ABSTRACT

The linguistic differences which cut the Lowlands off from the Highlands were matched by physical differences and appearances. There are, of course, many portraits of Mary Stuart, but none of these was painted in Scodand. There is a distinct difference between the clothes worn by the Queen’s men and the rising puritan lords. Pictorial evidence of the dress worn in the Highlands in the sixteenth century is almost non-existent. There exists a drawing in Ghent University which shows a man wearing short trousers, with a check jacket and a plaid. No costumes of the Highlands have survived from the early period. The Reformers, as so many men of solid principles, were against any form of fashion, and in 1575 they instituted orders against fripperies. John Knox was constantly inveighing against the luxury of Mary Stuart’s court, possibly because the luxuries were brought in from abroad.