I have availed myself here of the rendering of Blackie, whose literary deftness in translation and poetic genius have successfully transferred not only the sense of, but frequently improved on, the more artless of the productions of the Gaelic muse. If the versatile Professor is not always boldly and simply literal in his versions of Gaelic poetry, he never fails to seize and attractively exhibit the spirit of the bard.
Archibald Macdonald.—This minor bard, called “An Ciaran Mabach,” was a natural son of Sir Alexander Macdonald, 16th baron of Sleat. He was contemporary with Iain Lom. He was a clever and highly practical man, and was entrusted in matters of importance by his father, who allotted him a portion of land in North Uist.
Neil Mackellar.—-Mackellar was a farmer in Jura in 1694. He does not appear to have composed much—a poetical address of his to John Ruadh Mac Cailein, the Earl of Argyll, which I found among the papers of the poet Livingston, was published in the fifth volume of the “Gael.”
Diorbhail Nic-a’-Bhriuthain, or Dorothy Brown, was a native of Luing, an island in Argyllshire. She lived towards the close of the seventeenth century, and, like many of the bards of the period, was a keen Jacobite. Like Iain Lom, she used her bitter satire against the Clan Campbell with considerable effect. She is known by her Oran do Alastair Mac Colla, the famous Sir Alexander Macdonnell of Antrim, and the gallant lieutenant of Montrose.
Silis Ni’n Vic Raonaill, or Cicely Macdonald, was the daughter of Macdonald of Keppoch, and lived from the reign of Charles II. to that of George I. Like Iain Lom and Dorothy Brown, this poetess was a Roman Catholic, and her muse was employed against the house of Hanover. Her husband having died in a fit of intoxication while on a visit to Inverness, she composed Marbhrann air bas a fir, and afterwards some hymns.
Neil Mac Vurich, who was born early in the seventeenth century, was bard and senachie to the family of Clanranald. He belonged to South Uist, where the land he had is still known as Baile-bhaird. He was a descendant of Muireadhach Albannach, and grandfather of Lachlan Mac Vurich, whose name appears in the Ossianic controversy. He wrote a Gaelic history of the Clan Ranald, whose records he kept. He was living and an old man in 1715.
John Macdonald, or Iain Dubh Mac Iain ’ic Ailein, a gentleman of the Clan Ranald family, was born in 1665. He held the farm of Grulean in the island of Eigg. One of his best pieces is a fiery martial poem called “Oran nam Fineachan Gaelach.”
The Aosdan Matheson, who flourished in the seventeenth century, belonged to Lochalsh, Ross-shire, where he had as his bard free lands from the Earl of Seaforth. Much of his poetry, like that of Neil Mac Vurich, has been lost. A poem, Do’n Iarla Thuathach, Triath Chlann Choinnich, has been freely rendered by Sir Walter Scott: “Farewell to Mackenzie, high Chief of Kintail.”
Hector MacLean, who lived in the seventeenth century, was bard and senachie to Sir Lachlan MacLean of Duart. The Chief’s Elegy is the subject of a special poem by the bard.