Ossian Collection > Ossian, his principal poems

THE HARP IN THE HIGHLANDS. 337
in return for any benefit conferred, — '' Fool that I was," say
they, '* to burn my harp for him or her !"
There was scarcely one considerable household of the
Highland chieftains, which had not a bard or a harper on
its establishment. A piece of ground was aiotted for his
subsistence, which devolved to one of his descendants, on
condition of his being properly educated, so as to be quali-
fied for the discharge of his office. On a tenure of this
nature, a farm on the estate of Torloisk, in the Island of
Mull, called the Harper's Field, was held by the harper be-
longing to that ancient family. One of these harpers
appears to have conveyed it over to the family of Argyle, in
times when the family of Torloisk was involved in public
troubles, which had brought the devastation of fire and
sword into the estate. This farm had remained for several
generations after Avards in the possession of the Argyle family,
who had noother landed property contiguous to it, until itwas,
not many years ago, purchased from the Duke of Argyle, by
the late General Maclean Clephane, and again annexed to the
estate of Torloisk, by the name of the Penny land of the Har-
per's Field. The family of the Macleans of Dowart, are also
known in the Island of Mull to have had a succession of
harpers, in lineal descent, whose names were Macniel. In
the parish of Uray, in the north Highlands, there is also a
field called the Harper's Field ; and these fields are always
situated contiguous to the chieftain's residence.
In the old castles also, of several Highland chieftains, the
harper's seat is pointed out by the natives to this day, as
the Harper s Window, at DuntuUim Castle, in the Isle of
Skye, the ancient seat of Lord Macdonald's family ; the
Harper's Gallery at Castlelachan in Argyleshire, and others.
That the harp was cultivated, and held in high estimation
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