The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. IX] OF SCOTLAND 143
reason the women are at great pains, first to give an exact
pattern of the plad upon a piece of wood, having the number of
every thred of the stripe on it. The length of it is commonly
seven double-ells.
" When they travel on foot the plad is tied on the breast
with a bodkin of bone or wood. The plad is tied round the
middle with a leather belt ; it is pleated from the belt to the
knee very nicely. This dress for footmen is found much easier
and lighter than breeches or trowis.
" The first habit wore by persons of distinction in the Islands
was the Lenicroich, from the Irish word Leni, which signifies
a shirt, and Croich, saffron, because their shirt was died with
that herb. The ordinary number of ells used to make this robe
was twenty-four ; it was the upper garb, reaching below the
knees, and was tied with a belt round the middle, but the
Highlanders have laid it aside about a hundred years ago.
" The shoes anciently wore were a piece of the hide of a
deer, cow, or horse, with the hair on, being tied behind and
before with a point of leather. The generality now wear shoes,
h.aving one thin sole only, and shaped after the right and left
foot, so that what is for one foot will not serve for the other.
" But persons of distinction wear the garb in fashion in the
south of Scotland."
By the writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they
are termed the mantle and the shirt, and are described by them
as being the only dress worn by the gentry ; thus the Reverend
James Broome, in his " Travels over England, Scotland, and
Wales," published at London in 1700, tells us, "
they go habited
in mantles, striped or streaked with divers colours, about their
shoulders, which they call pladden, with a coat girt close to
their bodies, and commonly are naked upon their legs, but wear
sandals upon the soles of their feet and their women ; go dad
much after the same fashion."
In 1688, according to Sacheveril, " The usual outward habit
of both sexes is the pladd the women's much ; finer, the colours
more lively, and the square larger than the men's and ; put me
in mind of the ancient Picts. This serves them for a veil, and
covers both head and body. The men wear theirs after another
for ornament
manner, especially when designed :
it is loose and