Matheson Collection > Reliquiae Celticae > Poetry, history and philology

THE BOOK OF CLANRANALD. 139
material extends to a like amount (74 pages), made up chiefly of
poetry, with 14 pages of Irish kingly genealogies; but many of
these Gaelic pages contain only disconnected jottings. A full
account of the contents of the Black Book will be given further
on.
The history of the Book itself is very obscure. Upwards of
thirty years ago, Dr Skene disclosed his discovery of the Black
Book to the present Clanranald (Admiral Sir Reginald Macdonald),
informing him that he had picked it up among some old Irish MSS.
■at a book-stall in Dublin, when he at once bonght it. Dr Skene,
as already said, restored the errant volume to the representative of
its ancient possessors after Dr Cameron's death, and the MS. is
now safe in Clanranald's possession. By the kindness of Clan-
ranald, who lent both the Red and the Black Book to the Bank of
Scotland, Inverness, to be consulted and transcribed by Mr Mac-
bain, we are enabled to complete Dr Cameron's transcription of
the Macdonald History, with the addition of one or two heroic
poems. The rest of the Gaelic, or rather, Irish material, as will
be seen from our detailed account of the contents of the Book, is
ziot of interest to Scotch readers, and abundance of similar poetry
and prose exists in manuscript and print on Irish soil already. No
portion of the English materials is reproduced here.
The f\imous Book of Clanranald is, of course, the " Red Book,"
which figures prominently in the Ossianic controversy. The rela-
tionship between the Red Book and the Black Book is exceedingly
close ; they are both " common-place-books," as Ewan Macpherson
said, and the Black Book, as regards the Macdonald and Montrose
histories, is but a curtailed form of the similar histories in the Red
Book. Indeed, the former omits some of the best episodes recorded
in the latter, and wherever a condensation seemed necessary or
possible, it take.s place in the Black Book narratives.
The writers of these books were the Mac Vurichs, the hereditary
bards and historians of the family of Clam-anald. They traced
their descent to Muireach Albanach, circ. 1 200, who was famous
as a poet both in Ireland and in Scotland. They had as per-
quisites of their office till about the middle of last century the
farm of Stailgarry, and the " four pennies" of Drimsdale in South
Uist, close to one of the seats of their patron, Clanranald. The
Mac Vurichs were learned in all the lore of the Gael, and it is even
said that they studied in the colleges of Ireland. In any case,
even to the last of the direct line, Donald of Stailgarry (floruit
1722), they were scholars of no mean repute, capable in Irish,
English, and Latin. The early history of the Macdonalds down
to about the year 1600 was probably composed by different and
successive members of the family, but the history of the Montrose