Ossian Collection > Literature of the Highlands

Highland Literature 5
and prose romances circulating freely throughout the High-
lands without the intervention of pen or paper, pencil or
printing-press.
At length the time came when the distracted Highlands,
after ages of internecine strife and bloodshed, were finally to
be pacified. Like a bolt from the blue the Prince Charlie
adventure announced itself. The campaign was anon in
progress, and the old Highland life, with all its paraphernalia
of chief and clan and sword and dirk, kilt and plaid and
claymore, made its last stand on Drumossie Moor, Culloden.
The result proved to be the dawn of a new day for the
Highlands. The strong traditional bonds were snapped
asunder. This fractious outlying fragment of Gaeldom was
gathered up into the unity of the Kingdom, and the causes
of the fierce feuds and animosities of the past having been
thus fortunately removed, the land quickly settled down into
the ways of peace.
By some remarkable coincidence the stirring time which
ushered in the new order of things witnessed also the arrival
of the golden age of Gaelic poetry. In the year 1745,
besides other lesser lights, there were living and composing
in the Highlands the great masters of Gaelic poetry —
Alexander Macdonald, Duncan Ban Macintyre, Dugald
Buchanan, and Rob Donn. Like the Attic period in
Greece, or the Elizabethan or Victorian periods in England,
this new renaissance of literary production was the most
brilliant that the Highlands has seen. For the next half
century the activity among Gaels of poetic genius proved so
great that a new literature had practically sprung into being
and found printed embodiment.
The features of this period are well marked and distinct.
They stand out boldly and cannot be mistaken. The new
race of bards, it is evident, had gained a mastery over
the language and a power of expression never before
attained.
In perusing their lyrics one cannot fail to feel enthusiasm
for the Gaelic sentiment expressed in the lines : —