The bard was in the service of two of his clan on whom he has composed well-known elegies. These two were Lord Reay and John Mackay. The elegy on the latter has been translated as follows by the clansman already referred to in a good sketch which appeared some years ago in a London periodical:—
Some keep the verbal law of man,
And yet hard creditors are they;
They store what legally they can,
What the law makes them, that they pay!
Though want and misery they see,
Not less through pity grows their sum;
Shut eyes and purse alike will be
Against the poor and needy one!
This bastard honour grows apace—