Blair Collection > Treatise on the language, poetry, and music of the Highland clans

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'S air taice cuil,
sayr tayce cuyl
Bha again san Dun eibhinn.
va agea san duii ey-vinn
Mo mliisneacli 's mo threoir,
mo visneob '3 mo li-re-oyr
Fo thasgadh a bhord,
fo hasg-a' a vorcl
Sar mhac mhic Leoid
sar vac vie le-oyd
Na'm bralach sroil,
nam bratacli sroyl
Blia fial le or,
va fi-al le or
'S bu bbinne sgeoil
's bu viunè sge-oyl
Na clarsach is ceol Erin,
na clar-sach is ce-ol ey-riii
THE MUSIC
The stay at our baric,
We had at tlie Dun of joy.
My courage, my strengtii,
(Is) wrapped in boards,
The surpassing son of Leod
Of silken banners,
That was liberal with gold,
Whose lays were more sweet
Than the harps and music of Erin.
The Highland chiefs, on the succession of the king of Scotland to the
throne of England, seem to have forgot that it was not the object of feudal
charters in Scotland, to deprive the people of their immemorial right of property
in the soil, but to assimilate tlie patriarchal system to that subordination of
ranks which made the feudal system, introduced into England by the Normans,
so much more efiScient for warfltre. The intention of the Scottish kings
evidently was, by making chiefships hereditary and dependant on the crown,
instead of elective and dependant on the people, to assimilate the chiefs to the
crown vassals, and make them thus amenable to the despotism at which they
aimed. That the charters had no other object than this, to subserve the regal
despotism, is proved by the fact, that, while the crown continued despotic, the
feudal superior was not allowed to oppress, increase the rents, or alter the fixed
tenures of the clans ; and that the charters were, in innumerable instances,
recalled or transferred at the pleasure of the king. A change seems now to
have come over king and chiefs alike, however, and it was evidently determined
to give the same effect to charters granted over the unconquered lands of
the clans of Scotland, which they had received over the conquered lands of the
people of England. The bards were the first victims of the cliange. I have
not space to detail the evictions, but may remark that Clanranald's bard was
ejected from Balivaird, which was possessed for ages by his ancestors under the
cleachda, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, as is shown in a most
interesting statement made on oath by his son, and which has been published
by the Highland Society, to account for the destruction of the manuscript of
the Clanranald family. When the other cliildren of song were thus stripped
and ejected, and wandered through the country, living on the hospitality of the
people, Mari received a pension from her chief. Sir Norman Macleod, and lived
in comparative wealth. Her house was always open to, and formed the liead-