Ossian Collection > Gaelic bards

100 MODERN GAELIC BARDS.
Scotland. And finally, Sir Walter Scott* himself re-
viewed, in "The Quarterly," Dr. Mackay's edition of
Rob Donn's works, and gave his opinion that tins
illiterate herdsman was entitled to a place among the true
sons of song. Rob Donn was certainly a very shrewd,
clear-sighted mortal, with a certain musical turn in his
mind, and with no contemptible powers of satire. That
he was a poet no one can doubt who knows his wit, his
point, and his sharpness. But even the verdict of Sir
Walter cannot blind us to the fact, that Rob was not a
man of lofty character, that he was somewhat wanting
perhaps in deep feeling, and that, consequently, he had
no very high powers of imagination. Very few, if any,
of his own countrymen will be inclined to place him on
the same pedestal with MacDonald or ]MacIntyre, but all
are ready to acknowledge in him a sensible, intelligent,
and remarkable man, with a really refreshing and in-
fluential gift of song.
7 he following pithy little poem entitled, " The Greedy
Man and the World complaining against one another,"
may pass for a specimen of his satires. The Greedy Man
opens the dialogue thus : —
GREEDY MAN.
Grudging art thou, O World ! and always art so.
Parting with those who have no wish to part so ;
The man whose greedy passions tie a string to thee,
Falls on his back with nothing when he pulls it free.
*Dr. MacKintosh MacKay's visit to Sir Walter Scott, at
Abbotsford, in May, 1881, was the occasion of introducing to
the notice of Lockhart the poems of Rob Donn, and this led to
the well known review in the Qnarterly of July, 1831. This
review has often been ascribed to Scott, but was really written
by Lockhart.