He said they all wore rough great-coats ; but to be sure , the first of them , the one that came alone , wore breeches and stockings , while the rest had sailors ' trousers . `` Ah , '' said I , `` and he would have a feathered hat ? '' He told me , no , that he was bareheaded like myself . At first I thought Alan might have lost his hat ; and then the rain came in my mind , and I judged it more likely he had it out of harm 's way under his great-coat . This set me smiling , partly because my friend was safe , partly to think of his vanity in dress . And then the old gentleman clapped his hand to his brow , and cried out that I must be the lad with the silver button . `` Why , yes ! '' said I , in some wonder . `` Well , then , '' said the old gentleman , `` I have a word for you , that you are to follow your friend to his country , by Torosay . '' He then asked me how I had fared , and I told him my tale . A south-country man would certainly have laughed ; but this old gentleman -LRB- I call him so because of his manners , for his clothes were dropping off his back -RRB- heard me all through with nothing but gravity and pity . When I had done , he took me by the hand , led me into his hut -LRB- it was no better -RRB- and presented me before his wife , as if she had been the Queen and I a duke . The good woman set oat-bread before me and a cold grouse , patting my shoulder and smiling to me all the time , for she had no English ; and the old gentleman -LRB- not to be behind -RRB- brewed me a strong punch out of their country spirit . All the while I was eating , and after that when I was drinking the punch , I could scarce come to believe in my good fortune ; and the house , though it was thick with the peat-smoke and as full of holes as a colander , seemed like a palace . The punch threw me in a strong sweat and a deep slumber ; the good people let me lie ; and it was near noon of the next day before I took the road , my throat already easier and my spirits quite restored by good fare and good news . The old gentleman , although I pressed him hard , would take no money , and gave me an old bonnet for my head ; though I am free to own I was no sooner out of view of the house than I very jealously washed this gift of his in a wayside fountain . Thought I to myself : `` If these are the wild Highlanders , I could wish my own folk wilder . '' I not only started late , but I must have wandered nearly half the time . True , I met plenty of people , grubbing in little miserable fields that would not keep a cat , or herding little kine about the bigness of asses . The Highland dress being forbidden by law since the rebellion , and the people condemned to the Lowland habit , which they much disliked , it was strange to see the variety of their array .
Some went bare , only for a hanging cloak or XXXXX , and carried their trousers on their backs like a useless burthen : some had made an imitation of the tartan with little parti-coloured stripes patched together like an old wife 's quilt ; others , again , still wore the Highland philabeg , but by putting a few stitches between the legs transformed it into a pair of trousers like a Dutchman 's .
English Highlanders Lowland Queen first great-coat grouse kine oat-bread peat-smoke