Hence to him great praise and welcome
Gaels shall everywhere accord.
The Rev. Colin Campbell wrote his in Latin, which till that period was the medium of communication among Highland ecclesiastics.
John Whyte, called Forsair Choir’an-t-Si, belonged to the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. He lived near Kilmun, and composed a good many songs which are recognised as of a superior order. He was the ancestor of some of the name who have been known for their strongly Celtic sympathies.
William Mackenzie, otherwise known as An Ceisteir Crubach, was born in Gairloch about 1670. He was a bard of superior powers; but the loose character and profanity of some of his compositions caused the Presbytery that engaged his services as a Catechist to dismiss him from his office. Mackenzie, of “The Beauties of Gaelic Poetry,” has published a lengthy song of his which is a blot on the whole work.
John MacLean, who was a native of Mull, where he was for long a popular poet, is the author of a few songs of superior merit. His compositions were general favourites at the time of Johnson and Boswell’s journey to the Hebrides. They heard some of his songs sung by a lady. He composed an excellent piece on Sir Hector MacLean when he went to France in 1721. The bard died in 1760.
Malcolm MacLean, otherwise known as Calum a’ Ghlinne, was a native of Kinlochewe, in Ross-shire. He was a soldier, and served for some time abroad, where he deeply learned the worship of Bacchus. “Mo Chailin donn og” is yet popular. It was composed for his daughter. He died in 1764.
Am Bard Mucanach, a Macdonald, originally from Glencoe, lived in the island of Muck, and is the author of a very good poem on the “Massacre of Glencoe.”
Angus Macdonald, a native of Glencoe, is the author of the popular song “Bha Claidheamh air Iain ’san t-searmoin.” It was intended to ridicule the cowardly conduct of a John Gibeach, who was at the battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715, but who took to flight instead of remaining to fight.
John MacCodrum.—This original and witty bard was a native of North Uist. He lived at the same time as his more famous contemporary, Alexander Macdonald. The accomplished Sir James Macdonald, who died at Rome in 1766, made MacCodrum his bard, and gave him free land in North Uist. He met James Macpherson when collecting Gaelic materials for the poems of Ossian; and the Uist bard appears to have indulged in wit at the expense of Macpherson. MacCodrum is a poet of great ability and satiric power. His poems on “Old Age” and “Whisky” are of a first-class order. He was, like many of the bards of his day, a keen Jacobite.