20. Nov, 2021
Shoes, or the Lack Of Them!
John MacCulloch, the geologist, confirms this in his accounts of 1824: "It is extremely rare to see a man barefooted...but it is equally rare to see women with shoes, except when in full dress on Sundays. Even among females, however, their use is fast creeping in; but the children of both sexes are bare-legged, even to an advanced age, not only among the poorer classes, but also in families of condition." On the Island of Rum, he delighted in "the lasses [who] had no shoes and marvellous little petticoats, but to compensate for those deficiencies, they had an abundance of activity and goodwill....they enter into it [dancing] with heart and soul, as well as with all the limbs of their body, and it makes them very happy."
Visitors to the Highlands frequently remarked on the number of people - women and children - who as a rule never wore shoes. John Stoddart, travelling in 1799, had barely got off the steamship at Leith when he commented "An Englishman is apt to be surprised, and somewhat disgusted, at observing all the lower class of women....trudging through the streets, and entering the houses with bare feet." Whilst he expects this in the poorest classes, he notices here "women in neat gowns and caps, and perhaps, in laced cloaks and bonnets, without shoes or stockings, or, what is more disagreeable, with stockings which have no feet.....in very respectable families in the country, it is not uncommon to see the female servants barefooted."
Clearly, the lack of footwear was no hindrance - the women, after all did much of the hard work in the fields, often carrying heavy burdens (MacCulloch again: "The fair sex in this country , is unquestionably the most active and useful part of the community"), and their were able to perform all their duties unshod. On Sundays, they would be found walking, often long distances, barefooted, only putting on the shoes which they had been carrying when they reached the church doors.
There are plenty of examples in art and photography of this state of affairs. I shall load some up in a photo album page on this website.
Details of my book, The Immeasurable Wilds can be found at:
https://www.whittlespublishing.com/The_Immeasurable_Wilds