Long ago, the Scots looked like everyone else, at least in terms of their dress. The men – and probably the women – wore a long shirt or smock or dress. It may have been wool, linen or leather, and usually the material had its original colours, even if the lords, of course, could afford more exclusive colours.

It was the same long shirt or smock that had been worn in Europe since ancient times, even in our country, and which still, in thinner fabric, can be found in the Middle East. It is an extremely practical garment, which of course is worn without trousers underneath. Great men and their women could also complement it with a cloak of appropriate material and attractive colouring.

The long shirt remained in outlying areas such as Ireland and amongst the Gaelic-speaking Irish immigrants of the sparsely populated Scottish Highlands. In Gaelic it was called léine.

In the Lowlands and the ‘Border Country...