From: Suze.Hammond@f56.n105.z1.therose.pdx.com (Suze Hammond)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Instructions for ancient kilt - feileadh mor
Date: 20 Aug 92 18:20:00 GMT

EV>  From: ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright)
EV>  Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
EV>
EV>  Moreach NicMaolain (Suze Hammond) writes:
EV>
EV>  >In period Highland men wore this fairly short, and with no attempt
EV>  to cover
EV>  >what we would consider immodest
EV>
EV>  Are you sure?  All of the recent books I have seen dealing with
EV>  Scottish costume pretty much debunk the "wearin of kilts goes back
EV>  to the wee hours of creation" idea.

Where did I ever say that? Every time someone asks about Scottish dress, i 
warn them how hard it is to document anything before the 1500's...

EV>  They generally date the
EV>  introduction of the kilt/belted plaid to the early 1600's, or
EV>  possibly the very late 1500's.

Gee, last time I asked, the "very late 1500's" were in period. Am I missing 
something?  :-)  (And some folk insist we recognize up to 1650...not *me*,
you understand...but some folk.)

EV>  (This based on a written report
EV>  of Scottish mercenaries who arrived in Ireland in the 1580's wearing
EV>  "cloaks over their belts."  There are no illustrations of this,
EV>  however,

Au contraire... Two or three illustrations is not quite the same as "no 
illustrations".  :-)

I have seen an engraving (woodcut?) of a man and woman in greatkilt and 
airsaidh, dated about mid 1500's. Unfortunately it is in a library book, but 
if I remember where I saw it, I'll post the reference. There is, also, the 
fairly famous illustration of "Irish" mercenaries of Gustavus Adolphus in 
1631, caricatured by his German foes in a "broadside" the British Museum has 
in its collection. This picture is also often used (and I think was so used
near period) as an illustration of Scots mercenaries. The confusion lies in 
the Northern Irish practice of the time of hiring West Highland and 
Hebridean Scots to fight (known as "gallowglas"), and in the fact that 
Ulster and Highland folk were still virtually one and the same (up until the 
Scots forsook Catholicism completely) and most of Europe refered to them all 
as "Scots" (and sometimes as "Irish"). If you see the illustration, you will 
note the man on the right is wearing a great-kilt. Since this is a more 
primitive form of dress than the man on the left (wearing trews, shirt and 
mantle) or the man next to the left (wearing Viking-style pantaloons, but in 
*plaid*, and a doublet), and since a garment very like the greatkilt, but in 
linen is mentioned in the well IP Brehon Law of Ireland, it isn't a great 
stretch to believe that the greatkilt must have existed before 1631, much as 
the College of Heralds allows names that are roughly a generation past 
period to be used as documentation...because cultural artifacts don't often 
spring up in a week or so. (They didn't have the Paris haute couture salons 
in period to make up fantasy clothes, and then try to trick us into wearing 
them. Clothing evolved more slowly than now.)

(All you Scots out there...I'm afraid fancy sporrans are *not* period. A 
dagger was worn in that spot, or an odd little multi-sectioned pouch that is 
the forebearer of all those weird leather tassels on modern sporrans. Each 
tassel was the drawstring to a seperate inner pouchlet... All the pretty 
silver mountings are out, too, although I think the native Celtic designs 
were far better anyway....)

EV>  Non Scot: That's an interesting costume.  How far back does that go?
EV>
EV>  Scotswoman: Very far back.  In fact, it's still being worn today.

Not bloody likely! What you see at the Highland games is all 18thc or later.

Moreach NicMaolain
<email to> trifid@agora.rain.com