Ossian Collection > History of the Highlands and of the Highland clans > Volume 3

414 HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS.
It was not to be expected that an act, containing provisions sa
opposed to the feelings of the Highlanders, could be carried info effect
without considerable difficulty. They could not ofttr, it is true, any
direct resistance; but they might easily conceal their arms, and might
occasionally evade the law relating to the garb, i*' allowed to retain it in
their possession. To provide against such attempts, the J)cr^olls to whom
the execution of the act was committed, devised an oath by ivhich
all persons called before them were required to swear, that they nei-
ther had, nor should have, any arms in their possession, and should
never use tartan, plaid, or any part of the Highland garb.* Grievous
as it must have been to the feelings of a Highlander to be forced to dis-
pense with his favourite tartan, his mind would have sooner been re-
conciled to the adoption of other stuffs, had he been allowed to retain
the ancient form of his garb. The attempt, therefore, to evade the law,
proceeded no less from the attachment of the Highlanders to their pro-
scribed garb, than from the uncouthness to them, at least, of the dress
forced upon them. " Habituated," says General Stewart, " to the free
use of their limbs, the Highlandei-s could ill brook the confinement and
restraint of the Lowland dress, and many were the little devices which
they adopted to retain their ancient garb, without incurring the penal-
ties of the act — devices which were calculated rather to excite a smile
than to rouse the vengeance of persecution. Instead of the prohibited
(he same manner as Ihe plaid, is said to have been introduced by an Englislnnan of (iiu
name of Parkinson early in the last century, which has given rise to an opinion enter-
tained by many, that the kilt is modern, and was never known till that period. Tliis
opinion is founded on a memorandum left by a gentleman whose name is not mentioned,
and published in the Scots Magazine. To a statement totall}- unsupported, little credit
can of course be attached ; and it may surely, wiih as much reason, be supposed, that
breeches were never worn till the present cut and manner of \>earing them wtme into
fashion. As the Highlanders had sufficient ingenuity to think ef plaiting the plaid, it is
likely they would be equally ingenious in forming the kilt; and as it is improbable that
an active light-footed people would go about on all occasions, whether in the house or in
the field, encumbered with twelve yards of plaid, (to say nothing of the expense of such
u quantity,) 1 am less \\iUing to coincide in the modem opinion, founded on such a sliglit
unaiithenticated notice, than in the universal belief of the people, that the philibeg has
been p^rt of the garb as far back as tradition reaches.
" Since the publication of the former editions, (of the Sketches,) several friends have
represented to me, that a more decided contradiction ought to be given to the story of
Parkinson and his supposed invention of the kilt, which, they say, is totally unfounded.
The truth is, the thing is not worth contradicting. If the story were true, which it is
not, the whole would amount to this, — that, in the reign of George 11., the Highlanders
began to wear four yards of tartan instead of twelve, as was their practice in former
reigns. This i^ one of the arguments brought forward by some modern authors, to prove
that the Highland garb is of lecent introduction.''
• The following is the form of the oath :— " I, ,4. B , do swear, and as I shall answer
to God at tl;e great day of .judgment, I have not, nor shall have, in my possession any
gun, sword, pistol, or arm whatsoever, and never use laitan, plaid, or any part of the
Highland garh; and if 1 do so, may I be cursed in my undertakings, family, and pro-
perty, — may I never see my wife and cliildren, father, mother, or relations, — ma) I bo
killed in battle as a lovvard, and lie without Christian burial, in a strange land, far fjon.
Ihe graves of my forefathers and kindred; may all this come across nie if 1 hreak loj
oath 1"