Books and other items printed in Gaelic from 1871 to 1900 > Gaelic bards, and original poems

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NOTES ON THE POEMS.
has a sister. A handsome sum of money was gathered
for fourteen children, Wilson’s seven sons and their only
sister.
II. —Lochindaal.—At the entrance to this loch, there
stand about eight miles apart, like the Pillars of Hercules,
the Point of the Rhinns and the Mull of Oa. Lochindaal
stretches to a distance of twelve miles into the heart of
Islay, and forms a good roadstead for ships in stormy
weather. Mr. Pattison’s home was situated in close
proximity to the “pebbly shore of ship sailing Lochindaal.”
The reader is at once carried on the wings of bardic
imagination, and placed in the very centre of Bowmore.
The conical church stands, like a guardian angel,
surrounded by its tidily-kept God’s Acre where repose
the mortal remains of our beloved forefathers. The
“Nasal Psalm” has been superseded by a more melodious
organ. But the “old man, who spoke of Abraham,” is
now with the Father of the Faithful in the Home above.
This alludes to the Rev. James Macintosh, A.M., who
became minister of Kilarrow and Kilmeny in 1797.
III. —Sir Lachlan Mor.—This brave knight of Duart
was one of the ablest and the greatest chiefs the plucky
and enterprising MacLeans ever had. One of his great
ancestors, “Lauchlayne Maklan of Dowart,” is mentioned
as a witness in an “obligation of the Erie of Ross,” that is
Alexander of Islay, Earl of Ross, and Lord of the Isles.
It is dated “at Inuernys the xxiiij day of the moneth of
Octobris the yere of cure lord a thousande four hundyr
thyrty and nyne yeris.” This obligation refers to the
Marriage of Marion of Islay, the Earl’s sister, to
Alexander Sutherland of Dunbeath. Marion was the
daughter of Donald Balloch of Islay, Earl of Ross, and
Lord of the Isles. Margaret, the daughter of this Marion
of Islay, was married to William Calder, seventh Thane
of Cawdor. This Marion of Islay was the great-grand¬
mother of Lady Muriel Calder, the rich heiress of Cawdor,