Copy 1, Volume 1

Sketches of the character, manners, and present state of the Highlanders of Scotland; with details of the military service of the Highland regiments / [David Stewart].

  • Stewart, David, Major-General.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sketches of the character, manners, and present state of the Highlanders of Scotland; with details of the military service of the Highland regiments / [David Stewart]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    undergone a marked change, f Formerly the bonnet was worn with a gentle inclination over the left or right eye¬ brow, and the plaid was thrown over the left shoulder (the right arm being exposed, and at full liberty) with a careless air, giving an appearance of ease not distant from grace, while the philibeg gave a freedom to the limbs, and showed them to advantage. At present, as the Highland dress is almost exclusively confined to the lower orders, a degree of vulgarity is attached to it, which makes it unfashionable in the eyes of young men, who awkwardly imitate the gen¬ try, and their Southern neighbours, and in their slouched hats and misshapen pantaloons offer a most unseemly con¬ trast to the airy garb and martial appearance of their fore¬ fathers. Along the line of the Grampians, the Gaelic has nearly kept its ground, and is, to this day, spoken in the same dis¬ tricts to which it was limited, after it had ceased to be the prevailing language of Scotland seven hundred years ago. But, although it is universally spoken in common discourse, the Gaelic of the counties of Dumbarton, Stirling, and Perth, and, in short, of all the Highlands bordering on the Low¬ lands, is corrupted by a considerable admixture of English words, ill chosen and ill applied. The chief causes of this f The difference in the personal appearance of the people is remarkable, and forms an interesting subject for a philosophic inquiry. The causes of the change in character and manners are evident, but those which have affected personal appearance are not equally clear. Persons who remember the remains of the chivalrous race, whose character I have attempted to delineate, will not now dis¬ cover any of those martial patriarchal figures, remarkable for an erect inde¬ pendent air, an ease of manners, and fluency of language and expression, rarely to be found among any peasantry. Even in my own time I remem¬ ber many, such as I now describe, who, with kindly dispositions and warm at¬ tachment to my family and forefathers, never failed, when I met them, to re¬ mind me of their honourable character and name. In the districts where these persons lived, we now see only plain homespun folks. To what can this change be attributed ? Not surely to the “ progress of improvement ”— seeing that their personal appearance is as much deteriorated as their condition. Many observe, and with great reason, that the tacksmen and second order of gentry are more changed than the low^er orders, and are every way different from the gentlemen tacksmen of former times.