The Highlanders Of Scotland

[OC Richard]

The Highlanders Of Scotland

The Complete Watercolours Commissioned by Queen Victoria from Kenneth MacLeay

Published by Gracious Permission of Her Majesty the Queen

1986 The Haggerston Press London


From the dust jacket:

"Queen Victoria's passion for the Highlanders of Scotland is well known. However, one of the most remarkable aspects of her enthusiasm has been largely forgotten. Early in her widowhood she commissioned from the Scottish miniaturist Kenneth MacLeay a number of watercolours of her family and of her retainers at Balmoral. The Queen then decided to expand the scheme and to arrange for MacLeay to paint representatives of the principal Highland clans. The men were selected by the chiefs themselves and are displayed wearing the most authentic tartans and showing in detail the historic insignia and accoutrements of their clans. ..
When the set of thirty-one watercolours was exhibited in 1869 it caused a sensation. The potraits were published in 1870 in a limited edition..."

This is a remarkable book. In it there are 56 men in Highland Dress painted by an artist with an amazing eye for detail.

It captures a Highland Dress full of vitality and variety and rewards the time spent studying the paintings many times over.

Today we can be at an event and see a roomful of men in identical Prince Charlies and identical Ghillie Brogues but in this book we can see that in the 1860's a gathering of twenty men in Highland Dress might exhibit 20 different shoe styles alone!

Many of the men are in quite plain Highland Dress:



Looking very closely one is, time and again, struck by MacLeay's amazing and unerring eye for the smallest detail, such as the frayed edge of the ribbon on this man's bonnet:



Here's a closeup of one of the many interesting pairs of shoes, so often in styles no longer made today:



Many of the men are wearing plain Day jackets. Our modern Day sporrans and Evening sporrans didn't exist at that time, and long hair sporrans were worn in all modes of dress.



Highland dress couldn't be more plain. In the above dress there is no metalwork of any kind, no cap badges, no bow on the Glengarry, no flashes, plain hose, ordinary shoes. The hair sporran with plain leather cantle was the plainest sporran of that time.

Here is somewhat more elaborate dress:



Note the deerhead motif hose and brown Mary Janes on the right figure. I have a nearly identical sporran cantle which I bought on Ebay recently.

The shoes on the left figure come in for special note, because they are of an interesting style I'd not seen before, almost halfway between Mary Janes and Ghillies, open topped but laced across the opening.

Lo and behold I came across a very similar shoe in a 1930 Highland Dress catalogue, seen on the right:



So much for MacLeay's "artistic licence"!

Here's an interesting group, four men shoved into a single composition:



So much detail and variety, from the elaborately armed men on the flanks to the men in plain tweed in the middle.

The man on the left has fish clasps on his jacket.

The man on the right is holding an antique shield and is the only man wearing an 18th century sporran of the 56 kilted men. His ghillies, like most of the ghillies which appear here, are rough tan leather. Note that there are only two rows of tongues on this pair, but also seen in the book are ghillies with one row (like laced Mary Janes), three rows, and four rows.

There are lovely touches like the pointed cuffs on the brown tweed jacket and the red cuffs on his grey hose.

Here we see a full tartan suit:



Note the grey hose with a system of red and blue lines, unique in this book.

The jacket on the left has sleeve braid not unlike military jackets of the period often had. Note that his belt buckle is of a pattern still common today.

More interesting stuff:



Kilt pins are seldom seen here but the man on the left is wearing a round one. His shoes are buckled loafers, a style rarely seen today. Note the red waistcoat peeking out.

The man on the right has an interesting sporran, unique in this book, with an animal mask but two long tassels.

Note that few of the figures are wearing flashes.

In my anal historian way I noted the number of occurances of various things being worn, as follows:

Sporrans
46 long hair sporrans (only three men are in military uniform, so the rest are being worn with the ordinary civilian dress of the time, including 16 being worn with tweed "day" jackets)
5 animal mask sporrans (badger, racoon, musquash?)
2 fur body, no animal face
1 18th century sporran
1 c1810 sporran

Shoes
25 Mary Jane style (Of these only 15 have buckles both above and below the opening as is universal today. Some have buckles only above, some only below, and one pair has no buckles but is laced all the way over the opening.)
11 ghillie style (most are tan leather, a few are brown, one grey, one black with buckles at toes)
10 ordinary Oxford shoes
5 "buckle loafers" (slip-on dress loafers with nonfunctional buckles)
3 ankle boots
1 spats
1 unique pair of shoes, a blend between Mary Janes and ghillies

Jackets:
24 "Celtic" jackets (open collar & lapels, Argyll cuffs and Inverness tashes. NOT "Regulation Doublets" as are made today.)
21 "day" tweed jackets
4 jackets with open collar & lapels, Argyll cuffs, but cutaway bottom)
3 military doublets
2 shell jackets
2 "Harris men" in distinctive buttonless jackets

Of the "day" tweed jackets, 7 are grey tweed with matching vest, three grey with tartan vest, one grey with red vest.
4 are charcoal, 2 with matching vest, one with tartan vest, one with crimson vest.
2 brown tweed
1 black with tartan vest
1 blue
1 navy blue
1 tartan, Atholl Highlanders cuffs, matching tartan vest

Hats:
25 plain Glengarries
22 plain Balmorals
3 diced Balmorals (only one has dicing as is common today. One has one-row red/navy dicing, one has tiny intricate black&white dicing)

Hose:
24 diced
13 tartan
5 taupe
5 grey
1 charcoal
1 unique deerhead motif in green & red

Flashes:
40 with no flashes
5 red flashes
3 red elaborate bows
1 red bow
1 red garters tied over the hose turnover cuffs, with bows
1 red w/black edging
1 red& greenn striped
1 possibly Royal Stuart tartan, or striped?

Waisbelts:
of figures wearing their jackets unbuttoned, with vests:
16 no visible waistbelts
8 waistbelts worn over jacket
2 waistbelt under jacket, over vest
No vests tucked into kilts!
No waisbelts peeking out from under vests!

31 waistbelts are supporting a dirk
3 waistbelts without dirk, two of them military men.

Crossbelts:
all but 2 are supporting swords.

Cap Badges:
25 Glengarries have visible badges
22 Balmorals have visible badges
1 Glen has no badge or cockade ribbon
3 Balmorals with no badges

Kilt Pins:
(where that part of the kilt is visible)
27 kilts without kilt pins
5 kilts with kilt pins
1 kilt with rosettes (green)

Weapons:
32 dirks
28 basket-hilt swords
17 sginean
5 targes
4 powder horns
3 shotguns
2 pairs of Highland pistols
1 rifle with bayonet
1 18th century Claymore

Plaids:
25 long plaids with plaid brooch
8 belted plaids with plaid brooch
7 loosely-wrapped plaids without brooch

[OC Richard]

For some reason, this book is sometimes attacked as being inaccurate.

These attacks are usually vaguely worded, and one might inquire what, exactly, is being asserted:

1) Is it being claimed that MacLeay did not accurately paint what was before his eyes?

2) Or is MacLeay's work itself not being questioned, but rather that his sitters were not wearing authentic Highland Dress?

The first claim, that MacLeay was not accurately painting his sitters, in effect inventing these images, cannot be taken seriously.

He was known for his accuracy and attention to detail and was commissioned in part for that very reason.

Many relics appear in his painting, which still exist.

I myself have seen photos of, or handled, or owned, examples of nearly everything seen in these paintings and time and again I am amazed at his attention to the smallest detail.

If he was inventing these images, how does one explain away photographs done at the same period, which show the same sorts of things?


















Many of these photos were taken the very years that MacLeay was painting his subjects.

If however the claim is being made that the images in The Highlanders Of Scotland do not represent the way these men would dress when not in Highland Dress, I would counter that the way these men dressed when not wearing Highland Dress is irrelevant to the subject.

It's like claiming that illustrations of sports uniforms are inaccurate because the men don't look that way when they're not dressed in their sports uniforms.

There is no claim, openly stated or implied, that the sitters shown in The Highlanders Of Scotland wore that identical dress 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Some of the negative statements about The Highlanders Of Scotland make me think that it's simply a matter of some people nowadays disliking the Highland Dress current in the 1860's. I myself would rather be intrigued by things in the past rather than pretend that they never existed.

[Cygnus]

Thank you for this excellent pair of posts - they're both very informative!

[Tartan Tess]

I LOVE this book and the prints. Thank you for this post.
I hope someday to own a copy, but have heard it is expensive and hard to get.

Yesterday , from Amazon books, I ordered "Queen Victoria's life in the Scottish Highlands depicted by her watercolor artists" by Delia Millar.
Most of the pictures are recording the places they had seen like castles and hunts, dances etc. I did see a few watercolors of pipers. The artists listed are Sir Edwin Landseer, Carl Haag, James Giles, William Wyld and George Fripp. I can post some pictures when I receive it, if anyone is interested.

[Brian K]

Richard,

I have enjoyed all the posts that have referenced The Highlanders of Scotland, and the back and forth that have accompanied them. If I recall correctly, and I may not, the objections to accuracy have not referred to the portraits and their details, but to whether or not the portraits represent, in toto, normal day to day Highland wear of the period. There are, of course, several gentlemen in fairly plain dress, but the majority are quite dressed up. It seems unlikely that those the most dressed up - full tartan suit, fully armed with crossbelts, weapons and targs, etc. - dressed like this to go to the local for a wee dram, or to collect the post, or other such mundane activities.

Who of us, if we knew we were to sit for a portrait for the leader(s) of our nation(s), would not dress in the best we could manage. In the 1860s the average Highlander would probably have an even more formal understanding of propriety than we do nowadays and would dress accordingly. I would hazard a guess that those in the plainest dress may have found themselves in the presence of the Queen in such garb on a more or less regular basis - the Brown brothers, for example - and were therefore more comfortable dressing that way for the portraits.

Jock Scot has mentioned a photograph of himself as a young officer in the Household Division. In this picture he is mounted, wearing a scarlet blouse and holding a sword. While the picture would be an accurate representation of a British officer in ceremonial dress it would not follow that it was an accurate representation of normal duty or battle dress for said officer.

Questioning whether or not the portraits represent every day Highland dress is not the same as questioning the authenticity or accuracy of the artists work.

Regards,

Brian

[Andy Proffitt]

It must be remembered also, that these watercolors are of Queen Victoria's retainers. I would hazard that, as they were in the presence of the Monarch on a daily basis, they DID dress as depicted (or some close variation thereof) everyday.

For those who think it was "the finest of the fine for the MacLeay sittings" look at the frame (not included above) of Donald MacBeath and William Duff both Murray of Atholl highlanders.
MacBeath is an obvious military man with uniform coat and medals, white belt cross-belt and sporran strap, a sharp Glengarry, long hair sporran, and plain hose with neat hair and beard.
Quite the opposite, Duff is the plainest (dare I say roughly) dressed of any I have seen. He wears a beaten Balmoral, has a long and unkempt beard, red and white hose, a rumpled waistcoat, an overworked and semi-shapeless gray (canvas?) coat, with NO SPORRAN and holding a fishing rod.
There are also subtle shading differences between their kilts (both Murray of Atholl) with MacBeath's more vibrant and crisp looking, while Duff's kilt looks faded, worn and dirty.

For this group of men I would say this is everyday wear. I would also say, this was everyday wear for men similarly situated. A few of the subjects also have some photos that survive and they present a similar picture to the watercolors.

One of the things I also like is that the individual tastes of the subject and the skills of the different craftsmen come through. Their shoes, hose, jackets, hats and other articles are personal, and not regimented like the "Rules for Highland Dress" today are. They wore the shoes they liked and what the local cobbler or cordwainer produced. They show a personal style.

I'm sure that other men of different status, did have a different "everyday" wear, but that is true anytime. Today in the US there are men wearing made-to-measure flannel suits from Savile Row, men wearing off-the-rack from JC Penny's, men wearing jeans hiking boots and polos typing away on XMarks, and guys wearing a full Dickies outfit. They are different, but its all everyday wear for those individuals.

I for one love the MacLeay watercolors. I like seeing Highland dress where everyone is not wearing the Scottish Waiter Jacket (the PC). Sources for originality and adventure in Highland sartorial matters are much needed. Even the plainest dressed of these subjects (well, maybe not Duff)looks better put together and more interesting than the standard attendee of a Burn's Supper.

[Jock Scot]

Brian K.

...... particularly as the fellow in question, posing, was in the infantry!

[Brian K]

Brian K.

...... particularly as the fellow in question, posing, was in the infantry!

LOL, Jock, all sorts of interesting images spring from that!

[Tartan Tess]

Duff the Game keeper is my favorite.
What is that he has inside his jacket? By all the watch fobs? Looks like a squirrel pelt???

[creagdhubh]

Richard,

Thank you for your extremely informative thread. I have owned a copy of The Highlanders of Scotland by Kenneth Macleay for many years now and absolutely adore the book. In my opinion, many of the Highland men portayed in Macleay's portraits, are an inspiration for certain aspects of Highland dress and how one could go about composing interesting and unique components for their own Highland wardrobe. Certain aspects such as sporran design (my own evening sporran molach is based upon Lachlan Macpherson's of Catlodge-lad on the viewer's left), hose design, the wearing of the plaid, plaid brooch design, brogue design, bonnet design, observing the wearing of the plant badge, waistcoat design, dirk and sgian dhubh design, etc. I refer to my copy of the book, which I bought whilst in Edinburgh several years ago, quite a lot. I especially enjoy Miss Amelia Murray MacGregor's detailed descriptions of what each Highland man is wearing, located in the beginning of the book.

My fellow Macpherson kin, sons of the Parson, from the 19th-century, painted by Macleay.


Na bean don chat,