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Hodden or wadmel is a coarse kind of
Hodden or wadmel is a coarse kind of cloth
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
made of undyed wool
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool.
As ...
, formerly much worn by the peasantry
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
of Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. It was usually made on small hand-looms by the peasants. Hodden grey was made by mixing black and white fleeces together in the proportion of one to twelve when weaving. The origin of the word is unknown.
In his poem "A Man's a Man for a' That", Robert Burns wrote
:What though on hamely fare we dine,
:Wear hodden grey, an' a that;
:Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine;
:A Man's a Man for a' that."
Hodden Grey was adopted by the London Scottish Regiment
The London Scottish was a reserve infantry regiment then a company of the British Army. In its final incarnation it was A (The London Scottish) Company, the London Regiment until, on 1 April 2022, soldiers in the company transferred to foo ...
, and the Toronto Scottish Regiment
The Toronto Scottish Regiment (Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's Own) is a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. It is part of 4th Canadian Division's 32 Canadian Brigade Group.
Lineage
File:Tor Scots Colour.jpg, The regiment ...
(Canada). It was chosen because, as Lord Elcho said, "A soldier is a man hunter. As a deer stalker chooses the least visible of colours, so ought a soldier to be clad."
See also
*Wadmal
Wadmal (Old Norse: ; Norwegian: , 'cloth measure') is a coarse, dense, usually undyed wool fabric woven in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Greenland, and the Orkney, Faroe and Shetland Islands from the Middle Ages into the 18th century. Wad ...
References
External links
* Woven fabrics Tartan Scottish clothing {{Textile-stub The Toronto Scottish Regiment (Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's Own) Waulked textiles