Originally Posted by
MacKenzie
Like I said, by the mid-1600s we had a shoe with a heel, a sole and a tongue.
Do you mean the old moccasin thing ceased to exist, and was replaced by ordinary European shoes?
What I'm trying to figure out is whether some sort of moccasin thing continued to exist in the Highlands, and through evolutionary processes became the Victorian Ghillie brogue.
Because if the moccasin thing fell out of use, and Highlanders began wearing ordinary shoes (like the ones we see in the 18th century portraits) I don't see a connexion between the moccasin thing and the Victorian Ghillie brogue.
The only precursor to the Victorian Ghillie brogue I've come across in iconography are the things worn by a certain pair of brothers.
They knew of the 16th century letter; they quoted it in one of their quasi-historical books.
Could they be the ones who invented Ghillies?
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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