Ossian Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

MODERN GAELIC BARDS.
ALEXANDER MACDONALD.
Alexander Macdonald, always styled by his own countrymen,
Mac Mhaighstir Alastair, i.e. the son of Mr. Alexander, a man
of very vigorous parts, and to say the least of it, unexcelled in
point of general ability by any of the Gaelic Bards — was the son
of the Episcopalian clergyman for the parislies of Ardnamurchan
and Moidart — at the end of the seventeenth, and beginning of the
eighteenth century.
His father resided at Dalilea in Moidart, and would appear to
have united the pleasant calling of the Highland Tacksman with
the functions — not over-burdeusome probably in a Presbyterian
country, of the Episcopalian clergj^man.
This gentleman is said to have been a man of immense bodily
streng-th — nor is it strange that this quality is not forgot, even in
a man who exercised his sacred vocation ; for it was a gift not
superfluous in his circumstances: not one which the habits of his
Christian flock allowed to rust in him unused. For instance, he
had to walk to his church many miles every Sunday, over a rough
country, at that time, without roads ; and then, after conducting
the service, back to his home in the evening.
Again, the funerals, which, in his clerical capacity, he attended,
were not always decorous scenes. His parishioners, on such
occasions, used to bring with them a quantity of whisky — which
being freely dispensed to the mourners, caused a good deal of
excitement that did not always pass peaceably away.