Ossian Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian
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12 REPORT ON THE
tended its meetings, were obliging enough to cor-
refpond with their friends and acquaintance in the
Highlands, on the fubjecl: of its inquiry, in order
to procure from them fuch facts and documents as
their fituations afforded opportunity of knowing or
collecting, with regard to the poems in queftion.
. The refult of fuch inquiries, correlpondence and
information, the Committee is now to fubmit to the
Society, fhortly Hating what it fuppofes to be the
general produce of its refearch, and fubjoining in
an Appendix fome of the moft remarkable of thofe
documents from which its information was drawn,
or on which its opinions are founded.
Previoufly to this flatement, the Committee muffc
take the liberty of mentioning fome difficulties under
which it laboured, in the courfe of this inveftiga-
tion. It was early forefeen that fuch difficulties mud
arife, from the change of manners in the Highlands,
where the habits of induftry have now fuperfeded
the amufement of liftening to the legendary narra-
tive or heroic ballad, where confequently the faculty
of remembering, and the exercife of repeating fuch
tales or fongs, are altogether in difufe, or only re-
tained by a few perfons of extremely advanced age
and feeble health, whom, in thofe diftant parts of the
country, • where communication and intercourfe is,
from many local caufes, very difficult and tedious), it
is not eafy to difcover, or when they are difcovere d,
to receive or to get tranfmitted the information they
can give ; for though the Gaelic or Erfr (as it is vul-
gary called) is the Ipokeo language of thofe diftricls,
l yet;
tended its meetings, were obliging enough to cor-
refpond with their friends and acquaintance in the
Highlands, on the fubjecl: of its inquiry, in order
to procure from them fuch facts and documents as
their fituations afforded opportunity of knowing or
collecting, with regard to the poems in queftion.
. The refult of fuch inquiries, correlpondence and
information, the Committee is now to fubmit to the
Society, fhortly Hating what it fuppofes to be the
general produce of its refearch, and fubjoining in
an Appendix fome of the moft remarkable of thofe
documents from which its information was drawn,
or on which its opinions are founded.
Previoufly to this flatement, the Committee muffc
take the liberty of mentioning fome difficulties under
which it laboured, in the courfe of this inveftiga-
tion. It was early forefeen that fuch difficulties mud
arife, from the change of manners in the Highlands,
where the habits of induftry have now fuperfeded
the amufement of liftening to the legendary narra-
tive or heroic ballad, where confequently the faculty
of remembering, and the exercife of repeating fuch
tales or fongs, are altogether in difufe, or only re-
tained by a few perfons of extremely advanced age
and feeble health, whom, in thofe diftant parts of the
country, • where communication and intercourfe is,
from many local caufes, very difficult and tedious), it
is not eafy to difcover, or when they are difcovere d,
to receive or to get tranfmitted the information they
can give ; for though the Gaelic or Erfr (as it is vul-
gary called) is the Ipokeo language of thofe diftricls,
l yet;
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Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/81749098 |
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Description | Selected books from the Ossian Collection of 327 volumes, originally assembled by J. Norman Methven of Perth. Different editions and translations of James MacPherson's epic poem 'Ossian', some with a map of the 'Kingdom of Connor'. Also secondary material relating to Ossianic poetry and the Ossian controversy. |
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Description | Selected items from five 'Special and Named Printed Collections'. Includes books in Gaelic and other Celtic languages, works about the Gaels, their languages, literature, culture and history. |
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