66 "others of them, breathe such tenderness and simplicity, as must be greatly affecting to every "mind in the least tinctured with the softer passions of pity and humanity. These proofs of the high ideas entertained of Gaelic poetry, previous to the publication of Ossian, cannot fail to be sufficiently satisfactory to every impartial reader. § III. That the Poems current in the Highlands, were said in a great measure to have been composed by Ossian, a Scottish Bard, who celebrated the Exploits of Fingal, a Scottish Warrior. Ar the period when Fingal is supposed to have lived, the natives of the northern parts of Ireland, and the western parts of Scotland, seem to have been one and the same race, sometimes fighting with each other, and sometimes united against a common enemy. The history of those times however, is certainly involved in great obscurity; and it is not to be wondered at, that both countries should lay claim to so great a hero as Fingal, and so renowned a poet as Ossian. But, that Ossian, * See Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol. V. p. 110. Scots Magazine, printed anno 1757, Vol. 18. p. 15. and the heroes celebrated in the poems of Ossian, as published by Macpherson, were Scotchmen, is proved by a variety of circumstances, and in particular the following: 1. The evidence of a number of authors, who never imagined that it would be a subject of dispute, or a matter of any material consequence: 2. A variety of names of places in the Highlands are derived from Fingal and his. heroes, and the very places where they lived and died, are still pointed out: 3. Many proverbial expressions common in the Highlands, tend to confirm the idea: and 4. The concurring tradition of the inhabitants of the Highlands, who cannot believe it to be a subject of dispute. 1. As far as it is at present known, the oldest writer in Scotland who mentions Fingal and his heroes, is John Barbour, who wrote a poem called "The Bruce," composed about the year 1375. In the third book of that work, there are the following lines: He said methink Marchokys son * Or Gaul, the son of Morni. The genuine reading of this passage is now ascertained by comparing the Glasgow edition of 1737, with the MS. of Barbour, 1489, in the Advocate's library. It is singular, that in this most ancient of the Scotish works, in any respect connected with this subject, the hero should be called by the name of Fingal; whereas in Ireland, he is uniformly distinguished by the appellation of Finn.* The evidence of Hector Boethius, in his history of Scotland, is, regarding this point, extremely material; at least it proves, that according to the tradition of Scotland in his time, Fingal was a native of Scotland; for he says "Some conjecture "that in those times lived Finnanus the son of "Cœlus, (in common language, Fyn Mak Coul), "a man, as they report, of an incredible stature, (for they describe him as being seven cubits in height). He was of Scotish extraction, remark"able for the art of hunting, and in other exer"cises, to be dreaded on account of his unusual "size of body."+ Bishop Leslie, in his history of Scotland, gives a similar account of the country where Fingal flourished. He says, "it is the opinion of many, that * Pinkerton in his Enquiry, Vol. II. p. 73, 74, remarks it, as a circumstance difficult to be accounted for, that the name of Fingal is unknown to the Irish, and that the Scotch alone give the hero that appellation. "Conjiciunt quidam in hæc tempora, Fynnanum filium "Cœli, (Fyn Mak Coul vulgari vocabulo), virum, uti ferunt, "immani statura, (septenum enim cubitorum hominem fuisse narrant), Scotici sanguinis, venatoria arte insignem, omnibusque insolita corporis mole formidolosum." "one Finnanus the son of Coelus, (in our language, "called Fynmacoul) a man of a huge size, and 66 ፡፡ 66 sprung as it were, from the race of the ancient giants, at that time, (namely, in the reign of Eugenius II.) lived amongst us. The following quotation from Bishop Douglas, in his " Palice of Honour," may also be adduced, as not inconsistent with the idea that Fingal and his heroes were of Scotish extraction: "Greit Gow Macmorne, and Fyn Mac Cowl and how "They suld be Goddis in Ireland as they say." These heroes might certainly be born in Scotland, though they might be accounted Gods in Ireland; and the general tenure of the quotation, seems to justify that explanation. That this was the bishop's meaning, is the more probable, because in a poem written about the same period, namely, in the reign of James IV. called, "the Interlude of the Droichis," Fyn Mac Cowl is given to the Highlands: "My fore grandsyr, hecht Fyn Mac Cowl * "Multorum opinio est, Finanum quondam Cœli filium, "nostra lingua Finmakcoul dictum, ingentis magnitudinis "virum, ea tempestate apud nostros vixisse, et tanquam ex " veterum gigantum stirpe exortum." "He gat my grandschir Gog Magog; "Ay when he dansit the warld wald schog; "Of hieland pladdis of hair." The ingenious Lord Hailes remarks, that the above passage most probably alludes to the contest between Fingal and the Spirit of Loda, in the celebrated poem of Carricthura: and that learned judge, whose taste and critical acumen cannot be questioned, observes, "That to doubt of Fingal "and Temora being ancient compositions, is in"deed refinement in scepticism. They contain "various allusions to the manners of other times "which have escaped the observation of Macpherson himself."† In Lyndsay's Satyre of the Three Estates, written anno 1538, among the relicts produced by the Pardoner, is, "Heir is an relict lang and braid "Of Fyn Mac Cowl the richt chaft blaid * I was favoured with this passage, corrected from the copy in the Achinleck MS. and other extracts from ancient Scottish writers, regarding this subject, by George Chalmers, Esq. of the Board of Trade, whose extensive knowledge of Scottish antiquities, and other branches of literature, is well known. + See ancient Scottish Poems, p. 302. |