A history of the Highlands and of the Highland clans : with an ...

UKI>Ell OP BAHUS. 37
and Britons, and lie observes that their function and name remained in
his time atnonf^st all those nations which used tlie old British toiiirue.
" They," he adds, " compose poems, and those not iiielogant, which the
rliapsodists recite, either to tlie hcttcr sort, or to the vulgar, who are
very desirous to hear them ;
and sometimes tiiev sing them to musical
instruments." And in speaking of the inhabitants of the Hebrides or
Westei'n islands, he says that they sing poems " not inelegant, contain-
ing commonly the eulogies of valiant men; and their bards usually treat
of no other subject."
Thus the existence of hards from the most remote period among the
Celtic population of Scotland is undoubted; andsome idea of their import-
ance may be formed from the following observations from the elegant
and classical pen of a distinguished scholar. " Although it is well known
that the Scots had always more strength and industry to perform great
deeds, than care to have them published to the world ; yet. in ancient
times, they had, and held in great esteem, their own Homers and
Maros wlioni they named bards. These recited the achievements of
their brave wiirriors in heroic measures, adapted to the musical notes
of the harp; with these they roused the minds of those present to the
glory of virtue, and transmitted patterns of fortitude to posterity.
This order of men still exists among the Welsh and ancient Scots
Tthe Highlanders), and they still retain that name (bards) in their native
language."* So formidable were they considered in rousing the pas-
sions against tiie tyranny of a foreign yoke, by their strains, that Edward
I. adopted the cruel policy of extirpating the order of the Welsh
bards about the end of the thirteenth century. Tiiey continued, how-
ever, to exist in England down to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, " till
which period," as Dr. Graham observes, " there was a regular public
competition of harpers maintained; and there is, at this day, as Mr
Pennant informs us, in his tour tbrougli \Vales, a silver harp, awarded
during that period, in the possession of the Mostyn family."
The Bardic order was preserved longer in Scotland than in any
other country, for it was not till the year 172G, when Niel Macvuirich
the last of tlie b.irds died, that the race became extinct. He, and his
ancestors had for several generations exercised the office of bard in the
family of Clanranald.-f- Every great Highland family had their bard,
• " Quanivis intpUiffiint omnes y>liis semper viriuin et industrise Scotis ftlisse art ren
gerenrtas, quam oommentationisadprjerticaiirtas. habnerunt tamenantlqiiitus, etcoluerunt
siios Homeros et Marones, quos Bardoa nominabant. Hi fortnim virorum facta versitius
heroicis et IjTje modulis aptata concinebant ; quibus et priesentium animos acuebant
ad virtutis gloriam, et fortitudinis exempla ad posteros transmittebatit. Cujusmodt
apud Cambros et priscos Srot03 nee dum desin-e ; et nonien illud patrio sermone adhii*;
retineiit." J. Johnston in Praefat. ad Hist. Scot.
f The following curious and interesting declaration of Lachlan Mac Vuiricb. son of
Niel, taken by desire of tlie Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed
to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian, will throw much
light on the bardic office.
In llip house of Pati-ick Nicolson, at Torlum, near Castle Burgh, in the shire of In.
»»rness on the ninth day "f August, compeared, in the tifty-ninth year of his age, Lach-