Annotation:Stolen Breeks (The)
X:1 T:Stolen Breeks, The T:Briogais Mhic Rùairidh M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air S:Fraser Collection (1816) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Cmin C | E>FG BGB| G2c cze| c>BA GAF| G2C CzC| E>FG BGB| Gcd edc| c>BA GAF|E2C Cz:| |: G| c>dc BAG| edc BAG| cde dc=B| c2C CzC| E>FG BGB| Gcd edc| cGA GAF|E2C Cz:|
STOLEN BREEKS, THE (Briogais Mhic Rùairidh). Scottish, Slow Air (6/8 time). C Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "The air of the Stolen Breeks has a set of excellent but rather splentic words, allusive to the proscription of the Highland dress after the 1745, which hint as it might have happened, that if the Jacobite party had prevailed, or might still prevail, the first thing they ought to do, should be to 'proscribe the breeches in turn, and have an opportunity of seeing one half of their adversaries perish of cold; in short, that their more delicate southern neighbors could not less relish the proscription of the one than they disrelished the proscription of the other, and that payment in kind would be the justest sort of retribution'" [Fraser]. Fraser alludes to the wikipedia:Dress_Act_1746, part of the Disarming Act, that made wearing "the Highland Dress" — including the kilt — illegal in Scotland. The Jacobite Risings between 1689 and 1746 found their most effective support amongst the Scottish Highland clans, and this act was part of a series of measures attempting to bring the clans under government control. An exemption allowed the kilt to be worn in the army, continuing the tradition established by the Black Watch regiment. The law was repealed in 1782, but by that time kilts and tartans were no longer ordinary Highland wear, suppressed not only by enforcement of the Dress Act, but also by the depopulation of the Highlands via clearances.
