MARY MACPHERSON.
Mrs Macpherson (née Macdonald), a native of Skye, had some bitter experiences of life some twenty years ago or more, when she was about fifty years of age, and then her latent powers of verse-making began to assert themselves. In recent years she has composed largely on themes of local interest,—on the land question, her favourites among those by whom this question has been kept alive, and on her own personal grievances. Like Rob Donn she has been very fortunate in having some patroni who have patriotically espoused the cause of her muse and borne the expense of publishing in excellent style her compositions. The highly competent pens of Mr John Whyte and Mr Alexander MacBain have helped in the production of the volume (Inverness, 1891). The one took down the poems in correct writing from the composer’s dictation, while the other has supplied an introductory biographical sketch. The portraits of the poetess in various attitudes representative of Highland home industry are a good feature of the volume.
If we follow the Highlander across the ocean we find him there as fond of poetry and song as he was in his original home. The Rev. D. B. Blair, of Canada, has contributed a good deal to Gaelic literature. He is the author of many original poems of much merit, one on the Falls of Niagara being particularly excellent. He has translated parts of Virgil’s Æneid from the Latin. It was said some time ago that he had ready for the press a Gaelic grammar and a new Gaelic version of the Psalms.
The Rev. A. M. Sinclair, of Nova Scotia, is also a worshipper of the muse. He, indeed, belongs to a family of bards. The Gaels on this side are particularly indebted to Maclean Sinclair for his valuable contributions to their literature, his last two volumes (1890) being a handsome addition to the catalogue of good Highland books
But it is not in America alone that we find the cultivation of the Gaelic muse. If we go to New Zealand we find there Farquhar Macdonnell, once of Plockton, a composer of considerable genius, and one of whose songs has become a popular favourite.
It is not only in Canada and New Zealand but also in Australia that the Gaelic muse is kept alive. Here are verses of a pretty poem in Gaelic and English by the Rev. A. Cameron, a native of Lochaber, from that broad continent in the Antipodes. The author holds communion with the Ree waterfall, Nether-Lochaber, in a dream:—
I gaze on thee thou wondrous fall!
As I had done long years ago;
I travelled far on duty’s call
Since last I saw thy currents flow.
In days gone by, when joy was young,
’Twas my delight to sit me here;
When thy grave voice, so full and strong,
A pleasant song was to mine ear.
Methinks I hear thy waters say,
In greeting accents bathed in tears,
“Where did thy wandering footsteps stray
These many long and weary years?
“I missed thee on the rocky brink,
Thy youthful shadow on the pool,
When thou would’st say as thou would’st think
Thy daily lesson for the school:
“When none but I was to thee near
Save He who guides our weary ways,
To whom creation all is dear,
As joining in His glory’s praise.”
We have thus seen that throughout India, America, and Australasia we can find singers and composers of Gaelic songs, representing leal-hearted sons of the Highlands, who have nobly served their country, their people, and their God.
CHAPTER XVI.
SACRED BARDS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
“O happy saints! rejoice and sing!
He quickly comes, your Lord and King!”
—W. D. Maclagan, D.D., Abp. of York.
The religious Highlander of the present day is known to be stubbornly opposed to the use of hymns of human authorship in public worship. His prejudice was deepened and played upon recently in connection with a Union controversy between two well known ecclesiastical bodies. One result has been that many of the southern Highlanders who were in the habit of using the translated Scripture Paraphrases have discontinued the practice. But notwithstanding the prejudices of many Highlanders against hymns, all the writers of sacred poetry have been very popular among them. There were many authors of religious poetry whose compositions did not become much known until the beginning of this century. To this class belonged John Ban Maor and Bean a’ Bharra, under whose names a good deal of verse appears in a collection by Duncan Kennedy of Melfort, who plays a rather unenviable part in the Ossianic controversy. The names of other two authors also occur in the volume—Macindeor and Mackeich. Macfadyen, a Glasgow student, published a volume of hymns in 1770, but nothing more is known of him or his work.