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Lin Robinson
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 Posted: Sun 18 Jul, 2010 4:35 pm Post subject: |
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Lewis...
My point is not that the Victorian and Georgian eras were not historical because, as you point out quite correctly, they were. What I am saying is that in these two time periods, the actual history of Scotland, especially that of the Highlands, was distorted - beyond recognition in some cases - as were the dress and weaponry of the Highlander. The examples you put in your previous post are a case in point. The Highlander, when he wore the kilt, wore a belted plaid, which is simple yardage. It bears little resemblance to the kilts of today or of the Victorian era. I wear the kilt regularly myself and not the belted plaid, and I am right glad not to have to wear that hot, heavy garment in the climate where I live. The excesses of the Victorian era created a false history and artificial culture for Scotland in general and the Highlands in particular. While I am sure you know all this, there may be others on the forum who do not. So, for their benefit I will summarize:
1. There was no such thing as a "Clan Tartan" until the late 18th c.
2. Not all Highlanders wore kilts regularly. Breeches were commonly worn as were trewes. In fact, kilts were a relatively late addition to Highland dress and Lowland Scots never wore them prior to the Tartan Revival.
3. Few Highlanders carried the full complement of weapons. The Highlands were an impoverished area and the average drover or crofter simply could not afford much in the way of weaponry.
4. The great Highland bagpipe was introduced to Scotland from Ireland in the 15th c. Prior to that time the main musical instrument in the Highlands was the harp AKA the Clairsach.
5. When the Tartan Revival began, the enterprising weavers in Scotland invented the patterns still in use today in order to sell tartan to practically everyone in Britain by associating the patterns with surnames that probably had no Scottish provenance until one was invented for them.
6. The Highland Clearances, one of the saddest and cruelest periods in British history, moved thousands of Highlanders off land where they had lived for centuries, forcing them to go to the coast where they became fishermen or to emigrate to the US, Canada, NZ and Australia. The clearances were started and administered by the great landlords and particularly the "Great Improver", the Count, later Duke of Sutherland, who was perhaps the richest man in Britain at the time and also an Englishman. Most of the participants in the Tartan Revival were the landed gentry. The ties between the average clansman and his chief had been severed after Culloden, when the chiefs became landlords instead of holding the clan lands in trust for the members of the family. All this was glossed over at the time by those who wanted to be involved in all things Scottish. Today the Highlands are mostly empty of people, especially in Caithness and Sutherland from where my clan was cleared.
Any way, I do not mean to preach a sermon here, just keep things in perspective.
Lin Robinson
"The best thing in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women." Conan the Barbarian, 1982
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Lewis A.
Location: United States Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 75
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| Posted: Sun 18 Jul, 2010 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Lin Robinson wrote: | Lewis...
My point is not that the Victorian and Georgian eras were not historical because, as you point out quite correctly, they were. What I am saying is that in these two time periods, the actual history of Scotland, especially that of the Highlands, was distorted - beyond recognition in some cases - as were the dress and weaponry of the Highlander. The examples you put in your previous post are a case in point. The Highlander, when he wore the kilt, wore a belted plaid, which is simple yardage. It bears little resemblance to the kilts of today or of the Victorian era. I wear the kilt regularly myself and not the belted plaid, and I am right glad not to have to wear that hot, heavy garment in the climate where I live. The excesses of the Victorian era created a false history and artificial culture for Scotland in general and the Highlands in particular. While I am sure you know all this, there may be others on the forum who do not. So, for their benefit I will summarize:
1. There was no such thing as a "Clan Tartan" until the late 18th c.
2. Not all Highlanders wore kilts regularly. Breeches were commonly worn as were trewes. In fact, kilts were a relatively late addition to Highland dress and Lowland Scots never wore them prior to the Tartan Revival.
3. Few Highlanders carried the full complement of weapons. The Highlands were an impoverished area and the average drover or crofter simply could not afford much in the way of weaponry.
4. The great Highland bagpipe was introduced to Scotland from Ireland in the 15th c. Prior to that time the main musical instrument in the Highlands was the harp AKA the Clairsach.
5. When the Tartan Revival began, the enterprising weavers in Scotland invented the patterns still in use today in order to sell tartan to practically everyone in Britain by associating the patterns with surnames that probably had no Scottish provenance until one was invented for them.
6. The Highland Clearances, one of the saddest and cruelest periods in British history, moved thousands of Highlanders off land where they had lived for centuries, forcing them to go to the coast where they became fishermen or to emigrate to the US, Canada, NZ and Australia. The clearances were started and administered by the great landlords and particularly the "Great Improver", the Count, later Duke of Sutherland, who was perhaps the richest man in Britain at the time and also an Englishman. Most of the participants in the Tartan Revival were the landed gentry. The ties between the average clansman and his chief had been severed after Culloden, when the chiefs became landlords instead of holding the clan lands in trust for the members of the family. All this was glossed over at the time by those who wanted to be involved in all things Scottish. Today the Highlands are mostly empty of people, especially in Caithness and Sutherland from where my clan was cleared.
Any way, I do not mean to preach a sermon here, just keep things in perspective. |
Yes those are all quite correct points of fact, but even the distortions and gross exaggerations of the Victorian era (clan tartans, goats hair sporrans and all) are very much a part of Scotland's genuine history - that was what was going on in Scotland - especially the Highlands - for the better part of the 19th century. You had genuine clan chiefs wearing fake clan tartans festooned with all manner of egregious ornamentation. It is simply a part of the evolution of Highland dress - a process that is still taking place today (with equally questionable results).
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Lin Robinson
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| Posted: Sun 18 Jul, 2010 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Lewis A. wrote: |
Yes those are all quite correct points of fact, but even the distortions and gross exaggerations of the Victorian era (clan tartans, goats hair sporrans and all) are very much a part of Scotland's genuine history - that was what was going on in Scotland - especially the Highlands - for the better part of the 19th century. You had genuine clan chiefs wearing fake clan tartans festooned with all manner of egregious ornamentation. It is simply a part of the evolution of Highland dress - a process that is still taking place today (with equally questionable results). |
Once more, it is good to separate what is actual history from a cultural standpoint, from a bunch of made up and/or grossly exaggerated ideas, which is precisely what the Tartan Revival in Scotland and elsewhere was. All that stuff in the Victorian era was not a genuine evolution of Highland dress or weaponry or anything else for that matter. It was phony as heck and a way for a large number of historically ignorant non-Scots to be involved in a "craze". Unfortunately it obscured the actual history of the Highlands of Scotland and its people for a significant amount of time. And don't for a minute think that much of this went on in the Highlands, except among the landed gentry, many of whom, like the Duke of Sutherland, were not of native stock. The average Highlander, if he had not been kicked off his small farm or migrated overseas in search of a way to feed his family, didn't take part mainly because he could not afford to and secondarily because he was not very interested. Remember that the clans were soundly defeated at Culloden; the Clan System - which was on the way out anyway - was destroyed and their culture and language suppressed by the disarming act that followed it. By the time the disarming act was lifted, in 1782, most clansmen had not only lost their connections with the chief - now landlord - they had forgotten their old way of life, at least for the most part. There was no incentive to get back into the kilt and begin carrying weapons, herding cattle and scratching out a subsistence living on run-rigs on which they could not obtain a long-term lease. Nope, it was off to America and other places where a significant number of them became so integrated that they forgot their heritage entirely. There were exceptions, of course, but having grown up in one of the largest enclaves of Highland descendants, Cumberland County, NC, I can assure you that is true for the most part.
If you love the Victorian style of Highland dress, customs, powder horns, etc. - I really like the tailored kilt, as I said elsewhere - then enjoy it. But do not mistake it for any sort of continuation of the Highland culture because it is not!
Lin Robinson
"The best thing in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women." Conan the Barbarian, 1982
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Lewis A.
Location: United States Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 75
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| Posted: Sun 18 Jul, 2010 8:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Lin Robinson wrote: |
Once more, it is good to separate what is actual history from a cultural standpoint, from a bunch of made up and/or grossly exaggerated ideas, which is precisely what the Tartan Revival in Scotland and elsewhere was. All that stuff in the Victorian era was not a genuine evolution of Highland dress or weaponry or anything else for that matter. It was phony as heck and a way for a large number of historically ignorant non-Scots to be involved in a "craze". Unfortunately it obscured the actual history of the Highlands of Scotland and its people for a significant amount of time. And don't for a minute think that much of this went on in the Highlands, except among the landed gentry, many of whom, like the Duke of Sutherland, were not of native stock. The average Highlander, if he had not been kicked off his small farm or migrated overseas in search of a way to feed his family, didn't take part mainly because he could not afford to and secondarily because he was not very interested. Remember that the clans were soundly defeated at Culloden; the Clan System - which was on the way out anyway - was destroyed and their culture and language suppressed by the disarming act that followed it. By the time the disarming act was lifted, in 1782, most clansmen had not only lost their connections with the chief - now landlord - they had forgotten their old way of life, at least for the most part. There was no incentive to get back into the kilt and begin carrying weapons, herding cattle and scratching out a subsistence living on run-rigs on which they could not obtain a long-term lease. Nope, it was off to America and other places where a significant number of them became so integrated that they forgot their heritage entirely. There were exceptions, of course, but having grown up in one of the largest enclaves of Highland descendants, Cumberland County, NC, I can assure you that is true for the most part.
If you love the Victorian style of Highland dress, customs, powder horns, etc. - I really like the tailored kilt, as I said elsewhere - then enjoy it. But do not mistake it for any sort of continuation of the Highland culture because it is not! |
I understand completely with what you are saying, it wasn't a "natural" progression that would have occurred without the assistance of folks like Sir Walter Scott, James Logan, R.R. MacIan, Wilsons of Bannockburn and the "Sobieski-Stuart" brothers (John and Charles Alan-Hay) - yet those folks made it happen, as did all the folks who ate up with a spoon. They were making it evolve into what it evolved into, they were making history, and in a very real way they kept things like the kilt and its accoutrements from dying out completely; even the military was part of it, the noblemen who raised the Highland kilted regiments had bought into the "garb of old Gaul" mythos lock, stock and barrel. Its a bit like all the fakery and tom-foolery that surround any form of patriotism - it goes on in every nation in every age - it is and becomes a part of history. I for one am glad it happened the way it did; being of Scottish descent myself, I'd find what I consider to be my ancestral culture far less interesting and appealing if it didn't include a lot of Scotsmen wearing kilts of made-up clan tartans with enormous shaggy sporrans running about in the 19th century.
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