Clans, Clansmen And Highland Dress Quiz

Answer: belted plaid

Tiritana was the Spanish word for 'a coloured woollen material'. In French the tiritana became a tiretaine. The Scots made 'tartan' of it.The term tartan only describes the cloth used or its pattern of different coloured straight lines crossing each other at 90 degree angles.

There was a Gaelic term for the belted plaid as well: breacan feile. The word originally referred to 'an expansive chequered blanket'.

Answer: True

In 1583 a French observer notes that such a shirt was worn by both the Scottish and the Irish : 'A garment hanging to the knees, of thick wool, after the manner of a cassock'.

Answer: a dirk

A scimitar would not be a suitable synonym as it is a sword rather than a dagger.Scimitars have curved blades.Wilfred Owen mentions scimitars in line 14 of his popular poem Asleep: And these winds' scimitars.

Answer: sporran

Trews are the skin tight trousers which were typical worn by the more prosperous Highlanders. The modern regimental 'trews' are not the genuine thing. They must be considered as 'tartan trousers', not the authentic Highland trews. Brogues are shoes of course. Other parts of Highland dress are the sgion dubh, the plaid brooch, the clan crest badge, the stockings and flash, etc.

Answer: False

Absolutely incorrect. Though the six ells of double tartan needed for a 'belted plaid' were relatively pricey, the 'breacan feile' was the all-weather dress of the ordinary clansmen. The Highland nobility only occasionally used it. They by far preferred the 'triubhas' or trews, a kind of trousers, which was much more practical for riding on horseback.The nobility often wore the plaid as a decorative upper garment OVER their trews and doublet, as can be seen in a portrait of the Laird of Cluny-Macpherson dating back to the early eighteenth century.

Answer: the filibeg

Alternative spellings are: philabeg and phillibeg. The word derives from 'feile beag' or little kilt.It had developed from the 'kilt part' of the belted plaid and single tartan was used for it. It became the 'servile habit' of those who would find the expansive belted plaid too ... expensive.In contrast to the belted plaid the little kilt had pleats sewn into it and was fastened around the waist with a strap.It missed some of the advantages of the breacan feile: it could not be reassembled into a blanket if the Highlander had to spend a night out in the open.

As Highlanders threw off their belted plaids before battle, the philibeg probably first evolved as a separate item to prevent their indecent exposure. The Rawlinson theory claims that Thomas Rawlinson felt his workers were too restricted in the belted plaid and having them wear the little kilt was anyway more decent than allowing them to have no clothing at all, which was the case with e.g. the woodchoppers of Lochaber.

Answer: Battle of Culloden

The Massacre of Glencoe in 1692 was not a battle, but the slaughtering of the local population by troops under the authority of Archibald Campbell, the 10th Earl of Argyll. Bannockburn was a Scottish victory in 1314. At Flodden (1513) Henry VIII defeated James IV of Scotland. Culloden(1746) was the most disastrous and swiftest defeat ever in Scottish history.

In 'less than no time' (twenty minutes ...) Bonnie Prince Charles' soldiers were overrun by 'Butcher' Cumberland's army. In 1747 the Act for the Abolition and Proscription of the Highland Dress stipulated that 'the Plaid, the Philabeg, or Little Kilt, the Trowse, Shoulder-belts, or any part whatsoever of what peculiarly belongs to the Highland garb' were no longer tolerated.First offence: 6 months' imprisonment. Second offence: seven years' transportation. Practical instructions for the English troops were to 'kill upon the spot any person whom they met dressed in the Highland garb'.

Answer: 1707

1536 was the 'noiseless' Union between England and Wales. May the first, 1707 was the Parliamentary Union of Scotland and England. 1747 was when the kilt was forbidden and January 1st, 1801 was the Union between Ireland and Great-Britain, which turned out to be a Union too much as it was overturned again only a little more than a century later. Sassenachs is a term used by 'supposedly Celtic' Highlanders to refer to the 'Saxon enemy'. How comprehensive the term Saxon enemy is may be a matter of academic discussion, but for practical purposes no Highlander will ever have any doubt who belongs to 'Them'.

Answer: George IV

Sir Walter Scott persuaded George IV to pay a visit to Scotland and to wear Highland Dress. This visit was the true start for the popularity - and the commercialisation - of the Highland dress. Rules for the wearing of the Highland dress and for the tartan colours were made up, and what once had been poor people's work-clothes was now luxury stuff. Queen Victoria's interest for Scotland completed this 'peace' between Scotland and the Royals.

The buying of Balmoral led to the creation of a Balmoral tartan which still today is strictly exclusive for the Royal Family. Edward VII definitely preferred Paris to Scotland. And William of Orange would have been about the most unlikely king to wear tartan.

Answer: the Black Watch

In 1713 the Royal Company of Archers became the first regiment to adopt tartan as part of their uniform, but they were Lowlanders. In 1729 the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, raised by General Wade, opted for the tartan as well. They soon became immensely popular as the so-called Black Watch.

When in 1745 Bonnie Prince Charles chose to wear the tartan, this led to disaster for the clansmen as the mild protest against the Act of Union had now become linked to open rebellion and the Jacobite cause. It took some time before new Highland regiments were created. One of the most famous was the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders raised by Sir Alan Cameron of Erracht in 1793.

When in 1815 the Scots Grey and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guard played a major role in defeating Napoleon at Waterloo, the diffidence of the English leaders towards any Scottish tartan-wearing or non-tartan-wearing Scottish troops ebbed away.