Blair Collection > Comhchruinneachadh Ghlinn-a'-Bhaird

James Macgregor, D. D. , author of Dain a Chomh-
nadh Crabhuidh. During the last twenty-one
V'^ars, M'henever I met a person who had old
Gaelic poems by heart, poems not in any book,
I have been in the habit of getting him to recite
ihem, and writing them down. I have in this
way collected quite a number of valuable poems.
I know that if I do not publish the poems in my
possession no one else will. I know also that
unless I publish them, they are likely to perish ;
and Gaelic literature is not of so extensive a
character that this should be allowed to happen.
Besides, I feel that it would be utterly unbecom-
ing on my part not to publish at least the manu-
scripts brought to this country by my grandfather.
Influenced by these reasons I have resolved to
publish all the poems that I have.
Some of the poems in this work have been
taken from old collections that are now out of
print, such as Ranald Macdonald's collection,
Gillies's collection, A. and D. Stewart's collection,
and Turner's collection. It may be a compara-
tively easy matter to procure one or two of these
collections in the old country ; in this country it
is impossible to obtain any of them. The few
poetical works brought with them by the early
immigrants were borrowed, handled, and used
until they became reduced to tattered fragments.
Of what use, it may asked, are the old poems
in this work ? In the first place, some of them
are useful merely as poems, whilst others are not.