ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, BARD TO SIR HECTOR.
This famous bard of Gairloch is remembered in his native parish as
Alastair Buidhe Mac Iamhair, or the "yellow-haired Alexander M'Iver."
The surname Campbell is called M'Iver in Gairloch. He was born in 1767,
probably at Melvaig, in Gairloch. On his mother's side he was descended
from the Mackenzies of Shieldaig. His father's ancestor is said to have
come from the Lorne country as attendant to Anna, daughter of Macdougal
of Dunolly, who, about 1440, became the wife of Alexander the Upright,
sixth lord of Kintail, father of Hector Roy Mackenzie. It is said that
from the days of Hector Roy the bard's ancestors had always been
ground-officers under the lairds of Gairloch.
Alastair Buidhe spent his youthful days at Melvaig, and assisted his
father in the usual avocations of a small farmer. One of his best songs
was composed whilst he was herding his father's cattle on the hill at
Melvaig.
When he came to man's estate Alastair was appointed by Sir Hector
Mackenzie to be one of his ground-officers, as well as his family bard.
He seems to have displayed considerable tact in performing his duties.
Here is an anecdote of him which illustrates not only his own character
but the footing he was on with Sir Hector. It appears that Sir Hector
had been much annoyed with a tenant at Poolewe, who was in arrear with
his rent, and would not pay up any part of it. So he called Alastair
Buidhe and instructed him to go and demand the rent once more, and in
default of payment to take the roof off the house. On the tenant still
refusing to pay up, Alastair got on the roof and removed one divot from
the ridge at the very top of the roof, and one other from the top of the
wall at the lowest part of the roof. Sir Hector, whose kind heart had by
this time repented of the order he had given, met Alastair on his
return. Sir Hector inquired if he had done the job. Alastair replied
that he had. Sir Hector said he hoped he had not done as bad as he had
been told. Alastair then told him he had put the highest divot from the
roof as far down as the lowest. On this Sir Hector expressed his
vexation, and remarked that Alastair had done very badly. Then Alastair
said it was not so bad but that it could yet be made better, for that he
had only taken off the two divots altogether. Sir Hector said, "Sandy,
you are a wiser man than I am."
As bard to Sir Hector, Alastair regularly attended two or three days a
week at Flowerdale House, as well as at other times when his services
were required. He was much appreciated by every member of the family. Dr
Mackenzie, Sir Hector's only surviving son, writing of him under date of
30th August 1878, said:--"I see honest Alastair Buidhe, with his broad
bonnet and blue greatcoat (summer and winter), clearly before me now,
sitting in the dining-room at Flowerdale, quite 'raised' like, while
reciting Ossian's poems, such as 'The Brown Boar of Diarmid' and others
(though he had never heard of Macpherson's collection), to very
interested visitors, though as unacquainted with Gaelic as Alastair was
with English. This must have been as early as 1812 or so, when I used to
come into the room after dinner about nine years old." Dr Mackenzie says
in his "Odd and End Stories" that it was Alastair who told them the
story of Hector Roy and "The Gairloch" (see Part I., chap. ix.). The
Doctor adds:--"One of our summer evening amusements was getting him
(Alastair) to the dining-room after dinner, where, well dined below
stairs and primed by a bumper of port wine, he would stand up and with
really grand action and eloquence give us poem after poem of Ossian in
Gaelic. Alastair could not read, and only understood Gaelic, and these
poems came down to him through generations numberless, as repeated by
his ancestors around their winter evening fires."
When Alastair became ground-officer and bard to Sir Hector, he took up
his abode at Inverkerry near Flowerdale. In his later years he removed
to Strath, and Sir Hector allowed him to hold his land there rent free
for the rest of his days. He survived his beloved patron seventeen
years; he died in 1843, at the age of seventy-six, and was buried in his
family grave in the Gairloch churchyard.
Alastair was of middle height, and had, as his Gaelic _soubriquet_
implies, yellow hair; he was a slender man, and never strong at his
best. In his later years he suffered from bad health, and was very
weakly long before his death.
His character is described as peculiarly attractive; he was of a gentle
kindly disposition, highly esteemed by all who knew him of whatever
rank, and children loved him as well as their seniors. He had a great
fund of humour, combined with a deep sense of the pathetic, and was
"splendid company."
William Ross, "the Gairloch bard," and he were intimate friends. As
Alastair was wading the Achtercairn river one day, on his way to a
sister's wedding, he met William Ross, and humorous verses were hurled
from one to the other across the stream in reference to Alastair's coat,
which was a "Cota gearr" of homespun cloth slightly dipped in indigo,
the colour being between a pale blue and a dirty white. Alastair was
also on good terms with Alexander Grant, the great bard of Slaggan.
Alastair was married, and left five sons, viz., Roderick (grandfather of
Alexander Mackenzie the historian of the Mackenzies, and editor of the
_Celtic Magazine_), Alastair Buidhe, Iain Buidhe, and Donald Buidhe (who
was a cripple and became a tailor). Roderick, a son of Evander Buidhe,
is now shepherd at Tollie, and has supplied much of the information here
given about his grandfather. Another son of Evander Buidhe was in a shop
at Inverness, where he died; he made a capital song to his grandfather's
old house at Strath, entitled in Gaelic "Tigh mo Sheanair." So the
poetic afflatus of the old bard has not altogether disappeared in his
descendants.
It is remarkable that two such bright stars should have illuminated the
poetic firmament at the same time in Gairloch as William Ross and
Alexander Campbell. It is difficult for a southerner to appreciate the
fame of these two Gairloch poets, but it may be said almost to
correspond with that of Southey and Wordsworth. The poetry of William
Ross appeals most strongly to the cultured mind, whilst Alastair's is
more in tune with the simpler instincts and impulsive heartiness of a
rural life. As we should expect, the poems of Alastair Buidhe are in the
present day preferred in Gairloch to the compositions of his friend. No
complete collection has been published of the poems of Alastair Buidhe,
though several pieces have appeared in the _Celtic Magazine_. It is
feared that many of the poems, which only live in the memories of the
people, may soon be lost.