Blair Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

LECTURE IV. 153
'S gum bi Uilliam MacDheorsa
Mar chraoibh gun duilleach fo leon
Gun fhreumh gun mheangan gun mheoirean geige.
Gum a 16m bhitheas do leac,
Gun bhean, gun mhathair, gun mliac,
Gun fhuaim clarsaicb, gun lasair cheire.
" May William, the son of George, be as a
leafless splintered tree, rootless, branchless,
sproutless. May there be no joy on his hearth,
no wife, no brother, no son, no sounding harp
or blazing wax." Stewart is said to have com-
posed a fine elegy on one of the ladies of Mac-
kintosh, a daughter of Menzies of Castle Men-
zies, who is said to have been a fervent par-
tisan of the Stuart cause. This elegy has been
attributed to a poet of the name of Davidson,
in the neighbourhood of Moyhall, the seat of
the Lairds of Mackintosh. Judging by a num-
ber of verses on the Macgillivrays of Dunmaglass
by this Davidson, tjiere is no reason to doubt
his capability of composing the elegy on Lady
Mackintosh, although it is one of the finest
things in the Gaelic language. The elegy is
certainly not in the usual style of Koy Stewart.
Another Jacobite poet was Alexander Mac-
donald, already referred to, son of a Mac-
donald, who was Episcopal minister of Slate
in Skye. Macdonald was a warm supporter
of the Stewarts ; indeed, on their account he