Ossian Collection > Ossian, his principal poems

THE HARP IX THE HIGHLANDS. o43
name of Clarsacli,* of which many instances could be pro-
duced, which would of themselves prove the general noto-
riety in Scotland, that the harp was an instrument well
known in the Highlands ; . but the more pai-ticular evidence
which has already been given on this subject, must hence-
forth remove every doubt on that point. Having thu8
proved the harp to have been from the earliest times, down
to the end of the sixthteenth century, in general use in the
Highlands of Scotland, the two ancient instruments which
have been so long preserved in that country, are now to be
considered as authentic documents, not only connected with,
and proving and illustrating, the manners of the country,
but may themselves be henceforth produced, and referred to,
as historical monuments, to illustrate any obscure point of
antiquity, however remote, to which their form and struc-
ture may appl3^
The Caledonian harp was brought by Miss Lamont,'
from her father's residence, in Argyleshire, to a very distant
part of the Highlands, and has. ever since her arrival at
Lude, about 14G0, been kept at that house ; having been
occasionally played upon in that family, until within these
last ninety years. From these circumstances, we must in-
fer the lad}^ to have been a performer on the harp ; and as
she could have not learned the difficult process of tuning, or
the intricate art of playing upon it of herself, she must have
had a master, most probably in Argyleshire, who not only
* In Holland's poem of the Iloulef, (Bannatyne M.S., fol. 308,) he
represents the Highland bard as skilled in ''the cheuachy, — the
darsacJi." In the ludicrous poem on King Berdok of Babylon, in
the same manuscript, it is said " wcill could he play on the clnrsho
and lute.''