The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-04-06
IN HoNORED HEADGEAR.
The Bonnet OF the Highland "Laddies" In
the British Army.

the British Army.
A petition has been got up. 10 when nc
fewer than $4,000 signatures have been az
facbed. and IN which the retention OF the
hornets by the Highland regiments Is
| strongly urged, says the London Telegraph.
| The majority OF the signatures have been
obtained, it is stated, in Scotland. The
signatories appear to be drawn from all
| the intelligent glasses of the commu-
nity-merchants, bankers, barrsters, wfi-
tiers to the Sigaet, university students,
trade corporations, literary, acknowledgment
and benevolent associations, members OF
! the stock exchange and members OF
Workinpmen's clubs. To these must
be added formidable phalanX OF the
great Scottish thames, including the Dukes
OF Argyll, Sutherland, Montrose and Rich
mond and Gordon, Lord Belhayen ana
Stenton, Cluny Macpherson, and last, but
not least, Lord Archibald Campbell, who,
enthusiastic in all that concerns the garb
OF old Gaul, and who is pledged by VOW
sworn on the dirk which he kissed in the
hall OF Stafford House TO "defend the tar
TAM" has been doing bis utmost, In con-
junction with the Highland Society OF
London, TO defend the menaced bonnet
OF sable plumes. This distinguished
tribesman OF the clan Campbell, while adj
yancing many substantial reasons for the
retention OF the conventional Highland
military beadgear, frankly admits that one
of the pleas for its preservation is purely
sentimental. IL is Lord Archibalds con-
tention, however. that :" sentiment" may
br worth the presence OF 10000 men in the
field OF battle, and that the soldiers OF our
Highland regiments and the bulk OF the
people of Scotland implicitly believe that
the feather-bonnet has been made both
.'national and "historical" within the
last 100 wears by the deeds of the heroic
men who, wearing that bonnet, had fought
and conquered in so many famous cam
paigns.
The history OF the plumed bonnet cannot
be traced with exactitude, although Lord
Archibald Campbell considers it to be OF
far higher antiquity than is ordinarily sup
posed by southern critics and by military
tailors and he is himself in the possession
OF portrait by Jameson, commonly known
as the Scottish Vandyck, Of an earl OF Muir
ray of the time of the first Charles, who
wears broad blue bonnet with ostrich
feathers. The popular and erroneous origin
ascribed TO the bonnet is that il was first
adopted by the highland troops serving
with Sir Ralph Abercromby in Egypt at the
commencement OF the century. The fea'
Their bonnet, as we know it at present, has
doubtless undergone some few alterations
and notifications since the days when the
famous Black Watch, or Forty-second
were first embodied and wore
q flat cap with small tuft OF feathers
the present bonnet is to all
reasonable intents and purposes identical
with the bonnet in which the Highlanders |
stormed the Heights OF Abraham, and In |
which they fought in India against Hyder |
ALI, IN the Peninsula, at New Orleans, at |
Waterloo, and in India again during the !
mutiny. "Pll haze nae but bonnets here"
cried Colin Campbell, forming his line At |
the Alma, aud the bonnets which that va
liant commander marshalled in the Cri- |
mea were in many instances the self |
same headgear he had seen at vi |
miera, at Corunna, at VittOria. and |
at Bladensburg. In the days OF the much. |
decried "clothlng colonies" il is stated |
that feather bonnet supplied regimentally |
TO private lasted the whole of his service |
Of u years, and was worn by him all over |
the globe. After ten years the bead-dress |
would be "set up"; that Is to say, it was |
taken TO pieces and remade at the not very !
expense OF bali crown. On |
leaving the service the discharged soldier |
was permitted to sell his bonnet TO the |
regiments and 1t might realize as much as
rom fifteen TO twenty shillings. The bon
net would then be again " set up" and !
lreslf feathers added to it, beng worn for |
another ten years, and so on until the
original feathers had all disappeared.