Fore & Aft / Deerstalker?

**Jock Scot** · 31st October 08, 02:13 PM

Originally Posted by Ted Crocker

What is the name of the bonnet that does not have the flat top? It's just... round or cotton ball shaped.

I guess I should also ask if that one is worn anymore?

I am not on your wavelength with this one Ted.Do you have a picture?

**BoldHighlander** · 31st October 08, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by Ted Crocker

What is the name of the bonnet that does not have the flat top? It's just... round or cotton ball shaped.

I guess I should also ask if that one is worn anymore?

Ted, are you talking about the Hummel /Kilmarnock style?
If so, that was a late 18th - early 19th century style military bonnet.

**Bugbear** · 31st October 08, 03:01 PM

Um, if I understand correctly, the Balmoral bonnet has a flat top and is shaped. I seem to remember seeing pictures or paintings of men wearing kilts and they were wearing a blue bonnet that did not have that flat top to it. It looked more like a soft blanket material, and had a globular shape to it. *Kind of rumpled looking.*

I'm just going by memory from when I was a kid, so I may have been misunderstanding what I was seeing. Guess nothing like that is worn today then.

**BoldHighlander** · 31st October 08, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by Ted Crocker

Um, if I understand correctly, the Balmoral bonnet has a flat top and is shaped. I seem to remember seeing pictures or paintings of men wearing kilts and they were wearing a blue bonnet that did not have that flat top to it. It looked more like a soft blanket material, and had a globular shape to it. *Kind of rumpled looking.*

I'm just going by memory from when I was a kid, so I may have been misunderstanding what I was seeing. Guess nothing like that is worn today then.

Ted, I really think it's the Hummel /Kilmarnock style your thinking of:

Here's an article that Matt Newsome once wrote on it:
http://albanach.org/hummel.htm

Also, while not widely worn these days, except perhaps by living historians /reenactors (& a few XMarkers ), you can order one from the Scottish Tartan Museum or from Kirstie Buckland (check out her Hummel & Knitting bonnets, basically one & the same - one w/pom & one without).

Hope this helps

**Bugbear** · 31st October 08, 04:41 PM

Thanks BH. That might be what I saw. Maybe even the broad bonnet.
I was under the impression Balmoral bonnets had a stiff and completely flat top., but maybe I'm thinking wrong on that too.

**Bugbear** · 31st October 08, 09:24 PM

This kind of sounds like the bonnet I was thinking about.

Highland Bonnet HB-906 at Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc.
But I don't know for sure.

**ChattanCat** · 1st November 08, 04:58 AM

Is the fore & aft the hat with the brim all the way around? If so, why is it called only fore & aft? Why not fore, aft, starboard and port?

**JRB** · 1st November 08, 05:49 AM

Originally Posted by ChattanCat

Is the fore & aft the hat with the brim all the way around? If so, why is it called only fore & aft? Why not fore, aft, starboard and port?

From what I've seen, the brim on a fore and aft is all the way around. However, the fore and aft part of the brim is noticeably wider than the sides of the brim.

**Jock Scot** · 1st November 08, 05:01 PM

Originally Posted by JRB

From what I've seen, the brim on a fore and aft is all the way around. However, the fore and aft part of the brim is noticeably wider than the sides of the brim.

Yes you are quite correct, the side brim(over the ears)are about an inch wide, whilst the front(fore) and back(aft) stick out about two/three inches.

**ThistleDown** · 1st November 08, 05:45 PM

Jock, so I don't interfere with your lesson here, perhaps you could copy a few pics into the thread. Maybe describe each as you have done and follow that with a photo. I think there's still confusion.

Ted, as a matter of interest, in the 19C the HBC imported Scottish bonnets for resale through their posts all over the Northwest. There's a part-case of these at the Fort Langley museum in British Columbia. They are simlar to (and probably the fore-runner of) the Balmoral commercially available today. It had a soft dark blue wool crown, a stiffened black ribbon head-band that was adjusted for size by tying at the back, and had a red toorie. The wool was thick and warm and almost rain-proof. The ribbon tying was simple: an eye-knot something like you would use for a necktie -- once around and then through the resulting loop.

Somewhere in the back of my mind there is an image of a new-made one by a current sporran-maker. I can't remember who, but it struck a bell at the time I saw it as being almost identical to those brought in by the HBC.