Stuart Erskine quote in and out of context

[OC Richard]

It's interesting to see when a quote from the past is taken out of context and applied to modern situations inconceivable to the person who uttered it.

From The Kilt & How to Wear It by The Hon. Stuart Ruaidri Erskine (1901)

"I presume to dictate to no man what he shall eat or drink or wherewithal he shall be clothed."

My largest caveat is that I don't have this book nor have I ever seen a copy, so I don't know the original context of that quote within the book.

What I am very aware of is the state of Highland Dress in 1901.

"Kilt" meant a traditional hand-sewn kilt of traditional kilting cloth, or tweed, and containing 6, 7, or 8 yards of fabric.

Kilts were invariably worn with dedicated kilt-hose, or shooting socks, even in the silly "play dress-up" studio photos showing people posing in clothes provided by the photographer.

And if a sporran was worn it was a dedicated sporran i.e. made for kilt-wear and for no other purpose.

It's amusing to see this quote trotted out on Facebook in conjunction with Utilikilts (a century in the future) as well as scrunched-down athletic socks, Cowboy hats, Ren-Faire pouches, etc etc.

I've read that Erskine advocated personal freedom in kilt-wearing, but we should be aware of just how limited a range of freedom was imaginable in 1901.

For sure the personal choice message is quite different to what I see in other publications from c1900 to c1939 which are full of words like "proper" and "should" and "must".

BTW I do see an incongruence between the book's title and the quote.