The Danes in Islay is not the only cath or battle that the bard has sought to immortalise in tough classical Celtic. We have also several vigorous poems on the battles of Scotland’s earlier struggles for independence. Livingston’s muse is nearly wholly of a martial order, which, while it explains his want of popularity among what he would regard as a somewhat effeminate generation, is the more remarkable when it is remembered how purely sentimental the most of his contemporary bards have been. The titles of three other poems are—The Battle of Mona Phraca, The Battle of Dail-righ—regarded as his best—and that of Tra-Ghruinard, where the great Sir Lachlan MacLean of Duart fell, pierced by the fatal shaft of the dwarf Dubh-Shee, who offered services the Knight of Duart despised. The dwarf is described by the bard in pretty expressive terms—“Treoich a ghuir an Diabhul ’san Lag an Diura!” The best of all his poems is the 100 lines (the number was limited) prize poem on the achievements of the Highland regiments in the Crimean war. There is nothing better, and not many poems equal to it in the whole range of Celtic poetry. The best-known of his poems is Fios thun a’ Bhaird, or Word to the Bard, supposed to have been sent to him in Glasgow from a farmer’s wife in Islay, the late Mrs Blair, of Lonban, who showed much kindness to the bard when on a visit to his native island, and whose son is the popular minister, the Rev. Robert Blair, who was a constant friend of Livingston, and who edited the complete edition of his works (1881). In this delightful poem he describes in stanzas of great beauty and tenderness the changes that have taken place, the ruins of the depopulated districts, and the natural scenery of the island. The following are the opening stanzas of the Message to the Bard:—
The morn is bright with sunshine,
And soft the west wind sighs;
The loch is calm and quiet,
Since peace reigns in the skies.
Bedecked with canvas gaily,
Barks glide unwearily;
To the Bard rehearse the story
Of these things I hear and see.
This is the month of blossom,