Blair Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

162 LECTURE IV.
the Highlands, — ^it possesses little satire. It
has abundance of very hearty and very violent
abuse, but not much real satire. Macintyre of
Glenorchy, though unequalled in his descriptive
poetry, fails entirely when he attempts the sa-
tirical. It has been remarked with truth, that
in such attempts he never rises above the level
of mere vulgar abuse. There is, however, one
satire in the language of remarkable point and
pungency: it is by Mackay (Kob Donn), the
Eeay bard, and is designated " Marbh rann Eoin
C4hre," or *' An Elegy on John Gray." Mr Gray
was one of the lairds of Criech, and apparent-
ly no favourite of the poet, — why, I have not
heard. It would seem as if the family were
unpopular ; and certainly, in singing the me-
mory of this worthy, the bard is very far from
being complimentary. He describes the grief
of all the scoundrels in the country over the
loss of their chief, in the most pathetic terms,
and represents the great enemy of mankind as,
for once, regretting that the prey had fallen in-
to his hands, inasmuch as, on Gray's removal,
he had no suitable successor to fill his place on
the earth. The whole piece is worthy of Horace.
Mackay excels many of the other poets in this
faculty, and in it alone.
In descriptive poetry the Gaelic abounds.