The book Arran; - Cook Clan

210 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
morrow himself, from the deficiency of his memory he cannot exort
at the tables without his paper, and does not therefore do any of the
duty. The church is six miles from this, but notwithstanding the
roads hereabouts were covered with people going to church to-day,
some in carts, some on horses, double, and many walking.
The red cloaks ^ and tartan plaids gave vivacity to the scene,
and could we have thought them all animated with a spirit of devotion
the spectacle would have been truly gratifying, but I fear many make
of it too much a ploy and an occasion for the display of new clothes ;
for in many of the houses we found tailors making clothes for the
occasion, and in one house a fine red cloak for the gude-wife (Sabbath
evening). The road to church exhibited to us a novel spectacle
cart after cart in thick succession conveyed the aged and those unable
to walk ^—many were on horseback, and many on foot—all seemingly
impressed with the sacredness of the day and the solemnity of the
ordinance about to be celebrated. The common in front of the church
was covered with vehicles, and with the horses which peacefully
waited the return of their owners from the services of the day. Perhaps,
two hundred horses were on the common. In the Church we
had a pious discourse from Dr. Steven. The generality of the people
preferred the gaelic of Mr. M'Millan from the Tent.
From another source comes the following piece of
personal recollection referring to about the same time or a
little later ; by 1834 the scarlet mantles seem to have gone
out.
The distance from Shisken to Kilmory Kirk across the moor
would be six or seven miles, by the road farther. The people in
ascending the hill going south frequently formed into squads and
got merrily along ; the lassies clean and tidily dressed would take
off their shoes ' with an eye to economy ' and skip along, and on
Bearing the Kirk sat by the Burn-side and put on their White stock-
ings and shoes and then marched into the Church. The elder folk
' Scai'let mantles were the prevailing fashion for ladies since the later eighteenth
century. They succeeded the plainer brown or tartan plaids, worn over the head,
-which had long been the female fashion in Scotland.
^ ' We get a cart very reasonably, and the roads are just like a gravel walk.'
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