J. F. Campbell Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

AUTHENTICITT OF OSSIAN's POEMS. 455
nald family, but which had been carried over to
Ireland sometime before, by a worthless person, in a
clandestine manner, and M'as thought to be irreco-
verably lost. Neil Macmurrich declared also to the
Rev. Angus Macneill, that the original of the poem
of Berrathon was contained in a manuscript which
Mr. Macneill saw him deliver, witli three or four
more, to Mr. Macpherson when he was in that coun-
try, and for which Mr. Macpherson gave him a mis-
sive, or letter, obliging himself to restore it, which
shoAvs that in the opinion of both, the manuscript
contained something of great importance.*
Mr. Neil Macleod, Minister of Ross, in Mull, by
his letter of the 22d January, 1764,t bears testimony
to the declaration of Mr. Campbell, of Octomore, an
aged gentleman, then living in his neighbourhood,
who assured him, that in his younger days he heard
Fingal repeated very frequently in the original, just
as Mr. Macpherson has translated it. Mr. Macleod
himself declared, that he had frequently heard re-
peated in the Isle of Sky, when a boy, Morla's pro-
posai of peace to CuthuUin, Avith Cutliullin's answer
and Morla's reply ; also tlae whole episode of Borbar
and FaineasoUis in Fingal, Book III. ; likewiseFingal's
orders for raising his standards, his orders to his
* It is mucli to be regretted that the originals of the beautit'ul poems
of Darthula and Berrathon were not found among the papers of the late
Mr. INIacpherson, consequently have not been published. Il seeins pro-
bable, that Mr. Macpherson did not keep copies of them after he had
prepared his translations ; but restored ihe originals, in pursuance of
his obligation to that effect, to Macmurrich, from whom he appears to
have borrowed ihem.
+ See Appendix to Report of the Highland Society, p. 21.