GARB OF OLD GAUL

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3718, 9 November 1926, Page 2

GARB OF OLD GAUL

• PASSING OF THE KILT The introduction of clanship, tartans, and kilts seems beyond the reach of history but the Scottish Highlanders arc undoubtedly the remnants of the great Celtic race which remained untouched and undismayed by the Homan and Saxon invasions on the south, and the Danes on the east and west of the country, and they were the last to oppose with perfect success the otherwise conquering arms of Rome. The tourist who visits the Highlands nowadays expecting to find the hardy men of the north arrayed in the kilo must suffer n grievous disappointment. lr, may be.-.questioned if the appearance of a kilted Scotsman is much more common in the streets of the Highland capital than it is in London.* For Highland patriotism resembles the English variety in so far as it is not ;■„) frequently exercised at home as abroad. the widespread impression that the kilt is still the customary attire in the Highlands is perhaps due to the patriotic feeling of homesick Highlanders abroad who adhere to the ancient dress as the most striking emblem of their nationality.

the change of costume from “ splenchan ” and glengarry bonnet to the more orthodox dress is contemporary with the passing away of many old Highland superstitions and the progress of culture in the north. It might he said that the use of the kilt has been on the wane since the advent of the railway train to the mountain fastnesses and moorlands of the Highlands. Perhaps the motor car has given the coup de grace! AMERICANS AND THE KILT.

Among tho many reasons advanced for the present unpopularity of the kilt the most plausible is that the costume —to put it delicately—does not quite come up to the modern standard of material necessary for the adornment of mankind. The Highlander is nothing if not modest, and to see the blush mounting to the cheeks of some lair American tourist as she views the kilt for the first time must of necessity be a painful experience for him. This explanation cannot be dismissed as entirely frivolous, and many Highlanders have given up wearing the kilt because of their natural objection to the attire exciting the unwelcome and unrestrained curiosity of passers-by.

Although the number of Scotsmen who wear the kilt is gradually diminishing, an increasing demand is experienced every year from American tourists. To them its possession serves a double purpose—besides being an interesting memento of a “real good time,” they find the kilt a striking feature at fancy dress balls. “To what base uses . . !” A former Prime Minister, in a speech delivered in Edinburgh, relerred “to the nomad tribes who in the month of August appear in Perth station with their guns and fishing rods, and sometimes in the kilt, but the kilt with white knees. . . .” At this we are told there was laughter. To a Highlander tears would have been more appropriate. The average English shooting visitor in Highland attire is soon spotted, hut the appearance of a cousin from across the herring pond _ who affects the kilt is more than sufficient to prejudice a fair-minded individual against the costume for ever. PICTURESQUE 1 NUT VI DU ALT TY. On arrival in the Highlands many Americans wear the kilt as a matter of course—as their wives buy tartan, post cards, and Highland candy. The kilt is rapidly coming into favor as suitable wear for ladies. The fashion journals declare that a kilted lady looks “chic,’’ a statement “ which nobody can deny.” Sassenach and American friends who contemplate decking themselves out in Highland garb, if they are wise, will delay purchase until they reach the Highlands, for there is an art in kilt making, particularly in getting the pleats to “ lie,”' that is seldom found outside Highland soil. It would he unfortunate if the kilt were to be entirely discarded by its hereditary users. It is endeared to all Highlanders at home and abroad by romantic and historical associations, and no other costume lias its picturesque individuality. In the earlier days the kilt distinguished the various fighting clans which overran the Highlands by means of the chiefs’ respective clan tartans, and tlie.se distinctions are still punctiliously observed in Highland regiments. The kilt is remarkable in this respect: that practically no change has taken place in its character for three or four centuries. It is probably the only costume used in any civilised country of which this may he said. “Yet when time shall have drawn its veil over the past as over the present, when the last broadsword shall have been broken on the anvil, and the shreds of the hits plaid been tossed by the winds upon the cairn, or bleached within the raven’s nest, posterity may look hack with regret to a people who have so marked the history, the poetry, and the achievements of distant ages, and who in tho ranks of the British Army have stood foremost in tho line of battle and given place to none.” — “ Deeside Highlander,” in the ‘Weekly Scotsman ’