Quote Originally Posted by Woodsheal View Post
Does Brown's portrait really strike you as "rich guy's" garb? It looks like a rather plain wool jacket and waistcoat to my eyes....
Actually yes, a rich guy(the Prince) did pay for it, after all. That is much more like the attire of a gentleman out on the moor, or by the river might have worn. There a several paintings of that "age" at Blair Castle of the umpteenth Duke and friends with a monster salmon, gargantuan Stag, etc.. Whilst the dress in these pictures may well be more low key and perhaps more accurate ----I mean, who is going to get near a stag, even a half blind and half deaf one, when one is clanking noisily about with all that shiny metalwork flashing and precious jewels getting in the way?---- it would be a mistake to assume too much from any picture, even the ones at Blair, of that age.

However, a spot of common sense might help with the assumption making no end.This was the beginning of the age of "estate tweeds" where camouflage, warmth,hard wearing needs, and midge protection were far more important.So a certain dowdyness was very much in vogue. How do I know? Many "estate tweeds" hark back to that era and can be reliably dated. I still have no doubts whatsoever that shop keepers in Scotland would not wear tartan for their work in that era..