Matheson Collection > Gaelic songs of Mary MacLeod

NOTES 137
the crown of Scotland, was divested of the Earldom of Ross,
and, in 1493, of all his other titles and estates.
There was then no earldom of Islay, but the Lords of the
Isles being designated " de He ", " of Islay ", and being, as
we have seen. Earls of Ross, Mary combines the two; so does
Iain Lorn, " Do Dhomhnall Gorm Og Mac Dhomhnaill Shle'ite ":
" Aig ogha larla He
Agus Chinn-tire,
Rois is Innse Gall."
The MacDonalds of Sleat are descended from Hugh, son of
Alexander the first to enter into possession of the Earldom of
Ross.
705 ff. Mhic Iain Stiùbhairt: the patronymic of the
chief of Appin, at that time Robert Stewart of Appin, to
whom was married Isabel, sister of Roderick and Norman,
and to whom, through his wife, the estates of MacLeod might
pass in the event of the death of Roderick and Norman, their
only brother, William, having died unmarried. Alexander
Mackenzie, in the belief that the poem was composed on the
death of Roderick the fifteenth chief, gives that Roderick a
son and daughter, against the evidence of Douglas's Baronage,
and marries the daughter out of hand to Stewart of Appin.
The case of that Roderick does not meet the requirements of
the poem.
an Apuinn, Appin, a district north of Loch Creran
in Argyll: Apuinn Mhic Iain Stiùbhairt; distinguish from
Apuinn a' Mhèinnearaich, Appin of Menzies, which is Dull
in Perthshire.
718. an fhir fheilidh: Iain Breac. The reference no doubt
includes William as well as Roderick and Norman.
719. Ruairidh Mor: Sir Roderick Mor, who died in 1626,
the great-great-grandfather of Roderick and Norman.
AN CRÒNAN
Mary's joy at finding the report of Norman's death to be
false finds full expression in An Crònan; besides being per-
sonally attached to him, she welcomed the prospect of a change
of regime. Though Roderick is not mentioned, his def^eneracy
from the hereditary qualities of his house is indicated plainly
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