THE CITY HALL GATHERING. 389 



and enthusiastic gathering it was. From floor to ceiling the huge 

 building was crammed, and as we took our seat and bowed in 

 acknowledgment of the truly Highland welcome that greeted us in 

 the shape of round upon round of loud and lusty cheers, we could 

 not help feeling a little nervous and out of sorts in realising the 

 fact that we were for the moment " the observed of all observers," 

 and, by the kind partiality of the Highlanders of Glasgow, made to 

 occupy a position of which any one might well be proud. "We 

 were soon at our ease, however, and found no difficulty in dis- 

 charging our duties La connection with a meeting which was from 

 iirst to last, and in aU its belongings, a great success. The dancing 

 was excellent ; the singing could hardly have been better ; while 

 the pipe music was of itself well worth going a much longer distance 

 to hear than that which separates Nether Lochaber from the City 

 HaU of Glasgow. No other living man, perhaps, can play reels 

 and strathspeys as Donald Macphee can play them ; and we do 

 not think we ever heard anything more admirably played than 

 was Malcolm Macpherson's port mur or j^^obaireachd proper, 

 Fhuair mi pbg's laimh, mo righ, composed at Holyrood in 1745 by 

 Ewen Macdhomhnuil Bhuidhe, a Macmillan from Glendessary and 

 piper to Lochiel, on seeing his chief kiss Charles Edward's hand at 

 a levee held in the palace of his ancestors by that Prince a day 

 or two after the victory at Gladsmuir. Macpherson played this 

 piohaireaehd so exquisitely that some of us felt our eyes grow 

 moist, and were in no wise ashamed of it, long ere he had reached 

 the diflficult but beautifully managed fingering of the concluding 

 urlar. We have always had a warm regard for James Boswell, John- 

 son's biographer, for this amongst other reasons, that, on his own con- 

 fession, music frequently affected liim as it affected many of us 

 on this occasion. " Sir," growled Johnson, " I should never hear 

 it if it made me such a fool." But then a man, however great, 

 cannot be everything ; and Johnson was not only not a Scotchman, 



