Blair Collection > Deo-gréine

70
AN DEO-GHREINE.
mental associations which make for cohesion
among them.
The Englishman, on the other hand, not
only sticks to the namefwhich his language
confer^ on him, but he tries to impose it upon
every people who is weak enough to let him.
He is succeeding with great celerity in this
land of Scotland. His persistence deserves to
succeed. Our want of persistence is the reason
of our failure.
( )f late years the term " Celtic" has gained
vogue. We constantly hear and read
Itic art, Celtic ornament, Celtic music,
Celtic fancy, Celtic glamour, Celtic gloom,
Celtic fervour, Celtic temperament, Celtic
fringe, Celtic renaissance, etc., etc. We have
always thought that "Celtic" was a general
covering those languages winch were'
and are akin to the Gaelic and Cymric
languages, and by extension of usage, those
peoples who spoke the languages referred to,
er with such matters as were peculiarly
theirs. According to our idea, the term
••Celtic'' is legitimately applied in the above
series. But when we find it applied to a
society composed of Gaels only, or to a
concert, the only Celtic items of which are
. or to vocal music which is purelv
Gaelic, or to instrumental music which is
ni' re bagpiping, or to a people who call them-
selves in their own language Gaidhealach, we
are forced to the conclusion that Gaelic
patriotism is at a low- ebb.
Our national self-respect and individuality
are at present in very great jeopardy from
what the late Duke of Argyle called " the
deplorable " misuse of terms. A section of the
Lowland people of Scotland woke up some
years ago to find that their people had
given the case away, in regard to national
names. The same fate is in store for us who
have all but given the case away, if we do
not at onci repent of our follies and mend our
wa\ s.
o:«:o
BOOK NOTICES.
S( HIEHALLION : A Posy of Rannoch Poesy,
Original, Translated and Selected, with Notes
and a Biographical Introduction, by the Rev.
John Sinclair, M.A , B.I)., Parish Minister of
Kinloch Rannoch; to which is prefixed a Fore-
word by the Rev. P. Anton. Stirling: Eneas
Mackay, Murray Place, 1905. Price, 6s. net.
The first intention of the author of this work was
to place in the hands of the reader a poetical
picture or representation of Rannoch by means of
an anthology selected from the productions of the.
leading poets connected with the district ; hut
owing to the deficiency of those productions in the
kind of poetry required, the intention had to be
modified so far as to embrace an original effort to
describe the scenery of the district systematically.
More than half the volume is occupied with trans-
lations from the Gaelic of the spiritual lays of
Dugald Buchanan, and with selections from the
poems of Struan Robertson, the Poet Chief, and of
Principal Campbell Shairp. There are also
biographies of all three at the beginning of the
volume. Of the three, though all have special
claims upon our attention, Shairp alone gives us
descriptive poetry. The tales and legends of the
Rannoch students drew him to the district, and the
mystery of the solitude of the illimitable Moor of
Rannoch fascinated and delighted him. " Lost on
Schiehallion," " The Shepherd's House, Loch
Ericht," "The Wilderness." '"The Moor of
Rannoch." and " Cailleach Beinn a' Bhric'' (trans-
lated by him), show his choice of themes, and. with
his three elegies on Rannoch students, are included
in this volume.
Mr. Sinclair's bent is different, and he sings of
another Rannoch. The moor and the wilderness
do not evoke a response from him. They are
dreary and unattractive wastes. He gives one
glance in their direction, but it is to view the
mountains and recall the massacre of Glencoe —
"Whose 'shepherds' guard the Rannoch Moor below."
In» contrast with this, a whole stanza is devoted to
the Kinloch Rannoch lounging place —
" That bridge of Robertsonian sighs of old,
Whose forfeited estates supplied the gold
Which built it mid the groanings of that race."
There the villagers meet daily, hold consultations
and make bargains, tourists come in the season to
view Schiehallion, or watch the fish below, and —
"Gallant gentlemen lair ladies meet,
And there with them hold converse long and sweet."
Mr. Sinclair's delight is in the haunts of men. He
intends "Schiehallion'' to be a descriptive poem :
but he is busied half the time with the ways and
works of men. Descriptions of the mountain, the
most prominent feature in Rannoch scenery, and
meditations about the church and churchyard
occupy most of one canto, the level approach by
Innerchadden, Dalchosine and Tempar takes
another, and the steep ascent of the mountain a
third The cantos consist each of twenty-two
stanzas of sonnet form. The summit being gained,
with a fleeting glance at the scenes—
" beyond sweet Rannoch, stretching far away,
Where mount and stream and plain in fine array
Are shown by nature in perspective true."
and with telescope in hand, he continues through
other four cantos the enumeration of the places of
interest and the relation of .their associations, up
the Sliosgarbh and down the Sliosmin. and along
the river side to Dunalastair and its Poet Chief,
upon whom fifteen stanzas are bestowed In
connection with Allt na-ceardaich— to give an
example or two of Mr. Sinclair's method — it is told
that if a man cross it on a dark night he is liable to
see his own grandfather's wraith. Innerchadden
has associations with St. Chad to be traced ; the
tradition of a fight between Robert the Bruce and
an English force to be related ; and much to be
told of its Stewarts, descended from those of Appin
through that fiery Jacobite, " Parson Duncan of