Highlanders
continued to wear the kilt both winter and summer. They, in fact, refused
to wear any other, and these men were more healthy than other regiments
which wore breeches and warm clothing." [Browne’s History of the Highland
Clans, p.183.]
though the philibeg was one of the forbidden parts
of the dress, yet it was necessary to connive at the use of it, provided
only it was made of stuff of one color and not of tartan, as is well known
to all acquainted with the Highlands, particularly with the more
mountainous parts of the country."
The prisoners were sentenced to be
shot, but the King subsequently granted them a free pardon. It was stated
in the work to which we refer. that " a great number of the detachments
represented, without any disorder or mutinous behavior, that they were
altogether unfit for service in any other corps than Highland ones,
particularly that they were incapable of wearing breeches as part of their
dress."
"Are we not, therefore, justified in
replying to Lieut. Fraser, who, on the 20th December, 1759, appears to
have been so concerned lest the stalwart mountaineers might catch cold, by
reason of the wind’s rude pranks with their kilts, in the words of one of
the veterans, who had seen six North American winters, "Thanks to our
gracious chief, (Col. Fraser,) we were allowed. to wear the garb of our
fathers, and, in the course of six winters, showed the doctors that
they did not understand our constitution; for, in the coldest winters our
men were more healthy than those regiments that wore breeches and warm
clothing."
A Canadian peasant aptly remarked of
the kilt that he considered it "trop frais
pour l’hiver, et dangereux l’éte a cause des maringouins."
J. M. L.
THE KILT SUITABLE FOR WINTER.
(Quotations from the "Scottish Gael"
by James Logan, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
"The hardihood of the Celtic race
has been before noticed. Their dress inured them to the vissicitudes and
severity of the climate. The lusty youth, says Marcellinus, had their
limbs hardened with the frost and continued exercise."
"Pelloutier relates an ancedote,
which shows how little this people regarded exposure to cold. One of their
Kings, who was well clothed, one morning that the snow lay deep on the
ground, perceiving a man laying down naked,. asked if he was not cold. ‘Is
your face cold?’ replied he—’No’ said the King, ‘Neither’ returned the
man, ‘do I feel cold, for I am ALL FACE.'
"The Highlanders, before the
subversion of their primitive institutions,. were indifferent to the
severity of a winter night, resting contentin the open air, amid rain or
snow. With their simple breacan (plaid) they suffered ‘the ]