Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 4

WEST HIGHLAND STORIES. 369
ill a day ; they have by them muskets, tlieir bows aud
quivers, and long knives."
There are plenty of bits of old tartan preserved in
Scotland. There are pictures at Dunrobin, at Tay-
mouth, at Armidale, at Hol}Tood and elsewhere, all of
which prove that tartan was anciently worn, and that
particular patterns were worn in certain districts.
Dr. Johnson and Boswell saw men dressed in plaids
and tartans when they made their tour in 1773, and
whence the notion sprang that the Highland dress is a
modern invention I cannot imagine, unless it is the off-
spring of the same spirit which passed an Act of
Parliament to forbid the dress.
The form of the dress is undeniably old. A
sculptured stone was dug up some years ago at St.
Andrews, in a position which proves its great antiquity ;
and General Stewart's description of the dress of 1740
applies as well to the figure, probably sculptured long
before St. Andrew's Cathechal was built, as it does to
pictures at Taymouth, and prints of 1631.
Copies of some of the figures on the St. Andrews
stone are at pages 38 and 390. I have endeavoured to
trace every fold, and those who would look at the sculp-
tured figures will find a cast in the Antiquarian ^Museum
at Edinburgh. The whole design is given in Wilson's
Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, and in " the Sculptured
Stones of Scotland," The style of ornament is exactly
that of old Gaelic crosses and manuscripts, and that
is pronounced by good judges to be " British " or
"Celtic;" but the general look of the sculpture re-
minds me strongly of similar Eoman stone chests of
VOL. IV. 2 B