The Gaelic then was honoured there and here;
That musically sweet, expressive tongue,
To which our fathers have so fondly clung.
In royal courts a thousand years and more
It reigned in honour—spoke from shore to shore;
Then bard and lyrist, prophet, sage and leech
Wrote all their records in the Gaelic speech:
Since first Gathelus came from Egypt’s strand
That ancient tongue was written in our land;
The great divines whose fame is shed abroad