Ossian Collection > Ossian, his principal poems

PREFACE. 329
age not to exceed eighty years, and it was accordingly with-
out much difficulty put in a proper condition of performance;
It will probably be said that, even admitting those in-
struments to have been for the last three or four centuries
in the Highlands, they afford no conclusive evidence that
the harp was in general use in the country ; as it may be
objected, that not only the least of the two harps had per-
haps been brought by Queen Mary from France, but that
the harp called the Caledonian, might have been the harp
of an itinerant Irish harper, which had become the property
of the family of Lament. The following Essay, says Mr
Gunn, must remove every doubt that can be entertained on
that subject.