TARTAN IN HISTORY-WHAT IT MEANT TO SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND

This is an article written by Bill Clark who is a regular contributor to this site and who lives in Fort William.

TARTAN IN HISTORY-WHAT IT MEANT TO SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND

This is a short history of the power of tartan to the Scottish psyche and the English Government’s propaganda response to remove the attachment that Scots had to tartan as it had become a symbol of Scottish national pride.  To the English Parliament it was nothing more than inappropriate attire which encouraged rebellion.  A law was passed in I746, a matter of months after Culloden, which was known as the “Dress Act.”   Notwithstanding opposition to the Act from Scots within Scotland and in Westminster who argued that the Highland garb was essential for everyday life in the mountains.  Like today, their views were disregarded and the alternative argument that tartan in Scotland had acquired the status of a national uniform, which could not be accepted in a union of “equals.”  The intention was to absorb the tartan wearing Scots into being indistinguishable from their southern neighbours.  Even the clans who supported the English Parliament during the ‘45 uprising were subject to the Act which helped to create disunity in the country. 

The Act pertaining to tartan read: 

“No man or boy within that part of Great Britain called Scotland other than such as will be employed as officers and soldiers in his Majesty’s Forces shall on any pretence whatsoever, wear or put on the clothes commonly called the Highland Clothes (that is to say) the plaid, philibeg or little kilt, trowse, shoulder belts – and that no tartan or partly-coloured plaid or stuff shall be used for greatcoats or for upper coats.”

Anyone caught wearing tartan in their everyday life could expect to be jailed for a first offence and for a second offence sent to the colonies for 7 years.

TAKING ON A NEW HERITAGE

The intention of the government’s ban on tartan was to take away the pride Scotland had in itself.   Even that was not enough, they also set about demeaning the men and women who took so much pride in wearing something that represented their nation.  It was the start of indoctrinating the country into believing that people in Scotland who attired themselves in tartan were uncouth.   For example, after the ‘45 uprising the Penicuik caricature drawings came to light depicting the Highlanders who participated in the ‘45 uprising in a very negative and mocking way.   Forty-four of the sixty unsigned drawings were held in Penicuik House.  It was the home of 2nd Baronet Sir John Clerk of Penicuik who in 1745 was 69 years of age and an ardent Hanoverian.    He was a politician, an Advocate, a playwright, a classical composer and musician and the Vice-President of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, the pre-eminent learned society of the Scottish Enlightenment.    Yet, this man of Highland decent had no time for the Highlanders or their music or song which to him was a rhapsody of nonsense and confusion.  Through the contacts of his kinsman by marriage, the Duke of Queensberry became one of the commissioners who was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Union and putting it into effect.   For his efforts, he was appointed to the Exchequer Court and the financial security of a Baronet’s salary.

TARTAN, ITS PAST AND FUTURE

The word tartan is derived from the French tartaine, a name that was originally given to a certain kind of material regardless of its colour.  It only acquired its modern meaning when all Highland tartan (breacan) became chequered.  The first written reference to Highland dress occurred in 1093 in the saga of Magnus Barefoot.  This was the leine croich or saffron shirt, common in both Ireland and Scotland.  By the end of the 16^th century, any resemblance between Scottish and Irish dress disappeared and tartan and the belted plaid became the norm in Scotland.   In Islay from 1587, an annual ground rent payable to the Crown consisted of sixty ells of black, white and green cloth.  Available district colours were used.

A VISITOR

In 1618, the poet John Taylor paid a visit to Braemar and left an account of all that he saw there.  He said that all the strangers including him were expected to wear Highland clothes.  The local inhabitants would have considered anything less insulting.  He referred to “shoes, stockings which they call short hose made of warm stuff of diverse colours which they call tartan.  As for breaches few ever wore any, but a jerkin of the same stuff as their hose with a belted plaid around their shoulders with a blue cap on their heads.”  Of course, multi coloured clothes were worn all over the known world but not the tartan belted plaid as we know it.  

The passion for Scotland and the tartan was certainly not confined to the men in tartan kilts, the ladies who swooned over Prince Charlie in Edinburgh and those who were actively involved in the uprising, some of whom followed the army into England, were also keen to show their loyalty to Scotland by wearing tartan on their person.  That is a story that deserves to be told on its own. 

SELLING OUT YOUR COUNTRY BECOMES A RACE 

In 1746 the decision by the English Government to put an end to Scots wearing tartan by decree was then followed by what we would call today as an effort to indoctrinate the population against the benefits of wearing a kilt and it worked a treat.   The idea of propaganda is to implant ideas in other people’s heads.

Over the centuries and throughout the world colonial powers have perfected the practice for no other reason than securing power over that country and its wealth.     

Tartan was worn by all Jacobite regiments during the ‘15 and ‘45 uprisings irrespective of their place of origin.  In 1715 it was reported that there were 4000 armed men in Perth, all in Highland clothes though mostly lowland men.  It was not unusual for men to wear a jacket, waistcoat, plaid and hose of different tartans.    Tartan certainly made a political statement throughout Scotland just as it does with some people today.

RIGHT ROYAL VISIT WAS A RIGHT PANTOMIME  

After 35 years the ban on wearing tartan was lifted.   Unionists even got in on the act when King George IV in 1822 visited Edinburgh and wore the Royal Stewart tartan.  Prior to that, there is no written record of the very modern Royal Stewart tartan and into the bargain he turned up with an exceedingly short kilt and wearing sheer pink tights underneath.  It was claimed by unionists that the King’s visit was responsible for the kilt becoming Scotland’s national dress.   By this stage the kilt attire was beginning to take on a pantomime theme.  The Lord Mayor of London, who accompanied the English King, was an example of the way they were mocking the Highland garb which carried on up to and past the days of the Scottish entertainer Harry Lauder whose songs were quite catchy and one in particular (Keep Right on to the End of the Road) is still being sung by the supporters of Birmingham City Football Club in England as their anthem.

TRYING TO CHANGE THE LOOK

After the ban on tartan, the kilt could only be worn by men in the Scottish regiments who fought under the English flag.   Even at that, by 1759 efforts were afoot to dispose of the tartan in favour of trousers.  Pressure to abandon the kilt from the Highland regiments started early and by the early 1800s when the Highland regiments started to lose men during the Napoleonic and other wars some Highland regiments were replacing men in their ranks by non-Highlanders including some from south of the border.    Some regiments gave up wearing tartan and those regiments who were to see action in warmer climates had more suitable attire provided.    In 1809, five of them adopted trousers and shakos of a line regiment.  Out of the remaining seven Scottish regiments five retained their tartan kilts.  Those decisions were being made by unionist personnel and it was not long before the Highland garb took on a more elaborate style when upper crust civilians and military men donned the kilt with large hairy sporrans that covered most of the kilt front and Glengarry bonnets which was the brain child of Alastair MacDonald, Chief of the Glengarry branch of that clan.  At the time he was back wearing the kilt he was also clearing his lands of his own people.  Neither the large hairy sporrans or Glengarry bonnets would have seen the light of day when Highlanders wore the kilt as an everyday attire.  As for the Scottish regiments, they eventually donned the tartan again but mainly on the parade ground or on state and military occasions such as Highland balls and official ceremonial occasions.

BILLY CONNOLLY

Billy Connolly recently said that when he was young, he very seldom saw anyone wearing a kilt and if anyone ventured out in one the children would all shout “kiltie, kiltie, cauld bum” and no one got married in the kilt.  However, now just about everyone gets married in the kilt and into the bargain more and more people are wearing the kilt.   Times have indeed changed. 

I believe that the independence movement have had no small part to play in bringing back some pride to the population at large in this regard.    At one time the only large concentration of kilted men outside the upper crust Highland balls and military occasions were those who attended SNP gatherings and the odd Scotland football supporter attending matches particularly against England.   Now, it is common practice for most fans to don the tartan at all Scotland football matches.  

UNIONIST PROPAGANDA  

When tartan and the belted plaid were in everyday use the cloth was spun and dyed by the women and woven by the local weaver.  The colours used would be those available locally.  The earliest known written record of the philibeg (little kilt) was in 1725 when an Englishman, Thomas Rawlinson, who wore the kilt himself and managed an iron works in Glengarry got some of his workers to alter their belted plaids.  On the other hand, others believe that it was the Highlanders themselves who were responsible for the change.  After the wearing of tartan was forbidden by law after the ‘45 uprising, unionists, just like their propaganda today, were implying that Scots were not bright enough to make decisions for themselves or to see the benefits of making an alteration to the belted plaid for working purposes.   Propaganda in today’s world is all high tech but at the time we are dealing with they had to make do with what was available, and it worked.  There are many examples of sons of Highland Chiefs making good by throwing in their lot with the ruling “English” class for self-gain even if it was to the detriment of their own clansmen and their families and that too is another story deserving of more copy.

THE THREAT DISAPPEARED BUT EMBERS STILL BURNED

When the English government lifted their ban on wearing tartan in 1783 any threat to their hold over Scotland had lessened and more importantly the Dress Act to ban it’s manufacture for everyday use had broken the link between the people of the Highlands and their traditional form of dress.   If the clearances had not taken place and the Highland garb had not been banned in all its forms then, just like most people in countries throughout the world, Scots would have followed the unified dress attire prevailing at that time and Scots would have continued to look on tartan with national pride without a disapproving heavy hand of a colonial superpower doing its best to deprive them of that attachment. 

On 10^th November 1746 Prince Charlie wrote to King Louis XV

“Scotland is about to be destroyed and the English government is resolved to treat alike those who supported it and those who took up arms for me.”  

It was also a time of the Scottish Enlightenment which included Alexander Carlyle a young writer of note and a future Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland who, like other Edinburgh volunteers, joined the local defence force to defend Edinburgh against the Jacobite army and also like them wisely took a non-combative role.  As for David Hume’s work on Human Nature he would have had many live exhibits to form an opinion to test his mind.  

MY COMMENTS

My thanks to Bill for this excellent article and the research he undertook to put it together. It demonstrates that the attempts by England to colonise Scotland go back a long way but we can take pride, that despite the ridicule and persecution our nation overcame that pressure and today all over Scotland kilts are worn with pride, no more so than on the day many are married. I was married in the kilt, I wore my kilt in a number of different countries following the adventures of our national football team. Now in my seventies I optimistically ordered a new kilt last year and hope to have it available for many more important days, in especial on the day Scotland finally wins our Independence.

I am, as always

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