WILLIAM MACKENZIE.
This poet was born at Balvicphadrick, on the estate of Culduthel, near Inverness. His father, who was a farmer at Borlum, bestowed some pains on the education of William, who, after his marriage, rented successively the farms of Bailedubh, in Tordarroch, and that of Cnocbui, in the parish of Daviot. He afterwards gave up farming, and was appointed by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge to teach one of their schools at Leys, in the parish of Croy, some three miles from Inverness. He laboured there as teacher and evangelist for forty years. He died in 1838 at the advanced age of ninety, and was buried in the churchyard of Dunlichity. Mackenzie appears to have been a man of fair culture and was well read. His poetry, although [not first-class], has a masculine, sensible ring about it. A good deal of it consists of excellent sermon matter, expressed in clear natural language and smooth and flowing verse. Scripture history and the usual evangelical doctrines of Christianity with an underlying practical application, constitute his general theme. He has also composed several elegies and addresses to persons. The poet deals thus with a certain class of religious professors:—
Bheir iad cuireadh dhuitse dh’òl
Le daimh is mòran carthannas;
’S bidh iad cho cràbhach an àm,
’S gu’m feum thu’n dràm a bheannachadh.
English:
They will invite thee to the drink
As friends each hour grow thicker;
And then each one seems so devout
That thou must bless the liquor.