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

59 HISTOKV OF THE HIGHLAN!1S.
«* 3. Was it an ancient or niodein manuscript .'
" 4. By whom was it supposed to be written, and at wliat period ?
" 5. Did it contain othei poems, and of equal or interior merit ?
" 6. To whom were tiie poems ascribed ?
•' 7. Did you compare the Celtic manuscript with MacphersDn's
translation, and what similarity existed between llicni ?
" 8. To what extent did you make the comparison, or was it mail«
in your presence ?
'• 9. ^Vere the Gaelic scholars at Douay perfectly satisfied with ths
result of the comparison ?
" 10. Was there any communication of the circumstance made to
ai;y in Great Britain, so far as your knowledge goes?
"11. How long did the manuscript remain at the College of Douay ?
" 12. What was the cause of the loss thereof?
" 13. Is there any chance of recovering a copy, or any part of it ?
" 14. Are there any other persons in Scotland who saw the manu-
script, and can certify the comparison above-mentioned ?
" 15. Did you ever hear of any other manuscript of Ossiaii, either
in Fi'ance, or in Rome ?
" 16. Do you entertain any doubt respecting the authenticity of the
poems of Ossian, and that Mr. iMacpherson was merely the translator
thereof?
" 17. Do you think that his translation did justice to t!ie original ?
To these queries Bishop Chisholin replied as follows :
1. That he recollected the manuscript in question. 2. That he remembered
having seen it in the hands of tiie Rev. Mr. John Far-
quharson, a Jesuit, in the years 176(3-67, &c., but could not then read
it. 3. Mr. Farquharson wrote it all when (4.) missionary in Strath-
^lass, before and after the year 1743. 3. It contained, as Mr. Farquharson
said, Gaelic poems not inferior to either \^irgil or Homer's
poems, according to his judgment, called (6.) by him Ossian's poems.
7. The Bishop did not, but Mr. Farquharson did, compare the Celtic
manuscripts with Macpherson's translation, and he affirmed the trans-
lation was inferior to the original, and (8.) he said so of the whole of
Mr. James Macpherson's translation. 9. There was not one scholar
at Douay, that could read the Gaelic in his. Bishop Chisholm's, time.
10. Mrs. Frazer of Culbokie spoke of the manuscript to him on his
return to Scotland, and told him she had taught Mr. Farquharson
lo read the Gaelic on his arrival in Scotland, in which his progress in
a short time exceeded her own. She likewise had a large collection,
of which she read some passages to him, when he could scarcely under-
stand the Gaelic, and which escaped his memory since ; the mannscrijil
was in fine large Irish characters, written by Mr. Peter Macdonel,
chaplain to Lord IMacdonel of Glengary, after the Restoration, who
had taught Mrs. Frazer, and made such a good Giielic scholar of her;
she called this collection a Bolg So/air, that Mr. Frazer of Culbokift
her gran df-OHj could give no account of it. 11. The uianusciipt was
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