Matheson Collection > Folk tales and fairy lore in Gaelic and English

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
From the days of Dr. Johnson and Mr. Boswell, who speaks of
Mr. Donald Macqueen as "a very learned minister in the Isle of
Sky whom both Dr. Johnston and I have mentioned with regard,''
the lamp of learning has burnt steadily, if sometimes obscurely,
among the Highland clergy. The Church of Scotland sees to it
that ministers shall possess the modicum demanded by her
standards. But here and there ministers of studious habits, not
content with the ordinary elements of education, strike out in new
directions. Too seldom has their attention been turned to GaeUc,
of which the duties of their office demand an accurate knowledge
and a fluent use. A whole world of poetry, tradition, superstition,
anecdote, proverb, and clever repartee is familiar to the rank and
file of the Highland clergy within the sphere of their labour and
recreation, but this knowledge has been turned to literary account
by only a few.
Mr. James MacDougall was one of those who during a long
life consistently maintained the best traditions of his class. A
native of Craignish, where he was born in 1833, he engaged in
tutorial work and teaching before entering college. Following the
usual curriculum, he was at length ordained, and became a
missionary, preaching in remote glens of the West Highlands till
he was presented to the Parish of Duror. The Royal Seal, bearing
date i2th July, 1871, now lies before me, together with a note of
charges for the same, amounting to £^<^ 6s. iid. In 1900 he was
married to a daughter of Mr. Cuthbert Cowan, Ayr — a union
which added much to his own happiness and to the prosperity of
the Parish. He died at Duror Manse 4th September, 1906.
Mr. MacDougall possessed great literary taste, which he culti-
vated, and from an early period composed original poems in
Gaelic and in English. His chief interest, apart from his life
work, lay in books and what was destined to find a place in them.
The Editor well remembers meeting him in the year 1893 on