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no THE BOOK OF CLANRANALD.
wars and of the events thereafter is clearly the work of Niall Mao
Yurich, who lived till a great age, his youthful recollections being,
as he himself says, of the reign of Charles L, while his latest
efforts were elegies on the death of the brave Allan of Clanranald,
who fell at Sheriffmuir in 1715. The Montrose histoiy seems to
have been written before the year 1700, and the avowed object of
its autlior is to vindicate tlie part whicli the Gael played in the
brilliant escapades of Montrose's campaigns. The hero in Mac
Vurich's page is Alaster Macdonald, not Montrose, and,
undoubtedly, Alaster did contribute, to an extent much under-
estimated, to Montrose's success.
The Red Book, as already said, figures largely in the Ossianic
controversy. James Macphcrson, accompanied by his clansman
Ewan Macpherson, visited Clanranald in 1760, and, at Clan-
ranald's direction, received the Red Book from Neil Mac Vurich,
nephew of the last great bard, and himself described as not a
" man of any note," though capable of reading and writing Gaelic
in the Irish character. But here our authorities begin to dis-
agree. Rev. Mr Gallic in 1799 had given a graphic description of
Macpherson on his return from the Isles to Badenoch wrestling
with the difficult Gaelic of beautifully written and embellished
MSS. on vellum, received, as he understood, from Clanranald, and
written by Paul Mac Vurich, the 14th century Clanranald bard.
Now, Ewan Macpherso'.^ said, in a declaration made a year after
Mr Gallie's statement, that Macpherson got from Clanranald only
the " common-place-book" detailing the history of the Macdonalds
and Montrose (which is now extant, and known as the Red Book),
but that he did not gut the Red Book or Leabhar Dearg from him :
Macpherson only got an order for it on a Lieutenant Donald
Macdonald at Edinburgh, who then possessed it. This Leabhar
Dearg contained, so Clanranald told them, some of the poems of
Ossian ; but Ewan Macphei'gon never saw it nor did he know
whether James Macpherson ever got it. In the same year (1800)
Lachlan Mac Vurich, son of the Neil that gave Macpherson the
book, declared that his father " had a book which was called the
Red Book, made of paper, which he had from his predecessors, and
which, as his father informed him, contained a good deal of the
history of the Highland clans, together with part of the works of
Ossian that it was as thick as a Bible, but that it
was longer and broader, though not so thick in the cover." His.
father, he said, gave this Red Book to James Macpherson, and he
further denied having an ancestor named Paul. Gallic, Ewan
Macpherson, and Mac Vurich are in considerable disagreement, as
we see, as to what book or books Macpherson received from Clan-
ranald, and, what is very singular, the only MS. which was
wars and of the events thereafter is clearly the work of Niall Mao
Yurich, who lived till a great age, his youthful recollections being,
as he himself says, of the reign of Charles L, while his latest
efforts were elegies on the death of the brave Allan of Clanranald,
who fell at Sheriffmuir in 1715. The Montrose histoiy seems to
have been written before the year 1700, and the avowed object of
its autlior is to vindicate tlie part whicli the Gael played in the
brilliant escapades of Montrose's campaigns. The hero in Mac
Vurich's page is Alaster Macdonald, not Montrose, and,
undoubtedly, Alaster did contribute, to an extent much under-
estimated, to Montrose's success.
The Red Book, as already said, figures largely in the Ossianic
controversy. James Macphcrson, accompanied by his clansman
Ewan Macpherson, visited Clanranald in 1760, and, at Clan-
ranald's direction, received the Red Book from Neil Mac Vurich,
nephew of the last great bard, and himself described as not a
" man of any note," though capable of reading and writing Gaelic
in the Irish character. But here our authorities begin to dis-
agree. Rev. Mr Gallic in 1799 had given a graphic description of
Macpherson on his return from the Isles to Badenoch wrestling
with the difficult Gaelic of beautifully written and embellished
MSS. on vellum, received, as he understood, from Clanranald, and
written by Paul Mac Vurich, the 14th century Clanranald bard.
Now, Ewan Macpherso'.^ said, in a declaration made a year after
Mr Gallie's statement, that Macpherson got from Clanranald only
the " common-place-book" detailing the history of the Macdonalds
and Montrose (which is now extant, and known as the Red Book),
but that he did not gut the Red Book or Leabhar Dearg from him :
Macpherson only got an order for it on a Lieutenant Donald
Macdonald at Edinburgh, who then possessed it. This Leabhar
Dearg contained, so Clanranald told them, some of the poems of
Ossian ; but Ewan Macphei'gon never saw it nor did he know
whether James Macpherson ever got it. In the same year (1800)
Lachlan Mac Vurich, son of the Neil that gave Macpherson the
book, declared that his father " had a book which was called the
Red Book, made of paper, which he had from his predecessors, and
which, as his father informed him, contained a good deal of the
history of the Highland clans, together with part of the works of
Ossian that it was as thick as a Bible, but that it
was longer and broader, though not so thick in the cover." His.
father, he said, gave this Red Book to James Macpherson, and he
further denied having an ancestor named Paul. Gallic, Ewan
Macpherson, and Mac Vurich are in considerable disagreement, as
we see, as to what book or books Macpherson received from Clan-
ranald, and, what is very singular, the only MS. which was
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Early Gaelic Book Collections > Matheson Collection > Reliquiae Celticae > Poetry, history and philology > (154) |
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Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/76513662 |
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Shelfmark | Mat.86 |
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Attribution and copyright: |
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More information |
Description | Items from a collection of 170 volumes relating to Gaelic matters. Mainly philological works in the Celtic and some non-Celtic languages. Some books extensively annotated by Angus Matheson, the first Professor of Celtic at Glasgow University. |
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Description | Selected items from five 'Special and Named Printed Collections'. Includes books in Gaelic and other Celtic languages, works about the Gaels, their languages, literature, culture and history. |
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