Ossian Collection > Gaelic bards

82 MODERN GAELIC BARDS.
Why, or by whom this clay is so carefully noted, does not
appear ; but this is the only one of Duncan^ Ban's^com-
positions which is so accurately dated.
THE LAST FAREWELL TO THE HILLS.
Ben Dorain I saw yesterday,
And trod its gorges grey,
Amid its well-known dells and glens.
No strangers did I stray ;
And think how joyful 'twas of yore,
To seek that mountain high,
As the sun shone o'er the morning hoar,
And the deer were belling by.
How charming was their lordly herd,
AVhen loud they rushed away,
While fawn and doe they scarcely stirred,
Where by the fount they lay ;
Then did the roe-buck bellow round,
The black-cock, red-cock crow,
I think, than these, no sweeter sound
Can morning ever know.
How cheerfully I rose and went
The rugged brakes to roam,
I sought them early, but unspent.
Though late I wandered home ;
For the breath of those great mountains,
Was health and strength to me,
And a fresh draught from the fountains.
Like a new life would be.
And once I stayed a little while,
In a gay shieling near.