402 
all other nations are but loofely covered 5, 
is effeminate, being merely a fhort pet- 
ticoat, an article of female drefs; is beg- 
garly, becaufe its fhortnefs, and the 
fhortnefs of the ftockings, joined with 
the naked knees, imprefs an unconquera- 
ble idea of poverty and nakednefs. 
~, As to the plaid, there is no reafon to 
believe it morg ancient than the philibeg. 
The chief in 1562 appears ina mantle; 
and if the common people were then 
clothed’ in fheep {kins, the plaid was 
fuperfluous. . But I fuppofe the plaid 
and philibeg pafied from the low lands to 
the high lands about the fame time. Our 
old -hiftorians, in {peaking of the high- 
Janders, always judge and defcribe, as 
was natural, from thofe next the low 
lands. In 31715, as appears from Mr. 
Dempfter’s letter, the remote highlanders 
were only clothed in a long coat buttoned 
aown to the midleg. 
It is to be regretted on many accounts, 
that’ our old hiftorians wrote jn Latin, 
whence their terms are often fo vague 
as hardly to admit accurate interpretation. 
John Major, who wrote in 1521, fays, 
Pp. 54, that the calige (hofe ?) of the high- 
landers did not extend below the mid-lee ; 
and he defcribes their whole drefs to be 
a linen fhirt tinétured with faffron, and 
a chlamys (plaid, mantle, or loofe coat!) 
above. He is fpeaking of the chiefs. 
‘The commons he defcribes as proceeding 
to battle in a quilted, and waxed, linen 
tunic, covered’ with deer-fkin. Not a 
particle you will obferve of the modern 
drefs. 
The tartan, I dare fay, paffed from 
Flanders (whence all our articles came), 
to the Jowlands about the fifteenth cen- 
tury *, and thence to the highlands. 
Tartan plaids were common among old 
women in the lowlands, in the laft, and 
even'the prefent century. 
Lord Hailes’ (Annals I. 37,) ludi- 
croufly fuppofes tartan ‘introduced by 
St. Margaret. "J | 
only fpeaking of cloths of feveral colours, 
red cloth, blue cloth, green cloth, &c. 
while the Scots probably before followed 
the old Norwegian cuftom of wearing 
only black. 

‘* Tt is never mentioned before the latter 
part of that century. -It-firft appears in the 
Accompts of james III. 1474; and feems to 
have pafled from England, for the rouge ,tar- 
tavine in the ftatutes of the order of the Bath, 
in the-time? of Edward 1V. (apud Upton de 
Re Mil.) isfarety réd “tartan, or cloth witb 
red Relpes‘oF' various fhades. 
‘note by the colonel, 
The writer he quotes is, 
; Highland Drefs.—Names of the Deity. 
Nothing can reconcile the taftelefs fe- - 
gularity, and vulgar glare, of tartan to. 
the eye of fafhion, and every attempt to 
introduce it has failed. But in your 
uniform, by ufing only two tints of a 
colour proverbially mild, and without 
glare, ‘all fuch objections are avoided, 
and the general effect rendered very pleaf- 
ing. 3 ape 
“Hiei thefe remarks it may be evinced, 
that no antiquary can objeét to the pro- 
priety of changing the philibeg to pan-_ 
taloons, a change which, if univerially 
introduced into highland regiments, and 
into the highlands, would be a laudable 
improvement. I have the honour to be, . 
&c. *t 
N. B. On the back of this letter is a 
«The philibeg 
was invented by an Englifhman in Scot- 
land, about 60 years ago,” Z. e, about 
1705. 
rae From the foregoing remarks it 
will appear how completely abfurd the 
cofiume of many late painters, theatrical - 
pieces, &c. muft be in reprefenting the - 
tartan as a Scotifh drefs inall ages. It 
is alfo proper ‘to inform them, that 2 
highlander is as different from a low- 
lander as a Welfhman from an Englifh- 
man. ‘The rebellion of 1715 and 1745 
were thofe of highlanders only. 
The highlands comprife Sutherland, 
Caithnefs, Rofs, the weft part of Inver- 
nefs and Perthfhire, and all Argylethire. . 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, : 
S it appears to be a fingular circum- 
ftance, that almoft all nations have: 
called the principle of the univerfe by a 
word which confifts of four letters, T 
fend you the following catalogue in con-. 
firmation of this pofition ; and shall only 
- further obferve that Orpheus, Pythagoras, 
and Plato, celebrated the firlt effable 
divinity as a TeTRapIc God. — 
Manor Place, Yours, &c. 
Walworth. 
God was called by the Perfians Syre: - 
by the difcipline of the Magi Or4, from’ 
whence Ovomafus: by the Affyrians_ 
Agad, which, according to Macrobius, 
ficnifies ove. ‘The Goths, according to 
Glaus Magnus, called their greater god , 
Oden, but their moft powerful. divinity ~ 
Thou. Lhe Macedonian priefts, as we 
are informed by Neanthes-Cyzicenus and 
r : T . . . . - 
Clemens Alexandrinus, invoked in their. 
prayers Bedy, that he might be propitious 
to them and their children. “Ihe Maho-” 
* meftang 
wis 
THO PAYEOR. 2 
