Ossian Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

POEMS OF OSSIAN. ' 79
ry ; but thofe, the Committee's correfpon.dents faid,
were generally lefs perfeft, and more corrupted,
than the poems they had formerly heard, or which
might have been obtained at an earlier period.
In anfwer to one of the queries, feveral of the
Committee's correfpondents mentioned the names of
various places in their neighbourhood, tending to
fhew the univerfal ancient traditionary belief of the
exiftence of Fingal and his heroes. Among many
others were enumerated the well known cave of Staf-
fa, firft made known by the defcription of Sir Jo-
feph Banks — the whirlpool or gulf fet down in
Bleau's Atlas Scotia, pubhlhed A. D. 1662, called
Coire Fbinn M'-Cowl^ or the Whirlpool of Fion, fon
of Comhal, — and the hill in the Ule of Sky, known
by the name of Ah siiidh Fh'tnn, or Fingal's Seat.
Indeed there are few diftricls in the north-weft of
Scotland where fuch inftances may not be found.
A fource of information to which your Committee
early applied, was the executors of Mr Macpherfon,
of whom they requefted to know if he had left be-
hind him any of thofe MSS. particularly thofe an-
cient books which the Committee underftood he pof-
feifed. Mr John Mackenzie of the Temple, Lon-
don, whom, as has been above mentioned, Mr Mac-
pherfon had left fole truftee for the purpofe of pub-
lifhing the originals of Offian, informed the Com-
mittee, that, after a ftri£t fearch, no fuch books
could be found, and that the manufcripts left by Mr
Macpherfon were not ancient, but thofe of the hand-
writing of himfelf, or of others whom he had em-
ployed