Aug. 9. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



107 



dents. I crave that they will be pleased to receive this 

 as a general apology, in lieu of particular notices, and 

 in the stead of promises to eflect what I can no longer 

 hope to accomplish, and forbear to attempt. 



" Wm. Hoxe. 



"December 12. 1827." 



J. M. G. 



Worcester. 



Mr. Hone, whose friendship I enjoyed for some 

 years, became toward the latter part of his life a 

 devout and humble Christian, and a member of 

 the dissenting church under the pastorate of the 

 Rev. Thomas Binney, to which also several mem- 

 bers of his family * belonged. Meeting him acci- 

 dentally, about ten years since, in Great Bell 

 Alley, London "Wall, he led me to a small book- 

 shop, kept I think by one of his daughters, and 

 showed me j)art of a pamphlet he was then en- 

 gaged upon, relative to his own religious life and 

 experience, as I understood him. This, I believe, 

 has never appeared, though he f)ublished in 1841 

 The early Life and Conversion of William Hone, 

 of Eipleyt, his father. 



At p. 46. of this interesting narrative, he sub- 

 joins an extract from a new edition of Simpson's 

 Plea for Religion, printed for Jackson and Wal- 

 ford, describing the happy change which had 

 taken place in his own mind. To this account, 

 written, as Mr. Hone says, " by a very dear friend 

 who knows me intimately," he sets his affirmation ; 

 so that there can be no doubt of its accuracy. 



A Life of William Hone, by one who could 

 treat it philosophically, would be so deeply inte- 

 resting, that I am surprised it has never been un- 

 dertaken. " The history of my three days' trials 

 in Guildhall," says he, " may be dug out from the 

 journals of the period : the history of my mind 

 and heart, my scepticism, my atheism, and God's 

 final dealings with me, remains to be written. If 

 my life be prolonged a few months, the work may 

 appear in my lifetime." This was written June 3, 

 1841. Was any progress, and what, made in it ? 



Who so fit to " gather up the fragments," as his 

 late pastor, Mr. Binney, the deeply thoughtful 

 author of one of our best biographies extant, the 

 Life of Sir 2\ F. Buxton ? Douglas Allpokt. 



[The concluding words of our correspondent are 

 calculated to mislead our readers. Tlie Life of Sir 

 T. 1"'. Buxton is by his son ; whereas Mr. Binney's is 

 merely a shelch of his character, with that of other 

 eminent individuals, published, we believe, in a small 

 pamphlet.] 



PLAIDS AND TARTANS. 

 (Vol. iv., pp. 7. 77.) 

 I can assure A Lowlander that the reviewer's 

 Btory is quite true, it being gathered from Sir 



* " His wife, four daughters, and a sou-in-law." 

 "f London: T. Ward and Co. 8vo. pp. 18. 



John Sinclair, who, in a letter to jNIi'. Pinkerton, 

 dated in I\Iay, 1796, says : 



" It is well known that the phllibeg was invented by 

 an Englishman in Lochabar, about sixty years ago, 

 who naturally thought his workmen would be more 

 active in that light petticoat than in the belted plaid; 

 and that it was more decent to wear it than to have no 

 clothing at all, which was tlie case with some of those 

 employed by him in cutting down the woods in Loch- 

 abar." — See Pinkerton's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 404. 



I never understood that there was any presumed 

 antiquity about the philibeg or kilt. In the En- 

 cyclopaedia Britamiica it is described as a "modern 

 substitute" for the lower part of the plaid. 



Presuming that I have settled this point, I will 

 pass to the original Query of a Juror, p. 7., still 

 quoting Pinkerton: 



" Tliere is very little doubt but that the ' Tartan' 

 passed from Flanders (whence all our articles came) to 

 the Lowlands in the fifteenth century, and thence to the 

 Highlands. It is never mentioned before the latter part 

 of that century. It first occurs in the accompts of 

 James III., 1474, and seems to have passed from 

 England; for the ' rouge tartarin' in the statutes of the 

 Order of the Bath in the time of Edward IV. (apud 

 Upton de Re Milit.) is surely red tartan, or cloth 

 with red stripes of various shades." 

 Again — 



" As to the plaid, there is no reason to believe it 

 more ancient than the philibeg. In the sixteenth 

 century Fordun (lib. ii. cap. 9.) only mentions the 

 Highland people as ' amictu deformis,' a term con- 

 veying the idea of a vague savage dress of skins. 



" In the book of dress printed at Paris in 1562, the 

 Highland chief is in the Irish dress wearing a mantle. 

 The woman is dressed in sheep and deer skins. Lesley, 

 in 1570, is the first who mentions the modern Highland 

 dress, but represents the tartan as even then being ex- 

 clusively confined to the use of people of rank. 



"Buchanan, 15S0, mentions the plaids, but says 

 they are hroion ; even as late as 1715 the remote 

 Highlanders were only clothed in a long coat but- 

 toned down to the mid-leg ; this information was 

 derived from the minister of Mulraearn (father of the 

 Professor Ferguson), who said 'that those Highlanders 

 who joined the Pretender from the most remote parts, 

 were not dressed in party-coloured tartans, and had 

 neither plaid nor philibeg.' " 



So much for the assumed antiquity of the Scot- 

 tish national costimie. More interesting matter 

 on this subject will be found in Pinkerton's Cor- 

 respondence, vol. i. pp. 404 — 410. Blowen. 



THE CAXTON MEMORIAL. 



(Vol. iv., pp. 33. 69.) 



Whatever be the fate of The Caxton Memorial, 

 as suggested by myself, the proposition is clear of 

 interested motives. I neither aspire to the honours 

 of a patron, nor to the honours of editor.ship. To 



