Quote Originally Posted by M. A. C. Newsome
Will, I appreciate what you are saying here, and agree with you to a certain extent. I think it highly unlikely that the group being described in 1594 as wearing belted plaids were the very first people to have worn that style. However, the fact remains that (as I have stated) the first recorded evidence of the belted plaid being worn is in 1594. It may likely have been worn prior to that, but any earlier date is just speculation. I think it is remarkable that of the many other sixteenth century accounts of Highland Dress that we do have, only one or two could possibly be imagined to describe the belted plaid. So it certainly wasn't common prior to the last decade of the sixteenth century.

Aye,
Matt
Matt,

Just a point of interest on my part, how many descriptions DO we have between 1550 and 1600?

Speculatively, it seems that what must have happened was that the brat/plaid got gradually bigger until it was more effective to belt it around the outside. And the impetus for that seems likely to have been the increasing cost of linen relative to wool as the troubles in Ireland cut into the production of linen. Its the sort of thing that would likely have happened gradually, with the plaid gradually becoming larger over the last quarter of the 16th century. Being a biologist I tend to see most major cultural changes as happening by an evolutionary process.

I should make clear that I definitely see your basic hypothesis as correct (to say I agree with you would be giving too much weight to my knowledge in the matter; much of what I know about it comes from your work.) I just think that you tend to put slightly too much emphasis upon the terminus ante quem, probably driven by all the "ancient Celtic tradition of the kilt" blather.

Will Pratt