MARY MACPHERSON.
Mrs Macpherson (née Macdonald), a native of Skye, had some bitter experiences of life some twenty years ago or more, when she was about fifty years of age, and then her latent powers of verse-making began to assert themselves. In recent years she has composed largely on themes of local interest,—on the land question, her favourites among those by whom this question has been kept alive, and on her own personal grievances. Like Rob Donn she has been very fortunate in having some patroni who have patriotically espoused the cause of her muse and borne the expense of publishing in excellent style her compositions. The highly competent pens of Mr John Whyte and Mr Alexander MacBain have helped in the production of the volume (Inverness, 1891). The one took down the poems in correct writing from the composer’s dictation, while the other has supplied an introductory biographical sketch. The portraits of the poetess in various attitudes representative of Highland home industry are a good feature of the volume.
If we follow the Highlander across the ocean we find him there as fond of poetry and song as he was in his original home. The Rev. D. B. Blair, of Canada, has contributed a good deal to Gaelic literature. He is the author of many original poems of much merit, one on the Falls of Niagara being particularly excellent. He has translated parts of Virgil’s Æneid from the Latin. It was said some time ago that he had ready for the press a Gaelic grammar and a new Gaelic version of the Psalms.
The Rev. A. M. Sinclair, of Nova Scotia, is also a worshipper of the muse. He, indeed, belongs to a family of bards. The Gaels on this side are particularly indebted to Maclean Sinclair for his valuable contributions to their literature, his last two volumes (1890) being a handsome addition to the catalogue of good Highland books
But it is not in America alone that we find the cultivation of the Gaelic muse. If we go to New Zealand we find there Farquhar Macdonnell, once of Plockton, a composer of considerable genius, and one of whose songs has become a popular favourite.
It is not only in Canada and New Zealand but also in Australia that the Gaelic muse is kept alive. Here are verses of a pretty poem in Gaelic and English by the Rev. A. Cameron, a native of Lochaber, from that broad continent in the Antipodes. The author holds communion with the Ree waterfall, Nether-Lochaber, in a dream:—
I gaze on thee thou wondrous fall!
As I had done long years ago;