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diff --git a/25952-8.txt b/25952-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..314491a --- /dev/null +++ b/25952-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2467 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, +November 1875, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, November 1875 + A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Literature, History, + Antiquities, Folk Lore, Traditions, and the Social and + Material Interests of the Celt at Home and Abroad. + +Author: Various + +Editor: Alexander Mackenzie + Alexander Macgregor + Alexander Macbain + +Release Date: July 2, 2008 [EBook #25952] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELTIC MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + +THE CELTIC MAGAZINE. + +No. I. NOVEMBER 1875. + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +IN the circular issued, announcing the CELTIC MAGAZINE, we stated that +it was to be a Monthly Periodical, written in English, devoted to the +Literature, History, Antiquities, Traditions, Folk-lore, and the Social +and Material Interests of the Celt at Home and Abroad: that it would be +devoted to Celtic subjects generally, and not merely to questions +affecting the Scottish Highlands: that it would afford Reviews of Books +on subjects interesting to the Celtic Races--their Literature, questions +affecting the Land--such as Hypothec, Entail, Tenant-right, Sport, +Emigration, Reclamation, and all questions affecting the Landlords, +Tenants, and Commerce of the Highlands. We will also, from time to time, +supply Biographical Sketches of eminent Celts at Home and Abroad, and +all the Old Legends connected with the Highlands, as far as we can +procure them, beginning with those of Inverness and Ross shires. + +We believe that, under the wiser and more enlightened management now +developing itself, there is room enough in the Highlands for more Men, +more Land under cultivation, more Sheep and more Shepherds, without any +diminution of Sport in Grouse or Deer: that there is room enough for +all--for more gallant defenders of our country in time of need, for more +produce, more comfort, and more intelligence. We shall afford a _medium_ +for giving expression to these views. When submitting the first number +of the Magazine to the public, we think it proper to indicate our own +opinion on these questions at greater length than we could possibly do +in a circular; but, while doing this, we wish it to be understood that +we shall at all times be ready to receive contributions on both sides, +the only conditions being that they be well and temperately written, and +that no side of a question will obtain undue prominence--facts and +arguments alone allowed to work conviction. Thus, we hope to make the +_Celtic Magazine_ a mirror of the intelligent opinion of the Highlands, +and of all those interested in its prosperity and progress. + +In dealing with Celtic Literature, Antiquities, Traditions, and +Folk-lore, we must necessarily be Conservative. It is impossible for a +good Celt to be otherwise than conservative of the noble History of his +Ancestors--in love and in war, in devotion and daring. If any should +deem this feeling on our part a failing, we promise to have something to +say for ourselves in future, and not only give a reason for our faith, +but show that we have something in the Highlands worth conserving. + +In dealing with the important question of Sport, we cannot help taking a +common sense view of it. We cannot resist the glaring facts which, +staring us in the face, conclusively prove that the enormous progress +made in the Highlands during the last half century, and now rapidly +going on, is mainly due to our Highland Sports. A great amount of +nonsense has been said and written on this question, and an attempt made +to hold grouse and deer responsible for the cruel evictions which have +taken place in the North. Arguments, to be of any force, must be founded +on facts; and the facts are, in this case, that it was not grouse or +deer which caused the Highland evictions, but sheep and south country +sheep farmers. The question must be argued as one not between men and +deer, but between men and sheep, and sheep against deer. We believe +there is room enough for all under proper restrictions, and, to make +room for more men, these restrictions should be applied to sheep or +deer. + +We believe that it would be a wise and profitable policy for Landlords +as well as for Tenants to abolish Hypothec and Entail, and to grant +compensation for improvements made by the latter. We are quite satisfied +from experience, that the small crofter is quite incapable of profitably +reclaiming much of our Highland Wastes without capital, and at the same +time bring up a family. If he is possessed of the necessary capital, he +can employ it much more advantageously elsewhere. The landlord is the +only one who can reclaim to advantage, and he can hardly be expected to +do so on an entailed estate, for the benefit of his successors, at an +enormous rate of interest, payable out of his life-rent. If we are to +reclaim successfully and to any extent, Entail must go; and the estates +will then be justly burdened with the money laid out in their permanent +improvement. The proprietor in possession will have an interest in +improving the estate for himself and for his successors, and the latter, +who will reap the greatest benefit, will have to pay the largest share +of the cost. + +Regarding Emigration, we have a matured opinion that while it is a +calamity for the country generally, and for employers of labour and +farmers in particular that able-bodied men and women should be leaving +the country in their thousands, we unhesitatingly assert that it is far +wiser for these men and women to emigrate to countries where their +labour is of real value to them, and where they can spend it improving +land which will not only be found profitable during their lives, but +which will be _their own_ and their descendants _freehold_ for ever, +than to continue starving themselves and their children on barren +patches and crofts of four or five acres of unproductive land in the +Highlands. We have experienced all the charms of a Highland croft, as +one of a large family, and we unhesitatingly say, that we cannot +recommend it to any able-bodied person who can leave it for a more +promising outlet for himself and family. While we are of this opinion +regarding _voluntary_ emigration, we have no hesitation in designating +_forced evictions_ by landlords as a crime deserving the reprobation of +all honest men. + +We shall also have something to say regarding the Commercial Interests +of the Highlands--its trade and manufactures, and the abominable system +of long Credit which is, and has proved, so ruinous to the tradesman; +and which, at the same time, necessarily enhances the price of all goods +and provisions to the retail cash buyer and prompt payer. On all these +questions, and many others, we shall from time to time give our views at +further length, as well as the views of those who differ from us. We +shall, at least, spare no effort to _deserve_ success. + +The HIGHLAND CEILIDH will be commenced in the next number, and continued +from month to month. Under this heading will be given Highland Legends, +Old Unpublished Gaelic Poetry, Riddles, Proverbs, Traditions, and +Folk-lore. + + + + +MACAULAY'S TREATMENT OF OSSIAN. + +"IT's an ill bird that befouls its own nest." And this is the first +count of the indictment we bring against Lord Macaulay for his treatment +of Ossian. Macpherson was a Highlandman, and Ossian's Poems were the +glory of the Highlands; Macaulay was sprung from a Highland family, and +as a Highlandman, even had his estimate of Ossian been lower than it +was, he should have, in the name of patriotism, kept it to himself. But +great as was Macaulay's enthusiasm, scarce a ray of it was ever +permitted to rest on the Highland hills; and glowing as his eloquence, +it had no colours and no favours to spare for the _natale solum_ of his +sires. Unlike Sir Walter Scott, it can never be said of him that he +shall, after columns and statues have perished,-- + + A mightier monument command-- + The mountains of his native land. + +There are scattered sneers at Ossian's Poems throughout Macaulay's +Essays, notably in his papers on Dryden and Dr Johnson. In the latter of +these he says:--"The contempt he (Dr J.) felt for the trash of +Macpherson was indeed just, but it was, we suspect, just by chance. He +despised the Fingal for the very reason which led many men of genius to +admire it. He despised it not because it was essentially common-place, +but because it had a superficial air of originality." And in his History +of England occur the following words:--"The Gaelic monuments, the Gaelic +usages, the Gaelic superstitions, the Gaelic verses, disdainfully +neglected during many ages, began to attract the attention of the +learned from the moment when the peculiarities of the Gaelic race began +to disappear. So strong was this impulse that where the Highlands were +concerned men of sense gave ready credence to stories without evidence, +and men of taste gave rapturous applause to compositions without merit. +Epic poems, which any skilful and dispassionate critic would at a glance +have perceived to be almost entirely modern, and which, if they had been +published as modern, would have instantly found their proper place in +company with Blackmore's Alfred and Wilkie's Epigoniad, were +pronounced to be fifteen hundred years old, and were gravely classed +with the Iliad. Writers of a very different order from the impostor who +fabricated these forgeries," &c., &c. Our first objection to these +criticisms is their undue strength and decidedness of language, which +proclaims prejudice and _animus_ on the part of the writer. Macaulay +here speaks like a heated haranguer or Parliamentary partizan, not like +an historian or a critic. Hood says--"It is difficult to swear in a +whisper"; and surely it is more difficult still to criticise in a +bellow. This indeed points to what is Macaulay's main defect as a +thinker and writer. He is essentially a dogmatist. He "does not allow +for the wind." "Mark you his absolute _shall_," as was said of +Coriolanus. No doubt his dogmatism, as was also that of Dr Johnson, is +backed by immense knowledge and a powerful intellect, but it remains +dogmatism still. In oratory excessive emphasis often carries all before +it, but it is different in writing--there it is sure to provoke +opposition and to defeat its own object. Had he spoken of Macpherson's +stilted style, or his imperfect taste, few would have contradicted him, +but the word "trash" startles and exasperates, and it does so because it +is unjust; it is too slump and too summary. Had he said that critics had +exaggerated Macpherson's merits, this too had been permitted to pass, +but when he declared them in his writings to be entirely "without +merit," he insults the public which once read them so greedily, and +those great men too who have enthusiastically admired and +discriminatingly praised them. Macpherson's connection with these Poems +has a mystery about it, and he was probably to blame, but every one +feels the words, "the impostor who fabricated these forgeries," to be +much too strong, and is disposed, in the resistance and reaction of +feeling produced, to become so far Macpherson's friend and so far +Macaulay's foe. We regret this seeming strength, but real infirmity, of +Macaulay's mode of writing--not merely because it has hurt his credit as +a critic of Ossian, but because it has injured materially his influence +as an historian of England. The public are not disposed, with all their +admiration of talents and eloquence, to pardon in an historian faults of +boyish petulance, prejudice, and small personal or political +prepossessions, which they would readily forgive in an orator. Macaulay +himself, we think, somewhere speaking of Fox's history, says that many +parts of it sound as if they were thundered from the Opposition Benches +at one or two in the morning, and mentions this as a defect in the book. +The same objection applies to many parts of his own history. His +sweeping character of Macpherson is precisely such a hot hand-grenade as +he might in an excited mood have hurled in Parliament against some +Celtic M.P. from Aberdeen or Thurso whose zeal had outrun his +discretion. + +Macaulay, it will be noticed, admits that Ossian's Poems were admired by +men of taste and of genius. But it never seems to have occurred to him +that this fact should have made him pause and reconsider his opinions +ere he expressed them in such a broad and trenchant style. Hugh Miller +speaks of a critic of the day from whose verdicts when he found himself +to differ, he immediately began to re-examine the grounds of his own. +This is a very high compliment to a single writer; but Macaulay on the +Ossian question has a multitude of the first intellects of modern times +against him. The author of the History of England is a great name, but +not so great as Napoleon the First, Goethe, and Sir Walter Scott, nor is +he greater than Professor Wilson and William Hazlitt; and yet all these +great spirits were more or less devoted admirers of the blind Bard of +Morven. Napoleon carried Ossian in his travelling carriage; he had it +with him at Lodi and Marengo, and the style of his bulletins--full of +faults, but full too of martial and poetic fire--is coloured more by +Ossian than by Corneille or Voltaire. Goethe makes Homer and Ossian the +two companions of Werter's solitude, and represents him as saying, "You +should see how foolish I look in company when her name is mentioned, +particularly when I am asked plainly how I like her. How I like her! I +detest the phrase. What sort of creature must he be who merely liked +Charlotte; whose whole heart and senses were not entirely absorbed by +her. Like her! Some one lately asked me how I liked Ossian." This it may +be said is the language of a young lover, but all men are at one time +young lovers, and it is high praise and no more than the truth to say +that all young lovers love, or did love, Ossian's Poems. _This is true +fame._ Sir Walter Scott says that Macpherson's rare powers were an +honour to his country; and in his Legend of Montrose and Highland Widow, +his own style is deeply dyed by the Ossianic element, and sounds here +like the proud soft voice of the full-bloomed mountain heather in the +breeze, and there like that of the evergreen pine raving in the tempest. +Professor Wilson, in his "Cottages" and his "Glance at Selby's +Ornithology," is still more decidedly Celtic in his mode of writing; +and, in his paper in Blackwood for November 1839, "Have you read +Ossian?" he has bestowed some generous, though measured praise, on his +writings. He says, for instance--"Macpherson had a feeling of the +beautiful, and this has infused the finest poetry into many of his +descriptions of the wilderness. He also was born and bred among the +mountains, and though he had neither the poetical nor the philosophical +genius of Wordsworth, and was inferior far in the perceptive, the +reflective, and the imaginative faculties, still he could _see_, and +_feel_, and _paint_ too, in water colours and on air canvass, and is one +of the Masters." Hear next Wilson's great rival in criticism, Hazlitt. +They were, on many points bitter enemies, on two they were always at +one--Wordsworth and Ossian! "Ossian is a feeling and a name that can +never be destroyed in the minds of his readers. As Homer is the first +vigour and lustihood, Ossian is the decay and old age of poetry. He +lives only in the recollection and regret of the past. There is one +impression which he conveys more entirely than all other poets--namely, +the sense of privation--the loss of all things, of friends, of good +name, of country--he is even without God in the world. He converses only +with the spirits of the departed, with the motionless and silent clouds. +The cold moonlight sheds its faint lustre on his head, the fox peeps out +of the ruined tower, the thistle waves its beard to the wandering gale, +and the strings of his harp seem as the hand of age, as the tale of +other times passes over them, to sigh and rustle like the dry reeds in +the winter's wind! If it were indeed possible to shew that this writer +was nothing, it would only be another instance of mutability, another +blank made, another void left in the heart, another confirmation of that +feeling which makes him so often complain--'Roll on, ye dark brown year, +ye bring no joy in your wing to Ossian!'" "The poet Gray, too," says +Wilson, "frequently in his Letters expresses his wonder and delight in +the beautiful and glorious inspirations of the Son of the Mist." Even +Malcolm Laing--Macpherson's most inveterate foe--who edited Ossian for +the sole purpose of revenge, exposure, and posthumous dissection, is +compelled to say that "Macpherson's genius is equal to that of any poet +of his day, except perhaps Gray." + +In another place (Bards of the Bible--'Jeremiah') we have thus spoken of +Ossian:--"We are reminded [by Jeremiah] of the 'Harp of Selma,' and of +blind Ossian sitting amid the evening sunshine of the Highland valley, +and in tremulous, yet aspiring notes, telling to his small silent and +weeping circle, the tale of-- + + "Old, unhappy, far-off things, + And battles long ago." + +"It has become fashionable (through Macaulay chiefly) to abuse the +Poems of Ossian; but, admitting their forgery as well as faultiness, +they seem to us in their _better passages_ to approach more nearly than +any English prose to the force, vividness, and patriarchial simplicity +and tenderness of the Old Testament style. Lifting up, like a curtain, +the mist of the past, they show us a world, unique and intensely +poetical, peopled by heroes, bards, maidens, and ghosts, who are +separated by their mist and their mountains from all countries and ages +but their own. It is a great picture, painted on clouds instead of +canvass, and invested with colours as gorgeous as its shades are dark. +Its pathos has a wild sobbing in it, an Æolean tremulousness of tone, +like the wail of spirits. And than Ossian himself, the last of his race, +answering the plaints of the wilderness, the plover's shriek, the hiss +of the homeless stream, the bee in the heather bloom, the rustle of the +birch above his head, the roar of the cataract behind, in a voice of +kindred freedom and kindred melancholy, conversing less with the little +men around him than with the giant spirits of his fathers, we have few +finer figures in the whole compass of poetry. Ossian is a ruder +"Robber," a more meretricious "Seasons," like them a work of prodigal +beauties and more prodigal faults, and partly through both, has +impressed the world." + +Dr Johnson's opposition to Ossian is easily explained by his aversion to +Scotland, by his detestation of what he deemed a fraud, by his dislike +for what he heard was Macpherson's private character, and by his +prejudice against all unrhymed poetry, whether it was blank verse or +rhythmical prose. And yet, his own prose was rhythmical, and often as +tumid as the worst bombast in Macpherson. He was too, on the whole, an +artificial writer, while the best parts of Ossian are natural. He +allowed himself therefore to see distinctly and to characterise severely +the bad things in the book--where it sunk into the bathos or soared into +the falsetto,--but ignored its beauties, and was obstinately blind to +those passages where it rose into real sublimity or melted into +melodious pathos. + +Macaulay has, in various of his papers, shewn a fine sympathy with +original genius. He has done so notably in his always able and always +generous estimate of Edmund Burke, and still more in what he says of +Shelley and of John Bunyan. It was his noble panegyric on the former +that first awakened the "late remorse of love" and admiration for that +abused and outraged Shade. And it was his article on Bunyan's Pilgrim's +Progress which gave it--popular as it had been among religionists--a +classical place in our literature, and that dared to compare the genius +of its author with that of Shakespere and of Milton. But he has failed +to do justice to Ossian, partly from some early prejudice at its author +and his country, and partly from want of a proper early Ossianic +training. To appreciate Ossian's poetry, the best way is to live for +years under the shadow of the Grampians, to wander through lonely moors, +amidst drenching mist and rain, to hold _trystes_ with thunderstorms on +the summit of savage hills, to bathe in sullen tarns after nightfall, to +lean over the ledge and dip one's naked feet in the spray of cataracts, +to plough a solitary path into the heart of forests, and to sleep and +dream for hours amidst the sunless glades, on twilight hills to meet the +apparition of the winter moon rising over snowy wastes, to descend by +her ghastly light precipices where the eagles are sleeping, and +returning home to be haunted by night visions of mightier mountains, +wider desolations, and giddier descents. A portion of this experience is +necessary to constitute a true "Child of the Mist"; and he that has had +most of it--and that was Christopher North--was best fitted to +appreciate the shadowy, solitary, and pensively sublime spirit which +tabernacles in Ossian's poetry. Of this Macaulay had little or nothing, +and, therefore, although no man knew the Highlands in their manners, +customs, and history better, he has utterly failed as a critic on +Highland Poetry. + +We might add to the names of those authors who appreciated Ossian, Lord +Byron, who imitates him in his "Hours of Idleness"; and are forced to +include among his detractors, Lord Brougham, who, in his review of these +early efforts, says clumsily, that he won't criticise it lest he should +be attacking Macpherson himself, with whose own "stuff" he was but +imperfectly acquainted, to which Lord Byron rejoins, that (alluding to +Lord Byron being a minor) he would have said a much cleverer and severer +thing had he quoted Dr Johnson's sarcasm, that "many men, many women, +and many _children_ could write as well as Ossian." + +We venture, in fine, to predict that dear to every Scottish heart shall +for ever remain these beautiful fragments of Celtic verse--verse, we +scruple not to say, containing in the Combat of Fingal with the Spirit +of Loda, and in the Address to the Sun--two of the loftiest strains of +poetic genius, vieing with, surpassing "all Greek, all Roman fame." And +in spite of Brougham's sneer, and Johnson's criticisms, and the more +insolent attacks of Macaulay, Scotchmen both Highland and Lowland will +continue to hear in the monotony of the strain, the voice of the +tempest, and the roar of the mountain torrent, in its abruptness they +will see the beetling crag and the shaggy summit of the bleak Highland +hill, in its obscurity and loud and tumid sounds, they will recognize +the hollows of the deep glens and the mists which shroud the cataracts, +in its happier and nobler measures, they will welcome notes of poetry +worthy of the murmur of their lochs and the waving of their solemn +forests, and never will they see Ben-Nevis looking down over his clouds +or Loch Lomond basking amidst her sunny braes, or in grim Glencoe listen +to the Cona singing her lonely and everlasting dirge beneath Ossian's +Cave, which gashes the breast of the cliff above it, without remembering +the glorious Shade from whose evanishing lips Macpherson has extracted +the wild music of his mountain song. + + GEO. GILFILLAN. + + * * * * * + +ALASTAIR BUIDHE MACIAMHAIR, the Gairloch Bard, always wore a "_Cota +Gearr_" of home-spun cloth, which received only a slight dip of +indigo--the colour being between a pale blue and a dirty white. As he +was wading the river Achtercairn, going to a sister's wedding, William +Ross, the bard, accosted him on the other side, and addressing him said, + + 'S ann than aoibheal air bard an Rugha + 'Sa phiuthar a dol a phosadh + B-fhearr dhuit fuireach aig a bhaile + Mo nach d' rinn thu malairt cota. + +To which _Alastair Buidhe_ immediately replied-- + + Hud a dhuine! tha'n cota co'lach rium fhein + Tha e min 'us tha e blath + 'S air cho mor 's gha 'm beil do ruic-sa + Faodaidh tusa leigeal da. + + + + +MARY LAGHACH. + +FROM THE GAELIC, BY PROFESSOR BLACKIE. + + + Ho! my bonnie Mary, + My dainty love, my queen, + The fairest, rarest Mary + On earth was ever seen! + Ho! my queenly Mary, + Who made me king of men, + To call thee mine own Mary, + Born in the bonnie glen. + + Young was I and Mary, + In the windings of Glensmoil, + When came that imp of Venus + And caught us with his wile; + And pierced us with his arrows, + That we thrilled in every pore, + And loved as mortals never loved + On this green earth before. + + Ho! my bonnie Mary, &c. + + Oft times myself and Mary + Strayed up the bonnie glen, + Our hearts as pure and innocent + As little children then; + Boy Cupid finely taught us + To dally and to toy, + When the shade fell from the green tree, + And the sun was in the sky. + + Ho! my bonnie Mary, &c. + + If all the wealth of Albyn + Were mine, and treasures rare, + What boots all gold and silver + If sweet love be not there? + More dear to me than rubies + In deepest veins that shine, + Is one kiss from the lovely lips + That rightly I call mine. + + Ho! my bonnie Mary, &c. + + Thy bosom's heaving whiteness + With beauty overbrims, + Like swan upon the waters + When gentliest it swims; + Like cotton on the moorland + Thy skin is soft and fine, + Thy neck is like the sea-gul + When dipping in the brine. + + Ho! my bonnie Mary, &c. + + The locks about thy dainty ears + Do richly curl and twine; + Dame Nature rarely grew a wealth + Of ringlets like to thine: + There needs no hand of hireling + To twist and plait thy hair, + But where it grew it winds and falls + In wavy beauty there. + + Ho! my bonnie Mary, &c. + + Like snow upon the mountains + Thy teeth are pure and white; + Thy breath is like the cinnamon, + Thy mouth buds with delight. + Thy cheeks are like the cherries, + Thine eyelids soft and fair, + And smooth thy brow, untaught to frown, + Beneath thy golden hair. + + Ho! my bonnie Mary, &c. + + The pomp of mighty kaisers + Our state doth far surpass, + When 'neath the leafy coppice + We lie upon the grass; + The purple flowers around us + Outspread their rich array, + Where the lusty mountain streamlet + Is leaping from the brae. + + Ho! my bonnie Mary, &c. + + Nor harp, nor pipe, nor organ, + From touch of cunning men, + Made music half so eloquent + As our hearts thrilled with then. + When the blythe lark lightly soaring, + And the mavis on the spray, + And the cuckoo in the greenwood, + Sang hymns to greet the May. + + Ho! my bonnie Mary, &c. + + + + +PROFESSOR MORLEY, EDITOR OF "EARLY ENGLISH LITERATURE," ON CELTIC +LITERATURE AND THE CELTIC PROFESSORSHIP. + + +PROFESSOR MORLEY, at a meeting called by the Gaelic Society of London, +in Willis' Room, spoke as follows, and we think his remarks, being those +of a great and unprejudiced Englishman of letters, well worth +reproducing in the _Celtic Magazine_:-- + +He said that the resolution, which had a fit proposer in a distinguished +representative of the north, was seconded by one [himself] who had no +other fitness for the office than that he was altogether of the south, +and had been taught by a long study of our literature to believe that +north and south had a like interest in the promotion of a right study of +Celtic. We were a mixed race, and the chief elements of the mixture were +the Celtic and Teutonic. The Teutonic element gave us our strength for +pulling together, the power of working in association under influence of +a religious sense of duty; but had we been Teutons only, we should have +been somewhat like the Dutch. He did not say that in depreciation of the +Dutch. They are popularly associated with Mynheer Vandunck, but are to +be associated rather with grand struggles of the past for civil and +religious liberty, for they fought before us and with us in the wars of +which we had most reason to be proud, and gave the battle-field upon +which our Sidney fell at Zutphen. Nevertheless, full as Dutch literature +is of worthy, earnest thought, it is not in man to conceive a Dutch +Shakspere. This was not his first time of saying, that, but for the +Celtic element in our nation, there would never have been an English +Shakspere; there would never have been that union of bold originality, +of lively audacity, with practical good sense and steady labour towards +highest aims that gave England the first literature in the world, and +the first place among the nations in the race of life. The Gael and +Cymry, who represented among us that Celtic element, differed in +characteristics, but they had in common an artistic feeling, a happy +audacity, inventive power that made them, as it were, the oxygen of any +combination of race into which they entered. He had often quoted the +statement made by Mr Fergusson in his "History of Architecture," that, +but for the Celts, there would hardly have been a church worth looking +at in Europe. That might be over expressive of the truth, but it did +point to the truth; and the more we recognise the truth thus indicated +the sooner there would be an end of ignorant class feeling that delayed +such union as was yet to be made of Celt with Saxon--each an essential +part of England, each with a strength to give, a strength to take. We +had remains of ancient Celtic literature; some representing--with such +variation as oral traditions would produce--a life as old as that of the +third century in songs of the battle of Gabhra, and the bards and +warriors of that time, some recalling the first days of enforced fusion +between Celt and Teuton in the sixth century. There were old +manuscripts, enshrining records, ancient when written, of which any +nation civilised enough to know the worth of its own literature must be +justly proud. Our story began with the Celt, and as it advanced it was +most noticeable that among the voices of good men representing early +English literature, whenever the voice came from a man who advanced +himself beyond his fellows by originality of thought, by happy audacity +as poet or philosopher, it was (until the times of Chaucer) always the +voice of a man who was known to have, or might reasonably be supposed to +have, Celtic blood in his veins; always from a man born where the two +races had lived together and blended, or were living side by side and +blending. Before the Conquest it was always in the north of England, +afterwards always along the line of the west, until in the latter part +of the fourteenth century, London was large and busy enough to receive +within itself men from all parts, and became a sort of mixing-tub for +the ingredients of England. From that time the blending has been +general, though it might even now be said that we are strongest where it +has been most complete. With such opinions then, derived by an +Englishman who might almost call himself most south of the south, from +an unbiassed study of the past life of his country, he could not do +other than support most heartily the resolution--"That a complete view +of the character and origin of society, as it exists in these countries, +cannot be given without a knowledge of the language, literature, and +traditions of the Celts." He welcomed heartily the design of founding a +Celtic Chair in the University of Edinburgh as a thing fit and necessary +to be done, proposed to be done in a fit place, and by a most fit +proposer. The scheme could not be better recommended than by the active +advocacy of a scholar like Professor Blackie, frank, cheery, natural; +who caused Mr Brown and Mr Jones often to shake their heads over him, +but who was so resolved always to speak his true thought frankly, so +generous in pursuit of worthy aims, with a genial courage, that +concealed no part of his individuality, that he could afford to look on +at the shaking of the heads of Mr Brown and Mr Jones, while there could +be no shaking of the public faith in his high-minded sincerity. As to +the details of the establishment of the chair there might be +difficulties. The two Celtic languages had to be recognised. The ideal +Professor whom one wished to put in the new chair should have, with +scholarly breadth of mind, a sound critical knowledge of the ancient +forms of both, and of their ancient records, and he would be expected to +combine with this a thorough mastery of at least Gaelic, which he would +have to teach also as a spoken tongue. Whatever difficulty there might +be in this was only so much the more evidence of the need of putting an +end to the undue neglect that had made Celtic Scholarship so scarce. +Nothing would ever be done by man or nation if we stayed beginning till +our first act should achieve perfection. He could only say that it was +full time to begin, and that the need of a right study of Celtic must be +fully recognised if the study of English literature itself was to make +proper advance in usefulness, and serve England in days to come, after +its own way, with all its powers. + + + + +A PLEA FOR PLANTING IN THE HIGHLANDS.--No. I. + + +AS this Magazine is devoted to subjects of interest and importance to +Highlanders and the Highlands, no more fitting subject could be dealt +with in its pages than that of Forestry. + +Whatever conduces to the wealth of a district, to the amelioration of +its climate, and beauty of its scenery, is most praiseworthy. It is +undeniable that planting extensively and widely will effect these +objects, and of this subject it is proposed now to treat. + +That great part of Scotland was at one time forest is universally +admitted. The remains of magnificent trees are to be constantly met with +in the reclamation of land, many of the peat bogs being the formation of +decayed vegetation. + +It is frequently asked by the inexperienced, how it is, that while great +trees are found in bogs, planted trees will not now grow except in a +dwarfish degree, but the answer is obvious. These peat bogs are +themselves the product of vegetation as before noted, and it is an +ascertained fact that the tendency of these peat bogs and formations is +to increase both by absorbing the surrounding soil, and by exercising an +upward pressure. Many theories and allegations have been put forth as to +the period or periods when the original forests of Caledonia were burnt. +It may be generally admitted in the absence of any authentic +contemporaneous record, that three particular periods are commonly +pointed at, first in the time of the Roman occupation, second in the +reign of Edward the First, and third in the time of Mary, Queen of +Scots. + +The three principal native trees in the Highlands, as now understood, +which grow to any size, are the fir, oak, and ash; and it may be said +roundly, that few standing trees exist in Scotland of a greater age than +300 years. No doubt there may be exceptions, but the rise of the +plantations of beech, sycamore, plane, chestnut, &c., cannot be put +further back than the accession of James VI. to the English throne. That +Scotland was, in the early part of the 17th century, very bare may be +inferred from the numerous Acts passed to encourage planting, and the +penalties imposed upon the cutters of green wood. A great part of the +Highlands must ever lie entirely waste, or be utilized by plantations. +The expense of carriage to market was till lately in the inland and +midland districts so great, that no inducement was held out to +proprietors to plant systematically and continuously. The opening up of +the Highlands by the Caledonian Canal at first, and now more especially +by railways, has, however, developed facilities for market which should +be largely taken advantage of. The market for soft woods, such as fir, +larch, and birch, is ever widening; and great as is the consumption now, +it cannot be doubted it will still greatly increase. + +What greater inducement can there be to any exertion whatever, than that +of pleasure combined with profit? We undertake to show that on this +point both co-exist. To an idle man it is pleasant to saunter about and +observe the growing of his plants, contrasting their progress from month +to month, and year after year. The child of tender years, the most +ignorant peasant, have alike their faculties of interest and observation +aroused and excited by the contemplation of the gradual rise and change +in the progress of the plant. We have heard from those unable to speak +the English language, and in the poorest circumstances, poetic +description and the liveliest manifestation of admiration at a thriving +growing wood. Again, to the man who is engrossed with harassing mental +occupations, what pleasure and satisfaction is this contemplation; and, +as in the case of our immortal novelist, not only giving immediate +consolation and happiness, but powerfully incentive to intellectual +effort. + +Let us turn, however, to the practical bearings of our subject; and we +shall take the case, say, of an estate of 20,000 acres. Let us suppose +500 acres to be arable, and 4,500 acres, either from the nature of the +soil or its altitude, to be unfit for any improvement whatever. 1000 +acres would be probably required for ordinary pasture lands, and 10,000 +acres for hill pasture. It is far from our wish that any plantations +should diminish the already scanty population, or unduly press upon the +pastoral agricultural occupants. We therefore have given roughly what +may be held as full souming for stocks upon such an estate. It must +be always recollected it is not acres alone that will sustain sheep or +cattle, or maintain a first-class stock; on the contrary, it is the +quality of the ground, and whether enclosed and drained. The matter of +enclosure is one that has long been recognised as most essential in the +case of sheep grounds, but the cost until the introduction of +wire-fencing, was so great, as to be almost prohibitory. Hill pastures +should be enclosed just as in the case of arable lands, and with +efficient drainage and judicious heather burning, it is not too much to +say that at least one-third more in number could be pastured on the same +ground, and the stock would be of a higher class than on lands unfenced +and undrained. + +We have now left 4000 acres or so for plantation. If the proprietor be +in a position to do so, and do not object to lay out some money +unproductively, he will cause trees to be planted along all the roads +through the estate, putting clumps and beltings near the farm steadings. +This is a matter that is sometimes entirely neglected, rendering the +buildings conspicuous, bare and ugly, a blot on the landscape. In other +cases, the plantations are too near the buildings, making them +uncomfortable and unhealthy. Two things, viz., shelter and beauty, are +required, which a judicious eye should easily combine. The proprietor, +when there is appearance of a natural growth should select such for +enclosure, and on such an estate we place this at 500 acres. Only those +who have practical knowledge and experience in the matter, can realise +the extraordinary vitality of the seeds of birch, fir, oak, and others, +over a great part of the Highlands. Nothing is required over thousands +upon thousands of acres, but simple enclosure. These natural trees are +both beautiful and valuable, and therefore their encouragement does not +admit of question. No tree is more beautiful than the birch, which is +found all over the Highlands, makes great annual progress, and commands +a steady price. Blank spaces, &c., may be filled in with other woods for +the purposes of adornment. + +There now remains the plantation, properly so called, upon our estate of +3,500 acres. The selection of this ground is a matter requiring careful +consideration, because the land best adapted for planting is generally +the best pasture, and every proprietor will, of course, endeavour to do +his tenant as little injury as possible. At the same time, he will +require to bear in mind that the too common idea that any ground will do +for planting is a serious error. It is not often that the person who +plants lives to reap the full benefit of his labours, and it would +therefore be doubly hard, if these labours were thrown away. + +Forestry, however, is now so generally understood, that with reasonable +precaution no mistake ought to occur in the selection of the ground, or +the tree best suited to the soil. Hard wood is of course out of the +question in a great Highland plantation. Time occupied in reaching +maturity, and carriage to market unconsidered, iron has entirely +superseded this class of wood. Therefore fir and larch form the staple +for Highland plantations. On the other hand, for beltings, roadsides, +and in the vicinity of houses, hard wood should be planted. Two hundred +years ago people generally were wise in this respect, for they planted +ash trees and the like, each of which could stand by itself and bid +defiance to the elements. These now form beautiful and picturesque +objects round old _duchuses_, where hardly one stone stands on another, +and thus alas! in many cases alone denoting where respectable families +once had their homes; under whose spreading branches stout lads and +bonnie lasses interchanged love tokens, and went over that old, old +story, which will never die. + +With the introduction of larch about the end of last century, which soon +became, and deservedly, a favourite in the Highlands, it unhappily was +used as a single belting in exposed places near farm houses and +steadings. The consequence, as every one who travels through the +Highlands must be painfully conscious of, has been trees shapeless and +crooked, giving no shelter, and unpleasing in view. A ludicrous +illustration of this may be seen from the Highland Railway between +Forres and Dunphail, the larches having grown up zig-zag, according as +the several winds happened to prevail. It is well known that no regular +plantation can in beauty equal a natural one. There is too much +stiffness and form, but the man of taste will avoid straight lines, and +utilize the undulations of the land, blending the landscape as it were +into one harmonious whole. + +Let us now in the last place look at the pecuniary results. The +enclosure, drainage, and planting will of course vary according to +locality and the nearness to sources of supply and labour, but it may be +said that £3 sterling per acre is a very ample sum for all costs. If +there were one great block of plantation, it would not amount to +one-half. Returns, again, must also vary, depending on proximity to +railway or sea-board, but we have heard it stated by those well +qualified to give an opinion, that from 30s to £2 per acre per annum +will be an ultimate probable return. When it is considered that the +lands we have referred to, putting both pastoral and shooting rents +together, will not approach six shillings per acre per annum, the +pecuniary advantages are seen to be enormous.[A] + +No life insurance policy is equal to a large and judicious plantation +by a proprietor, as a provision for his younger children. The premium in +this case will not need to run longer than twenty-five years, and he has +not only beautified his estate and made it more valuable, but also +transmitted it to his heir without incumbrance. + +No wonder then that in the county of Inverness large proprietors, such +as the Earl of Seafield, Mackintosh, Sir John Ramsden, and others, have +taken this matter up on a great scale. To them large plantations ought +to be in the same category as minerals are in England; and, unlike their +English brethren, this source of wealth is not exhaustive but +re-current. + +To the public these plantations are not only objects of beauty and an +amelioration of climate, but the thereby greatly increased wealth of the +country ensures diminished taxation. + +These remarks are purposely made in the simplest language, because +chiefly intended to attract the intelligent attention of the commonality +of the people resident in, or connected with, the Highlands, and the +subject will be again brought up. + + C. F.-M. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: According to present and approved modes of valuation, no +great time need elapse after planting before the wood becomes of +admitted value. Ten years after, the valuation will, if the wood be +thriving, equal three times the original cost, including interest and +rent.] + + + + +MONTROSE AT INVERLOCHY. + + + [WE consider ourselves and our readers very fortunate indeed in + having procured the following as the first of a series of contributions + from Mr William Allan, Sunderland, whose recent publication--"Heather + Bells, or Poems and Songs"--has been so favourably received by the + Reviewers. A prior publication--"Hame-spun Lilts"--was also well + received. Of the author, the _Inverness Courier_ of 19th August, + says--"You will fail, if you try, to find from first to last the + slightest imitation of a single one of the many that, within the last + hundred years, have so deftly handled the Doric lyre. Before + the appearance of this volume, Mr Allan was already favourably + known to us as the author of 'Hame-spun Lilts,' 'Rough + Castings,' and by many lively lilts besides in the poets' + column of the _Glasgow Weekly Herald_. There is about + everything he has written a sturdy, honest, matter-of-fact + ring, that convinces you that, whether you rank it high or low, + his song--like the wild warblings of the song-thrush in early + spring--is from the very heart. All he says and sings he really + means; and it is something in these days of so many artificial, + lack-a-daisical, 'spasmodic' utterances, to meet with anybody + so manifestly honest and thoroughly in earnest as Mr William + Allan." The _Dundee Advertiser_ of August 17th concludes a long + and very favourable review of "Heather Bells, &c."--"The 'Harp + of the North,' so beautifully invoked by Sir Walter in his + 'Lady of the Lake,' has been long asleep--her mountains are + silent--and what if our Laureate of Calydon--our Modern + Ossian--were destined to hail from Bonnie Dundee?" _The + Scotsman_ of Oct. 1st, says--"There is true pathos in many of + the poems. Such a piece as 'Jessie's Leavin'' must find its way + to the hearts in many a cottage home. Indeed, 'Heather Bells,' + both deserves, and bids fair to acquire, popularity."] + + + Dark Winter's white shroud on the mountains was lying, + And deep lay the drifts in each corrie and vale, + Snow-clouds in their anger o'er heaven were flying, + Far-flinging their wrath on the frost-breathing gale;-- + Undaunted by tempests in majesty roaring, + Unawed by the gloom of each path-covered glen, + As swift as the rush of a cataract pouring, + The mighty Montrose led his brave Highlandmen:-- + Over each trackless waste, + Trooping in glory's haste, + Dark-rolling and silent as mist on the heath, + Resting not night nor day, + Fast on their snowy way + They dauntlessly sped on the pinions of death. + + As loud as the wrath of the deep Corryvreckan, + Far-booming o'er Scarba's lone wave-circled isle, + As mountain rocks crash to the vale, thunder-stricken, + Their slogan arose in Glen Spean's defile;-- + As clouds shake their locks to the whispers of Heaven; + As quakes the hushed earth 'neath the ire of the blast; + As quivers the heart of the craven, fear-riven, + So trembled Argyle at the sound as it passed;-- + Over the startled snows, + Swept the dread word "Montrose," + Deep-filling his soul with the gloom of dismay, + Marked he the wave of men, + Wild-rushing thro' the glen, + Then sank his proud crest to the coward's vile sway. + + To Arms! rung afar on the winds of the morning, + Yon dread pennon streams as a lurid bale-star: + Hark! shrill from his trumpets an ominous warning + Is blown with the breath of the demon of war;-- + Then bright flashed his steel as the eye of an eagle, + Then spread he his wings to the terror-struck foe; + Then on! with the swoop of a conqueror regal, + He rushed, and his talons struck victory's blow:-- + Wild then their shouts arose, + Fled then their shivered foes, + And snowy Ben-Nevis re-echoed their wail; + Far from the field of dread, + Scattered, they singly fled, + As hound-startled deer, to the depths of each vale. + + Where, where is Argyle now, his kinsmen to rally? + Where, where is the chieftain with timorous soul? + On Linnhe's grey waters he crouched in his galley, + And saw as a traitor the battle blast roll:-- + Ungrasped was the hilt of his broadsword, still sleeping, + Unheard was his voice in the moment of need; + Secure from the rage of fierce foemen, death-sweeping, + He sought not by valour, his clansmen to lead. + Linnhe, in scornful shame, + Hissed out his humbled name, + As fast sped his boat on its flight-seeking course; + Sunk was his pride and flown, + Doomed then his breast to own + A coward-scarred heart, ever lashed with remorse. + + SUNDERLAND. WM. ALLAN. + + + + +Correspondence. + + + [Open to all parties, influenced by none, except on religious + discussions, which will not be allowed in these columns under + any circumstances.] + + +TO THE EDITORS OF THE CELTIC MAGAZINE. + + 67 Rue de Richelieu, Paris, September 19, 1875. + +DEAR SIRS,--I am glad to hear that you contemplate the foundation of a +Celtic Magazine at Inverness. It is very gratifying for the Celtic +scholars on the Continent to see that the old spirit of Celtic +nationality has not died out in all the Celtic countries, and especially +that a country like the Highlands of Scotland--that may boast equally of +the beauty of her mountains and glens, and of the gallantry of her +sons--will keep her language, literature, and nationality in honour. The +Gaelic Society of Inverness is doing much good already, but a Magazine +can do even more, by its _regularly_ bringing news and instruction. + +A wide field is open to you. The Gaelic literature, the history--political, +military, religious, social, economic, &c.--of the Scottish Gaels at home; +the collecting of popular tunes, songs, proverbs, sayings, and even games; +the history and the development of Gaelic colonies and settlements abroad; +the history of Highland worthies, and also of Foreign worthies who are of +Scotch descent (I think, for instance, of Macdonald, one of the best +_marechaux_ of Napoleon I.), &c. Although the other branches of the +Celtic family be separated from the Scotch Gaels--the Irish by their +religion, the Welsh by their dialect, the French Bretons by their religion +and their dialect at the same time,--yet the moral, social, and literary +state of these cousins of yours may form, from time to time, interesting +topics to patriotic Highland readers. The field of Celtic literature extends +far and wide, and awaits yet many reapers. You will not fail to make a rich +harvest in your poetic and patriotic Scotland; and at Inverness, in the +middle of the Gaelic country, you have the best opportunity of +success.--I am, Dear Sirs, yours very faithfully, + + H. GAIDOZ, _Editor of the Revue Celtique_. + + +THE OSSIANIC QUESTION. + + Altnacraig, Oban, September 20, 1875. + +SIR,--In the last number of _The Gaedheal_, a Gaelic periodical which +may be known to some of your readers, I inserted a translation from the +German of an essay on the authenticity of Macpherson's Ossian, appended +to a poetical translation of Fingal by Dr August Ebrard, Leipsic, 1868. +My object in doing this was to give Highlanders ignorant of German, as +most of them unhappily are, an opportunity of hearing what a learned +German had to say on the character of the most famous, though in my +opinion far from the best, book in their language. I did not in the +slightest degree mean to indicate my own views as to this vexed +question. I know too well the philological conditions on which the +solution of such a question depends to hazard any opinion at all upon +the subject in the present condition of my Celtic studies. I am happy, +however, to find that one good result has followed from the publication +of this translation--a translation which, by the way, only revised by +me, but made by a young lady of great intellectual promise--viz., the +receipt of a letter from the greatest living authority on the Ossianic +question, I mean John Campbell of Islay, traveller, geologist, and good +fellow of the first quality. This letter, which I enclose, the learned +writer authorises me to print, with your permission, in your columns; +and I feel convinced you have seldom had a more valuable literary +communication.--I am, &c., + + JOHN S. BLACKIE. + + * * * * * + + Conan House, Dingwall, September, 1875. + +MY DEAR PROFESSOR BLACKIE,--In the last number of _The Gael_ I find a +translation by you from a German essay, and a quotation from a German +writer who calls Macpherson's Ossian "the most magnificent mystification +of modern times." The mists which surround this question need the light +of knowledge to shine from the sitter on that rising Gaelic chair which +you have done so much to uplift. In the meantime let me tell you three +facts. On the 9th December 1872, I found out that Jerome Stone's Gaelic +collection had been purchased by Mr Laing of the Signet Library, and +that he had lent the manuscript to Mr Clerk of Kilmallie. On the 25th +November 1872, I found a list of contents and three of the songs in the +Advocates' Library, but too late to print them. The learned German +relied on Stone's missing manuscript as proof of the antiquity of +Macpherson's Ossian, because it was of older date. It contains versions +of ten heroic ballads, of which I had printed many versions in "Leabhar +na Feinne." There is not one line of the Gaelic printed in 1807 in +those songs which I found. I presume that Mr Clerk would have quoted +Stone's collection made in 1755 if he had found anything there to +support his view, which is that Ossian's poems are authentic. Stone's +translation is a florid English composition, founded upon the simple old +Gaelic ballad which still survives traditionally. I got the old music +from Mrs Mactavish at Knock, in Mull, last month. She learned it from a +servant in Lorn, who sung to her when she was a girl. + +2d, The essayist relied upon a lost manuscript which was named "A Bolg +Solair" (the great treasure.) That designation seems to be a version of +a name commonly given by collectors of Scotch and Irish popular lore to +their manuscripts. The name seems rather to mean "rubbish bag." The idea +was probably taken from the wallet of the wandering minstrel of the last +century who sang for his supper. A very great number of paper manuscripts +of this kind are in Dublin and in the British Museum. I own two; but not +one of these, so far as I have been able to discover, contains a line of +the Gaelic Ossian printed in 1807, which one learned German believed to be +old and the other a mystification. + +3d, The essayist relies upon the "Red Book." In 1873 Admiral Macdonald +sent me the book, which he had recovered. Mr Standish O'Grady helped me +to read it, and translated a great part of it in June and July 1874 in +my house. It is a paper manuscript which does not contain one line of +Macpherson's Ossian. It does contain Gaelic poems by known authors, of +which copies are in other manuscripts preserved in Ireland. I do not +question the merits of Ossian's poems. Readers can judge. They are +Scotch compositions, for the English is Macpherson's, and the Gaelic is +Scotch vernacular. A glance at old Gaelic, of which many samples are +printed in late numbers of the Parisian _Revue Celtique_, ought to +convince any reader of Ossian that modern Scotch vernacular Gaelic +cannot possibly represent the language of St Patrick's time. I have +hunted popular lore for many years, and I have published five volumes. I +have gathered twenty-one thick foolscap volumes of manuscript. I have +had able collectors at work in Scotland; I had the willing aid of +Stokes, Hennessy, Standish O'Grady, Crowe, and other excellent Irish +scholars in ransacking piles of Gaelic manuscripts in Dublin, London, +Edinburgh, and elsewhere. I could never find an uneducated Highlander +who could repeat any notable part of the Gaelic poems which were +circulated gratis soon after 1807. Nobody ever has found one line of +these poems in any known writing older than James Macpherson. I agree +with many speakers of Scotch Gaelic who have studied this question. We +hold that the Gaelic Ossian of 1807 is, on the face of it, a manifest +translation from English; and that the English was founded upon an +imperfect acquaintance with genuine old Scotch Gaelic ballads. These are +still commonly sung. They are founded upon the mythical history which +still is traditionally known all over Scotland and Ireland. It was old +when Keating wrote; it was old when the Book of Leinster was written +about 1130. It really is a strange thing that so little should be known +in Great Britain about this curious branch of British literature. I +suppose that no other country in Europe can produce uneducated peasants, +fishers, and paupers, who sing heroic ballads as old as 1130 and 1520, +which have been orally preserved. Some fragments about Cuchullin, which +I have gathered can be traced in the Book of Leinster. Many ballads +which I have heard sung in the Scotch Isles were written by the Dean of +Lismore in 1520. By travelling to Tobermory, you may still hear Wm. +Robertson, a weaver there, tell the story of Cuchullin, and sing the +song of "Diarmaid," the "Burning of the Fenian Women," and many other +heroic ballads. I heard him sing them in 1872, when he said that he was +eighty-seven.--I am, yours very truly, + + J. F. CAMPBELL. + + * * * * * + + Kilmallie Manse, September 25, 1875. + +SIR,--There is no man living who has done so much for Gaelic literature +as Mr Campbell, and, just in proportion to my sense of the greatness of +his services, is my reluctance to put myself, even for a moment, in +opposition to him. But his opinion on the Ossianic question, expressed +in his letter, constrains me to oppose him. + +One word as to what he says about Jerome Stone's MS. Dr Laing kindly +lent it to me, and it is now in my possession. I referred to it +frequently in my edition of Ossian, 1870. Had I known that Mr Campbell +wished to see it, I would gladly place it at his service. There is no +mystification about this MS.; and I am sorry to say that it will not +turn the scale either way in the present controversy. + +But to the main point. Mr Campbell holds "that the Gaelic Ossian of 1807 +is a manifest translation from English." Dr Johnson expressed the same +opinion more than a hundred years ago; but while Mr Campbell can speak +with a thousandfold the authority of the great moralist, who knew +nothing of Gaelic, yet even Mr Campbell submits no positive proofs to +support his decision--no new fact of any kind. As far as external +evidence goes, he founds his opinion entirely on what is negative. Now, +I submit that the history of the case presents many undoubted facts all +going to prove the priority of the Gaelic to the English Ossian, and +these facts must be disposed of before Mr Campbell's conclusions can be +adopted. + +Let me say in one word that I do not for a moment pretend to solve the +Ossianic mystery. Any theory which has yet been proposed presents +serious difficulties, but I maintain that Mr Campbell's presents the +greatest of all, and in the present state of our knowledge cannot be +adopted. + +For proof, I must submit a brief outline of facts certified in the +report of the Highland Society on the subject, and which, though they +are undeniable, are often unaccountably overlooked in the controversy. + +1. It is the case that Macpherson, before publishing in English, got +several Gaelic MSS., which he acknowledged in his letters still extant, +and which he showed to his friends; further, that he asked and obtained +the assistance of some of these friends--Captain Morison, Rev. Mr Gallie, +and, above all, Strathmashie--to translate them into English. + +2. It is a most important fact that when challenged to produce his +Gaelic MSS., he advertised that they were deposited at his +booksellers--Beckett & De Hondt, Strand, London--and offered to publish +them if a sufficient number of subscribers came forward. The booksellers +certify that his MSS. had lain for twelve months at their place of +business. + +3. It is a fact that several persons, well able to judge of the matter, +and of unimpeachable character, such as the Rev. Dr Macpherson, of +Sleat; Rev. Mr Macleod, of Glenelg; Rev. Mr Macneill, &c., &c., did, in +1763--that is, 44 years before the publication of the Gaelic +Ossian--compare Macpherson's English with Gaelic recited by various +persons in their respective neighbourhoods. They give the names of these +persons, and they certify that they found the Gaelic poetry recited by +these, who never had any correspondence with Macpherson, to correspond +in many instances--to the extent of hundreds of lines--with his English. +One very significant fact is brought out in these certifications, that +Gaelic was found to agree with Macpherson's English in cases where he +never gave Gaelic. The English Ossian contains various poems for which +he never gave Gaelic; but here Gaelic, corresponding to his English, is +found in the mouths of people with whom he never held any communication. + +Now, what are we to say to all these things? Shall we believe that +Macpherson advertised his MSS. when he had none? The belief implies that +he was insane, which we know was not the case. And are we further to +believe that such men as the above deliberately attested what they knew +to be false, and what, if false, might easily be proved to be so? It is +impossible for a moment to receive such a supposition. + +But it is said these, though good men, were prejudiced, spoke loosely, +and therefore are not to be relied on in this enlightened and critical +age. This, however, is assuming a great deal, and in so doing is +_un_critical. Prejudice is at work in the nineteenth century even as it +was in the eighteenth. These men had far better opportunities of judging +the matter than we have. They give their judgment distinctly and +decidedly, and I never yet saw any good reason for setting that judgment +aside. + +I must add further, on the historic evidence, that several Gaelic +pieces, and these among the gems of Ossianic poetry, were published by +Gillies in 1786; that some of these are found in the Irvine MS. about +1800; that there is no proof of Macpherson having furnished any of +these; and that the genuineness of one of them, "The Sun Hymn," given +seem to be beyond the possibility of cavil. + +From all this it appears to me undoubted that Macpherson began his work +with Gaelic MSS., that he founded his English on them, and that various +portions of his work were known in several quarters of the country forty +years before he published his Gaelic. The subsequent disappearance of +all MSS. containing his Gaelic is very remarkable, and is much founded +on by Mr Campbell. But the history of literature affords various +instances of the preservation of a book depending on one solitary MS. +The case of the great Niebelungen-Lied--unknown for centuries, and +brought to light through the accidental discovery of a MS.--is quite in +point; and to come nearer home, two years ago, only one perfect copy of +the first Gaelic book ever printed, Bishop Carewell's translation of +John Knox's liturgy, was in existence. It may be, then, that when +Macpherson destroyed his Gaelic MSS. he destroyed all in which his +poetry was to be found. Again, it is asked, when Highlanders in the +present day recite so many heroic ballads, why do they not recite +Macpherson's? I answer that there being now forgotten is no proof that +they were never remembered. A hundred years may obliterate many things +among a people. The last hundred years have wrought such obliterations +in the Highlands of Scotland as to make it no cause of wonder that +heroic poetry then remembered should now be forgotten. + +I must restrict myself to a very few words on the internal evidence--though +it is on this the question must be finally decided, if it ever is to be +decided. As to the inference from comparing the Gaelic and English, I am +sorry to say that I am entirely at variance with Mr Campbell. The more I +examine the subject, the deeper is my conviction that the freeness of the +Gaelic, the fulness of its similes, and its general freshness incontestably +prove it to be the original. I would refer especially to the sea-pieces +(_e.g._, Carhon, ll. 48-52.) In Gaelic they are vivid and graphic--in +English tame, and almost meaningless--a fact such as might naturally be +expected from the words of a true mariner being translated by a thoroughly +"inland bred man" like Macpherson, but absolutely irreconcilable with his +having written the Gaelic. Mr Campbell himself in his admirable work of the +"West Highland Tales," vol. 4, p. 142, _et seq._, has some striking and +conclusive remarks on the internal evidence of the priority of the +Gaelic to the English; and I sincerely hope, when he considers them +again, they will induce him to return to his first faith. + +Much might be said on the structure of the Gaelic--especially the Gaelic +of the 7th Book of Temora, published by Macpherson in 1763, which +differs widely from any other Gaelic that I have met with; and much of +the whole character of Ossian, whether Gaelic or English, being so +absolutely unlike all Macpherson's other compositions--many and well +known; but I must conclude by repeating that Mr Campbell's theory "makes +confusion worse confounded"--in asking us to set at nought the various +facts which I have stated, demands a moral impossibility; and that +whatever light may be thrown on the subject from the new Celtic Chair, +we must in the present state of our knowledge admit Gaelic to be the +original, and Macpherson to be the translator of the Ossianic poems.--I +am, &c., + + ARCHIBALD CLERK, LL.D. + + + + +REMNANTS OF GAELIC POETRY. + + +THE name of Lachlan Macpherson, Esq. of Strathmashie, is well known to +those who are conversant with the dissertations on the poems of Ossian. +About the year 1760 he accompanied his neighbour and namesake, James +Macpherson, Esq. of Belville, in his journey through the Highlands in +search of those poems, he assisted him in collecting them, and in taking +them down from oral tradition, and he transcribed by far the greater +part of them from ancient manuscripts to prepare them for the press, as +stated by himself in a letter to Dr Hugh Blair of Edinburgh. He was +beyond all doubt a man of great powers of mind, and a Celtic poet of no +mean order. He died at the comparatively early age of forty years, +greatly lamented by his contemporaries, leaving behind him no written +literary production. + +Fragments of Mr Lachlan Macpherson's poetry, hitherto unpublished, will +be acceptable to those who have done so much of late to promote the +interests of Celtic literature. In some of his poems, composed in the +sportive exercise of his poetic genius, he makes the same objects the +subjects of his praise and censure alternately. We give the following +specimens:-- + +On the occasion of a marriage contract in his neighbourhood, the poet +honoured the company with his presence. The important business of the +occasion having been brought to a close, the bridegroom departed, but +remembering that he had left on the table a bottle not quite empty, he +returned and took it with him. The poet, viewing this as an act of +extreme meanness, addressed the bridegroom as follows:-- + + CAINEADH AN DOMHNULLAICH. + + 'S toigh leam Dòmhnullach neo-chosdail + O nach coltach e ri càch. + 'N uair bhios iadsan ag iarraidh fortain + Bidh esan 'n a phrop aig fear càis + Ma bha do mhàthair 'n a mnaoi chòir + Cha do ghleidh i 'n leabaidh phòsda glan, + Cha 'n 'eil cuid agad do Chloinn Dòmhnuill, + 'S Rothach no Ròsach am fear. + 'N uair a bhuail thu aig an uinneig + Cha b' ann a bhuinnigeadh cliù, + Dh' iarraidh na druaip bha 's a' bhotul, + Mallachd fir focail a' d' ghiùr. + +We give a free translation of the above into English, far inferior, +however, to the Gaelic original:-- + + MACDONALD SATIRISED. + + I like to see a niggard man, + One of the great Macdonald clan; + When others are in quest of gain + This man the needy will sustain. + Your mother, if an honest dame, + Has not retained her wedlock fame; + No part is Mac from top to toe, + You're either Rose or else Munro. + When to the house you turned your face, + Let it be told to your disgrace, + 'Twas for the dregs you had forgot, + The Poet's curse be in your throat. + +The bridegroom, as we may well believe, smarted under the chastisement +administered to him. He took an early opportunity of putting himself in +the poet's way. Seeing Mr Macpherson riding past his place one day, he +went to meet him with a bottle and glass, and importunately begged of +him that he would have the goodness to say something now in his favour. +Mr Macpherson complied with the request. Sitting on horseback, and +taking the glass in his hand, he pronounced the ensuing eulogy on the +bridegroom:-- + + MOLADH AN DOMHNULLAICH. + + Bha na bàird riamh breugach, bòsdail, + Beular sinn, gòrach, gun seadh, + Lasgair gasd e Chloinn Dòmhnuill, + Mac Ailein Mhòir as a Mhagh. + Chuir e botul neo-ghortach a' m' dhorn, + A chur iotadh mo sgòrnain air chùl, + 'S bàrd gun tùr a bh' air a' chòrdadh + Nach do sheinn gu mòr a chliù. + Ach tha 'n seòrs' ud uile cho caillteach, + Cho mi-thaingeil, 's cho beag ciall, + 'S ma thig a' chuach idir o 'n ceann, + Nach fiach e taing na fhuair iad riamh. + +The above may be thus translated:-- + + MACDONALD EULOGISED. + + The bards, as we have ever seen, + Liars and flatterers have been; + Boasting, with little cause to glory, + So empty is their upper storey. + Of Clan Macdonald this is one, + Of Allan Mor of Moy the son; + He brought to me a sonsy vessel + To satiate my thirsty whistle. + The poet proved himself unwise + When him he did not eulogise. + The bards--I own it with regret-- + Are a pernicious sorry set, + Whate'er they get is soon forgot, + Unless you always wet their throat. + +Mr Macpherson had a dairymaid of the name of Flora, whom he described in +abusive language in a poem beginning,-- + + Flòiri mhùgach, bhòtach, ghlùn-dubh. + +He afterwards made amends for the offence he had given her by commending +her in very flattering terms. He represents her as a most useful +dairymaid, and as a young woman of surpassing beauty, who had many +admirers, and, according to his description of her, such were her good +qualities, and her personal attractions, that certain persons whom he +names, among others the clergyman of the parish, expressed their desire +to engage her in their own service. The poet rejects their +solicitations, and informs them how unlikely a thing it is that Flora +should engage with them, as she was intended for the King:-- + + EULOGY ON FLORA. + + Flòiri shùgach, bhòidheach, shùil-ghorm, + A pòg mar ùbhlan as a' ghàradh, + 'N òg bhean, chliùiteach 's còmhnaird' giùlan, + Dh' òlainn dùbailt a deoch-slàinte, + Ge do shiubhail sibh 'n Roinn Eòrpa, + 'S na dùthchan mor' an taobh thall dith, + Cha 'n fhaiceadh sibh leithid Flòiri, + Cùl bachlach, glan, òr-bhuidhe na ban-righ. + + Maighdean bheul-dearg, foill cha leir dh' i, + 'S geal a deud o 'n ceutaich' gàire, + Caoimhneil, beusach, trod neo-bheumach, + 'S ro mhaith leigeadh spréidh air àiridh, + Clach-dhatha na h-Alba 's na h-Eirinn, + Nach saltair air feur a h-àicheadh, + Mar dhealt na maidne 'n a h-éirigh, + 'S mar aiteal na gréin a dealradh. + + A leadan dualach sìos m' a cluasaibh + Chuir gu buaireadh fir a' bhràighe, + Fleasgaich uaisl' a' srì mu 'n ghruagaich, + 'N ti tha 'gruaim ris 's truagh a chàramh, + Ach b' annsa leath' cuman 'us buarach, + 'S dol do 'n bhuaile mar chaidh h-àrach, + Langanaich cruidh-laoigh m' an cuairt di, + 'S binne sud na uaisle chràiteach. + + 'S gnìomhach, càirdeil, b' fhearr dhomh ràdhainn, + 'S glan a h-àbhaist, 's tearc a leithid, + Muime shàr-mhaith nan laogh àluinn, + Im 'us càise théid sud leatha, + Banarach fhortain ghàbhaidh + Nam miosairean làn 's a' chèithe, + Dheanadh i tuilleadh air càraid + 'S a phàidheadh dhomh màl Aonghuis Shaw. + + An t-àit' am faic sibh 'm bi gibht àraidh + Sùilean chàich bidh 'n sin 'n an luidhe, + Dòmhnull Bàn o 'm mìne Gailig + Bhuin rium làidir as an athar; + Thuirt e, thoir dhomhs' i gu bealltuinn, + Seall an t-earlas tha thu faighinn + Uam-sa, buannachd nan damh Gallda, + No ma 's fearr leat na sin faidhir. + + Thuirt Dòmhnull Mac Bheathain 's e 's an éisdeachd, + Nàile, 's fheudar dhomh-sa labhairt, + 'S mise 'n t-amadan thar cheud, + A bheireadh cead dh' i 'n déigh a gabhail, + Ach thoir-se nise dhomh féin i, + 'S théid nì 'us feudail a' d' lamhaibh, + Gu 'n ruig a 's na tha tilgeadh réigh dhomh + Ann am Banc Dhun-éidinn fathast. + + 'N uair chual am Ministeir an t-srì + A bha mu 'n rìomhainn thall an amhainn, + Chuir e pìor-bhuic 'us ad shìod' air, + 'S chaidh e dìreach orm a dh' fheitheamh, + 'S thuirt e, thoir dhomh-s' an ath thìom dhìth, + 'S ni mi trì-fillte cho maith thu, + 'S ma shearmonaicheas tu féin do 'n sgìreachd + Gheibh thu 'n stìpean 's bean-an-tighe. + + Ge pròiseil sibh le 'r n-òr, 's le 'r nì, + Le 'r mòran stìpein, 's le 'r cuid mhnathaibh, + 'S fearr leam Flòiri agam fhéin + Na ge do chìt 'iad leis an amhainn, + Dheanainn an còrdadh cho simplidh + 'S i dhol cinnteach feadh nan tighean, + Cia mar tha i coltach ribh-se? + 'S gur h-e 'n righ tha dol g' a faighinn. + +The Mashie, a tributary of the Spey, in the parish of Laggan, runs close +by Strathmashie house. It is a small river, but in harvest time, when in +flood, it causes considerable damage. The poet takes occasion to censure +the Mashie on this account; but he has his pleasant associations in +connection with the charming banks of this mountain stream, as expressed +in the following stanzas:-- + + MATHAISITH CENSURED. + + Mhathaisith fhrògach dhubh, + Fhrògach dhubh, fhrògach dhubh, + Mhathaisith fhrògach dhubh, + 'S mòr rinn thu chall domh. + + Rinn thu m' eòrna a mhilleadh, + 'S mo chuid ghòrag air sileadh, + 'Us cha d' fhàg thu sguab tioram + Do na chinnich do bhàrr dhomh. + Mhathaisith, &c. + + Cha robh lochan no caochan, + A bha ruith leis an aonach, + Nach do chruinnich an t-aon lan + A thoirt aon uair do shàth dhuit. + Mhathaisith, &c. + + Rinn thu òl an tigh Bheathain + Air leann 's uisge-beatha, + 'S garbh an tuilm sin a sgeith thu + 'S a' ghabhail-rathaid Di-màirt oirnn + Mhathaisith, &c. + + + EULOGY ON MATHAISITH. + + Mhathaisith bhòidheach gheal, + Bhòidheach gheal, bhòidheach gheal, + Mhathaisith bhòidheach gheal, + B' ait leam bhi làimh riut. + + 'N uair a rachainn a' m' shiubhal + B' e sud mo cheann uidhe + Na bh' air bràigh Choire-bhuidhe + Agus ruigh Alt-na-ceàrdaich. + Mhathaisith, &c. + + Gu 'm bu phailt bha mo bhuaile + Do chrodh druim-fhion 'us guaill-fhionn, + Mar sud 's mo chuid chuachag + Dol mu 'n cuairt dhoibh 's an t-samhradh. + Mhathaisith, &c. + + SEANCHAIDH. + + + + +HIGHLAND NOTES AND COMMENTS. + + + [IN this Column we shall, from month to month, notice the most + important business coming before our Highland Representative + Institutions--such as the local Parliament of the Highland + Capital, Gaelic and other Celtic Societies, and passing + incidents likely to prove interesting to our Celtic readers. We + make no pretence to give news; simply comments on incidents, + information regarding which will be obtained through the usual + channels.] + +WE make no apology for referring to the doings of the Town Council of +the Capital of the Highlands. Anything calculated to interest the +Highlander is included in our published programme; and surely the +composition, conduct, dignity, and patriotism of the local Parliament of +the HIGHLAND CAPITAL, and the general ability, eloquence, intelligence, +and independence of spirit displayed by its members is of more than mere +local interest. We take it that the Scottish Gael, wherever located, is +interested in the Capital of his native Highlands, and will naturally +concern himself with the history and conduct of those whose duty it is +as its leading men to shine forth as an example to places of lesser +importance. + +Last year a Gas and Water Bill was carried through Parliament, involving +an expenditure of something like £80,000, and at least double taxation. +We have no doubt whatever very good and satisfactory reasons will be +given for this large expenditure, but hitherto not the slightest +explanation has been vouchsafed to the public, and we are, in common +with five-sixths of the community, at present quite ignorant of the +reasons given for this enormous expenditure: that there must be +unanswerable reasons we have no doubt whatever, for have not the Council +been unanimous to a man throughout. Not a single protest was entered. +Not a single speech was publicly made against it. But more wonderful +still, not a single speech was made publicly in the Council in its +favour. This did not arise from want of debating power on the part of +the members. It must have arisen from the unanswerable nature of the +arguments delivered in private committees, where, practically, no one +heard them, or of them, except the members themselves. The only +objection which can be raised to this theory is, that if the matter is +so very clear and simple, and the expenditure so imperatively called +for, it is most wonderful that some ingenuous simple-minded member had +not thought of making himself popular at one bound, by giving a little +information to the public as the matter proceeded, and so silence all +the grumbling and general dissatisfaction felt outside. + + * * * * * + +THE Gaelic Society of Inverness entered on its fifth session last month. +The Society has of late shown considerable signs of popularity and +progress; for close upon fifty members have been added to the roll +during the first eight months of the Society's year, while only eighteen +were added during the whole of the previous one. In 1873, seventy new +members were elected. The following five Clans are the best +represented--Mackenzies, 23 members; Frasers, 22; Mackays, 19; +Macdonalds, 18; Mackintoshes, 14. This is not as it should be; for while +the Mackays only occupy a little over a page of the Inverness Directory, +the Mackintoshes two, and the Mackenzies about three and a-half; the +Macdonalds occupy over four, and the Frasers seven pages. We would like +to see the Clans taking their proper places, by the "levelling-up" +process of course. + + * * * * * + +WE regret to announce the sudden death, on the 19th of August, of Dr +Hermann Ebel, Professor of Comparative Philology at the University of +Berlin. He superintended the new edition of Zeuss's _Grammatica +Celtica_, and was one of the four or five leading Celtic scholars of the +age. + + * * * * * + +IT will be seen that Logan's "Scottish Gael"--a book now getting very +scarce, and which was never, in consequence of its high price, within +the reach of a wide circle of readers--is to be issued by Mr Hugh +Mackenzie, Bank Lane, in 12 monthly parts at 2s each, Edited, with +Memoir and Notes, by the Rev. Mr Stewart, "Nether-Lochaber." In this way +the work will be much easier to get. It only requires to be known to +secure the demand such an authority on the Celt--his language, +literature, music, and ancient costume--deserves. + + * * * * * + +WE take the following from the late Dr Norman Macleod's "Reminiscences +of a Highland Parish" on Highlanders ashamed of their country. We +believe the number to whom the paragraph is now applicable is more +limited than when it first saw the light, but we could yet point to a +few of this contemptible tribe, of whom better things might be expected. +We wish the reader to emphasize every line and accept it as our own +views regarding these treacle-beer would-be-genteel excrescences of our +noble race. A wart or tumour sometimes disfigures the finest oak of the +forest, and these so-called Highlanders are just the warts and tumours +of the Celtic races--they have their uses, no doubt:--"One class +sometimes found in society we would especially beseech to depart; we +mean Highlanders ashamed of their country. Cockneys are bad enough, but +they are sincere and honest in their idolatry of the Great Babylon. +Young Oxonians or young barristers, even when they become slashing +London critics, are more harmless than they themselves imagine, and +after all inspire less awe than Ben-Nevis, or than the celebrated +agriculturist who proposed to decompose that mountain with acids, and to +scatter the debris as a fertiliser over the Lochaber moss. But a +Highlander born, who has been nurtured on oatmeal porridge and oatmeal +cakes; who in his youth wore home-spun cloth, and was innocent of shoes +and stockings; who blushed in his attempts to speak the English +language; who never saw a nobler building for years than the little kirk +in the glen, and who owes all that makes him tolerable in society to the +Celtic blood which flows in spite of him through his veins;--for this +man to be proud of his English accent, to sneer at the everlasting +hills, the old kirk and its simple worship, and despise the race which +has never disgraced him--faugh! Peat reek is frankincense in comparison +with him; let him not be distracted by any of our reminiscences of the +old country; leave us, we beseech of thee!" + + + + +THE SUNSET OF THE YEAR. + +(OCTOBER.) + + + Sweet Summer's scowling foe impatient stands + On the horizon near of Nature's view. + At the sad sight the sweetly-coloured lands + Filled with the glowing woodlands' dying hue, + For Winter's darkening reign prepare the way. + In the green garden the tall Autumn flowers, + Filling with fragrant breath the beauteous bowers, + With resignation wait their dying day; + Bending their heads submissive to the will + Of Him, at whose command the sun stands still, + Nor dares to send to earth his gladd'ning ray. + Filled with the feeling of the coming doom + Of Nature's beauteous deeds, the heavenly hill + Hides its sad, shuddering face in cloudy gloom. + A whispering silence overhangs the scene, + As if awaiting the dark Winter storm + That fills with fear Hope's slowly-withering form. + Sinking to wintry death--till, pure and green, + Spring shall descend in song from sunny skies, + Smiling her into life. The sad wind sighs + Through flowerless woods, glowing towards their death, + In Winter's cruel, poison-breathing breath. + Fierce grows the murmur of the woodland rill, + Foaming in fury thro' the pensive trees, + Down the steep glen of the mist-mantled hill; + Deeper the roar of death-presageful seas; + While in the changeful woods the rivers seem + Wandering for ever in a Winter dream! + + MAIDENKIRK, 1875. DAVID R. WILLIAMSON. + + + + +_LITERATURE._ + + +_TRANSACTIONS OF THE GAELIC SOCIETY OF INVERNESS. Vols. III. and IV., +1873-74 and 1874-75 (Bound in one)._ + +THIS is the third publication issued by the Gaelic Society since its +establishment in 1871. The previous volumes were very creditable, +especially the first, but the one now before us is out of sight superior +not only in size, but in the quality of its contents. First we have an +Introduction of eight pages giving the history of the movement in favour +of establishing a Celtic Chair in one of our Scottish Universities, and +the steps taken by the Gaelic Society of London, who appear to have +worked single-handed to promote this object since 1835, when they +presented their first petition to the House of Commons, down to 1870, +when the Council of the Edinburgh University took the matter in hand. In +December 1869 the Gaelic Society of London sent out circulars addressed +to ministers of all denominations in Scotland asking for information as +to the number of churches in which Gaelic was preached. The circulars +were returned, the result being "that out of 3395 places of worship of +all denominations in Scotland, 461 had Gaelic services once-a-day in the +following proportions--Established Church, 235; Free Church, 166; Catholic +Chapels, 36; Baptists, 12; Episcopalians, 9; Congregationalists, 3." + +The first paper in the volume is a very interesting account, by Dr +Charles Mackay, the poet, of "The Scotch in America." We give the +following extract:-- + + I was invited to dine with a wealthy gentleman of my own name. + There were present on that occasion 120 other Scotchmen, and + most of them wore the Highland dress. My host had a piper + behind the chair playing the old familiar strains of the pipes. + The gentleman told me, in the course of the evening, that his + father was a poor cottar in Sutherlandshire. "My mother," said + he, "was turned out upon the moor on a dark cold night, and + upon that moor I was born." My friend's family afterwards went + to America, and my friend became a "dry" merchant, or as you + would say in Scotland, a draper. I said to him, seeing that his + position had so improved, "Well, I suppose you do not bear any + grudge against the people by whose agency your family were + turned upon the moor." "No," he replied, "I cannot say that I + bear them any grudge, but at the same time I cannot say that I + forgive them. If my position has improved, it is by my own + perseverance, and not by their good deeds or through their + agency." In every great city of Canada--Toronto, Kingstown, + Montreal, New Brunswick, St John's, Nova Scotia, and in almost + every town and village, you will find many Scotchmen; in fact, + in the large towns they are almost as numerous as in Edinburgh + and Inverness. You will see a Highland name staring you in the + face in any or every direction. If you ask for the principal + merchant or principal banker, you will be almost sure to find + that he's a Scotchman; and no matter in what part of the world + your fellow countrymen may be cast, they keep up the old + manners and customs of their mother country. They never forget + the good old times of "Auld lang syne;" they never forget the + old songs they sung, the old tunes they played, nor the old + reels and dances of Scotland. + + The Scotch, especially in Canada, take the Gaelic with them. + They have Gaelic newspapers, which have a large + circulation--larger, perhaps, than any Gaelic newspaper at + home. They have Gaelic preachers. In fact, there is one part of + Canada which might be called the new Scotland; and it is a + Scotchman who is now at the head of the Canadian + Government--John Macdonald.[A] + +The next is a paper by Archibald Farquharson, Tiree, headed "The Scotch +at Home and Abroad," but really a thrilling appeal in favour of teaching +Gaelic in Highland Schools. It is impossible to give an idea of this +excellent paper by quoting extracts. We, however, give the following on +the teaching of Gaelic in the schools:-- + + Reading a language they do not understand has a very bad effect + upon children. It leaves the mind indolent and lazy; they do + not put themselves to any trouble to endeavour to ascertain the + meaning of what they read; whereas, were they taught to + translate as they went along, whenever a word they did not + understand presented itself to their minds, they would have no + rest until they would master it by finding out its meaning. And + I am pretty certain that were the Gaelic-speaking children thus + to be taught, that by the time they would reach the age of + fourteen years, they would be as far advanced, if not farther, + than those who have no Gaelic at all; so that, instead of the + Gaelic being their misfortune, it would be the very reverse. It + would, with the exception of Welshmen (were they aware of it), + place them on an eminence above any in Great Britain, not only + as scholars, but as having the best languages for the soul and + for the understanding. And should they enter college, they + would actually leave others behind them, because, in the first + place, they acquired the habit of translating in their youth, + which would make translating from dead languages comparatively + easy; and in the second place, they would derive great aid from + their knowledge of the Gaelic. If Professor Blackie has found + 500 Greek roots in the Gaelic, what aid would they derive from + it in studying that language? and they would find equally as + much aid in studying Latin, and even Hebrew. + +Comparing the melody of the English with that of the Gaelic, Mr +Farquharson says:-- + + Certainly, compared with Gaelic and Broad Scotch, it [English] + has no melody. It is true that it may be set off and adorned + with artificial melody. What is the difference between natural + and artificial melody? Natural melody is the appropriate melody + with which a piece is sung which has true melody inherent in + itself, and artificial melody is that with which a piece is + sung that is destitute of real melody. In the former case the + mind is influenced by what is sung, the music giving additional + force and power to it; but in the latter case the mind is more + influenced by the sound of the music than by what is sung. I + may explain this by two young females; the one has, I do not + call it a bonny face, but a very agreeable expression of + countenance; the other has not. Were the former to be neatly + and plainly dressed, her dress would give additional charms to + her, but in looking at her you would not think of the dress at + all, but of the charms of the young woman. But although the + other were adorned in the highest style of fashion, with + flowers and brocades, and chains of gold, and glittering + jewels, in looking at her you would not think of the charms of + the young woman, for charms she had none, your mind would be + altogether occupied with what was artificial about her, with + what did not belong to her, and not with what she was in + herself. Both the natural and artificial melody elevate the + mind, the one by what is sung, and the other by the grand sound + of the music. There is real melody in "Scots wha hae," which is + natural and appropriate, which gives additional power and force + to the sentiment of the piece. In singing it the mind is not + occupied with the sound, but with proud Edward, his chains and + slavery--Scotia's King and law--the horrors of slavery--the + blessing of liberty, and a fixed determination to act. + +Dr Masson's description of "Tho Gael in the Far West" is a very readable +paper, and gives an interesting account of his tour among the Canadian +Gael, where he says, "the very names of places were redolent of the +heather--in the land where, alas! the tenderest care has never yet been +able to make the heather grow--Fingal, Glencoe, Lochiel, Glengarry, +Inverness, Tobermory, St Kilda, Iona, Lochaber, and the rest!" We part +with this paper perfectly satisfied that whether or not the Gael and his +language are to be extirpated among his own native hills neither the +race nor the language will yet become extinct in our British Colonies. + +Sir Kenneth S. Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch, makes the following remarks +on "The Church in the Highlands." He said that if they wished to improve +the Highlands:-- + + There was no way in which it could be done better than by + raising the class from which ministers were drawn. He + remembered saying at the opening meeting of this Society, that + one of its objects should be to excite the interest of the + upper classes in the language of their forefathers, inducing + them to retain that language, or acquire it if lost. Because, + when the cultivated classes lost their interest in it, the + leaven which leavens society ceased to influence the mass of + the people; and it was one of the most unfortunate things in + regard to a dying language, when the upper classes lost the use + of it, and the uneducated classes came to be in a worse + condition than in an earlier state of civilisation, when there + was an element of refinement among them. It was an understood + fact, that the clergy at this moment had a great influence in + the Highlands; and although there were persons present of + different persuasions, he thought they would all admit that the + Free Church was the Church that influenced the great mass of + Highlanders. There were Catholics in Mar, Lochaber, the Long + Island, and Strathglass, and Episcopalians in Appin; but the + people generally belonged to the Free Church, and if they + wanted to influence the mass, it was through the clergy of the + Free Church they could do it. Now, it was an unfortunate thing, + and generally admitted, that the clergy of the Free Church--he + believed it was the same in the Established Church--were not + rising in intellect and social rank--that there was rather a + falling off in that--that the clergy were drawn not so much + from the manse as from the cottar's house; and though he knew a + number of clergy, very excellent, godly men, and very superior, + considering the station from which they had risen, he thought + it was not advantageous, as a rule, to draw the clergy from the + lower, uneducated classes. They did not start with that + advantage in life which their sons would start with. There had + been a talk of instituting bursaries for the advancement of + Gaelic-speaking students. He did not see why they should not + start a bursary or have a special subscription--he would + himself contribute to it--a bursary for theological students + sprung from parents of education--whose parents had been + ministers, or who themselves had taken a degree in arts. That + would tend to encourage the introduction of a superior class of + clergymen. He wished to say nothing against the present + ministers. He knew they were excellent men, but he thought + their sons would be, in many cases, superior to themselves if + they took to the ministry. He was sorry they did not take to it + more frequently, and he would be glad if this Society offered + them some encouragement. + +Two learned papers appear from the Rev. John Macpherson, Lairg, and Dr +M'Lauchlan, Edinburgh--the one on "The Origin of the Indo-European +Languages," and the other--"Notices of Brittany." Space will not now +allow us to give extracts long enough to give any idea of the value and +interest of these papers, or of the one immediately following--a +metrical translation into English of "Dan an Deirg"--by Lachlan Macbean, +Inverness. We shall return to them in a future number. + +The Rev. A. C. Sutherland gives one of the best written and most +interesting papers in the volume on the "Poetry of Dugald Buchanan, the +Rannach Bard." The following is a specimen of Mr Sutherland's treatment +of the poet, and of his own agreeable style:-- + + At the time when the great English critic was oracularly + declaring that the verities of religion were incapable of + poetic treatment, there was a simple Highlander, quietly + composing poems, which, of themselves, would have upset the + strange view, otherwise sufficiently absurd. But in all + justice, we must say that many, very many, both of Gaelic and + English poets, who have attempted to embody religious + sentiments in poetic forms, have, by their weak efforts, + exposed themselves, unarmed, to the attacks of those who would + exclude religion from the sphere of the imagination. All good + poetry, in the highest sense, deals with, and appeals to, what + is universal and common to all men.... + + It is frequently charged upon the Celt, that in religion as in + other matters, emotion, inward feeling in the shape of awe, + adoration, undefined reverence, are more eagerly sought, and + consequently more honoured, than the practice of the simple + external virtues, of which feeling should be the ministers and + fountains. Whether this accusation holds good generally, or + whether it applies more particularly to the more recent + manifestations of the religious life among us, this is not the + time to inquire. One thing we are sure of, that a + representative religious teacher like Buchanan never allows + that any fulness of inward life can dispense with the duties of + every-day life, with mercy, truth, industry, generosity, + self-control. The unworthy man who is excluded from the kingdom + is not the man of blunt, homely feeling, incapable of ecstatic + rapture and exalted emotion, but the man who locks up for + himself the gold God gave him for the general good, who shuts + his ear to the cry of the poor, who entrenches his heart behind + a cold inhumanity, who permits the naked to shiver unclothed, + who lessens not his increasing flock by a single kid to satisfy + the orphan's want. Indeed, one who reads carefully Buchanan's + _Day of Judgment_, with his mind full of the prejudices or + truths regarding the place of honour given by the Celt to + inward experience and minute self-analysis, cannot fail to be + astonished how small a place these occupy in that great poem. + There, at least, mental experience is of no value, except in so + far as it blossoms into truth, purity, and love. We cannot, + however, pause to illustrate these statements in detail. We + shall merely refer to the indignation into which the muse of + Buchanan is stirred in the presence of pride and oppression. + The lowest deep is reserved for these. The poet's charity for + men in general becomes the sublime growl of a lion as it + confronts the chief who fleeces but tends not his people. + + "An robh thu ro chruaidh, + A' feannadh do thuàth, + 'S a' tanach an gruaìdh le màl; + Le h-agartas geur, + A glacadh an spréidh, + 'S am bochdainn ag eigheach dail? + + Gun chridhe aig na daoine, + Bha air lomadh le h-aois, + Le 'n claigeannan maola truagh; + Bhi seasamh a' d' chòir, + Gun bhoineid 'nan dòrn, + Ge d' tholladh gaoth reota an cluas. + + Thu nise do thràill, + Gun urram a' d' dhàil, + Gun ghearsonn, gun mhàl, gun mhod: + Mor mholadh do'n bhàs, + A chasgair thu trà, + 'S nach d' fhuiling do straíc fo'n fhòid." + +We part with this paper with an interest in Buchanan's Poems which we +never before felt, although we repeatedly read them. + +A well written paper, in Gaelic, by John Macdonald, Inland Revenue, +Lanark, brings the session of 1873-74 to an end. Mr Macdonald advocates +the adoption of one recognised system of orthography in writing Gaelic, +and concludes in favour of that of the Gaelic Bible, as being not only +the best and purest, but also the best known. + +In the second part of the volume 1874-75 are Professor Blackie's famous +address, under the auspices of the Society, his first in favour of a +Celtic Professor; "The Black Watch Deserters" by Alex. Mackintosh Shaw, +London; "History of the Gaelic Church of Inverness", by Alex. Fraser, +accountant; "Ancient Unpublished Gaelic Poetry," "The Prophecies of +_Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche_, the Brahan Seer," by Alex. Mackenzie, +Secretary to the Society; and other interesting matter. We shall notice +these in our next number. This valuable volume is given free to all Members +of the Society, besides free Admission to all Lectures and Meetings, while +the Annual Subscription for Ordinary Membership is only 5s. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: Since the paper was written, the Hon. John Macdonald gave +place to another Scottish Highlander, the Hon. Alex. Mackenzie, as Prime +Minister of Canada.] + + +_SONGS AND POEMS IN THE GAELIC LANGUAGE. By DUNCAN MACKENZIE, "The +Kenlochewe Bard." Written _verbatim_ from the Bard's own Recitation, +and Edited, with an Introduction in English, by Alexander Mackenzie, +Secretary to the Gaelic Society of Inverness._ + +WE have before us part first of the above Songs and Poems, containing +thirteen pieces, and consisting of 36 pp., crown 8vo, with an +Introduction. We have not met with anything to equal them in our +language for pith, spirit, and poetic genius, since the days of _Rob +Donn_; and we trust the bard will receive the encouragement he so well +deserves with the first part, so as to enable him to give us the second +on an early date. There is a short introduction to each piece, which +gives them an additional interest. We notice a few unimportant editorial +errors which we know Mr Mackenzie would be the first to admit and +correct. The following three verses are from "Moladh na Gailig"--air +fonn _Cabar-feidh_,--and is a fair specimen, although by no means the +best in the book:-- + + Si Ghailig cainnt as aosda + Th' aig daoine air an talamh so, + Tha buaidh aic' air an t-saoghal + Nach fhaodar a bhreithneachadh, + Cha teid i chaoidh air dhi-chuimhn', + Cha chaochail 's cha chaidil i, + 'S cha teid srian na taod innt' + A dh' aindeon taobh dha 'n tachair i, + Tha miltean feairt, le cliu, 's le tlachd, + Dha cumail ceart neo-mhearachdach, + 'S i treun a neart, le briathran pailt, + Cha chriòn, 's cha chaith, 's cha theirig i, + Tha cuimhne 'us beachd na lorg, 's na taic, + 'S cha n-iarr i facal leasaichidh. + An am sinn na sailm gur binn a toirm + Seach ceol a dhealbh na h-Eidailtich. + + Tha fianaisean na Gailig + Cho laidir 's cho maireannach + 'S nach urrainn daoine a h-aicheadh, + Tha seann ghnas a leantuinn ri. + Tha ciall 'us tuigse nadur, + Gach la deanamh soilleir dhuinn, + Gur i bu chainnt aig Adhamh + Sa gharadh, 's an deighe sin. + Gur i bh' aig Noah, an duine coir, + A ghleidh, nuair dhoirt an tuil, dhuinn i, + 'S mhair i fos troimh iomadh seors', + 'S gun deach a seoladh thugainne, + Do thir nam beann, nan stra, 's nan gleann, + Nan loch, 's na'n allt, 's na'n struthanan, + 'S ge lionmhor fine fuidh na ghrein, + Se fir an fheilidh thuigeadh i. + + Tha 'n t'urram aig an fheileadh + Seach eideadh as aithne dhuinn, + 'S na daoine tha toir speis dha + Gur h-eudmhor na ceatharnaich. + A' cumail cuimhn air euchdan, + As treuntas an aithrichean, + A ghleidh troimh iomadh teimheil, + A suainteas fhein, gun dealachadh. + Oh! 's iomadh cruadal, cath, 'us tuasaid, + 'S baiteal cruaidh a choinnich iad; + 'S bu trice bhuaidh aca na ruaig, + Tha sgeula bhuan ud comharricht. + 'S bu chaomh leo fuaim piob-mhor ri 'n cluais + Dha 'n cuir air ghluasad togarrach, + Sa dh-aindeon claidheamh, sleagh, na tuadh, + Cha chuireadh uamhas eagal orr. + + + + +THE CELTIC MAGAZINE. + + +THE Promoters of this Magazine will spare no effort to make it worthy of +the support of the Celt throughout the World. It will be devoted to +Celtic subjects generally, and not merely to questions affecting the +Scottish Highlands. It will afford Biographies of Eminent Highlanders at +home and abroad--Reviews of all Books on subjects interesting to the +Celtic Races--their Literature, questions affecting the Land--Hypothec, +Entail, Tenant-right, Sport, Reclamation--Emigration, and all questions +affecting Landlords, Tenants, and Commerce of the Highlands. On all +these questions both sides will be allowed to present their case, the +only conditions being that the articles be well and temperately written. +Care will always be taken that no one side of a question will obtain +undue prominence--facts and arguments on both sides being allowed to +work conviction. + +The Promoters believe that, under the wiser and more enlightened +management now developing itself, there is room enough in the Highlands +for more Men, more Land under cultivation, and more Sheep, without any +diminution of Sport in Grouse or Deer. That there is room enough for +all--for more gallant defenders of our country in time of need, more +produce, more comfort, and more intelligence; and the Conductors will +afford a _medium_ for giving expression to these views. In order the +more successfully to interest the general reader in Celtic questions, +the Magazine will be written in English, with the exception of +contributions concerning Antiquities and Folk-lore, which may require +the native language. It is intended, as soon as arrangements can be +made, to have a Serial Highland Story appearing from month to month. + +The following have among others already forwarded or promised +contributions:--The Rev. GEORGE GILFILLAN on "Macaulay's Treatment of +Ossian"; The Very Rev. ULICK J. CANON BOURKE, M.R.I.A., President of St +Jarlath's College, Tuam, on "The Relationship of the Keltic and Latin +Races"; CHARLES FRASER-MACKINTOSH, Esq., M.P., on "Forestry or +Tree-planting in the Highlands"; The "NETHER-LOCHABER" CORRESPONDENT of +the _Inverness Courier_, on "Highland Folk-lore"; The Rev. JOHN +MACPHERSON, Lairg, "Old Unpublished Gaelic Songs, with Notes"; Professor +BLACKIE, a Translation of "Mairidh Laghach"; Principal SHAIRP, St +Andrews, on "Subjects connected with Highland Poetry, and the Poetic +Aspects of the Highlands"; ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, Secretary of the Gaelic +Society, "Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche--the Brahan Seer's Prophecies"; "The +Traditional History of how the Mackenzies came into possession of Gairloch, +and drove out the Macleods"; "Latha na Luinge"; "Freiceadan a Choire +Dhuibh"; "Latha Lochan Neatha," and other West Highland Folk-lore and +Unpublished Gaelic Poetry; ALEX. FRASER, Accountant, Inverness, "Curiosities +from the Old Burgh Records of Inverness"; The Rev. A. SINCLAIR, Kenmore, +on "The Authenticity of Ossian"; WM. ALLAN, Sunderland, author of "Heather +Bells," "Hame-Spun Lilts," and other Poems; Rev. ALEX. MACGREGOR, M.A., +Inverness, "Old Highland Reminiscenses"; The KENLOCHEWE BARD, an Original +Gaelic Poem every month. Contributions are also promised from Dr CHARLES +MACKAY, the poet; Dr THOMAS M'LAUCHLAN, Sheriff NICOLSON, WM. JOLLY, H.M.'s +Inspector of Schools; ARCHIBALD FARQUHARSON, Tiree, on "The Songs and Music +of the Highlands"; H. GAIDOZ, editor of the _Revue Celtique_, Paris; +The Rev. WALTER M'GILLIVRAY, D.D., Aberdeen; The Rev. A. C. SUTHERLAND, +Strathbraan; KENNETH MURRAY, Esq. of Geanies; JOHN CAMERON MACPHEE, +President of the Gaelic Society of London; Rev. J. W. WRIGHT, Inverness; +and other well-known writers on Celtic subjects, Traditions, and Folk-lore. + +Published monthly, at 6d a-month, or 6/ per annum _in advance_; per +Post, 6/6. Credit, 8/; per Post, 8/6. + +All business communications to be addressed to the undersigned ALEX. +MACKENZIE. + + ALEX. MACKENZIE. + ALEX. MACGREGOR, M.A. + + 57 Church Street, Inverness, + September 1875. + + + + +SCALE OF CHARGES FOR ADVERTISEMENTS, &c. + + +A Page, £2 2s. Half a Page, £1 5s. Quarter of a Page, 15s. Ten Lines in +Column, 5s. Six Lines in do., 3s 6d. Each additional line, 6d. For +Insertion of a Bill, £2 2s. Back Page of Cover and pages next matter, £3 +3s. + +A liberal Discount allowed on continued Advertisements, paid in advance. + +_Advertisements and Bills require to be sent to 57 Church Street, +Inverness, by the 15th of each month at latest._ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, +November 1875, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELTIC MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 25952-8.txt or 25952-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/5/25952/ + +Produced by Tamise Totterdell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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