THE POEMS OP OSSIAN. 397 



was •wont to be tlie great entertamment of the Highlanders, to pass 

 the -vrinter evenings in discoursing of the times of Eingal, and 

 rehearsing these old poems of which they have all along been enthu. 

 siastically fond ; that when assembled at their festivals, or any public 

 occasions, wagers were often laid who could repeat most of them ; 

 and to have store of them in their memory, was both an honourable 

 and a profitable acquisition, as it procured them access to the families 

 of great men ; that with regard to their antiquity, they are beyond 

 all memory or tradition, in so much that there is a phrase commonly 

 used in the Highlands to this day, when they would express any 

 thing which is of the most remote or unknown antiquity, importing 

 that "it belongs to the age of Fingal." I have the pleasure of know- 

 ing a gentleman in Argyleshire, Scotland, who can recite Gaelic or 

 Ossianic poems of great length, which, so far as I know, have not 

 yet been published. He has repeatedly mentioned to me that it was 

 customary in his early days for Highland families to spend the long 

 winter evenings in listening to those who could recite poems having 

 reference to the times of Ossian. He has often expressed a regret 

 that, through inattention, he has allowed many of the poems he 

 heard in his youth to pass into forgetfulness. In addition to the 

 evidence we possess in favour of the great attention which was paid 

 to the recital of poems among the ancient Highlanders, it should be 

 remembered that, while intellectual darkness prevailed in many 

 countries, there was a large measure of enlightenment in the High- 

 lands of Scotland. It is well known that from lona men went 

 forth who carried rays of light into distant coiintries and sowed 

 there the seeds of moral and spiritual knowledge. May it not with 

 safety be supposed, that the industrious monks of lona turned their 

 attention to the poems of Ossian and committed them to writing 1 

 Certain it is that MSS. existed, containing Ossianic poems. Some 

 of these were recovered after MacPherson published his Translation 

 of Ossian. It was clearly proved that many MSS. were lost or 

 destroyed during the political troubles which swept over the High- 

 lands in the early part of the last century. Many trustworthy men 

 affirmed that, if an efibrt had been made at an earlier date to procure 

 MSS., many could be found throughout the Highlands. Had suffi- 

 cient attention been given to the power which oral tradition had 

 among the Highland bards, and to the Gaelic MSS. which existed, 

 less bitterness would have been manifested towards MacPherson and 



