by them
Caipal Mor,
from his large stature. They wore the full Highland dress, with musket and
broadsword. Many of the soldiers added, at their own expense, the dirk,
and the purse of Otter’s skin. The bonnet was raised or cocked on one
side, with a slight bent inclining down to the right ear, over which were
suspended two or more black feathers. Eagle’s or Hawk’s feathers were worn
by the officers. During six years in North America Fraser’s
[William Skene, F.S.A. Scot, quotes
desly (AD. 1578) in speaking of the Highlanders, ability to stand
cold when clad in kilt and plaid—’ His solis noctu involuti suaviter
dormiebant. Reliqua vero vestimenta erant brevis ex lana tunicella manicis
inferius apertis, uti expeditius cum vellent jacula torguerent, ac
Jcemoralia simplicimma, pudori quam friqori aut pompce aptiorie."
Wrapt up in these for their only covering, they would sleep comfortably.
The rest of their garments, consisted of a short woollen jacket, with the
sleeves open below for the convenience of throwing their darts, and a
cover ing for their thighs of the simplest kind,
more for decency than for show or a defence against the
cold."
In a lively newspaper discussion
with the late Dr. W. J. Anderson, P. L. & H. S., the question of the
effects of climate on the kilted "Scots" in Canada in 1759 was discussed;
we held forth as follows:
"Highland regiments as late as 1780,
not only wore the kilt by choice but exchanging it for any other dress,
was in their eyes, positive degradation. Regimental orders were found
insufficient to do away with it. Nothing short of an act of Parliament
would effect it, and even that in some cases failed. They appear to have
held more staunchly to the kilt than to the Stuart dynasty. An instance of
this powerful national feeling of the Highlanders occurred at Leith, about
1780. " Two strong detachments of recruits be-. longing to the 42nd and
71st Regiments, arrived at Leith from Sterling Castle, for the purpose of
embarking to join their respective regiments in North America. Being told
that they were to be turned over to the 80th and 82nd,—the Edinburgh and
Hamilton regiments who wore the Lowland dress, they declared openly and
firmly they had not been enlisted for such regiments, and refused to join
them. Troops were sent down, but the Highlanders flew to arms; a
desperate conflict ensued, in which Captain Mansfield, of the South Fencible Regiment, and nine men were killed, and thirty-one soldiers
wounded. Being at last overpowered, the mutineers were carried to the
castle; three of them were tried for mutiny. At their trial, they pleaded
first the difference of their language, the Gaelic, and also that they had
been acustomed to the Highland habit, so far as never to have worn
breeches, a thing so inconvenient and even so impossible for a
native Highlander to do, that when the Highland dress was prohibited even
by act of Parliament,