Blair Collection > Sar-obair nam bard gaelach, or, The beauties of Gaelic poetry, and lives of the Highland bards

ROB DONN. 185
and after his deatli the bard composed an admirable elegy to his memory, which combines
as forcible, energetic description of character and conduct, with as pure poetic power as
can be found in any poetry of its kind. The bard most feelingly and pathetically con-
chules it with a solemn appeal of his having mentioned no virtue or trait of which he was
not himself a witness.
A youth of our author's poetic mind could not be expected to remain long a stranger
to the more tender susceptibilities of his tiature. Nor has he left us in ignorance of his
first love. It is the subject of one of his finest songs : — " 'S Irom ham an àiridh," §-c.
Here his passion breathes with an innocent, simple faithfulness, with an ardour and truth
of poetic recital, that no lays of the kind can perhaps surpass.
After his marriage, Rob Donn first resided at the place oi Bad-na-h-achlais, then
probably forming a part of his late employer's tenure. It was, we believe, soon after
this period, that Robert was hired by Lord Reay to the office of a cow-keeper, at that
time an office, though a humble one, of considerable responsibility and trust. In this
station he continued for the greater part of his after life-time. We have not been able
to ascertain dates with precision, to say whether it was before or after having accepted
this office that our bard enlisted as a private soldier in the first regiment of Sutherland
Highlanders, which was raised in 1759. He did not enlist so much as a soldier, as he
was urged by the country gentlemen holding commissions in that corps, and as he him-
self felt inclined to accompany them. The regiment was reduced in 1763, and our bard
returned to his home.
Though we have said that he spent mostly the after period of life, since he entered the
service of Lord Reay, in that office, it was not without interruption. He left his servitude
at one time, and we are inclined to think it was then he went into the military service.
While he had charge of Lord Reay's cattle, and his wife of the dairy, during the summer
months, it was also his province to look over them during the winter months : and it
became a part of his duty, or an employment connected with it, to thresh out corn for
supplying the cattle with fodder. To the laborious exercises of the flail, the bard could
never submit. He employed servants to perform this part of his duty. That was, how-
ever, taken amiss, and he was told that he must himself wield the flail or leave the situation.
He chose the latter alternative ; and removed, with his family, to the place of Achmore,
in that part of the parish of Durness which borders upon Cape Wrath. Indeed, though
we have no decided authority for the supposition, we are inclined to believe that the
difference between him and his noble employer originated in another cause than that
ostensibly alleged. The bard had been dealing his reproofs rather freely. No feeling
of dependance, no awe of superior rank or station, ever restrained him from giving
utterance to his sentiments, or from enjoying his satire, whenever what he conceived to
be moral error, or evil example, called for reproof. And this was dealt with the dignity
that belongs to virtue, refusing, as he always did on such occasions, to compromise that
dignity by indulging in personal invective. But whatever was the cause of the differ,
ence that occasioned his removal, he was soon recalled, and left not the service again
during the life of the chief.