Quote Originally Posted by Allan Thomson View Post
But why are you in the drawstring camp? I understand it and accept.it makes sense with a belted plaid, but looking at it objectively it is never going to form the pleats as well as sewing. As I've pointed out. Rawlinson was documented to have a sewn phillabeg in 1720, and within the Highland Regiments as with all other line regiments the skills exist to do the job. So the question is why if there was a far superior way of doing things wasn't it done? I'd say lack of evidence is not evidence of none existance.

You also use the word authorised....there's more than enough evidence to show when soldiers can get away with something not authorised which works for them then they will do.

Generally whrn things get officially implemented it means that a good few people have been doing it for a while and it's observed to be working..mm
Im in the drawstring camp because that is the safest bet, till further proof is found. That is what I will be doing at Ti next year, simply ripping the seam out of my joined plaid and wearing the bottom half, with the top half in my bedroll.

Ive spent the last couple months digesting a huge cache of photos from WO 6-27, its the proceedings from the General Officers Clothing board from 58 to about 62. It is very specific on who gets to have linen linings and thread stockings; and COL's are having their clothing rejected for simple things like changing the lace or the shade of the facing colours from past years. So the idea that COL's had all this autonomy with uniforming their men, its starting to fade away. This is also where we find out Murray and Fraser got in trouble for not lacing, or having facings on their mens uniforms. There are lots of things that could possibly be done, like sewing pleats in, and they could have been done at an individual level, but for them to be done at a regimental level, and to pay the tailors, and buy the thread, there has to be an authorization. From what little we do know, things like cutting short musket barrels, that charge and payment had to go from Fort Edward NY, all the way back to the regimental agent in London, and then back to the person who did the work at Ft Edward. It is a fascinating study in the oeconomy of a regiment in wartime.