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Sergeant 1707 Royal Scots by P H Smitherman This image, based on a figure in the Blenheim Tapestries, shows a sergeant, possibly of the Royal Scots. The dress is typical of that worn in infantry battalions during the wars of Marlborough, and is smart and workmanlike. The brim of the hat was sometimes pinched up into the familiar three cocks at this time, and soon after this was universally so worn. It is easy to understand that the brim worn as shown could easily interfere with the handling of weapons. The sergeant is identified as such by his halberd, obsolete as a weapon, of course, but carried by sergeants, even in battle, as a badge of rank. The sergeants and corporals were clothed exactly as the men of the regiment but wore, in the words of the Ordnance Board, everything better of its kind. The coats of men of other infantry regiments at this date would have been similar, scarlet in all cases but with differently coloured lapels and cuffs, the colour of the lapels being shown as the facing colour of the regiment. Uniforms were made by contract for the colonel but the clothes produced by the contractor were compared by the Ordnance Board with the sealed pattern in the possession of the Board, to ensure that the quality was satisfactory. This was one of many arrangements made by Marlborough to ensure that the soldier did not receive shoddy clothing, as he had often done in days past. Belts and side-arms were bought by the colonel at his discretion, out of an allowance given to him for the purpose. The white gaiters, or spatterdashes, shown here were introduced during Marlboroughs wars because the shoes and stockings worn previously were unsuitable for the mud of the Low Countries. A modified form of these spatterdashes is still worn in Highland Regiments with the kilt. At the time of the Restoration the Royal Scots were serving in France under the French King and did not come home until 1678 to be placed on the British establishment as the First Foot. the dress of the regiment, except for the pipers, was the same as that of the rest of the infantry, until 1881, when they assumed the doublet and tartan trews. |
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