sattin prynted, with a trayne and long sleffes to the gownd, set with a range of buttons, of jett trimed with pearle, and short sleffes of purple velvet hole under them; her kirtle hole of figured sattin black; her pettycote upper body, unlaced in the back, of crymsen satten; her pettycote scirtes of crymson velvett; hir shooes of Spanysh lether, with the rough side outward; payer of green silk garters; her nether stockings worsted coloured water set, clocked with silver; and next her legg a payer of Jarsey hose whit."