Matheson Collection > Bardachd Ghaidhlig

xxxiv. Introduction.
(1) Mary MacLeod's period has been ante-dated. She
is said to have been born in 1569, and to have died in
1674 ^'^ aceording to another account her period was
1588 to 1693.^ As a matter of fact, she was alive in
1705, when she composed the lament for Sir Norman
MacLeod of Bemera, who died on the third day of
March of that year.^ The earliest of the extant poems
ascribed to her is that on the death of Eoderick
Mackenzie of Applecross, Marbhrann do Fhear na
Comraich, who died in 1646. This gives her an active
period of fifty-nine years. The dates of her birth and
death are unknown; tradition, according to John
Mackenzie, gives her a life of 105 years. I would put
her tentatively as from circa 1615 to 1707.
(2) John MacDonald, lain Lom, is credited with a
poem to Sir Donald Gorm of Sleat, which must have
been composed some time before Sir Donald's death
in 1643. He was a well-known bard in 1645, the date
of the battle of Inverlochy, which he celebrates with
such bitterness. lain Lom must therefore have been
bom at least as early as 1620, probably earher; he
died about 1710. He was therefore a full contemporai-y
of Mary MacLeod. All the poems ascribed to him are
in stressed metre, and the two earliest (pp. 228, 228
below) are in the very metre which Mary is alleged to
1 John Mackenzie, Sàr Obair ; Literature of the Celt?, p. 267.
2 Alex. Mackenzie, Historij of the Madeods, p. 105; Tr. of
Inv. Gael. Soc, 22, 48.
3 Elegies on Sir Norman Macleod, Hel. Celt. II., 274. and in
the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, the latter unpnblished.
Tliese contain a dating rann, and, in addition, the heading of one
of them states that Sir Norman died on 3rd March, 1705, at 10
o'clock. Cf. 1. 4264 of text.