Hew Morrison Collection > Sar-obair nam bard gaelach, or, The beauties of Gaelic poetry

EOBHON MAC-LACHUINN. 327
secured the love and respect of all who knew him ; and in death, his memory is by them
held in tender remembrance.
Eminently calculated to advance the literature and language of his native land, it is
deeply to be regretted that he had not been placed through the munificence of individuals,
or the public patriotism of his countrymen, in a situation of ease and comfort, such as a
Professorship of Keltic in one of our Universities. There he could have effectually pro-
moted the objects he so fondly cherished : the temperament of his modest nature required
the supporting arm of a patron, as the limber vine requires the aid of the oak. But his
was the too frequent lot of kindred spirits, to experience the heart-sickening of " hope
deferred," and to be allowed to droop and die, the victims of ill-requited toil.
Mr Maclachlan possessed the friendship, and was the correspondent of several persons
of distinction— among these might be enuTnerated, besides the late Glengarry, his Grace
Alexander Duke of Gordon, Sir John Sinclair, Dr Gregory, and Lord Bannatync Mac-
leod. Much of their correspondence, {if collated) would be found very interesting.
In conformity with the prevailing feature of his character, this "true Highlander,"
on his death-bed directed his body to be laid with the ashes of his fathers at the foot of
his native mountains; " et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." This dying request was
religiously complied with. At Aberdeen, every mark of respect was paid to his memory.
With all the solemnities usually observed at the obsequies of a Professor of the University,
his body was removed from his house to the ancient chapel of King's College, his Alma
Mater, and laid in the tomb of Bishop Ellington, the founder of this venerable seminary.
Next morning, a great concourse of the most respectable persons in and around Aberdeen,
including the Professors of both Universities, the Magistrates of the city and the Highland
Society of Aberdeen chapterly, met in the College Hall, to pay their last respects to the
remains of departed worth, and thence accompanied the hearse, bearing those remains,
some distance out of town, and there bade a long and last adieu. Similar indications of
respect and sorrow were evinced in all the towns through which the mournful procession
passed. Glengarry, accompanied by a large number of his clansmen dressed in their
native garb, paid a tribute of respect to his departed protege, by meeting and escorting
his remains, while passing through that chief's country. His Lochaber countrymen were
not behind in exhibiting every proper feeling towards the memory of him whom they
universally esteemed an honour to belong to their country. All classes of them came
out to meet the hearse ; so that on entering his native village of Fort-William, the crowd
was so dense, that the procession advanced with difficulty. Next day, being the 13th of
April, the mortal remains of Ewen Maclachlan, preceded by the " wild wail" of the
piobrachd, and accompanied by a larger assemblage than that of the preceding day, were
conducted to their last resting-place, and laid with those of his fathers, at Killevaodain in
Ardgour. There, " near the noise of the sounding dirge," sleeps " the waster of the
midnight oil," without "one gray stone" to mark his gravel