We have come now to the consideration of the poetry which may be regarded as [the beginnings of] modern bardic literature. It shows a different spirit, while it is generally presented in a different form. After Mary MacLeod, the chief productions of the Gaelic muse from Iain Lom to MacMhaighstir Alasdair were Jacobite.
The persecutions and sufferings of the Clan-Gregor, “the clan that was nameless by day,” form the theme of many interesting and stirring ballads. The terrible valour, the undying courage, and the heroic faithfulness of this much injured sept have been beautifully drawn by Sir Walter Scott.
The authoress of Macgregor’s Lullaby was a daughter of Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, and the wife of Gregor Macgregor, whose death she laments in this Lullaby. Her husband, his brother, Malcolm Roy, along with their father, Duncan Macgregor, were beheaded in 1552 by Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, Campbell of Glenlyon, and Menzies of Rannoch. The Black Duncan mentioned in the song was her brother, the seventh laird of Glenorchy, whose picture is still preserved at Taymouth Castle. The following is Pattison’s rendering of the Lullaby, which, along with the next two songs referred to (not in the Dean’s book), have always been very popular:—
Early on a Lammas morning with my husband was I gay;
But my heart got sorely wounded ere the middle of the day.
Chorus—Ochan, ochan, uiri,
Though I cry, my child, with thee—
Ochan, ochan, uiri,
Now he hears not thee nor me.
Malison on judge and kindred, they have wrought me mickle woe;