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

LETTERS TO DR. BLAIR. 7
in the name of our friendship, country, and several things
more, to do what you may require at my hands.
To say the truth, I am not sanguine in my expectations
from any one manuscript that can be found in our part of
the Isles. Mr Macpherson was himself in the Isle where
the hereditary sennachies, of whom I have been speaking,
resided for several ceniuries.: he saw the friends of these
sennachies, and saw Clanranald. Whether he has procur-
ed any old papers fit for his purpose from these people, he
can inform you best.
As to your second question, I hope to give you some sa-
tisfaction within a little time. I shall make the strictest
enquiry for all the persons within twenty miles of my
house, who can rehearse, from memory, any part of the
poems contained in Mr Macpherson's Fingal, &:c. His
Temora I have not been able to procure. I have begun
this work already, and entertain hopes, to me very pleas-
ing, that my endeavours will be attended with some suc-
cess. Your commands with regard to the exactness of the
translation, the pages of the book, and the names of the
persons who rehearse from memory, shall be faithfully
executed.
I fancy there is no great difficulty in showing how such
compositions have been transmitted from one generation to
another. The degree of credit due to such traditionary re-
cords as have preserved them, I shall in my next letter
place in the justest and best light possible.
The people in the western parts of Ross-shire, know a
great deal more concerning the old heroic poems, or epic
fragments, of the Gaelic tongue, than our islanders of the
northern quarter. The people I nriean, are those of Ger-
loch, Lochbroom, and Assin. Mr James Robertson, mi-
nister of Lochbroom, may possibly be of use to you, if
consulted. I would liave written to him upon tlie head,