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

AUTHENTICITY OF OSSIAN's POEMS. 459
Soutli Uist, niade a solemn declaration, in the Gaelic
language, on tlie 12th day of August, 1800, in the
presence of the Rev. Edmund Macqueen, minister
at Barra, and several other respectable gentlemen
mentioned in the said declaration,* and among other
matters he affirms, that there are infinitely more of
Ossian's poems to be found in the Highlands and
Western Isles, than what Macpherson is said to have
translated, and that too among persons who never
saw that vian, who never heard of hk name, and who are
totallif ignorant of the English language. Though the
poems of Ossian are not found to correspond pre-
cisely in every expression over all the Highlands
and isles, when repeated by different persons, yet
they all correspond in substance ; and there is not
one instance in any corner of the country, in which
one poem is found contrary to the rest, or in oppo-
sition to their general character. And though it
were attempted to make the ablest scholar translate
these poems into English, or any other tongue, he
surely coukl not transfuse into them the merits of
the original ; but stiil less could he (as is alleged)
first compose them in English, and then turn them
into such Gaehc as should retain tbe bone and marrow
of their own true language.
Hugh jMacdonald bears testimony to the fact that
bards were kept in the great Highland families, and
gives the names of those that were kept in his own
time in the families of Sir James ÌVIacdonald, Clan-
ronald, and others, and that these bards were held in
* See the original in Gaelic, wilh an English Iranslation. Appendix
to Report of the Highland Society, No. II.