In the heart of the Perthshire Highlands, and not far from the northern
shore of Loch Tay, there lies a secluded vale of about six miles
long. The river Lyon, which issues from the long and narrow valley of
Glenlyon through the pass of Chesthill, hardly less beautiful than
the celebrated pass of Killichranky, meanders through it. On the east
bank of a small stream which falls into the Lyon about the centre of
the vale, is the Clachan or Kirkton of Fortingall, anciently called
Fothergill, from which it takes its name; and on the west or opposite
bank is the mansion of Glenlyon House, anciently called Tullichmullin.
A stranger stationed at the clachan or little village of Fortingall,
would almost fancy that there was neither egress from nor ingress to
this little district, so secluded and shut in among the surrounding
mountains does it appear to be. It is a spot where one could well
suppose that the traditions of former times, and the remains of a
forgotten oral literature, might still linger in the memories of its
inhabitants; while the local names of the mountains and streams about
it are redolent of the mythic times of the Feine. On the west is the
glen of Glenlyon, the ancient Cromgleann nan Clach or Crooked Glen of
the Stones, associated with many a tradition of the Feine, and where
the remains of those rude forts, termed Caistealan na Feine, crown many
a rocky summit; and the vale is bounded on the south and east by the
ridge of Druimfhionn or Finn’s Ridge.
In the latter part of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth
centuries, there dwelt here a family of the name of Macgregor. They
were descended from a vicar of Fortingall, who, at the time when,
during the century preceding the Reformation, the Catholic Church was
breaking up, and their benefices passing into the hands of laymen,
secured for himself and his descendants the vicarage of Fortingall and
a lease of the church lands.
Of the history of this family we know somewhat from an obituary
commenced by one of his descendants, and continued to the year 1579 by
the Curate of Fothergill, which is still preserved.
His son, whether legitimate or illegitimate we know not, was Ian
Rewych, or John the Grizzled, termed Makgewykar or son of the Vicar.[1]
His grandson was Dougall Maol, or Dougall the Bald or Tonsured, called
patronymically Dougall Johnson, or the son of John.
[1] Obitus Katherine neyn Ayn Weyll Sponsse Johannis M’Ayn Rawych
MacGewykar apud Aychly in Mense Decembris anno Domini Mvcxlij.--Chron.
Fort.
This Dougall Johnson appears in 1511 as a notary-public,[2] and
dwelt at Tullichmullin, where his wife Katherine, daughter of Donald
M’Clawe, _alias_ Grant, died in 1512.[3] He is twice mentioned in the
obituary or Chronicle of Fortingall; in 1526, as repairing the cross in
Inchadin, or the old church of Kenmore, situated on the north bank of
the river Tay, nearly opposite Taymouth Castle; and in 1529, as placing
a stone cross in Larkmonemerkyth, the name of a pass among the hills
which leads from Inchadin to the south.[4]
Of Dougall the Bald, the son of John the Grizzled, we have no further
mention; but of his family we know of two sons, James and Duncan.
James was a Churchman. He appears as a notary-public, an office then
held by ecclesiastics, along with his father, in the year 1511, and
he early attained to honour and influence, through what channel is
unknown; for, in 1514, we find him Dean of Lismore,[5] an island in
Argyllshire, lying between the districts of Lorn and Morvern, which
was at that time the Episcopal seat of the Bishops of Argyll. He was,
besides, Vicar of Fortingall and Firmarius or tenant of the church
lands; and died possessed of these benefices in the year 1551, and was
buried in the choir of the old church of Inchadin.[6]
[2] Charter Robert Menzies of that ilk to Sir Duncan Campbell of
Glenurchy, dated at the Isle of Loch Tay, 18th September 1511.
Inter test. Dugallo Johneson Notario et domino Jacobo M’Gregour
notario-publico.--Reg. Mag. Sig. xvii. 69.
[3] Obitus Catherine neyn Donyll M’Clawe alias Grant uxoris Dougalli
Johnson apud Tullychmollin xxij. die Julij anno domini M^oV^oxj.
[4] Memorandum solium crucis in Inchadin compositum fuit per Dougallum
Johnson. Anno domini M^oV^oxxvj^o.
Crux lapidea fuit posita in Larkmonemerkyth in magno lapide qui alio
nomine vocatur clachur . . . per Dougallum Johnson primo Octobris anno
domini, etc., V^cxxix.--Chron. Fort.
[5] Origines Parochiales, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 161.
[6] Obitus honorabilis viri ac egregii Viri Domini Jacobi (M’Gregor)
filii Dougalli Johnson ac decani Lesmorensis Vicarii de Fortyrgill et
Firmarii dicte ecclesie ... bone memorie in nocte Sancte Lucie virginis
hora ... post meridiem et sepultus in die Lucie videlicet ... Anno
Domini M V^clj^o. in choro de Inchadin.--Chron. Fort.
In 1552, a year after his death, Gregor Macgregor, son of the deceased
Sir James Macgregor, Dean of Lismore, as became the head of a small
but independent sept of the Macgregors, and with a due regard to its
safety, bound himself to Colin Campbell of Glenurchy and his heirs,
“taking him for his chief, in place of the Laird of Macgregor, and
giving him his calp.”[7]
In 1557 Gregor and Dougall Macgregors, natural sons of Sir James
Macgregor, receive letters of legitimation;[8] and, in 1574, Dougall
Macgregor appears as Chancellor of Lismore.[9]
It is unnecessary for our purpose to follow the history of this
family any further; suffice it to say, that the two brothers, James
and Duncan,[10] members of a clan which, though under the ban of the
Government, and exposed to the grasping aggression of their powerful
neighbours, the Campbells of Glenurchy, considered themselves as
peculiarly Highland, and had high pretensions, as descended from the
old Celtic monarchs of Scotland--connected with the Church, and as
such, possessing some cultivation of mind and such literary taste as
Churchmen at that time had, yet born and reared in the farm-house of
Tullichmullin, in the secluded vale of Fortingall, and imbued with that
love of old Highland story and cherished fondness for Highland song,
which manifests itself in so many a quiet country Highlander, and which
the scenery and associations around them were so well calculated to
foster--the one, from his high position in the Church of Argyll, having
peculiar facilities for collecting the poetry current in the West
Highlands--the other, though his brother, yet, as was not uncommon in
those days, his servitor or amanuensis, and himself a poet--and both
natives of the Perthshire Highlands--collected and transcribed into a
commonplace book Gaelic poetry obtained from all quarters.
[7] Black Book of Taymouth, p. 196.
[8] Precept of Legitimation in favour of Gregor and Dougal MacGregors,
natural sons of Sir James MacGregor.--Privy Seal, xxix. 46.
[9] Charter by Dougall Macgregor, Chancellor of Lismoir, with consent
of Sir Colin Campbell of Glenurchy, of the lands of Auchnacroftie,
dated at Balloch, 25th December 1574.
[10] Duncan mcCowle voil vie Eoyne Reawych.--MS., p. 223.
This collection has fortunately been preserved. It is, unquestionably,
a native compilation made in the central Highlands, upwards of
three hundred years ago. It contains the remains of an otherwise
lost literature. In it we find all that we can now recover of
native compositions current in the Highlands prior to the sixteenth
century, as well as the means of ascertaining the extent to which the
Highlanders were familiar with the works of Irish poets.
It is a quarto volume of some 311 pages, and is written in the current
Roman hand of the period. Though much injured by time, the leaves in
part worn away, and the ink faint, it is still possible to read the
greater part of its contents.
With the exception of a short Latin obituary, and one or two other
short pieces, it consists entirely of a collection of Gaelic poetry
made by the two brothers.
At the bottom of the 27th page appears the following note in
Latin:--Liber Dni Jacobi Macgregor Decani Lismoren.
At page 78, there is a chronological list of Scottish kings written in
the Scottish language, which ends thus:--“James the Fyfte reignis now
in great felicitie.” He reigned from 1513 to 1542; and, on page 161,
there is a genealogy of the Macgregors, written by the brother Duncan,
deducing their descent from the old Scottish kings, and he adds a
docquet in Gaelic, which may be thus translated:--Duncan the Servitor,
the son of Dougall, who was son of John the Grizzled, wrote this from
the Book of the History of the Kings, and it was done in the year
1512.[11]
There can be no question, therefore, that this collection was formed
during the lifetime of the Dean of Lismore, and a great part of it
as early as the year 1512. How it was preserved through that and
the succeeding century is unknown. In the last century it passed
into the possession of the Highland Society of London, by whom it
was transferred to the custody of the Highland Society of Scotland,
when a committee of that Society was engaged in an inquiry into the
authenticity of the Poems of Ossian, published by Macpherson. It has
now been deposited, along with other Gaelic MSS. in the possession of
that Society, in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, and forms
part of that collection of Gaelic MSS. which have been brought together
within the last few years, and contain nearly all the Gaelic MSS. which
are known still to exist.[12]
[11] Agis Duncha Deyr oclych mcDowle vec oyne Reywich di Skreyve so a
loywrow Shenchych nyn reig agis ros zenyt Anno Domini 1512.--MS., p.
144.
Deyroclych is Daoroglach, and is the Gaelic rendering of Servitor.
[12] This collection has been formed within the last few years mainly
through the instrumentality of the writer. When he commenced, the
Faculty of Advocates possessed four Gaelic MSS. The collection now
consists of sixty-five.
The writer formed the plan of collecting the remains of the MS. Gaelic
literature of Scotland, which was rapidly disappearing, into one
place, where they could be preserved, by inducing the possessors of
Gaelic MSS. to deposit them in some public library for preservation;
and as the Faculty of Advocates were already in the possession of some
MSS., their library was evidently the most appropriate depository for
this purpose. The valuable MSS. belonging to the Highland Society of
Scotland formed the basis of the collection; the directors, and their
secretary, John Hall Maxwell, Esq., C.B., having at once responded to
the call, and the fortunate discovery of the Kilbride collection, which
its possessor likewise agreed to deposit, added a large number. The
remainder consists of MSS. deposited by individual possessors, and the
collection now embraces nearly all the MSS. known or believed still to
exist.
It is hoped that, if any Gaelic MSS. still remain in the hands of
individual possessors, they will add to the value of this collection by
making them known, and depositing them in the Advocates’ Library for
preservation.
The MSS. are preserved in a locked cabinet, and a general catalogue of
the whole has been prepared by the writer.
The Dean’s MS. differs from all the other MSS. in that collection in
two essential particulars. It is not, like the other MSS., written in
what is called the Irish character, but in the current Roman character
of the early part of the sixteenth century; and the language is not
written in the orthography used in writing Irish, and now universally
employed in writing Scotch Gaelic, but in a peculiar kind of phonetic
orthography, which aims at presenting the words in English orthography
as they are pronounced.
The peculiar orthography employed is, however, evidently not the mere
attempt of a person ignorant of the proper orthography to write the
words in English letters in an arbitrary manner, so as to present, as
nearly as possible, the sound of the words as they struck his ear when
repeated to him, but bears evident marks of having been a regular and
known system of orthography, which, although we have few specimens
of it left, may not the less have once prevailed in that part of the
Highlands more removed from the influence of Irish teaching.
It is a peculiarity of all the Celtic dialects, that the consonants
suffer a change in the beginning of words, from the influence of the
preceding words, or in forming the oblique cases, and likewise change
their sound in the middle of words by being aspirated.
In the Irish orthography, the original consonant is invariably
preserved; and the change is indicated by prefixing another consonant
when the sound is affected by eclipsis, or the influence of the
preceding word, or by adding the letter _h_, when it is changed by
aspiration.
In the Welsh dialects, however, and in the Manx, which is a dialect
of the Gaelic division of the Celtic languages, a different system of
orthography has always prevailed. Instead of retaining the original
letter, and indicating the change in the sound by prefixing or adding
another, a different letter expressing simply the new sound, is
substituted for the original letter; and hence the orthography bears
more of a phonetic and less of an etymologic character.
Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages. In the one, the
original form of the word is preserved, and the primary sounds of the
letters are retained. The alteration in their sound in inflection is
marked by prefixing another letter, or adding the letter _h_. It is by
the application of grammatical rules that the pronunciation of the word
is ascertained, and that pronunciation may deviate from time to time
to a greater degree from the original standard, while the orthography,
always remaining the same, fails to chronicle it.
In the other, a new letter is substituted for the original letter, when
the sound is changed by inflection, or by the position of the word in a
sentence, and the orthography employed expresses the pronunciation of
the word in its inflected, without reference to its original form.
The one presents the language in its etymologic form, without reference
to its pronunciation, and is of value in preserving the original form
of the written speech.
The other stereotypes its sounds as spoken at the time; it is committed
to writing without reference to the original form or primary shape of
the words; and is of value in exhibiting the living dialects as spoken
by the people.
An apt illustration of this is afforded by the English language and its
dialects.
The English orthography exhibits the language as it once was, but
from which it has greatly deviated in pronunciation; and it is hardly
possible to frame rules by applying which, to the orthography, the
present pronunciation can be deduced. It is obvious that if the words,
which are differently pronounced in the Scotch dialect, were spelt
according to the English orthography, no clue would be afforded to
its peculiarities. On the other hand, when the Scotch dialect is spelt
phonetically, as is done, for instance, by Sir Walter Scott in his
Scotch romances, the peculiarities in the pronunciation of a living
dialect are vividly presented, and these elements of the original
language, which may have been preserved in this dialect, are made
available for philological purposes.
The collection of Gaelic poetry made by the Dean of Lismore and his
brother is thus written in an orthography of this latter class. It
attracted some notice when the Highland Society was engaged in its
inquiry into the authenticity of Ossian’s Poems, from its including
among its contents some poems attributed to Ossian. Three of these are
printed in the report, though incorrectly and imperfectly, but little
was known of the other contents of the MS.
A transcript was made of the MS. for the Highland Society by the late
Mr. Ewen M’Lachlan, an accomplished Gaelic scholar, who was employed
to examine their MS. It, however, passed into the possession of the
Rev. J. Macintyre of Kilmanievaig, who allowed it to be examined for
a short time by the editors, but no full or correct account was given
of the MS. till the Rev. T. M’Lauchlan, one of the editors of this
work, read an account of it to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries in
the year 1856, which is printed in their proceedings.[13] This account
attracted considerable notice to the MS., and led to its value being
more appreciated. The present publication has, in consequence, been
undertaken.
[13] Vol. ii. pt. i. p. 35.
The Dean’s MS. has a double value, philological and literary, and is
calculated to throw light both on the language and the literature of
the Highlands of Scotland. It has a philological value, because its
peculiar orthography presents the language at the time in its aspect
and character as a spoken language, and enables us to ascertain
whether many of the peculiarities which now distinguish it were in
existence three hundred years ago; and it has a literary value, because
it contains poems attributed to Ossian, and to other poets prior to
the sixteenth century, which are not to be found elsewhere; and thus
presents to us specimens of the traditionary poetry current in the
Highlands prior to that period, which are above suspicion, having
been collected upwards of three hundred years ago, and before any
controversy on the subject had arisen.
It has been found impossible to present so large a collection entire,
but the selection has been made with reference to these two objects.
Each poem selected for publication has been presented entire. There
is a literal translation of the poem made by the Rev. T. M’Lauchlan,
and appended is the original Gaelic text of the poem in the Dean’s
orthography, exactly as it appears in the MS.; and, on the opposite
page, the same Gaelic has been transferred by Mr. M’Lauchlan into
the modern orthography of the Scotch Gaelic, which is nearly the
same as that of the Irish, so as to afford the means of comparing
the one orthography with the other, and the modern spoken dialect in
the Highlands with the language of the poems collected by the Dean
upwards of three hundred years ago, as well as to furnish a test of
the accuracy of the translation, by showing the rendering given to the
Dean’s language.[14]
The present spoken language of the Highlands of Scotland is, as is
well known, a dialect[15] of that great branch of the Celtic languages
termed the Gwyddelian or Gaelic, and to which belong also the Irish
and Manx, or spoken language of the Isle of Man. These three dialects
of the Gaelic branch of the Celtic languages, the Irish, the Scotch
Gaelic, and the Manx, approach each other so nearly, as to form in fact
but one language; and the peculiarities which distinguish them from one
another are not of a nature sufficiently broad or vital to constitute
either of them a distinct language.
[14] It is hardly possible to convey to the reader an adequate
conception of the labour of the task undertaken by Mr. M’Lauchlan,
or of the courage, perseverance, and ability with which it has been
overcome. Mr. M’Lauchlan had first to read the Dean’s transcript--no
ordinary task, when, to a strange orthography, affording no clue to the
original word, was added a careless handwriting of the beginning of the
sixteenth century, faded ink, and decayed paper. He had then to convert
it into the corresponding Gaelic in its modern shape and orthography,
and then to translate it into English, in which he had to combine
the literal rendering of an idiomatic language with an intelligible
exhibition of its meaning in English.
It may be as well to take this opportunity of stating, that Mr.
M’Lauchlan is solely responsible for the selection made from the Dean’s
MS., the rendering in modern Gaelic, the English translation, and the
notes at the foot of the page. The writer of this is responsible only
for the Introduction and the additional notes, to which his name is
attached.
[15] I use the word _dialect_ throughout, in the restricted sense of
the German word _mundart_, for want of a better English word to express
it.
The language spoken by the Highlanders of Scotland is termed by them
simply Gaelic; but the name of Erse has occasionally been bestowed upon
it during the last few centuries by the Lowlanders.[16] As early as the
year 1690 a short vocabulary of Scotch Gaelic words was appended to an
edition of Bedel’s Irish Bible, to adapt it to the use of the Scotch
Highlanders; and a somewhat fuller vocabulary, by the same author, was
published in Nicolson’s Scottish Historical Library in 1702.
In 1741, a more complete vocabulary was published by the Society for
Propagating Christian Knowledge, for the use of their schools in the
Highlands. It was compiled by Mr. Alexander M’Donald, schoolmaster
at Ardnamurchan. Another vocabulary was published in 1795 by Robert
M’Farlane; and, in 1815, a further step in advance was made by the
larger vocabulary of Mr. P. M’Farlane.
In 1825, a large quarto dictionary of the Scotch Gaelic was published
by R. A. Armstrong; and in three years afterwards the splendid
dictionary compiled by the first Gaelic scholars, under the auspices of
the Highland Society of Scotland, appeared. In this dictionary Gaelic
words from all quarters are inserted; but those which belong to the
vernacular dialect of the Scotch Highlands are carefully distinguished.
The small dictionary compiled by M’Alpine, a schoolmaster in Islay,
affords a genuine representation of the Gaelic spoken in that island.
[16] This term is unknown to the Highlanders, who call themselves
Albanaich; and was a term of reproach applied to them by the
Lowlanders, from their language being the same as the Irish. It is
curious that the same reproach was applied by the English to the Scotch
in the twelfth century. Lambarde records that, at the battle of the
Standard, when the Scots shouted _Albany, Albany!_ the English soldiers
retorted with _Yry, Yry!_ “a term of great reproach at that time.”
The only grammar of the Scotch Gaelic which it is necessary to notice,
is the able and philosophic grammar by Alexander Stewart, Minister of
the Gospel at Dingwall, the first edition of which was published in
1801, and the second in 1812. As a first attempt to reduce the spoken
language of the Scotch Highlanders to a grammatical system, it is a
work of rare excellence and fidelity, and all other grammars have been
more or less taken from it.
This grammar, then, and the vocabularies and dictionaries above
referred to, contain the Gaelic language as spoken, at the time of
their compilation, in the Highlands of Scotland, and afford the
materials for judging of the character of those peculiarities which
distinguish it from the Irish and Manx Gaelic.[17]
[17] I reject from this list the grammar and dictionary by the Rev. Wm.
Shaw, published in 1778 and 1780, because, so far as they purport to
be a grammar and dictionary of the Scotch Gaelic dialect, they are a
deception, and not trustworthy.
Shaw was a native of Arran, where a corrupt and Irishised Gaelic is
spoken; and it is well known that he failed in his attempt to compile
his dictionary from the spoken language in the Highlands, where he made
a tour for the purpose, and resorted to Ireland, where he manufactured
his works from Irish sources and authorities, adapting the Irish
grammar to a very imperfect knowledge of the language.
The subscribers complained of the deception, and refused to take the
work, till compelled by a process at law. The evidence taken in this
process is very instructive as to the position of Shaw’s grammar and
dictionary, so far as their Irish element is concerned, towards the
Scotch Gaelic dialect at that period.
The differences between the spoken language of the Scottish Highlands
and the Irish exist partly in the pronunciation, where the accentuation
of the language is different, where that peculiar change in the initial
consonant, produced by the influence of the previous word, and termed
by the Irish grammarians eclipsis, is unknown except in the sibilant,
where the vowel sounds are different, and there are even traces of
a consonantal permutation; partly in the grammar, where the Scotch
Gaelic prefers the analytic form of the verb, and has no present
tense, the old present being now used for the future, and the present
formed by the auxiliary verb, where the plural of one class of the
nouns is formed in a peculiar manner, resembling the Anglo-Saxon, and
a different negative is used; partly in the idioms of the language,
where a greater preference is shown to express the idea by the use of
substantives, and the verb is anxiously avoided; and in the vocabulary,
which varies to a considerable extent, where words now obsolete in
Irish are still living words, and others are used in a different
sense.[18]
The Scotch Gaelic is spoken in its greatest purity in the central
districts of the Highlands, including Mull, Morvern, Ardnamurchan,
Ardgowar, Appin, Lochaber, and that district termed the Garbh
chriochan, or rough bounds, consisting of Arisaig, Moydart, Moror,
and Knoydart. The language here spoken is characterized by a closer
adherence to grammatical rules, by a fuller and more careful
pronunciation of the vowel sounds, by a selection of the best words to
express the idea, and by their use in their primary sense.
In the county of Argyll, and the islands which face the coast of
Ireland, the language approaches much more nearly to the Ulster dialect
of the Irish, there being probably no perceptible difference between
the form of the language in Isla and Rachrin, or in Cantyre and the
opposite coast of Antrim.
[18] A more detailed statement of the differences between Scotch and
Irish Gaelic will be found in the additional Notes.
In the Gaelic of Sutherland and Caithness, again, there are marked
differences of a different and opposite character, a native of
Sutherland and the southern districts of Argyll having some difficulty
in understanding each other; and in Perthshire, on the other hand, the
influence of the English language is apparent, the pronunciation is
more careless, the words selected less pure, and the secondary senses
of many are only used.
The central districts afford the best type of that variety of Gaelic
which forms the spoken language of the Highlands of Scotland.
Of this language two views may be taken. The peculiarities of the
language may have sprung up quite recently, and the language may, at no
very distant period, have been absolutely identical in form and sound
with the Irish, from which it may have become corrupted by the absence
of cultivation, and must be regarded merely as the rude _patois_ of
a people whose ignorance of the cultivated language has led to their
adoption of peculiarities sanctioned by no grammatical rule; or, on the
other hand, these peculiarities may partake rather of the character
of dialectic differences, and enter more deeply into the organization
of the language, and thus may have characterized it from that remoter
period, when geographical separation and political isolation may have
led to the formation, in the Highlands of Scotland, of a dialectic
variety of the common language.
The first is the view taken by Irish grammarians, and if correct, these
differences cannot be considered as of any philological importance. The
question has not, however, been treated by them in a candid spirit, or
with any grasp of the subject; and their opinion must be based upon
a more accurate knowledge of the spoken dialect which is the subject
of it, and upon a sounder and more impartial examination of those
philologic elements which ought to enter into its consideration, before
it can be accepted as conclusive. If the second view is the correct
one, then it is obvious that the Scotch Gaelic is well deserving of
study, as a distinct variety of the Gaelic language which was common
to Scotland and Ireland; and everything that tends to throw light upon
it, and upon the existence and origin of these differences, acquires a
philologic value.
In the study of language, the spoken dialects are of great value. It is
from the study of the living dialects, which are not merely corruptions
of the spoken language, but present dialectic peculiarities, that we
arrive at a full perception of the character and tendencies of the
mother tongue.
It is the destiny of all languages, that they no sooner enter upon the
domain of history than they begin to alter, decompose, and split into
dialects. The formation of the mother tongue belongs to the prehistoric
period; and it is a process which, carried on in the infancy and growth
of the social state, is concealed from observation. When its possessors
first emerge into view, and take their place among the history of
nations, counter influences have already been at work, their language
has already entered upon its downward course, and we can only watch it
in its process of decomposition and alteration, and reach its primitive
condition, through the medium of its dialects.
There are two opposing influences by which all languages are
affected--the etymologic and the phonetic. The etymologic principle
is all-powerful in the formation and original structure of the
language, producing combinations of sounds demanded by the laws of
its composition, but irrespective altogether of the requirements of
harmony, or the tendencies of the human organs of sound. It contains
in it, however, the seeds of its own destruction, and has no sooner
completed its work of formation than a process of modification and
decomposition commences, caused by the respective idiosyncrasies of
its speakers, their craving after harmony of combination and ease of
utterance, and the influence of physical situation and surrounding
agents upon the organs of speech.
These phonetic causes enter at once into conflict with the strictly
etymologic formations of the language, moulding its sounds, decomposing
its structure, and interchanging the organs producing the sounds; and
these effects are perpetuated by circumstances causing the separation
or isolation of the people who have adopted them, while new words
and combinations are added to their vocabulary by new wants arising
in their separate state, by their advance in social condition, or by
the peculiarities of their new condition. Thus innumerable dialects
spring up. Whenever a difference of situation takes place among the
people composing the aggregate by whom the original language was
spoken, a diversity of dialect is at once created. In these dialects
are preserved the bones of the mother tongue; and it is only by a
comparison of these that her full character can be ascertained.
This tendency of the mother tongue, to break up into as many dialects
as there are shades of difference in the position and tendencies
of its speakers, is only arrested by the formation of a cultivated
dialect, created when the wants of an educated or cultivated class in
the community demand a common medium of interchanging their ideas.
This cultivated language is usually first formed by poetry, completed
by writing, and adopted by education. Its first stage is that of the
language in which the songs and poems, the first literature of a rude
people, are recited by its bards, its earliest literary class; and,
by the introduction of the art of writing, it passes over into the
written speech. It then becomes a common dialect, spoken and written by
the cultivated class of the community, and to a knowledge of which a
portion of the people are raised by education.
This cultivated or written language may have been originally one of
the numerous dialects spoken by the people composing the community,
and which circumstances have elevated into that position; or it may
have been introduced from another country speaking a sister dialect,
which has preceded it in cultivation; or it may, like the German,
have been developed from an unspoken variety of the language created
by other causes and for other purposes. In the one case, the language
first cultivated by poetry passes over into the written language. In
the other, it remains an indigenous, cultivated, spoken language, which
is antagonistic to, and contends with, the imported written speech till
the influence of the latter prevails, and it is either extinguished
by it, or remains as popular poetry in the vernacular tongue, while
everything prose is absorbed.
But however it originates, the spoken dialects still remain as the
vernacular speech of portions of the community. They are not the
children or creatures of the written speech, still less corruptions of
it, but are equally ancient, and retain much of the elements of the
original language which the written speech has rejected.
The formation of a cultivated or written language is always an eclectic
process. It selects, it modifies, and it rejects, while the living
dialects retain many of the forms and much of the structure modified
and rejected by it. Hence, for the study of the character and formation
of the mother tongue, the living spoken dialects are of the first
importance; and a restricted attention to the written language, and the
contemptuous rejection of everything in the spoken dialects which vary
from it, as barbarisms and corruptions, is simply to part with much
valuable material for the study, and to narrow the range of inquiry.[19]
[19] Professor Max Müller has the following excellent remarks in his
recent lectures on the Science of Language, p. 49. “The real and
natural life of language is in its dialects; and in spite of the
tyranny exercised by the classical or literary idioms, the day is still
very far off which is to see the dialects entirely eradicated....
“It is a mistake to imagine that dialects are everywhere corruptions
of the literary language.... Dialects have always been the feeders
rather than the channels of a literary language; anyhow, they are
parallel streams which existed long before one of them was raised to
that temporary eminence which is the result of literary cultivation.”
The whole of the lecture in which this passage occurs is well worthy
of perusal, in regard to the proper view and position of the spoken
dialects in the study of language.
Schleicher takes the same view in his masterly work, “Die Deutsche
Sprache.” He says, in relation to the German language, what is equally
true of the Gaelic:
“Die mundarten sind die natürlichen nach den Gesetzen der
Sprachgeschichtlichen Veränderungen gewordenen Formen im Gegensatze
zu der mehr oder minder gemachten and schulmeisterisch geregelten and
zugestutzten Sprache der Schrift. Schon hieraus folgt der hohe Werth
derselben für die wissenschaftliche Erforschung unserer Sprache; hier
ist eine reiche Füllevon Worten und Formen, die, an sich gut und echt,
von der Schriftsprache verschmäht wurden; hier finden wir manches,
was wir zur Erklärung der älteren Sprachdenkmale, ja zur Erkenntniss
der jetzigen Schriftsprache verwerthen können, abgesehen von dem
Sprachgeschichtlichen, dem lautphysiologischen Interesse, welches die
überaus reiche Mannigfaltigkeit unserer Mundarten bietet.
“Wer einer Mundart kundig ist, der hat beim Studium des altdeutschen
einen grossen Vorsprung vor demjenigen voraus der nur in der
Schriftsprache heimisch ist.
“_Nichts ist thörichter, nichts verräth mehr den Mangel wahrer Bildung
als das Verrachten unserer Mundarten._”--P. 110.
Perhaps the English language affords an illustration of these remarks.
As a written and cultivated language, it took its rise in England, but
was introduced from England into Scotland.
In England, the provincial dialects have remained as the spoken
language of the uncultivated class in the respective provinces side
by side with it; but their antiquity and their value for philological
purposes is fully acknowledged. No one dreams of viewing them as
merely corruptions of the written language, arising from rudeness and
ignorance.
In Scotland, the English language has been introduced as the written
or cultivated language, but a different form of the language, the
Broad Scotch, is the vernacular speech of the people, and preceded the
English language as the written language of the country in which its
earliest literature was contained. Its great value, as an early form of
the original Anglic tongue which formed the language of the country,
is so fully acknowledged, that Jamieson’s Dictionary of the Scotch
language has been called the best dictionary of the English language.
It has ceased to be a vehicle for prose composition; but there exists
a ballad literature in the Scotch dialect which has resisted the
absorbing influence of the English.
So it was also in the Scotch Highlands, where the written and
cultivated language did not originate in this country, but was brought
over from Ireland in the sixth century, though in this case the analogy
is not so great, from the various dialects of the Gaelic having
probably at all times approached each other much more nearly than the
provincial dialects of England and Scotland, and been more greatly
influenced by the written language.
In order to determine the philological position and value of the Scotch
Gaelic, it is necessary to form a more accurate conception of the
historical position of the people who spoke it, and of the influences
to which they have been exposed, and by which the language was likely
to be affected.
Two races seem to have entered, as original elements, into the
population of Ireland and of the Highlands of Scotland. These were the
race of the Scots and the people termed by the early Irish authorities
the race of the Cruithne. The latter appear everywhere to have
preceded the former.
Prior to the sixth century, the Cruithne alone seem to have formed the
population of the Scotch Highlands. In Ireland they formed the original
population of Ulster and the north part of Leinster. Connaught, the
rest of Leinster, and Munster, were Scottish. The east and north of
Ireland appear to have been most exposed to external influences, and to
have suffered the greatest changes in their population. In the south
and west it was more permanent; and from Connaught and Leinster the
royal races of the Scots emerged, while their colonies proceeded from
south and west to north and east.
The traditionary history of Ireland records an early settlement of the
Scots among the Cruithne of Ulster, termed from its mythic founder
Dalriada, and likewise the fall of the great seat of the Cruithnian
kingdom, called Emania, before an expedition, led by a scion of the
Scottish royal race, who established the kingdom of Orgialla on its
ruins. It is certain that, while we have reason to believe that the
Cruithne formed the original population of the whole of Ulster, we find
them in the historic period confined to certain districts in Ulster
only, although their kings retained the title of kings of Ulster.
In the beginning of the sixth century, the Scots, who are frequently
recorded by the Roman writers as forming part of the predatory bands
who, from time to time, assailed the Roman province, and finally
overthrew their empire in Britain, passed over to the opposite coast
of Argyll, and effected a permanent settlement there, which, from its
mother tribe, was also called Dalriada. This settlement is recorded,
by the oldest authority, to have taken place twenty years after the
battle of Ocha, which was fought in the year 483, and, therefore, in
the year 503. The territory occupied by this settlement of the Scots
was the south part of Argyllshire, consisting of the districts of
Cowall, Kintyre, Knapdale, Argyll-proper, Lorn, and probably part of
Morvern, with the islands of Isla, Iona, Arran, and the small islands
adjacent. The boundary which separated them from the Cruithne was on
the east, the range of mountains termed Drumalban, a mountain chain
which still separates the county of Argyll from that of Perth. On the
north, the boundary, which probably was not very distinct, and varied
from time to time, seems to have been coincident with a line extending
from the Island of Colonsay through the Island of Mull to the centre
of the district of Morvern, through which it passed to the shores of
the Luine Loch opposite Appin.[20] The rest of the Highlands was still
occupied by the Cruithne, who were Pagans, while the Dalriadic Scots
were Christians.
[20] In the Island of Colonsay there is a cairn called Carn cul ri
Erin. In Bleau’s Atlas, the map of the Island of Mull marks, on the
high mountain which separates the north from the south of the island,
two cairns, called Carn cul ri Erin and Carn cul ri Allabyn. These
seem to mark some ancient boundary; but as they are exactly in a line
with Iona,--which seems to have lain so nearly on the boundary as
to be claimed by both races, and also with the line which separates
the ancient parishes of Killintach and Killcholumkill in Morvern,
and Killintach is said, in an old document, to be in Garwmorvaren,
a district which extended as far north as Loch Hourn, while
Killcholumkill is said to be in Kinelbadon, which belonged to the
ancient kingdom of Lorn,--there seems much reason to conclude that this
may have been the line of the boundary between the Dalriad Scots from
Erin and the Cruithne of Alban.
In the year 563, an event took place which was destined to exercise
a powerful influence both on the condition and the language of the
population. This was the mission of Saint Columba, a Scot from Ireland,
to convert the Cruithne to the Christian faith, and the consequent
foundation of the Monastery of Iona, which became the seat of learning,
and the source of all ecclesiastical authority, both for the Cruithne
and the Dalriadic Scots, from whence innumerable Scottish clergy
issued, who spread over the country and founded churches among the
Cruithne under its influence and authority.
The platform occupied by the two populations, embracing both Ireland
and the Highlands of Scotland, in the sixth century, thus showed in the
south and west of Ireland pure Scots; in the north and east settlements
of Scots among the Cruithne, gradually confining the latter to isolated
districts; in Argyll, a Scottish settlement among the Cruithne of
Alban; and in the rest of the Highlands pure Cruithne; but over both
Scots and Cruithne in Alban a Scottish clergy, who brought a cultivated
and literary language with them.
In Ireland the Gaelic spoken in the different provinces varies, and
probably has always varied from each other. They differ in words,
pronunciation, and idiom; and in grammatical construction and idiom
there is a marked difference between the Gaelic of the northern and
of the southern half of Ireland. The written language resembles most
the language of the south and west of Ireland. It seems to have been
formed from it, and to have become the common language of the literary
and cultivated class, while the other dialects remained as the spoken
language of their respective populations.
This written language was brought over to Scotland in the sixth century
by Columba and his clergy, who introduced it, with Christianity, among
the Cruithne; where, however, the native dialect must have received
some cultivation, as we find that he was opposed by Magi, which implies
a literary class among the Pagan Cruithne. At this time there was so
little political separation between the two countries, that the Scots
of British Dalriada remained subject to the Irish Dalriada, from which
they emerged, till the year 573, when Aedan, son of Gabran, became
king of Scotch Dalriada, and, at the great Council of Drumceat, it was
declared independent of Irish Dalriada, and he was crowned as its first
independent monarch. The Cruithne of Ireland, likewise, formed part of
that great Cruithnian kingdom, which had its head-quarters in Scotland,
till the reign of Fiacha mac Baedan, King of Ulster, who ruled over the
Irish Cruithne from 589 to 626, and probably in the year 608, when they
threw off the yoke of the Cruithne of Scotland.[21]
[21] There were thirty kings of the Cruithne over Eri and Alba,
viz., of the Cruithne of Alba and of the Cruithne of Eri, _i.e._,
of Dalaraidhe. They were from Ollamhan to Fiachna mac Baedain, who
fettered the hostages of Eri and Alba.
Book of Lecan, as quoted in Irish Nennius, lxxii.
A.D. 608. Bass Fiachrach chraich mic Baedan la Cruithnechu.--(Tigh.
An.)
The Cruithne and the Scots of Ireland and of Scotland then first
became separated from, and independent of, each other, and a complete
political separation took place between the two countries.
The Cruithne of Scotland remained under the influence of the Scottish
clergy till the beginning of the eighth century, when their king,
Nectan, adopted the usages of the Romish party, and in 717 expelled
the Scottish clergy out of his dominions across the boundary of
Drumalban,[22] which separated them from the Scots of Dalriada, and
a new clergy was introduced into that part of the country, occupied
by the Cruithne, from the Anglic kingdom of Northumberland. In 731,
we learn from Bede, who then closes his history, that the Scots of
Dalriada were still confined within the same limits; and that no change
had up to that date taken place in the relative positions of the two
populations, the Cruithne and the Scots. After this date we know little
of the history of the population of the Highlands till the middle
of the ninth century, when we find that a great change had, in the
interval, taken place in their political condition. The two populations
had now become united in one kingdom, and a family of undoubted
Scottish race ruled over the united people.
[22] A.D. 717. Expulsio familiæ Ie trans dorsum Britanniæ a Nectano
rege.
Of the events which brought about this great change, authentic history
tells us nothing--of the fact there can be no doubt; and the question
arises of how the Gaelic language originated in the undalriadic part
of the Highlands. Prior to this date, it was exclusively occupied by
people of the race of the Cruithne, first Pagan under native Magi,
then Christian, and for 150 years under clergy of Scottish race, who
were, however, driven out in the year 717. Either then these Cruithne
spoke a Gaelic dialect, or, if they spoke a different language, we
must suppose that the language of Gaelic Dalriada had, subsequently to
the ninth century, spread, with the rule of a Scottish king, over the
whole of the Highlands not embraced in that limited territory. We have
no materials for determining this question. The latter supposition has
always been assumed by the Irish historians, but without proof; and
they have never attempted to account for the entire disappearance of
the previous language, and the expulsion of the previous population
of so extensive a district, so mountainous and inaccessible in its
character, and so tenacious of the language of its early inhabitants in
its topography, which such a theory involves.
If the first supposition be the correct one, and the Cruithne spoke
a Gaelic dialect, we can easily understand how, though originally
different from the Gaelic dialect of Dalriada, it may, by the influence
of the written language, and its vernacular use by their clergy for
so long a period, have become modified and assimilated to it; and
if, as is probable, their dialect had been so far cultivated, as the
existence of popular poetry, the first literature of a rude people, was
calculated to effect, the influence of the clergy would probably be
antagonistic to such literature, and be employed to suppress it; and
the language in which it was conveyed might remain for some time in
opposition to the written language, as a vernacular and popular form of
the language, the type and symbol of the anti-Christian party, till it
was finally amalgamated with, or assimilated to it as the party itself
was ultimately overcome.
But another event had taken place during this obscure period, extending
to little more than a century, and in which the union of the two
populations under a Scottish royal race had been effected, which
must have interposed an obstacle to the spread of an influence from
Ireland into the nondalriadic portion of the Highlands, and greatly
counteracted that arising from a dominant royal family of Scottish
descent. This was the destruction of Iona by the Scandinavian pirates,
and their subsequent occupation of the Western Isles and western
seaboard of Scotland. Towards the end of the eighth century, these
hordes of Vikings or sea-robbers, issuing from Norway and Denmark, had
appeared in the western sea, ravaging and plundering the coasts and
islands, and their course was everywhere marked by the burning and
sacking of the monasteries and religious establishments. In 794, the
ravaging of the islands and the destruction of Iona by these Gentiles,
as they were termed, is recorded in the Irish annals. In 802, the
Monastery of Iona was burnt by them, and in 806 the community or family
of Iona, as it was termed, slain, to the number of sixty-eight. In
consequence of the insecurity of Iona, the abbot eventually retired
to Kells, another foundation of St. Columba, and the reliques of St.
Columba were subsequently taken to Ireland, when Derry became the head
of the Columbian houses in Ireland, while a part of the reliques were
removed to Dunkeld, which represented the Columbian clergy in Scotland.
The influence of Iona, as the nucleus and centre of Gaelic learning,
and of its Scottish clergy upon the population of the Highlands, thus
ceased for ever.
The islands were, by degrees, occupied by these pirates, till
eventually the Norwegian Kingdom of Man and the Isles was formed; and
after they had passed over from Paganism to Christianity, and their
power became constituted, the bishopric of the Isles became included in
the Norwegian diocese of Man. During this period, which lasted till the
middle of the twelfth century, while the Western Isles and the western
shores of the mainland were in the occupation of the Norwegians,
and a royal family of Scottish race was on the throne of the united
population, all that remained intact of the Gaelic population of the
Highlands was mainly represented by the great province of Moray, which
contained the mainland part of the modern counties of Inverness and
Ross, and whose chiefs or maormors are found, during the whole of
this period, maintaining a struggle for local independence against
the ruling powers, whether Scottish or Saxon, till they were finally
suppressed in the year 1130 by the great battle in which Angus, the
Celtic Earl of Moray, was defeated and slain by David the First.
The Norwegian Kingdom of Man and the Isles was now approaching its
fall, and a new power arose on the ruins of that of the Maormors of
Moray, which soon became paramount in the Western Highlands, and
exercised a very different influence upon its language and population.
This was the dynasty of the Celtic kings or Lords of the Isles, which
took its rise under Somarled, the founder of the race in the twelfth
century, and maintained a powerful sway in the West Highlands till the
Lord of the Isles was forfeited at the close of the fifteenth century;
and, after several ineffectual attempts to maintain their ground
against the Government, finally fell in the middle of the succeeding
century.
Whether the race of the Lords of the Isles was of Irish descent or not,
is a question which depends upon the precise degree of credibility to
be given to a Celtic pedigree which reaches back to the beginning of
the fourth century; but certain it is, that the spirit and tendency
of the whole race was essentially Irish. The history of Somarled, the
founder of the family, who may, from female connexion, have possessed a
Norwegian name, is quite incompatible with the idea of his representing
a Norwegian house, or deriving his position by inheritance from them.
The names of his father Gillabride, and his grandfather Gillaagamnan,
are purely Celtic. The interest of his family was antagonistic to that
of the Norwegians; their efforts were to supplant and drive them out,
and to elevate a Gaelic kingdom upon their ruins. In the foundation
of this kingdom, Irish aid and Irish interest entered largely, and
the connexion of the family with Ireland became always more and more
closely connected,--an influence and connexion extending to the
powerful Celtic families who rose under their auspices and owned their
sway.
Somarled, the founder of the race, first appears in history as regulus
or petty king of Oirirgaidheal, or, as it is given in the Irish form,
Airergaidheal, and, in the Latin, Argathelia, a name which had sprung
up subsequently to the ninth century, signifying the coast-lands of the
Gael, and embracing the entire west coast from Cowall to Loch Broom.
To this district he must have had hereditary claims; and an ancient
sennachy of the race thus details the steps by which he recovered
possession of it:--
Gillabride, the son of Gillaagamnan, the son and grandson of the
Toiseach of Argyll, and descendant of Colla, being amongst his kindred
in Ireland, the clan Colla, that is, the Macguires and Macmahons, held
a great meeting and assembly in Fermanagh, the country of Macguire,
regarding the affairs of Gillabride, how they might restore him to his
patrimony, from which he had been driven by the power of the Lochlans
and Finngalls. When Gillabride saw such a large body of men assembled
together, he besought them to embark in his cause, and to assist the
people of Alban, who were favourable to him in an attempt to win
back the possession of the country. The people declared themselves
willing to go, and four or five hundred put themselves under his
command. With this company Gillabride proceeded to Alban, and landing
there, commenced a series of skirmishes and sudden assaults, with
the assistance of friends, for his name was then very powerful. The
Lochlans possessed the islands from Man to the Orkneys; but the Gael
retained possession of the woods and mountains in the districts,
extending from Dumbarton to Caithness, north of the two oirirs,[23]
and in Mar. Somarled, the son of Gillabride, was now becoming manly
and illustrious, and a band attached themselves to him, who had
possession of the hills and woods of Ardgowar and Morvaren. Here he
came upon a large army of Lochlans and Fingalls, and assembled round
him all the soldiers he could muster and the people engaged in herding
the flocks, and ranged them in order of battle. He practised a great
deception on his enemies, for he made the same company pass before
them three times, so that it appeared to them as if there were three
companies, and then attacked them. The enemy were broken by Somarled
and fled, till they reached the north bank of the river Shiell, and
part escaped with their king to the Isles. Somarled did not desist
from his efforts till he had cleared the whole west side of Alban from
the Lochlans, except the islands of the Finnlochlans, called Innsegall.
[23] The two oirirs were the Oirir a tuath and the Oirir a deas, which
make up the district known as Oirir Gaedheal, or Oirir Alban, and in
Latin, Argathelia.
Having married the daughter of Olave the Red, the Norwegian king of
Man and the Isles, he succeeded in 1154 in obtaining one-half of
the Western Isles for his eldest son Dougall, the ancestor of the
M’Dougalls, Lords of Lorn, in right of his mother. The portion of
the Isles thus added to the Gaelic kingdom of Oirirgaidheal were
those south of the point of Ardnamurchan, including Mull, Isla, and
Jura. Ten years afterwards, in 1164, he showed still further his
close relation with Ireland, by placing the Monastery of Iona under
the Abbacy of Derry, and in the same year he was slain in Renfrew,
in an attempt which he made to subvert the Scottish throne itself,
with Irish assistance. His successors remained in possession of this
territory, consisting of Oirirgaidheal, or the western districts,
from Cowall to Loch Broom, and the southern half of the Isles, till
1222, when Alexander the Second took possession of Argathelia, and
annexed the north part of it to the earldom of Ross, and the central
portion to the district of Moray, leaving the districts of Morvaren and
Garwmorvaren, and parts of South Argyll, with the south half of the
Isles, to the descendants of Somarled. On the conquest of the Norwegian
kingdom of Man and the Isles by the King of Scotland in 1266, Skye
and Lewis were annexed to the earldom of Ross, the rest of the Isles
went to Somarled’s family, their possessions were further increased
by grants from Robert Bruce, and in the end of the fourteenth century
they inherited the possessions of the earldom of Ross, by which they
regained possession of the Oirir a tuath. A petty kingdom was thus
formed, consisting of Argathelia, or the western districts, from Cowall
to Loch Broom and the Western Isles, nominally subordinate to the
Scottish throne, but in reality all powerful among the population of
the Highlands; the clans of the centre and north Highlands, which had
once looked up to the almost equally powerful Maormors of Moray, alone
representing a different interest.
The marriage of the Lord of the Isles, the head of this race, with a
daughter of the great Irish house of O’Cathan, princes of an extensive
territory in the north of Ireland, towards the close of the thirteenth
century, still further cemented the connexion with Ireland. Tradition
records that twenty-four families followed this lady from Ulster to
the Scottish Highlands, and founded as many houses there, and, in the
subsequent century, a scion of the House of the Isles acquired land in
the north of Ireland, and founded the Antrim family. In all the Irish
wars this race took generally a part, and, in their own wars at home,
were rarely without assistance from Ireland.
The struggle between this great Celtic family and the Crown assumed
an aspect at length which could only terminate in the ruin of the
former or the humiliation of the latter, and at length resulted in
the forfeiture of the Lord of the Isles in 1478, and his subsequent
submission, when he resigned his hereditary Celtic title, and received
in exchange the feudal dignity of Lord of the Isles; a humiliation
which gave deep offence to his subjects, and was not acquiesced in
by them, and produced such internal dissensions, that the Crown took
advantage of them to enforce the final forfeiture of the Lordship
of the Isles in the year 1493. A series of insurrections followed
in favour of the descendants of the forfeited Lord, which finally
terminated in the utter extinction of the kingdom of the Isles in the
year 1545.
During this period, which extends to nearly four centuries, there was
not only a close political connexion between the Western Highlands and
Islands and Ireland, but the literary influence was equally close and
strong; the Irish sennachies and bards were heads of a school which
included the West Highlands, and the Highland sennachies were either
of Irish descent, or, if of native origin, resorted to bardic schools
in Ireland for instruction in the language and the accomplishments of
their art.
The annals of the four masters record the following Irish sennachies as
being recognised masters in the Highlands:--
In 1185 died Maclosa O’Daly, ollav, or chief sage or poet of Erin and
Alban; a man illustrious for his poetry, hospitality, and nobility.
In 1328 died the blind O’Carril, chief minstrel of Erin and Alban in
his time.
In 1448 died Tadg og, son of Tadg, son of Giollacoluim O’Higgin, chief
preceptor of the poets of Erin and Alban.
In 1554 died Tadg, son of Aodh O’Coffey, chief teacher of poetry in
Erin and Alban.
The oldest of the Gaelic MSS., preserved in the Library of the Faculty
of Advocates, belong to this period. They are all written in the
Irish character; the language is the written language of Ireland; and
they contain numerous specimens of the poetry of these Irish masters,
especially of Tadg og and the O’Dalys.
The Betons, or, as their name was in Gaelic, Macbheatha, who were
hereditary physicians in Isla and Mull, and who were also sennachies of
the Macleans, were of Irish descent, being O’Neills, and are said by
tradition to be one of the families who accompanied O’Cathan’s daughter
to Scotland; and many of these MSS. belonged to them. The M’Vurichs,
who were hereditary sennachies to Clanranald, were likewise of Irish
descent, and are said “to have received their education in Irish
Colleges of poetry and writing.”[24] Many of these MSS. were compiled
by them; and the earliest are likewise written in the Irish character
and idiom. The sennachies of the other great families, comprised within
the dominions of the Lords of the Isles, appear likewise to have all
resorted to Ireland for instruction and training in their art.