226 ARMY UNIFORMS PAST AND PRESENT 



terms in the matter of uniform. It is difficult to 

 understand, impossible to explain, the emotion in- 

 voluntary, as all true emotion must be roused, even in 

 Saisneach breasts, by the sight of a Highland regiment 

 marching to the skirl of the pipes. In order to illus- 

 trate it, let me lapse for a moment into the first 

 person singular. 



During Queen Victoria's memorable progress through 

 her metropolis in the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, I was 

 seated with two ladies of my family in the stand set up 

 for members of Parliament in Palace Yard. The long 

 hours of waiting on that shining summer forenoon 

 were enlivened by the march of many regiments, 

 headed by their bands, passing to their appointed 

 places in the route. It was a shifting pageant of stir- 

 ring sight and sound. Presently, over Westminster 

 Bridge carne the Seaforth Highlanders stepping to the 

 lively strains of The Muckiri o' Geor die's Byre. 1 The 

 effect was indescribable the swing of kilt and sporran, 

 the dark drooping plumes, the gallant but simple 

 melody, thrilled all spectators. As for myself, I felt a 

 big lump in my throat, and I was ashamed to feel 

 something trickle down my cheeks. Yet am I a 

 Lowland Scot, if any one is ; so far as I can trace my 

 pedigree, there runs in my veins no drop of Celtic 

 ichor. If such as I was so deeply stirred by the pass- 

 ing of a single Highland battalion, why should not all 

 the Scottish regiments be clothed in the garb of Old 

 Gaul as romantic as it is serviceable with the desir- 

 able result of rendering the Lowland corps as popular 



1 An old air, subsequently set to the song My Tocher 's the Jewel. 



