Matheson Collection > Gaelic songs of Mary MacLeod

NOTES ON THE NAT. LIB. MS.
Notes on the Nat. Lib. MS.
In Nat. Lib. Gaelic MS. LXV, there is a poem the two halves
of which, though they follow each other on pp. lo and ii
and are in the same (" Irish ") hand, Ewen MacLachlan,
followed by Professor Mackinnon in his Catalogue, regarded
as two separate poems. These MacLachlan suggested were
by Mary MacLeod, a suggestion which Professor Mackinnon
notes. The poem begins " Nach truadh leibh na scela so deist
mi didomhnz«'c/z/Co rabh agum re fhaoighnacht acht an fhoill
a rinn hobron/Bris na gaill ar a cheile s chaidh ratreit ar an
ordu/S dfag iad sios mac illeadhain a cur a chatha na onracht ";
it is another version of the poem printed in E., p. 178 fE.,
under the heading " Oran a roinnidh d' Echin Ruagh nu n
Cath mharbhidh la Inbhir Cithnis ar fonn a la Raon Ruari ",
considerably less complete and no doubt corrupt but throwing
some light on the difficult spelling of E. The subject is the
well-known episode of the death of Sir Hector Maclean of
Duart and nearly all his followers at the battle at Inverkeithing
in 1 65 1. The poem is said by J. P. Maclean in his History of
the Clan MacLean to be well known to the generality of
MacLeans. There is a better version than either E. or MS.
LXV in Maclean Sinclair's "Gaelic Bards, 141 1 to 1715 ",
p. 50, under the title Blar Inbhircheitain (Inbhir Cheitean
being the correct form for Inverkeithing); and as the style
is not Mary's and the subject not appropriate, Maclean Sinclair
is no doubt right in there attributing it to the proper Maclean
bard, Eachann Bacach.
On p. 63 of the same MS. is another piece which MacLacUan
suggested might be Mary's. It begins " Ta oigra s tir is urraimid
gniomh/len oilte fion gu sarphailte/Ta oigr' air athlean is eife-
achtuidh caint/na ceadan na cheann air chascanibh/Ta oighr' air
an luib air a staighleadh gu hur/gach tighearna an dlus cairdios
duit." It is addressed to MacAllister of Loup in Kintyre, to
whom there is another in RC. (II. 345), &c., printed in BGh.,
and it is certainly not Mary's.
Thus, so far as is known, there is nothing of Mary MacLeod
in Edinburgh that has not been printed.