Ossian Collection > Romance of the Highlands

THE BARDS. OSSIAN. 73
they had all along been accustomed to receive instruction
in this way. The disciples, we are told, took possession
of the sacred places of the Druids and a certain degree of
continuity of the old customs was observed. Ossian
sings, "Go to Alad, the gray haired son of the rock.
His dwelling is in the circle of stones." Logan says that
in the year 580 a.d. St. Columba acted as their advocate
at the council of Drumceat. He mediated successfully
between those of Ireland and the King, who was
threatening their extirpation because of their audacious
demands.
When the Highland army reassembled in Badenoch
after their disastrous defeat at Culloden, among the
spectators was a young lad, who, no doubt, viewed the
gathering of clansmen with open-eyed wonder and
probably with unfeigned pride. He was only a boy of
eight years then, and no one would imagine that he was
afterwards to create a sensation in the literary world, and
to be mentioned wherever the English language was
spoken .
In 1760 James MacPherson, a teacher in his native
village of Ruthven, in Badenoch, published a book which
he called "Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the
Highlands of Scotland." This was followed in 1762 by
his six books of '^Fingal," while his eight books of
"Temora" were published the year following. Mac-
Pherson represented that these were all translations of
old writings and oral renderings of songs collected by
him during a tour in the Highlands and Islands. He
maintained that these poems had come down from
Druidical times through the medium of the bards. The
poems were very perfect pieces of work and sprang at
once into popularity. No literary event ever created so