least civilized, "those within the country," went clad in skins; whilst the southern or Belgic Britons were like the Gauls, and therefore not only completely but splendidly attired, as may be proved from various unquestionable authorities.
Of the several kinds of cloth manufactured in Gaul, one, according to Pliny[1] and Diodorus Siculus[2] was composed of fine wool, dyed of several ditferent colours, which being spun into yarn, was woven either in stripes or in chequers, and of this the Gauls and Britons made their lighter or summer garments. Here we have the undoubted origin of the Scotch plaid or tartan, which is called "the garb of old Gaul" to this day; and indeed, with the exception of the plumed bonnet and the tasselled sporan or purse, a Highland chief in his full costume, with tunic, plaid, dirk, and target, affords as good an illustration of the appearance of an ancient Briton of distinction as can well be imagined.
Diodorus, describing the Belgic Gauls, says, they wore dyed tunics, beflowered with all manner of colours (χιτῶσι βαπτοῖς χρώμασι παντοδαποῖς διηνθισμένοις). With these they wore close trousers, which they called ỏraceæ[3]; these trousers, an article of apparel by which all barbaric nations seem to have been distinguished from the Romans, being made by the Gauls and Britons of their chequered cloth, called breach and brycan, and by the Irish, breacan[4]. Over
- ↑ Hist. Nat. lib. vili. c. 48.
- ↑ Lib. v. c. 30.
- ↑ Ibid. Martial has the line, Like the old bracchæ of a needy Briton." Epig. xi.
- ↑ Breac, in Celtic, signifies anything speckled, spotted, striped, or, indeed, party-coloured. The brindled ox was, therefore, called brych by the Britons. Breac is the Celtic name for a trout, from its speckled skin. Baran breac, literally spotted food, is the name for a Christmas cake, or bread with plums in ii. Breac is also applied to a person pitted with the small-pox, or to piio whose skin is freckled. The termination an, in compound
