J. F. Campbell Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

rOEMS OF OSSIAN, 43
The queries fent me may be elucidated in Bade*
jioch and Lochaber. You may gather from what
is above, that this corner can do little in that line.
When fummer comes, if my heahh ferves me, I
fiiall make it my bufmefs to fee certain old men,
though at a confiderable diftance from here, who,
I am told, do flill retain fome of OiTian's poems.
The gentleman to whom I referred in my former
correfpordence, as a familiar acquaintance of Mr
Macpherfon's and mine, and diftinguifhed for his
acquaintance with the Gaelic language, is, alas ! no
more. His name was Lachlane Macpherfon of
Strathmafliy. He died in the 1767. I have the
honour to be, with great refpeft. Sir, the Highland
Society's, and your, moft obedient humble fervant,
Andrew Gallie.
In his private correfpondence with his friend the
Reverend Dr Kemp, Mr Gallie ventured a conjec-
ture with regard to the MSS. procured by Mr Mac-
pherfon, which he had scc?i in that gentle inan* s pos-
session^ though his modefty had not allowed him to
mention it in a correpondence of fo public a nature
as that with the Committee. This conjed:ure is
expreffed in the following extraft of a letter (the
greateft part of which is on pr*\ ate bufinefs) to Dr
Kemp.
Dear