302 Notes on Sporl and Travel ii 



have a trace of this habit, even then passing away, 

 as do all things but delusions : — 



' Auld Abraham Brown is deid an' gone, 

 We ne'er sal see him more — 

 He tcsed to wear an auld plaid coat, 

 All buttunt up pefore.' 



Strange to see how things ancient live in ballads ! 



And now I approach a portion of my task which 

 filleth me with fear ; and did I not know that our 

 good and gracious Queen (though some scurrilous 

 knaves blench not to say that she over-favoureth the 

 North Briton) would not suffer me to be hampered 

 or oppressed for words spoken in all honesty, I 

 would fain avoid it. Safer, perhaps, it will be for 

 me to make a true Scot (albeit a Norman, as be 

 most of the chieftains of the North) speak at first ; 

 and so let us hear what Sir John Sinclair sayeth 

 in 1796 : — 



' It is well known that the philabeg ^ was invented 

 by " an Englishman " in Lochaber, 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 the case of 

 some of those employed by him in cutting down 

 the woods at Lochaber.' Not only was the inventor 

 of this philabeg or kilt an Englishman, but his very 

 English name hath been handed down to me. ' One 



I Kilt.— Ed. 



