Highland DRESS use during Proscription

[figheadair]

View near Loch Rannoch, 1749 by Paul Sandby. Just two years after the Act of Proscription that forbad Highland clothes the two highlanders are shown wearing feileadh beag, tartan hose and a little plaid. Further evidence that the Act was not wholly effective or uniformly applied.

[Tarheel]

This scene also includes surveying (elevation and angle measurement). There should be notes available of the men participating, their job title, area surveyed, maybe notes on the connecting land owners, weather and odd notes of interest the surveyor may have added. I would love to get my hands of those books.

If this was a government mandated survey, there would have been a dress code (recommended) for the workers (maybe not "day" or "walk-on" temporary help).

Thank you for the items you provide Peter.

[Standard]

This scene also includes surveying (elevation and angle measurement). There should be notes available of the men participating, their job title, area surveyed, maybe notes on the connecting land owners, weather and odd notes of interest the surveyor may have added. I would love to get my hands of those books.

If this was a government mandated survey, there would have been a dress code (recommended) for the workers (maybe not "day" or "walk-on" temporary help).

Thank you for the items you provide Peter.

As a land surveyor those were some of my first thoughts as well. Wondering if the kilted gents were part of the survey party, or landowners.

[figheadair]

As a land surveyor those were some of my first thoughts as well. Wondering if the kilted gents were part of the survey party, or landowners.

Given that they Highlanders are shown wearing a feileadh beag, coat and little plaid I'd have thought they were more likely to have been landowners (gentry) rather than workers. We know that the Act was applied with different degrees of enforcement in different areas of the Highlands and that some gentry seem to have ignored the Act when It suited them. Many of these gentry were Haneovarian supporters, Norman MacLeod, 22nd chief for example, which this drawing may also reflect. Ultimately we are left to guess but it's clear that the Act was not the all encompassing ban that many assume.

[Bruce Scott]

Soldiers, perhaps? I believe the painting shows a survey party at Loch Rannoch during the Roy Military Survey of Scotland 1747 - 55.

http://www.clydeandavonvalley.org/hi...nd-avon-valley

[Luke MacGillie]

Sandby was IIRC an engineer, and his works are a treasure trove of mid century solders dress details.

I'm going to check a database of redcoat images to see if there is a write up on this work.

[Tarheel]

You gents have just given me my summer reading and research project. As a retired surveyor, this may fill my plate with fine dining.

[Luke MacGillie]

A few close ups, and another Sandby that is not often seen in color








Sandby's Jacobite Prisoner image

[Tobus]

Proscription didn't apply to those in government service, right? If these men were part of a military surveying party, I'm not sure that this is any sort of evidence one way or the other.

[figheadair]

Proscription didn't apply to those in government service, right? If these men were part of a military surveying party, I'm not sure that this is any sort of evidence one way or the other.

Proscription did not apply to those in the Army, those in Government service but not military were covered by the Act. These two might have been soldiers although the 42nd and 64th (the only two Highlander regiments at that date) wore the belted-plaid rather than the feileadh beag. The garments are similar to those in Sandby's drawing of the post-Culloden prisoners so he may have just included these to identify the surveying as working in the Highlands.