SATURDAY’S article by John Purser on the attack on kilts and tartans (Was it an Englishman who invented the kilt?, May 2), goes some way to debunking this oft-repeated Goebbels-style myth. If a lie is repeated often enough it becomes a propaganda “truth“, as we know only too well in Scotland.

English employer Thomas Rawlinson’s iron smelting foundry in Invergarry employed locals who, because of the heat, wore the breacan beg, “little kilt”, as opposed to the breacan mor, large kilt, or belted plaidie. There was nothing new in this.

Highlanders – or Gaels, as they described themselves – often wore the little kilt when working in the summer fields, or, as well recorded in the 17th century, Highland Fencibles or Auxiliary regiments wore them in the barracks. The large tartan plaid was sewn from two woollen garments, as the looms were not big enough for a single piece at that time. It was belted around the waist and thrown over the left shoulder, fastened by a plaidie brooch, or pin.

READ MORE: Was it really an Englishman who invented the kilt?

In battle, it was often discarded and they fought in their saffron (Irish) linen tunics/shirts, sometimes knotted atween the legs. Or, to the horror of earlier adversaries, charged nakit. This was also to avoid infection from dyed garments as a cause of death, rather than of the actual wounds themselves. Portraits, paintings, drawings, and woodcuts of kilts go back much further into antiquity at home and abroad.

The oft-blamed Sir Wattie Scott, as the poet Sandy Rodgers described the magistrate and informants’ paymaster, himself denied the charge that he “invented” the tartans. Sir Wattie organised the Highland pageant in Edinburgh in 1824, to please George IV, whom he impressed as having inherited some Scots blood through the Stewart line.

The schizophrenic high Tory and sometimes Scottish patriot did his best to revive an emaciated culture. Most of the local setts and dyes were lost and had to be revived or re-invented for the parade. He composed a poem, “Carol noo the King’s come” for the bekilted fat frames of the King and Lord Mayor of London. The crowds mocked them with Sandy’s parody version, referring to their fat bums. Not understanding a word of the vernacular, the dynamic duo waved to what they thocht were adoring, enthusiastic crowds.

Wilson’s of Bannockburn did their best to save and revive some of these setts and the old Mill building lies neglected in Stirling, which could be used to house a Tartan Museum.

Anyway, as John Purser implied, how could they ban something that did not exist? Prebble quoted one nine-year-old boy, sent to Cumberland during the butchery and genocide period of the Highlands, to a relative in Cumbria, “I was forced to wear the trowsers and I did not love myself”.

The bans on tartans, kilts, warpipes, and Clarsach (Highland harp) were only repealed to encourage enlistment to fight the French and Aboriginals of North America. The mother of the “rebel” Cameron Chief invented the Cameron of Erracht tartan to blend with the hated redcoat. Many of the Highland regiments, such as MacDonald, Montgomery, and Fraser Highlanders, etc, decided to stay in the Americas rather than return home to occupied Hanoverian Scotland. Many married French and native women and also settled in Quebec.

Brit Nat historians called the Clearances as “improvements” and claimed they were better off in Canada and the other colonies. The kilts changed from fear to ridicule by the Brits, as did all of Scottish culture. I personally wore the kilt at rallies from the early 70s as a means of political choice and identification, to the horror, disgust and loathing of the Brit Nat left.

Donald Anderson
Glasgow