Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

LITERATURE, 245
^orce. Macbeth was driven across the Mounth, and slain at Lumphanan
hMarr, where there is still a largo cairn known as Cairnbeth,
The paper entitled '•' The Cosmos of the Ancient Gaels " has been re-
'ferred to in a different form in tJie February number. Such a paper
should never have been admitted into the Transactions of a Society whose
objects are so entirely at variance with those of the writer of that paper.
The objects of the Society, as printed in the volume before us, " are the
perfecting of the members in the nse of the Gaelic language ; the cultiva-
ition of the language, poetry, and music of the Scottish Highlands," &c.
The object of Mr Donald Ross, one of Her Majesty's inspectors of
Schools, is to crush, if he can, everything Celtic. He adopts, with
evident satisfaction, the opinions of writers who have described our
language as " a fittmg article for savage imagery and crude conglomerate
'thinking," and who say that our " poetry is stolen or appropriated from
more fertile fields whenever it happens to rise above the dignity of
scurrilous twaddle." Our music is sneered at and caricatured ; and the
very men who brought the Society itself into existence, and whose active
support has made it the power for good it now is, are, figuratively, spat
upon and designated a nuisance by this modest Celtic savant, while in the
matter of " culture and criticism," he modestly designates himself " the
heir of all the ages," whatever that may mean. In our notice of the last
volume issued by the Society, we protested against non-members — in which
category Mr Ross was at that time — being allowed to abuse the race and
all the inheritance we as Highlanders value most, in our own Transactions.
He has since qualified to abuse us with a vengeance at our own expense.
But the pill has been found too strong, and his connection with the Society
has been dissolved in a manner which it is not our intention to notice
here beyond saying that it unmistakably marks the manner in which his
services to the Society have been appreciated by the members.
There are two chapters of " Leaves from my Celtic Portfolio," by the
Secretary, Mr WiUiam Mackenzie, which by themselves are worth double
the small sum of five shillings paid for ordinary membership of the
Society. Nearly one third of the volume is taken up with a full and
most interesting history of " Mackay's Regiment," by Mr John Mackay of
Ben Reay, which is an exceedingly valuable contribution to Highland
military history, and for which not only the Mackays, but all who take
an interest in such subjects, are placed under a debt of gratitude to tfie
author. The paper on " lona," by Mr Colin Cliisholm is of so interesting
a nature as to dispose us to place it before the reader in an
early issue ; and we trust at no distant date to be in a position to treat in
like manner the very learned and valuable paper on " Celtic Etymologies,"
by Mr C. S. Jerram, M.A. (Oxon.), an English scholar who has paid
great attention to the subject — extending even to the length of having
acquired the Gaelic language ; and who is not unknown to the readers of
the earlier volumes of the Celtic Magazine.
The Gaelic Society continues to do real substanti;d service, and the
volume before us, excellently printed by the proprietors .jC the Free Pres'i,
is worthy of its predecessors and of the Society.