Highlands, a term applied to the higher parts of a country, as, for example, Highlands of the Hudson, in the state of New York; but commonly used of a particular district in Scotland. This district has no political or civil boundary. Separated by only a vague line of demarcation from the division called the Lowlands, the Scottish Highlands may be briefly described as that portion of the north and north-west of Scotland in which the Celtic language and manners have less or more lingered until modern times. The Highland line, as it is usually called, extends diagonally across the country from Nairn on the Moray Firth to Dumbarton on the Clyde; but the mountainous part of the counties of Banff, Moray, Aberdeen, Kincardine, and Perth are also understood to be included in the designation Highlands. Caithness might be excluded as being a generally level country; but throughout the Highlands there are rich level tracts, none being more so than the eastern division of Ross-shire. The Hebrides (q.v.) or Western Isles are included in the Highlands, but the isles of Orkney and Shetland, though to the north, are distinctly excluded, by reason of the Norwegian origin of the inhabitants.
The Highlands are full of lofty hills, some green and pastoral with tracts of heath, and others rugged and bare; seven reach a height of 4000 feet and upwards, and nearly fifty are between 3500 and 4000 feet. Besides the grander features, there are impetuous mountain-torrents, picturesque ravines, and valleys or glens, lakes of singular beauty, and fiords, or narrow arms of the sea (like the lakes, called lochs). Perhaps the most remarkable feature in the country is the line of valleys from Inverness to Fort-William, in which lies a series of navigable lochs, united by artificial channels to form the Caledonian Canal. Growing up under a system of clanship, the state of society in the Highlands was antiquated and alien, from a national point of view; while the country was almost impenetrable to travellers or to any species of traffic. The first great attempt to reform this state of affairs was the opening up of the country by roads in different directions, under the superintendence of General Wade, about 1725-26. The next great act of amelioration was the abolition of Heritable Jurisdictions (q.v.), including the ancient privileges of the heads of clans, about 1748. And lastly, not to speak of the planting of schools and churches, much was done by the establishment of the Highland and Agricultural Society in 1784. Since these events the ancient patriarchal system has given place to improvements as regards communication, agriculture, dwellings, education, and other modern conditions, including a gradual substitution of English for the Gaelic language. Great numbers of the Celtic inhabitants emigrated in the last quarter of the 18th century. An enormous increase of population had arisen with no corresponding increase of food. The mountains were practically waste; the discovery that sheep thrive upon those natural pastures led of necessity to the letting of them to such tenants as could supply stock. The half-starving people were at various times dispossessed, and their place taken by stock-farmers with capital from the Lowlands; the 'Sutherland clearances,' which have been the subject of so much controversy, took place between 1810 and 1820. While a new character was thus given to extensive Highland pasturages, the value of estates has been very remarkably advanced by being let for the pursuit of game to sportsmen, chiefly persons of rank and opulence from England. What, therefore, with improved farming and shootings, Highland estates have in the 19th century risen immensely in value. Inverness is usually spoken of as the capital of the Highlands.
The physical geography of the Highlands is discussed under GREAT BRITAIN; see also SCOTLAND. The clan system is treated at CLAN, and the language of the Highlands at GAELIC; see also CELTS. The condition of the CROFTERS and the measures taken for ameliorating it form the subject of a separate article; and DEER-FORESTS are treated under that head. See also AGRICULTURE, for the Highland and Agricultural Society; HEBRIDES and articles on the several Highland counties and islands; A. Geikie's Scenery of Scotland (2d ed. 1887); Dr James Browne's History of the Highlands and the Highland Clans (4 vols. 1838; re-edited by J. S. Keltie, 2 vols. 1875); the guide-books by Anderson, Black, Baddeley, Murray; the Duke of Argyll's Scotland as it was and as it is (1887).
HIGHLAND COSTUME.—There is little doubt about the antiquity of the 'garb of old Gaul,' although several writers have adopted the theory that the kilt was introduced by an Englishman early in the 18th century. The idea that the kilt is modern seems to have originated with a writer in the Scots Magazine in 1798. The original dress of the Highlander was the Celtic Feile-breacan (or belted plaid). This was a piece of tartan cloth, 2 yards broad and 4 long, which was drawn round the waist in nicely adjusted folds, and tightly buckled with a belt. The lower part came down to the knees in much the same manner as the modern kilt, while the upper part was drawn up and adjusted to the left shoulder, so that the right arm might be perfectly free. This upper part was the plaid, which was used as a covering for the shoulders and body in wet weather; and when the use of both arms was required it was fastened across the breast with a brooch, often curiously enriched. A brooch was also used to fasten the plaid on the left shoulder. To attire himself in the belted plaid required on the part of the Highlander no small amount of dexterity. The usual way was to lay it on the floor, and after carefully arranging the folds, to lie down upon it, and then buckle it on. The late J. F. Campbell of Islay, who had a kilt and plaid in one made for a fancy-ball at Buckingham Palace, had to adopt this plan—lying down on the outstretched cloth, gathering the folds up and round his waist, and then securing them in position by a belt. The lower end was fastened at the right hip. The same arrangement may be seen in a figure by George Jameson of the Earl of Moray engraved in Lord Archibald Campbell's Records of Argyll.
The utility of such a dress in the Highlands is obvious, for the plaid rendered the man indifferent to storms, and prepared to pass a night in the open air in the most inclement weather, while the loose undergarment enabled him to wade rivers or ascend mountains with equal ease. It was thus peculiarly adapted to the warrior, the hunter, and the shepherd. If benighted, the Highlander of old would dip his plaid in water, and then wrap it round him, the woolen cloth swollen with moisture being supposed to resist the wind, while the exhalations from the body during sleep surrounded him with a warm vapour. Heron's History of Scotland says that 'in Argyle and the Hebrides, before the middle of the fifteenth century, tartan was manufactured of one or two colours for the poor; more varied for the rich.' The author of Certaine Matters concerning Scotland, who wrote prior to 1597, said of the Highlanders that 'they delight in marbled cloths especially that have long stripes of sandrie colours; they love chiefly purple and blue.' The particular setts, or patterns of tartans which distinguish each clan, must have been fixed before 1645, probably before 1600. Martin says that every tribe and every island differed from the rest in the fancy of making plaids, as to the stripes in breadth and colours. Tartans may generally be divided into green and red according as these colours predominate. The word is held by Skeat to be derived from the Fr. téretaine, a kind of linsey-woolsey cloth. Lord Lorne in 1889 discovered at Inveraray old records of the clan Campbell which make frequent mention of tartans; and tartans worn at the battle of Kilsyth (1645) have been seen by living witnesses.
The Feile-breacan is now abandoned for the Feile-beag (philabeg or filibeg) as more convenient. The difference is simply this, that, whereas formerly the lower and upper parts of the dress were attached, they are now separated. The lower part has the folds fixed by sewing, and is known as the kilt, which is probably akin to the Danish kilte, 'to tuck up,' though the Gaelic cealt means apparel in general. The shoulder-plaid, however, is now worn more for ornament than use.
The original garb of the Highlanders, then, was the Feile-breacan, and both in its materials and arrangement it was peculiarly the invention of the Gael. Other articles of the costume were Celtic, and are now peculiar to Scotland, but were not distinctively Highland. The truis or 'trews' were worn by gentlemen when on horseback, and occasionally by others, especially old men. They were breeches and stockings in one piece, always of tartan, and made to fit very close to the limbs. General Stewart (1822) said that his grandfather always wore the trews on horseback, and the kilt at home. Then there was worn a waistcoat and short-coat, each adorned with silver buttons, and, in the case of gentlemen, with lace and embroidery. A large purse of goats' or badgers' skin was suspended from the belt, and answered the purpose of a pocket. This was the sporrann, usually ornamented with silver or brass work and tassels. Brogues and tartan stockings, fastened with broad garters in rich colours; a dirk, with a knife and fork, and sometimes a spoon, stuck in the side of the sheath, and a pair of pistols completed the attire. That of the common people differed only in the deficiency of colours and of silver ornaments. The Highland garb was prescribed in 1747, when it was enacted that any person who should wear the plaid, filibeg, trews, or shoulder-belts, tartans or parti-coloured stuffs, should be imprisoned six months for the first offence, and on second conviction be transported for seven years. This harsh law was repealed in 1782 at the instance of the Duke of Montrose. In this act occurs the first formal record of the 'kilt.'
Gentlemen, says Stewart, wore one or more feathers in the bonnet, and the common people a tuft of heather, pine, holly, or oak. All, however, had the right to a solitary eagle's plume, whereas only the son of a chief could wear two plumes, and a chief of a clan, three. This was the old clan rule.
The plumed bonnet of the Highland regiments, according to Lord Archibald Campbell, who headed the successful opposition to its proposed abolition (1884), is an adaptation from the knights of medieval Europe. On the island of Inishail, Loch Awe, there is on a tombstone (of 16th century) a figure, with long sweeping ostrich plumes such as those worn by German knights in Dürer's drawings. Similar plumes were also worn by the Earl of Moray in Charles II.'s time, and there are also examples of it in The Black Book of Taymouth. Logan says that the Highland soldiers wore short plumes at the side of the bonnet. The head-dress of the first Highland infantry regiment raised was a simple black cap, with a tuft of feathers added in token of gentility and the right to bear arms. From this the feather-bonnet seems to have gradually developed, and is now one of the most cherished distinctions of the Highland regiments. When in 1884 the War Office proposed to abolish it there was quite a storm of indignation aroused, and testimony was produced in abundance that as a military headgear it is light, cool, durable, more serviceable, more economical, and more picturesque than the 'bearskin' of the Guards.
The 'modern' fashion of the kilt (filibeg) is found in armorial bearings of the Burnetts of Leys (1626) and the Mackenzies of Coul (1693). Tartan, as a distinguishing clan-mark, seems to be a survival of totemism. It was so composed that a man could tell to what district, as well as to what clan, the wearer belonged.
See Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present State of the Highlanders, by Major-general David Stewart. For details of the costume, &c. of the Highlanders, see The Scottish Gael, by James Logan; Campbell of Islay's Tales of the West Highlands; The Highlanders of Scotland, by W. F. Skene; History of the Highlands, Highland Clans, &c., edited by J. S. Keltie; The Black Book of Taymouth; Clan Tartans, by James Grant (1886), &c. In The Records of Argyll and Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition Lord Archibald Campbell has collected an immense amount of interesting and valuable information bearing upon the whole subject.
HIGHLAND REGIMENTS.—The origin of the first of these regiments, the 42d, has been given under the head BLACK WATCH. The valuable services of this regiment encouraged the government to augment the force; and accordingly seven other Highland regiments were soon raised—viz. the 71st in 1777; the 72d, or Duke of Albany's Own, in the same year; the 74th in 1787; the 78th, or Ross-shire Buffs, in 1793; the 79th, or Cameron Highlanders, in 1805; the 92d, or Gordon Highlanders, in 1796; and the 93d, or Sutherland Highlanders, in 1800. In connection with the territorial reorganisation of regiments, the old numerical designations have been dropped, and the battalions linked. Thus the new Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) comprises the former 42d and 73d regiments; the Highland Light Infantry, 71st and 74th; the Seaforth Highlanders, 72d and 78th; the Gordon Highlanders, 75th and 92d; Princess Louise's (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), 91st and 93d. The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (79th) remain a single battalion regiment. The uniform is the Highland dress, with featherbonnet. A large proportion of the officers are Scotch; of the men about 79 per cent. are Scotch, 11 English, and 10 Irish.