Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 1, 1893

THK CELTIC MONTHLY.
A BOOK-HUNTER'S GAME-BAG.
By Rev. Donald Masson, M.D.,
Author of " Vestigia Celtica."
H.
\ X paper under this heading, in the
j&t) Celtic Monthly of March, has brought
— i me a considerable volume of pleasant
correspondence. The letters for the most part
are of interest only to myself, and it will here
suffice to return to the writers my best thanks
for all their kind sayings and good wishes.
But one of the letters is of so much interest to
Highlanders and Highland bookmen in general
that I shall ask you to reproduce one or two of
its most prominent paragraphs. This letter
is written from the Norwegian capital. We
need, however, have no fear that it plots a new
descent of the Norsemen on our peaceful shores.
Between ourselves, I would hold it no great
harm to our race if it were even so. For little
do we. for the most part, think how much of
all that is best in our Highland blood we owe
to that strain of iron and "Swedish steel"
crossed into it by the intercurrence of the
Norseman, And so much of all that is best
and strongest and most enterprising in our
people— so much of what may be called the
" tops " of the Highland flock — has for the last
century and a half been leaving the Highlands
to found new empires in new worlds that, if
we are not, to breed from the " shots," revert-
ing to the black haired Celt of primitive times,
we sorely need such a baptism of blood from
the fair-haired sons of the North as would
restore to us the vanishing blood of the Fin-
Gael — the Gael with fair hair.
That, however by the way. The writer of
this letter, though filling an important public
position in Christiania, is a veritable Gael,
genuine as he is learned and enthusiastic.
He says, 'Your article on a 'Book- Hunter's
Game Bag ' is specially interesting to me. In
it you mention Dr. Kenneth Macleay's "Me-
moirs of Lob Boy and the Clan MacGregor. "
Fancy, I "bagged" an original and beautifully
bound copy of that work, original edition of
1818, in Denmark. I fancy the modern reprints
contain no additional information on a subject
hi which I am naturally much interested. Do
you happen to know what Dr. Macleaj meant
brj the fi|],, win-- somewhat mysterious allu
sions ' Sic Preface, p. ix. He is speaking of
the chieftainship of the clan, and among other
things he says: He did not intend to enter
into a discussion on a subject ' over which there
seems to hang a mysterious veil, which none
dare attempt to remove without the risk of some
appalling consequence,' also that he has • left
the development of that dark chapter to abler
genealogists.'
"Now, even admitting, as seems pretty
evident from what he remarks immediately
after the lines above quoted, that it is the
choice of a chief to the clan MacGregor
by election, instead of by primogeniture, to
which he refers, what is it that is ' appalling,'
and what particularly is the 'dark chapter'
hinted at ?
"I know Macneil Macleay's sister (Miss
Flora Macleay, Stirling) from my earliest child
hood, and I have had a tiny landscape, executed
by her brother Macneil, in my possession for
about thirty years. Your article, therefore,
with its Highland references to Macleays and
MacGregors, has been able to recall some very
agreeable memories to a Scot in Norway.
" One thing more. I see that the April issue
of the Celtic Monthly is to contain a portrait and
sketch of Dr. Donald MacGregor. I wonder
if he is from Inverness shire : and, if he is. if
his forefathers belonged to a little band led
thither, I believe, by Rob Hoy. These and
many other Highland questions interest me
greatly. I can write with much feeling ' My
heart's in the Highlands,' though I was born
in Wales and live abroad. 1 fancy in this
question, as in so many others, "blood is
thicker than water "
The "mysterious veil" on that "dark chapter"
in the history of the Clan MacGregor which
Dr. Kenneth MacLeay dared not attempt to
remove for fear of "some appalling conse-
quence" will, I hope, be hfted away, without
hurt to life or linib, by some of our many able
genealogists.
My correspondent's question as to the family
history of the learned member for the county
of Inverness has already been fully answered
by anticipation in the Celtic Monthly, showing
that the editor is "a man having understand
ingof the times." As au old friend of Dr.
I >onald MacGregor's, I may be allowed to add
im testimony to his high character and rare
professional ability. Four at least of these
liannoch MaeUregors, brothers or cousins, I
ha\e known as distinguished students in the
great Medical School of Edinburgh, and Dr.
Donald MacGregor was assuredly not inferior
to the best of them. Besides being a prompt
and highly accomplished physician, he is also
a capital man of business. On one occasion 1
have known him extricate himself adroitly and
scat bless from a very tight place, which be-
came the deli slick of hopeless loss of money
to men whose business it was to watch the
course of the market and guard the invest-
ments of their clients. Made virlute, puerj