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

282 LORD BANNATYNE TO
people various remains of ancient Gaelic poetry generally
relative to the same class of heroes, and which they deem-
ed no ways inferior to those translated and published by
Mr. M'Pherson. He suggested, that I should make in-
quiries with regard to Gaelic manuscripts among the
gentlemen then attendirg the Circuit. Having complied
with this suggestion, I was directed to the late Mr. M'ln-
tyre of Glenoe, who put into my hands a manuscript,
which he mentioned as received from Major M'Lachlan
of Kilbride, one of whose predecessors he stated to
have been a dignified Ecclesiastic, I think one of
the Deans of Argyle about the time of the Reformation,
and whose family were said to have retained for a consi-
derable time, a peculiar taste for Gaelic antiquities, in con-
sequence of which they had once possessed a very large
collection of Gaelic manuscripts, collected partly in Ire-
land, and partly in the Highlands of Scotland, and of
which part still remained in the possession of Major
M'Lachlan.
The manuscript thus obtained from Mr. M'Intyre being
inspected by Lord Hailes, he immediately observed that
the character denoted it to be of no great antiquity, proba-
bly at or a little before the Reformation. — I had its con-
tents examined in presence of Lord Hailes, by Mr. M'Kin-
non, then schoolmaster at Inveraray, afterwards minister of
Glendaruel ; by whom it was found to be a miscellany,
containing very heterogeneous matter — a considerable part
of a Popish Missal, some translations from Hippocrates and
Galen, a calendar, a genealogy of the family of Argyle,
and one fragment of Fingalian poetry, if my memory does
not fail me, the story of Gealchossa. This manuscript
was returned to Mr. M'Intyre, and 1 do not know
if it can be now found — Remembering, however, this
incident, when the Highland Society entered on that in-
\ estimation, the result of which you are now kindly giving