OSS 
fided there, and there to have carried on their military 
exploits. But it may be afked, how happens it, if Ofiian 
and his heroes were Irilh, that the tradition of them is fo 
ftrong and prevalent in the Highlands, the proverbial ex- 
preflions relating to them fo marked and numerous, and 
the places named after them fo common. The folution of 
this difficulty is very eafy : it is well known that, at the 
period when the Fions lived, the intercourfe between that 
part of Ireland where they are faid to have refided, and 
the Highlands of Scotland, was frequent; and it is alfo 
highly probable, as will afterwards be ffiovvn, that an Irifh 
colony, nearly at, or immediately fubfequent to, this pe¬ 
riod, paffed over to that part ofthe Highlands where the tra¬ 
ditions and notices of Offian are molt commonly met with. 
It is not very eafy accurately and fatisfadtorily to fix 
the period when Fingal and Offian flourifhed : the era 
which Macpherfon affigns them mud be given up. Later 
Irifh manufcripts, traditions, and poems, both in Ireland 
and the Highlands, reprefent Offian as contemporary with 
St. Patrick; but, if we may depend on the account of the 
Irifh militias of Ullterand Leinfter, Fingal muft have pre¬ 
ceded St. Patrick nearly two centuries ; and,confequently, 
his fon Offian could not have been contemporary with 
him. According to the Irifh annals (on the authenticity 
of which, however, much ftrefs ought not to be laid), Fin¬ 
gal flourifhed under Cormac O’Cuin, about the year 254. 
That Offian was not contemporary with St. Patrick, is, 
however, moft fatisfadlorily proved from Jocelin, a writer 
of the twelfth century, in his life of that faint, who places 
Fin Mac Coul above a hundred years before him. Offian 
and his heroes may therefore be placed about the end of 
the third and the beginning of the fourth century; and 
it may be inferred, that all poems that refer them to a 
later period, are not the genuine poems of Offian. It will 
be proper to keep this remark in our recolledfion when we 
come to difcufs the authenticity ofthe poems which have 
been aferibed to this bard. 
There are fcarcely any notices refpedting thefe poems 
to be found in old authors who treat either of Ireland or 
of Scotland : the bards or feanachies of the latter country 
do not trace up their kings to the Fions, or heroes of Fin¬ 
gal, but to the Dalriadic monarchs. At the coronation 
of Alexander III. a Highland genealogift is introduced 
by Fordun to recite the royal pedigree ; but, inftead of af- 
cending from Fergus Mac Ertb, to Erth Congal, Fergus, 
Fingal, and from thence, according to Offian, to Comhal, 
Trahal, and Trenmor, he proceeds through the whole race 
to Fergus I. a fufficient proof that there was no tradition 
then of “ the fix kings of Morven,” nor any poems which 
treated of the exploits of Fingal and his heroes. Had 
thefe poems exilled in the time of Monro dean of the 
Illes, he would have appealed to them in his genealogy of 
the clans. Buchanan indeed, in his account of the fa¬ 
mily of Buchanan, mentions the militia of Fin, and 
fpeaks of “ rude rimes,” on the adtions of Fin Mac Coul, 
as retained by the Irifh and Scottifh Highlanders. There 
is, however, a paffage in bifliop Carfwell’s introdudlion to 
his tranflation of the Forms of Prayer into Gaelic, printed 
at Edinburgh in the year 1567, which is quoted in the 
Report of the Highland Society, in order to give an idea 
of the general impreffion and delight which the recital of 
the poems or ballads (of Offian) produced among the in¬ 
habitants of the Highlands. In this paffage the biffiop 
complains, that “ great is the blindnei's and finful dark- 
nefs, and ignorance, and evil defign, of fuch as teach, 
and write, and cultivate, the Gaelic language, that, with 
a view of obtaining for themfelves the vain reward of this 
world, they are more defirous and more accuftomed to 
carnpofe vain, tempting, lying, worldly hiftories, concern¬ 
ing the Tuutha de dannan , and concerning warriors and 
champions, and Fingal the fon of Cumhali, with his he¬ 
roes, and concerning many others which I will not at 
prefent enumerate, than to write, and teach, and main¬ 
tain, the faithful word of God, and of the perfed! w’ay of 
truth.” Now this paffage, cited by the Highland Society, 
4 - 
I A N. 11 
in order to prove the currency and popularity of Offian’s 
poems, aifually proves, that the bards were accuftomed, 
in che time ot bifliop Carlwell, to cnmpnfe poems con¬ 
cerning Fingal, which poems were probably in fubfequent 
ages confidered as the genuine poems of Offian. 
The firft perfon who feems to have conceived the idea 
of colledling the poems and ballads of the Highlands, was 
a young man, Jerome Stone of Dunkeld, who had ac¬ 
quired a knowledge of the Gaelic language. Of one of 
the poems which he colledled he publiihed a tranflation 
in rhyme, in the Scotch Magazine for January 1756. 
Nearly about the fame time, Mr. Pope, minifter of Reay in 
Caithnefs, entertained the defign of making a collection of 
the ancient poetry of the Highlands; but, in conlequence 
of the death of the gentleman who engaged with him in 
this undertaking, he feems to have dropped it very foon. 
The next collector of Gaelic poetry was Mr. James 
Macpherfon. In the year 1759, Mr Home, the author of 
Douglas, met him at Moffat; in the courfe of a conver- 
fation on the manners of the Highlands, Macpherfon in¬ 
formed him that one of their favourite amufements “ was 
to liften to the tales and compofitions of their ancient 
bards, which he deferibed as containing much pathos 
and poetical imagery ; and, at Mr. Home’s defire, he tranf- 
lated fome fragments which his memory ferved him to 
recoiled!. The beauty of thefe fragments ftruck Mr. 
Home, and his friends at Mofrat, to whom he communi¬ 
cated, them fo forcibly, that they prevailed on Mr. Mac¬ 
pherfon, who was rather averfe to the undertaking, to 
publiffi them in a fmall volume at Edinburgh, of which 
they agreed to fuperintend the publication, and defray 
the expenfe.” (Report of the Highland Society on the 
Poems of Offian, p. 27.) This fmall volume contained 
the opening, and fome epifodes, of Fingal; and an inti¬ 
mation was given, that, if it were favourably received, 
the whole of Fingal might be recovered. A fubferiptiori 
was.accordingly fet on foot, to enable Macpherfon to per¬ 
form a tour through the Highlands, to collect larger and 
more complete fpecimens of Gaelic poetry. When he 
returned to Edinburgh, he communicated to his literary 
patrons the refult of his expedition ; and, foon afterwards, 
Fingal, an Epic Poem in Six Books, was publiihed, aiong 
with fome fmall detached pieces. In the. year 1765, he 
publiihed another epic poem, entitled Temora. To one 
ofthe books of this poem he annexed what.he called the 
original Gaelic; but of the reft he only publiihed the 
tranflations. At his death, however, he left 1000I. to de¬ 
fray the expenfe of the publication of the originals of 
the whole; on which publication we fliali afterwards offer 
fome remarks. 
The fuccefs which attended Macpherfon’s refearches, 
and the fame he acquired by the publication of the poems 
of Offian, incited feveral others to proceed into the 
Highlands, and to colled!, from tradition or manufcripts, 
Gaelic ballads; while, as a fufpicion of the authenticity 
of what Macpherfon had publiihed arofe in the minds of 
many, enquiries were alfo fet on foot, for the pnrpofe, if 
poffi’ole, of detedling the fuppofed impofture. There is 
reafon to believe, too, that fome of the poems which were 
given to the world, after the fuccefs and fame of Macpher¬ 
fon, were not genuine Gaelic poems, nor even founded on 
the traditionary ballads of the Highlands, but entirely 
the fabrication of thofe who publiihed them. 
Previoufly to the year 1780, Mr. Duncan Kennedy, 
formerly a fchool-malter in Afgylefhire, and afterwards 
pradHfing as an accountant in Glafgow, began to colled! 
and tranlcribe from oral recitation, among the natives in 
the weftern Highlands, feveral fragments of Gaelic poe¬ 
try; and his colledlion, confiding of three thin manu- 
feript volumes in folio, was purchafed by the Highland 
Society of Scotland, in whole poffefficn they ftill remain. 
It is however very uncertain what part of thefe MSS. is 
genuine ancient Gaelic poetry, and what is to be aferibed 
to the colledfor as his own compofition ; lince he has 
avowed himfelf the author of two of the poerns, and has 
hinted 
