1760. I am so charmed with the two specimens of Erse poetry
(Macpherson's) that I cannot help giving you the trouble to inquire a
little farther about them.
Is there anything known of the author or authors, and of what antiquity
they are supposed to be? Is there any more to be had of equal beauty, or
at all approaching to it? I have often been told that the poem called
"Hardycanute," which I always admired, and still admire, was the work of
somebody that lived a few years ago. This I do not at all believe,
though it has evidently been retouched in places by some modern hand;
but, however, I am authorised by this report to ask whether the two
poems in question are certainly antique and genuine. I make this inquiry
in quality of an antiquary, and am not otherwise concerned about it;
for, if I were sure that anyone now living in Scotland had written them
to divert himself, and laugh at the credulity of the world, I would
undertake a journey into the Highlands only for the pleasure of seeing
him.
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