Hew Morrison Collection > Clàrsach na coille

3P 3R 3S BE" ^ C 3S
John MacLean, the poet, left in writing the
greater part of the poems which he composed. He
left also two large mannscripts containing jDoems by
other persons. All his manuscripts were carefully
preserved by his family, and are now in my pos-
session.
One of the two large manuscripts is a collection
of poems made by a Doctor Macleain' in Mull
about the year 17(38. John MacLean got it from
the Doctor's daughter, Mairi nigheax an Dotair.
She was an old woman when she gave it to him. It
is a work of great value. It is older than Ronald
M'Donald's Collection, the first collection of Gaelic
Poems ever published. Ronald's collection was
published in 1776-. ; The greater j^art of the poems
in Doctor M'Lean's Collection are not to be found
anywhere else. Every line in it is worthy of pub-
lication. Even those poems in it which appear in
other books should be published, as the Doctor's
version is in all cases superior to the printed versions.
It contains forty-eight poems of ordinary length,
and several short pieces. There are poems in it by
Iain Lom, Eachunn Bacach, Iain Mac Ailein,
and other well-known Bards.
The other large manuscript left by John
M'Lean is a collection of songs made by himself
about the year 1815. It contains one hundred and
ten songs. Of these only a few have been pub-
lished.