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

6 LETTERS TO DR. BLAIR.
I am not at all surprised that, at a time when the spirit of
party, and national quarrels, are risen to such a height, the
authenticity of Ossian's poems should be called in question.
The glory arising to our country and ancestors, from these
noble monuments of genius, cannot miss to give pain to
the malevolent in the southern division of the Isle ; and,
as a great person who has patronized Fingal, must not only
be depressed, but made as little as possible in every re-
spect, Mr Macpherson must be involved in the same cruel
persecution.
But to come directly to the questions you propose — I am
not able to say, v.'ith any degree of certainty, that I have
seen, but can affirm that I have not perused, any MSS.
containing either the v/hole, or a part, of the poems pub-
lished by our friend. I never made it my business to find
out, or examine, such papers ; and the Isle in which I
live at present can hardly afford such curiosities. About
twenty years back, I was settled in a part of the country
where there v/as an ancient little family, the head of which
united the professions of the bard, genealogist, and senna-
chy. The bard of that family whom I had occasion to
know, was a man of some letters, that is to say, he and
his ancestors, for m.any ages, had received their education
in Irish Colleges of poetry and history, and understood
the Latin tolerably well. The man who was of my ac-
quaintance, was thought an antiquary, in the Highland
acceptation of the word, and had some MSS. in his pos-
session. But he is dead long since, and his office abolish-
ed, because expensive to his patron Clanranald. That
gentleman may very probably have all the MSS. formerly
belonging to these oldlaureats, if preserved, in his custody :
and though I understood by your letter that Macleod has
undertaken to write to Clanranald upon this subject, I have,
immediately after receiving yours, written to the Minister
of the parish where these bards lived ; and intreated him,