page_title: Earasaid
section_title: Descriptions of women's plaids
hierarchical_section_title: Earasaid / Descriptions of women's plaids
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail of an engraving showing a Scottish marketplace of the 1700s, showing a woman wearing a waist-width plaid shawl over her head.
context_page_description: An earasaid, or arasaid is a draped garment worn in Scotland as part of traditional female highland dress. It may be a belted plaid, or an unbelted wrap. Traditionally, earasaids might be plain, striped or tartan; it might be brightly coloured or made of lachdan wool. Some colours were more expensive than others. Modern highland dress makes earasaids from the same heraldic tartan cloth used for kilts.
context_section_description: One early (early 19th century) dictionary definition of "earasaid" describes it, in the past tense, as full-length and worn without underclothing. Martin Martin describes it a full-length and worn over a sleeved top. Later descriptions (notably Burt) use the word "plaid" to describe, at first, wraps that cover the whole body, and then garments that cover only from head to waist. Poorer people are described as wearing full-length blankets.
  The Ladies drefs as in England, with this Difference, that when they go abroad, from the higheft to the loweft, they wear a Plaid, which cover Half of the Face, and all their Body. In Spain, Flanders, and Holland, you know the Women go all to Church and Market, with a black Mantle over their Heads and Body: But thefe in Scotland are all ftrip'd with Green, Scarlet, and other Colours, and moft of them lin'd with Silk ; which in the Middle of a Church, on a Sunday, looks like a Parterre de Fleurs.
    — John Macky, A Journey through Scotland, written 1722, published 1729
  The Minister here in Scotland would have the Ladies come to Kirk in their Plaids, which hide any loose Dress, and their Faces, too, if they would be persuaded, in order to prevent the wandering Thoughts of young Fellows, and perhaps some young old ones too; for the Minister looks upon a well-dressed Woman to  be an Object unfit to be seen in the Time of Divine Service, especially if she be handsome.
  The before-mentioned Writer of a "Journey through Scotland, " has borrowed a Thought from the Tatler or Spectator, I do not remember which of them.
  Speaking of the Ladies' Plaids, he says — "They are striped with Green, Scarlet, and other Colours, which, in the Middle of a  Church on a Sunday, look like a Parterre de Fleurs.'" Instead of striped he should have said chequered, but that would not so well agree with his Flowers ; and I must ask Leave to differ from him in the Simile, for at first I thought it a very odd sight ; and as to outward Appearance, more fit to be compared with an Assembly of Harlequins than a Bed of Tulips. 
  The Plaid is the Undress of the Ladies; and to a genteel Woman, who adjusts it with a good Air, it is a becoming Veil. But as I am pretty sure you never saw one of them in England, I shall employ a few Words to describe it to you. It is made of Silk or fine Worsted, chequered with various lively colours, two Breadths wide, and three Yards in Length; it is brought over the Head, and may hide or discover the Face according to the Wearer's Fancy or Occasion; it reaches to the Waist behind; one corner falls as low as the Ankle on one side; and the other Part, in Folds, hangs down from the opposite arm.
  — Burt's Letters from the North of Scotland, 1754
  Some of these [peat] Carts are led by Women, who are generally bare-foot, with a Blanket for the covering of their Bodies, and in cold or wet Weather they bring it quite over them. At other times they wear a Piece of Linen upon their Heads, made up like a Napkin-Cap in an inn, only not tied at top, but hanging down behind....
  When they [female servants] go Abroad, they wear a Blanket over their Heads, as the poor Women do, something like the Pictures you may have seen of some bare-footed Order among the Romish Priests.
  	And the same Blanket that serves them for a Mantle by day, is made a Part of their bedding at Night, which is generally generally spread upon the floor; this, I think, they call a Shakedown.
  — Burt's Letters from the North of Scotland, 1754
  The women's drefs is the kirch, or a white piece of linnen, pinned over the foreheads of thofe that are married, and round the hind part of the head, falling behind over their necks. The fingle women wear only a ribband round their head, which they call a fnood. The tanac or plaid, hangs over their fhoulders, and is faftened before with a brotche; but in bad weather is drawn over their heads: I have alfo obferved during divine fervice, that they keep drawing it forward in proportion as their attention increafes; infomuch as to conceal at laft: their whole face, as if it was to exclude every external object 
caption: Detail of an illustration from Burt's Letters, 1754
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