Ossian Collection > Fingal of Ossian

28 PREFACE.
before me the Letters of a Gentleman from the North i?/' Scotland,
to a Friend in London, which were wrote the 26th, and pub-
liflied the 54th Year of the prefent Century. This Author,
enumerating the different Perfons, in his Time, that compofed
the Retinue of a Highland Chief, particularly mentions his
Bard. A little after, explaining this Attendant's Employ, he
tells us ; " The Bard is fkilled in the Genealogy of all the
" Highland F^miViQS, fometimes Preceptor to the young Laird;
*' celebrates in Verfe the Original of the Tribe, the famous
** warlike Adlions of the fucceffive Heads, and lings his own
'* Lyricks as an Opiate to the Chief, when di^ofed to fleep."
Thefe are exadtly our own Ideas of a Highland Bard ; nor can
the Teftimony of the Author be queftioned : He was an Englijb
Officer, who relided in the different Garrifons of the Highlands
for feveral Years ; was well acquainted with the Cuftoms and
Manners of the People, and, as appears from the whole Tenour
of his Writings, no Way inclined to favour or flatter them.
What is here related, he himfelf was an Eye-Witnefs of; being
in the Houfe of a Chief, where two of thefe Bards were kept.
" After fome little Time," fays he, " the Chief ordered one
" of them to ling me a Highland Song. The Bard readily obey-
** ed, and with a hoarfe Voice, and in a Tune of few various
" Notes, began, as I was told, one of his own Lyricks ; and
" when he had proceeded to the fourth or fifth Stanza, I per-
" ceived by the Names of feveral Perfons, Glens and Moun-
" tains, which I had known or heard before, that it was an
" Account of fome Clan Battle. But in his going on, the
" Chief (who piques himfelf upon his School-Learning) at
" fome