Search just our sites by using our customised site search engine



Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

Click here to learn more about MyHeritage and get free genealogy resources

The Scot in New France (1535-1880)


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 ]


Previous Page  |  Return to Book Index Page  |  Next Page

This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.