326 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. IX. 



these pieces he has published. Since the publication, I have carefully 

 compared the translation with the copies of the originals in my hands, 

 and find it amazingly literal, even in such a degree as to preserve in some 

 measure the cadence of the Gaelic versification." It is unnecessary 

 to adduce any other evidence in order to indicate, that MacPherson did 

 in reality translate the poems of Ossian from poetical material that 

 he was successful in obtaiin"ng in the Highlands; and that he did not 

 de[)end, as his modern assailants persist in maintaining on very insuffi- 

 cient grounds, on his own imagination for the thoughts and sentiments 

 which he arrayed in an English attire and to which he was pleased to 

 give the appellation of the Poems of Ossian. Any amount of importance 

 is attached by his modern adversaries to the fact, that MacPherson failed, 

 as they contend, to disclo-ie what his MSS. were, if any, and where he 

 found them. A certain clergyman thus writes : "When MacPherson 

 returned from his tour through the Western Highlands and Islands, he 

 came to my house in Brae-Badenoch . . . He proLJuced several volumes 

 small octavo, or rather large duodecimo, in the Gaelic language and 

 characters, being the poems of Ossian and other ancient bards. Many 

 of these volumes were said to have been collected by Paul MacMhuirich, 

 Bard Chlanraonuil, about the beginning of the 14th century. Mr. 

 Macpherson had these from Clanronald. Clanronald told me that 

 Macpherson had the Gaelic MSS. from him." 



The statement of a writer in South-Uist is to the effect, that he saw 

 Neil MacMurrich deliver to Mr. MacPherson a MS. containing the poem 

 Berrathon, with three or four more MSS. Neil MacMurrich and his 

 predecessors for nineteen generations wrre the bards and historians of 

 Clanronald. The testimony of Malcolm MacPherson is to the effect, 

 that he had a brother who was noted in the country for his knowledge of 

 the poems of Ossian ; that when James MacPherson was in the countr}', 

 he employed himself for tour days and four nights at Portree in taking 

 down a variety of poem.s from his brother, and that the latter gave Mac- 

 Pherson a MS. in quarto and about I ^ inches in thickness. Captain 

 Morrison states, that he had access in London to Mr. MacPherson's 

 papers, and that he saw many MSS. in the old Gaelic characters contain- 

 ing some of the poems translated, which MSS. they found difficult to 

 read. Lachlin MacVuirich states, that he remembers that his father 

 had a book called the Red Boo,^, which he had from his predecessors, and 

 that Clanronald made his father give up the Red Book to James Mac- 

 Pherson. Professor MacLeod, of Glasgow, assured a friend that he had 

 seen and examined several Gaelic MSS., partly written upon vellum, and 

 apparently of great antiquity, in the possession of Mr. MacPherson, con- 



