Glengarry with dicing... thoughts?

[OC Richard]

I think it looks sharp too and you can wear it with pride as acknowledging you fealty to the British Crown. You do know that is why the dicing is there don't you?

My understanding is that the dicing is an elaboration or decorative descendant of the size-adjustment ribbon which was laced around the rim of the old bonnet. Don't know if there's any evidence of that, or if it's just a story.

More likely the dicing is just another example of the Highlander's love of pattern, which adorned nearly every inch of the old traditional Highland costume, with its tartan jacket, kilt or trews, patterned hose, patterns worked into leather and engraved onto metal, probably yet another example of the nearly worldwide ancient horror vacui.

If dicing indicates fealty to the Crown, why were the bonnets of The Black Watch (and the other Highland regiments fighting for the Crown) plain as late as the 1740s? Why was King George IV painted wearing a plain bonnet in the 1820s? Why did The Royal Company of Archers wear plain bonnets in the 1820s? When the Glengarry was adopted into The Cameron Highlanders, for their pipers, in the 1840s, and later for the entire regiment, it was plain? Why The Black Watch also wore plain Glengarries, as long as they wore them?