Scottish Literature

Highland Mss.

The earliest document containing Gaelic matter which Scotland can claim is the Book of Deer, now pre served in the Cambridge university library. This ms. contains portions of the Gospels in Latin written in an Irish hand with illuminations of the well-known Irish type. Inserted in the margins and blank spaces are later notes and memoranda partly in Latin, partly in Gaelic. The Gaelic entries were probably made between i 000 and 1150. They relate to grants of land and other privileges made from time to time to the monastery of Deer (Aberdeenshire). The language of these entries shows a striking departure from the traditional orthography employed in contem porary Irish documents. The Advocates' library in Edinburgh contains a number of mss. probably written in Scotland between 1400 and 1600 but with one exception the language is Irish.

The solitary exception just mentioned is the Book of the Dean of Lismore. The pieces contained in this volume are written in the crabbed current Roman hand of the period, and the orthog raphy is phonetic, both of which facts render the deciphering of this valuable ms. difficult. The contents are almost entirely verse compositions collected by Sir James Macgregor, dean of Lismore in Argyllshire, and his brother Duncan, between the years 1512 and 1526. A disproportionate amount of space is allotted to the compositions of well-known Irish bards, but native bards are also represented. We can mention Allan MacRorie, Gillie Calum Mac an 011av, John of Knoydart, Finlay MacNab, and Duncan Macgregor, the transcriber of the greater part of the volume. A few other poems are by Scottish authors such as Campbell, Knight of Glenorchy (d. 1513), the earl of Argyll and Countess Isabella. A number consist of satires on women. These Scottish writers are still under the influence of Irish metric but frequently use the freer forms of the old metres.

Among the pieces which represent the Scottish vernacular of the day are the Ossianic Ballads. These, 28 in number, extend to upwards of 2,500 lines, and form by far the most important part of the collection. Nine of the poems are directly attributed to Ossian, two to Ferghus File, one to Caoilte Mac Ronan, and one to Conall Cearnach, whilst others are ascribed to Allan MacRorie, Gillie Calum Mac an 011av and Caoch O'Cluain, who are otherwise unknown. Thomas MacLauchlan published the text of the Ossianic ballads with modern Gaelic and English renderings in 1862. In the same volume W. F. Skene gave a useful descrip tion of the ms. and its contents. Alexander Cameron published in his Reliquiae Celticae, vol. i., a selection partly coinciding with MacLauchlan's.

Between the Book of the Dean and the Forty-five we find another great gap, which is only bridged over by a collection which presents many points of resemblance to Macgregor's com pilation. The Book of Fernaig, also written in a kind of phonetic script, was compiled by Duncan Macrae of Inverinate between 1688 and 1693. The ms. contains about 4,200 lines of verse of different dates and by different authors. The contents of the col lection are mainly political and religious, with a few poems which are termed didactic. In State politics the authors are Jacobite, and

in church politics Episcopalian. The Ossianic literature is repre sented by 36 lines. There are a number of poems by 16th-century writers, among whom is Bishop Carsewell. The text of the Book of Fernaig is printed in its entirety with a transcription in standard orthography, by M. Macfarlane, 1923.

Two other Highland mss. remain to be noticed. These are the Red and Black Books of Clanranald, which are largely taken up with the histories of the families of Macdonald and with the achievements of Montrose, written in the ordinary Irish of the period by the Macvurichs, hereditary bards to the Clanranald chiefs. During the Ossianic controversy the Red Book of Clan ranald was supposed to contain the originals of much of Mac pherson's famous work; but, on the book coming into the hands of the enthusiastic Gaels of the closing years of the i8th century, and on its contents being examined and found wanting, the ms. was tampered with.

Mary Macleod.

Mackenzie's Beauties of Gaelic Poetry con tains poems written by a number of writers who flourished towards the end of the 17th century and at the beginning of the i8th. Among them are Mary Macleod, John Macdonald (Iain Lom), Iain Dubh Maclain 'Ic. Ailein (b. c. 1665), the Aosdan Matheson (one of his poems was rendered in English by Sir Walter Scott un der the title of "Farewell to Mackenzie, High Chief of Kintail"), Roderick Morrison and John Mackay of Gairloch, but we can here only notice the first two. The famous Mary Macleod, better known as Mairi Nighean Alastair Ruaidh (c. 1588-1693), was family bard to Sir Norman Macleod of Bernera, and later to John "Breac" Macleod of Macleod, in honour of whom most of her poems were composed. Her pieces, all of them composed after 166o, are composed in the modern Irish metres with the char acteristic vowel rhymes of the accented syllables. Mary Macleod's best-known pieces comprise a dirge on the drowning of Iain Garbh (Mac'Ille Chalum) in the Minch, a song "An Talla 'm bu ghnath le MacLeoid," and an ode to Sir Norman Macleod of Bernera, produced during her exile in Mull, which begins "S mi'm shuidhe air an tulaich." For the details of her career, the reader may be referred to the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, vol. xxii. pp. 43-66. A number of poems belonging to this period have been published in The Macdonald Collection of Gaelic Poetry John Macdonald, better known as Thin Lom (d. c. 171o), was a vigorous political poet whose verses exercised an extraordinary influence during his lifetime. His best-known poems are Mort na Ceapach, on the murder of the heir of Keppoch, and a piece on the battle of Inverlochay (1645). However great the inspiration of Mary Macleod and Iain Lom, they were after all but political or family bards. In succession to them there arose a small band of men with loftier thoughts, a wider outlook and greater art. The literature of the Scottish Highlands culminates in the names of Alexander Macdonald, Duncan Ban Maclntyre and Dugald Buchanan.