page_title: Maud (plaid)
section_title: Traditional Use
hierarchical_section_title: Maud (plaid) / Use / Traditional Use
caption_attribution_description: English: The opening scene of Allan Ramsay's 'The Gentle Shepherd' by David Allan (1744-96). The Scots term "craigy bield" translates as "sheltered crag".
context_page_description: A maud is a woollen blanket or plaid woven in a pattern of small black and white checks known as Border tartan, Falkirk tartan, Shepherd's check, Shepherd's plaid or Galashiels grey. It was in common use as an item of clothing in the southern counties of Scotland and the northern counties of England until the early twentieth century.
context_section_description: The Rev. George Gunn provides an early reference of the maud as a shepherd’s garment.  Drawing from barony records of Stichill, Roxburgh from 1655-1807, he said, “The maud, or shepherd’s plaid, and the blue bonnet marked the peasant’s dress.” (p.10).  Supporting the maud being used by the common folk, whilst also noting it as a male garment, the Rev. Archibald Craig, writing in the New Statistical Account of Scotland for Roxburghshire, said,
  “The dress of the peasantry is neat and becoming.  The plaid or maud of the border, consisting of black and white, or blue and white checks, is almost universal among the men, and they arrange it with a good deal of taste.”  (p. 292).
  A description of the appearance, age and use of the maud is best summed up by Walter Scott, when he wrote,
  “The plaid was never in use among the Borderers, i.e. the Highland or tartan plaid; but there was, and is still used, a plaid with a very small cheque of black and grey, which we call a maud, and which, I believe, was very ancient; it is the constant dress of the shepherd, worn over one shoulder, and then drawn round the person, leaving one arm free.” (p.63).
  On another occasion he described the wearing of what must have been a longer maud, writing,
  “… a Maud or Low Country plaid.  It is a long piece of cloth about a yard wide wrapped loosely round the waist like a scarf & from thence brought across the breast & the end thrown over the left shoulder where it hangs loose like a Spanish Cloak.  It is not of Tartan but of the natural colour of the wool with a very small black check which gives it a greyish look … A broad belt about his waist is also part of his costume – it served to retain one end of the Maud & occasionally to carry a large knife or dagger.” (p. 112).
  The maud was therefore the outer garment of the shepherd or common man.  It provided warmth amongst the Border hills, protection from the rain and was his blanket at night.  The voluminous nature of the wrapped maud also meant that pockets or nooks, known as ‘maud neuks/nuiks’, could be fashioned for the carrying of ‘fairns’ (food), other provisions and even lambs.  
  The method of carrying the maud was dictated by its size and possibly local custom.  A Cumberland Shepherd, painted by Joshua Cristall in 1816 shows a short maud carried wrapped around the waist.  The Shepherd's Sweetheart by Thomas Brooks (1846) and The Craigy Bield, above, show a medium-length maud carried over the left shoulder and tied in a half-knot at the right hip.  Scott's first description, above, and many portraits and statues of Scott, James Hogg and Robbie Burns, show a long maud draped over the left shoulder, brought diagonally around the body and passed over the left shoulder, with both ends reaching about waist height.  In some pictures, the same length maud is wrapped in the same manner but over the right arm, instead of under, to form a sort of mantle.  Scott's second description, above, describes the carrying of a long maud, wrapped around the waist and passed diagonally over the chest to fall behind the left shoulder.
caption: The Craigy Bield by David Allan, 1786, showing shepherds of the Lothians in mauds.
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