Scotish hack night

[voice]

Yes its here again, Burns night, kilts and haggis, even though as a lowlander he certainly never wore one and proberbly didnt eat a sheeps stomach filled with crap either, but there you go.
Still if he's the best you produce I suppose its right to recognise it.

[Deleted]

Jonren's probably watching Braveheart for the umpteenth time.

[voice]

him and Crispy will be wollowing in nips and tatties and deepfrying somthing unspeakable in celebration

[tarrant]

Jan 25, 2009 20:04:58 GMT voice said:

Yes its here again, Burns night, kilts and haggis, even though as a lowlander he certainly never wore one and proberbly didnt eat a sheeps stomach filled with crap either, but there you go.
Still if he's the best you produce I suppose its right to recognise it.

Burns most certainly did eat haggis.

Haggis is, after all, just a local sausage.

He wrote about it www.robertburns.org/works/147.shtml

As for wearing a kilt and tartan, in its current guise of a carefully tailored garment wrapped around the waist, this is a 19th century invention almost certainly originating in London. Probably invented by the huge numbers of Scottish Expats who went there in the 18th and 19th centuaries.

Not sure if Burns ever wore one. He was a contempory and admirer of Sir Walter Scott who didn't.

The origin of the Kilt.

Traditionally, peoples all over Europe would own long lengths of locally produced cloth which they would wrap around themselves, from their chests to their waists.

In Scotland, this length of cloth was called a plaid but other areas had their own names.

In many areas, England for example, this developed into a sort of smock, a length of cloth, folded over, with the sides sewn leaving a hole for the head and arms.

Other areas didn't adopt this, partly because of the nature of the local materials, partly because the plaid was considerably warmer than the smock and also because a plaid was easier to remove when fighting. Many people tended to fight naked. It was easier, there was less chance of tripping over a garment or having it caught in a tussel. Not to mention your opponent taking hold of it and strangling you!!

As for tartans, these required dyes and skilled weaving which ordinary people would never have afforded.

It is likely that wealthier people may have had some rudimentary tartans, but nothing as complicated as the tartans which were developed in London.

[Deleted]

I went up to Scotch House in Knightsbridge to buy some tartan material for a waistcoat for my other half.
It looks very grand.

[Deleted]

Surely all plaid and cloth was woven in the times we are speaking of?