Objects in Focus: Targe

Targe, West Highland Museum

The targe, or target [targaid], is a circular wooden shield that was popular in the 17^th and 18^th century Highlands. It was held with the left arm and a sword, spear or dagger would be carried in the right hand. The targe's primary use was to fend off blows from oncoming attackers, and often the back side was padded to deaden the impact therefore protecting the arm. 

The weapon was constructed from wood boards, typically oak or pine, fastened together and covered with embossed and tooled leather. Brass or nickel studs were added in a circular pattern to the front and a hand grip or two grips were fastened to the back. A common addition was an arm strap to ensure a firm hold on the shield. Occasionally targes were highly ornamented with silver or brass mounts and heraldic representations. 

Targe, West Highland Museum

The targe could likewise serve as a weapon as the centre brass boss, generally the larger boss, could accommodate a spike being attached to it. This was surely a contributing factors to its popularity; the defensive and offensive benefit.

The Highland Charge was a military tactic involving the targe that was successful at battles including Killiecrankie and Prestonpans.  It involved the soldiers discharging their muskets at close range and then charging ahead through the smoke with their targe and broadsword. This tactic was last used at Culloden in 1746 but unfortunately the effect was greatly lessened. Major Mackay Scobie maintained that the soldiers discarded their targes due to their inability, through exhaustion, to carry them.

A Highland Outpost by John Pettie (1839 - 1893)

After Culloden the use of targes went into decline, and the 1746 Act of Proscription  (enforced 1 August 1747) banned the weapon along with all other weapons associated with the Highlands: ‘to have in his or their custody, use, or bear, broad sword or target, poignard, whinger, or durk, side pistol, gun, or other warlike weapon’. This same act restrained the wearing of “Highland Garb”, but was repealed over thirty years later in 1782. A famous quote by Boswell, 1773, reads:

There is hardly a target now to be found in the Highlands. After the disarming act they made them serve as covers to their buttermilk barrels.

This example of a targe is from the late 18^th to early 19th century and shows no sign of use in combat which could be due to the lack of hand grip or arm strap on the back. It was possibly made to coincide with the visit of King George IV in August 1822. This visit was orchestrated by Walter Scott who encouraged Scots to wear their tartan proudly for the monumental visit, as a British monarch had not been to Scotland since 1651.

The Carmichael collection at the West Highland Museum has a vast range of objects, a number of which have been presented in blog entries over the past months. The full catalogue of objects is due online via the Carmichael Watson Project website at the end of April 2013.

References

Drummond, J. Highland Targets and Other Shields (Neill and Company, Edinburgh: 1873)

Telfer Dunbar, J. History of Highland Dress (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London: 1962)

Images

Targe © Carsten Flieger

Portrait: ©Dundee City Council - Arts and Heritage. www.scran.ac.uk

Tartanology

The interest in and debate concerning clan tartans was kick-started by the famous Sobieski Stuart brothers, alleged grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie, John Hay Allen [John Sobieski Stolbert Stuart, Count d’Albanie] and Charles Hay Allen [Charles Stuart Hay Allen, Count d’Albanie (succeeding his brother)]. The pair were well known for engaging in all things Highland from wearing the traditional garb to hunting, writing poetry and collecting folklore.

The brothers edited and illustrated the famous Vestiarium Scoticum: from the Manuscript formerly in the Library of Scots College at Douay. With an Introduction and Notes, by John Sobieski Stuart that was published in 1842 by William Tait of Edinburgh. The book lists the clans from all over Scotland: Highlands, Lowlands and the Borders, ‘the order of Terteinis apperteinand unto ye chieff Hieland clannes’ and seventy-five colour plates illustrating the tartans of the clans listed.

Kilt from the Carmichael Collection, West Highland Museum

This impressive publication was based on an ancient manuscript the brothers possessed that was collated with a second manuscript from the library of the Monastery of St Augustine in Cadiz from 1571. Although in 1828 they displayed a 1721 Vestiarium manuscript to Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, this was not used as a source. 

The authority of all these texts was questioned and doubt cast over the brothers' integrity. A popular opinion was that the tartan manufacturers encouraged the publication as the popularity of tartan sky-rocketed from 1842. Either way, be it author or editor/illustrator, these two brothers were behind what Telfer Dunbar believed to be ‘probably the most controversial costume book ever written’.

The label reads: Kilt Worn by one of the Sobieski Stuart brothers. Alex Carmichael. 

Carmichael, noted for his extensive collection of folklore, also acquired an extremely significant tartan collection, including a kilt worn by one of the Sobieski brothers. Telfer Dunbar, one of the leading Highland Dress experts, noted:

 “Without doubt the greatest collector of early tartans and dress was Alexander Carmichael – compiler of Carmina Gadelica. His fine specimens of pre-nineteenth-century tartans with their lovely colour combinations and interesting weaves are far removed from the “clan” tartans of later times. Without the work of Alexander Carmichael our knowledge of early specimens of tartan would be very slight indeed.”

The tartan collection, unfortunately, no longer exists as one entity. The West Highland Museum has tartan clothing and NMS, Edinburgh holds some the pre-nineteenth century tartan swatches mentioned above but the rest was scattered after Carmichael’s death. Telfer Dunbar attained a number of samples that the team are eagerly trying to locate!

Jacket worn at Culloden, West Highland Museum

Over the coming months there will be a number of blog entries about this extraordinary facet of Carmichael’s collection. Tartan from the Carmichael Collection is on display in the West Highland Museum that is now open again Mon – Sat, 10 – 4. 

For those readers living in Edinburgh there is a long-term exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery 'Blazing with Crimson: Tartan Portraits'. 

References

Telfer Dunbar, J. History of Highland Dress (Oliver and Boyd: Edinburgh and London, 1962)

Images

Copyright Carsten Flieger

www.futuremuseum.co.uk

Innovative Learning Week 2013

Innovative Learning Week at the University of Edinburgh is a week-long programme of learning events that provides students with an exciting opportunity to learn in a creative and informal way.  

ILW2013 aims to encourage undergraduate and postgraduate students to:

• gain a new perspective on your degree subject
• learn new skills
• think about a future career
• exchange ideas and stimulate debate
• meet staff and students from different Schools and Colleges
• network and find new opportunities for research or revision

Domhnall Uilleam and Guinevere from the Carmichael Watson Project prepared a workshop about the charms in the Carmichael Collections. Drawing on both the archive here at the Centre for Research Collections and the object collection at the West Highland Museum, the workshop discussed both the verbal charms and the amulets.  

The session began by outlining the various shapes and sizes a charm can take from a stone to a brooch to an incantation. The term charm is so loose that it can be applied to a wide range of objects that were believed to generate protective, curative, attractive or maleficent power.

Carmichael, over the span of his folklore career, recorded around 60 charms and considering the privacy and personal aspect surrounding charms this is quite a substantial and pertinent collection.  These charms can be found in Carmina Gadelica and in his notebooks that are available on the project's online catalogue, and there are charms for all sorts of problems from toothache to broken bones! There are some recorded verbal charms that were collected in the 1960s and 70s accessible via Tobar an Dualchais: Eòlas an Dèididh, Chanadh neach an rann seo trì uairean, Tha am fiosraiche ag aithris seun.

Carmichael also collected charm objects that were used throughout the islands. A number of these objects have been highlighted in previous blogs such as the whorls, flint arrowheads and sea-beans. There was also a mention of the use of domestic and agrestic tools doubling up as divination devices, namely the winnowing riddle that was used to predict a future spouse! 

The workshop finished up with a discussion about the use of charms today, and the decline in their use, and superstitions. One participant shared a belief from Southern Florida with the group: when a cat passes in front of a car, a cross must be marked on the windshield to prevent bad luck! 

It was a really enjoyable session with a good discussion and we'd like to thank those who came along. 

A review of the session is available to read on the Innovative Learning Week 2013 blog: click here.

Image
Copyright Carsten Flieger 

Objects in Focus: Bone Pins and Needles

In the Carmichael Collection housed at the West Highland Museum, Fort William, there are 25 bone pins and needles in various sizes and conditions.

Bone pins 

These objects were commonly used by both the Picts and the Vikings as dress pins to fasten clothes, as hairpins and in dressmaking.  They were mostly used by men as dress pins as women would primarily wear circular brooches to secure clothes.  

Bone needles

Martin gives a description of the various fastening methods:

When they travel on foot, the Plad is tied on the Breast with a Bodkin of Bone or Wood (just as the Spina wore by the Germans, according to the Descripction of C. Tacitus:) the Plad is tied round the middle with a Leather Belt; it is pleated from the Belt to the Knee very nicely: this Dress for Footmen is found much easier and lighter than Breeches, or Trowis.

Bone pins

The bones were from sheep, red deer, whale (Orkney) and birds, with antler as another source.

Knives were used to shape the pins and a good pin would have a smooth surface. Most of the pins were polished. 

The pins heads vary from very plain and basic to elaborately designed and finished. The heads could have splayed, globular, cylindrical or nail-heads to prevent the pin running through the cloth. The shanks are both flat and round, straight and tapered, with a number of the tips missing. The points of the well-used pins are rounded while the less-used are still quite sharp. Often the very elaborate pins would be kept as keepsakes.

Bone pins

How Carmichael came to possess the pins in uncertain but there are two references in the notebooks to archaeological finds that included pins:  CW119/46 and CW106/25.

References

Ritchie, Anna ‘Clothing Among the Picts’, Costume , 39, 2005, pp.28-42.

Martin, Martin A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (London: A. Bell, 1703), pp. 208.

Images
Images copyright Carsten Flieger

Twa Excisemen

Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840)

Today the Scottish poet Robert Burns will be celebrated around the world with variations on the traditional supper of haggis, neeps and tatties. It was on this day in 1759 that Robert was born in Alloway, to William Burnes and Agnes Broun, and this supper tradition started in 1802.

Carmichael obviously held Burns in high esteem and in a lecture entitled 'The Poets and Poetry of Scotland' (CW223) he comments that: 

The glory of the sun the shining of the moon or the twinkling of the stars find no response from the stoical hearts of these. The “wee modest crimson tipped flower” the daisy of the field is of no moment to the careless eye or callous heart. But the kindly eye and loving heart of Burns saw beauties in the daisy that have made it for ever immortal.

Again in an unfinished essay entitled 'The Bards and Bardism of the Highlands' (CW107/1) Carmichael mentions Burns:

After Burns shined a meteor

of dazzaling brilliancy a host of imitations

appeared and although some of them

were poets of considerable merits and

sweetness none of them were able to ap-

proach their original.

Carmichael's effort to link the great poet to the Highlands via Walter Campbell who fled to Kincardine after committing mass-murder was outlined in a previous blog entry. 

Burns and Carmichael both worked as excisemen with Burns being commissioned 14 July 1788. Burns wrote the following verse prior to being appointed (you can listen to Paul Young reciting the verse for BBC here :       

Searching auld wives barrels,

Och-hon! the day!

That clarty barm should stain my laurels;

But-what'll ye say!

These movin' things ca'd wives and weans

Wad move the very hearts o' stanes!

Burns deliberated between farming and the excise but after a six week induction in Edinburgh accepted the excise position. Cunningham writes:

That the Poet delighted not in the name of gauger is well known: yet he would allow no one to speak ill of the Excise but himself. He was strict, but merciful: the smuggler had no chance of escape from him, while to the country purchaser he was very indulgent.       

If Carmichael and Burns ever met, what do you think they'd discuss: work or poetry?

Happy Burns' Day!

References

Carmichael, Alexander, ‘The Land of Lorne and the Satirists of Taynuilt', Evergreen, vol. I (Spring, 1895), pp. 110–15

CW107/1, fol. 7v

CW223. fol. 16r

Cunningham, A., The works of Robert Burns ; with his life, vol. 3 (London: James Cochrane and Company, 1834) p. 303

Henderson, T.F., Robert Burns (London: Methuen and Company, 1904)

Image

©Courtesy of the Trustees of Burns Monument and Burns Cottage. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk. 

Objects in Focus: Winnowing Riddle

Happy New Year to all our blog readers!

© Carsten Flieger

The first object of the year to be presented is the winnowing riddle, also called a criathar. In the Carmichael Collection, West Highland Museum, there is a fine example of a riddle on display in their agricultural section. This tool was used between threshing and grinding corn and was made of a cured and dried sheepskin or calfskin fastened to a wooden frame - nasg criathair. The skin was then punctured with a hot point, occasionally in a concentric pattern, creating a sieve. 

The sieve was held with both hands and the corn was shaken in a circular motion to allow unwanted dirt to filter through, leaving behind the larger and heavier grains. Often this was done outside with the wecht and the corn was tossed in the air allowing the chaff to be blown away by the wind.

©University of Edinburgh: Dept. of Celtic and Scottish Studies, scran.ac.uk

The image above, from the Werner Kissling Collection, portrays a woman using the winnowing sieve on South Uist in 1936. In Carmina Gadelica there is a description of two stages of sieving:

Càthadh. Winnowing corn in the barn – the first operation; the second and final operation was fasgnadh, winnowing on the knoll. The toll-càthaidh, ‘chaff-hole’, was a small hole about three feet square in the back wall of the kiln to admit wind to clean the corn. This hole was on the ground and, when not required, was closed with a board, or a plàt made of straw or bent or rushes. (VI-37)

The corn, now separated from the chaff and extraneous matter, was ready for grinding.

© Carsten Flieger

There were also some divination practices associated with the riddle, the most common was a method of identifying a future spouse. This was carried out by winnowing specific items: silver coins or even winnowing an empty sieve. In the notebooks Carmichael provides another example from Skye of a servant girl foretelling her future husband:

CW7/32 Càthadh an Fhras Lìn. The lint seed was winnowed in the, "comh-ràth, dusk The was done at Draoineach Skye by a servant girl in the house. The wife of Draoineach asked the girl whom did she see and the girl answered that she had no luck that the only saw her master. Well you shall have him yet said her misterss. The mistress died soon after and before the year was out Fear na Draoinich married this young girl!

Grant, Highland Folk Ways, provides an account of a woman in Arran, in 1709, who went before the local Kirk Session for using a riddle to identify a thief!  

A similar sieve was made in Ireland but variations developed: thin strips of wood were laced across the frame to create a mesh (instead of the sheepskin) and the thickness of the mesh would vary according to its purpose. Wire eventually replaced the wood strips.

References
Carmichael, A. Carmina Gadelica vi (Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1900-1972)
CW7/32
Grant, I. F. Highland Folk Ways (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1961)
Lucas, A. T. "Making Wooden Sieves" The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 81: 2 (1951), 146-155. 

Objects in Focus: Cruisies

The cruisie lamp was the common form of lighting found in the homes of the islands and along the coasts until the introduction of paraffin lamps. Carmichael presents a comprehensive account of the lamps in Carmina Gadelica: 

Giuthas coinnil, giuthas coinnle. Before the introduction of paraffin into the Highlands the people were ill off for light and adopted many expedients to overcome their disadvantages. In the Isles and on the coasts the people, along with tallow candles, used fish oil, seal oil and whale oil [eòlan]. This oil was burnt in ordinary black crusies with the one point for light, but occasionally in a lamp with a circular body with three light points at equal distances. These lamps were sometimes of iron, sometimes of brass and sometimes of copper, and were pretty and effective. This style of lamp was called crùisgein tine (?), the ordinary black lamp being known as crùisgein dubh. On the Mainland, along with tallow candles, the people used bog pine. The bog pine made good light but was not lasting. In some places when the bog pine was good and plentiful little else was used in the houses of the crofters.

Gleanna mìn Moireasan
Far nach ith na coin na coinnlean,
Cha tugainn gaol na comain dhaibh
Gun solus na gun soillse.

The lamp comprised of two iron vessels stacked over each other, the lower being attached to a notched upright bar. The upper of the vessels was separate but hung from a hook on the bar. The lamp was portable and could by positioned at various points around the home to produce the best light. To shape the lamps a thin plate of iron was hammered into a mould and Grant reports that many blacksmiths had such a mould in the corner of their anvils. The shapes were traditionally leaf-shaped but with many variations. In the Carmichael Collection at the West Highland Museum there is part of a square cruisie lamp that was used by craftsmen.

Square Cruisie

Fish-oil and animal fats were used to keep the flame burning. And the wick was traditionally made from the pith of rushes or alternatively yarn. The wick was lit from the fire that was always kept burning.

The word itself is old Scots derived from the Latin crucibulum and is very similar to the French creuset.

In the introduction to a prayer Mary MacRae describes her nightly routine that included the extinguishing the cruisie:

Clos Cadail
Beulachice: Màiri Nic Rath, coitear, Camas Luinge, Cinn Tàile
Ars am beulachie: An dèidh dhomh mo chomhla a dhùnadh agus mo chrùisgein a smàladh agus mo dhol dha m' leabaidh, tha mi guidhe air Tì nan dùl agus air Dia nan gràs, agus ag ràdh ris-

Dhé nan dùl, na dubhr dhomh do shola
Dhé na dùl, na dùin dhomh do shonas,
Dhé nan dùl, na druid dhomh do dhoras,
Dhé na dùl, na diùlt dhomh do thròcair,
Dhé nan dùl, mùch dhomh do dhòlas,
Agus a Dhé nan dùl, crùn dhomh do shòlas,
Agus a Dhé nan dùl, crùn dhomh do shòlas.

Repose of Sleep
Reciter: Mary MacRae, cottar, Camas Luinge, Kintail
The reciter said: After I have closed my door and put out my cruisie (lamp) and gone to my bed, I beseech the Being of life and the God of gracem and say to Him-

O God of life, darken not to me Thy light,
O God of life, close not to me Thy joy,
O God of life, shut not to me They door,
O God of life, refure not to me Thy mercy,
O God of life, quench Thou to me Thy wrath
And O God of life, crown Thou to me Thy gladness,
O God of life, crown Thou to me Thy gladness.


References
Carmina Gadelica iii, 342-3.
Carmina Gadelica vi, 83.
Grant, I. F. Highland Folk Ways (Edinburgh, 1961).

Images
© Carsten Flieger