The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

702 The Highland Monthly.
success, a position to which his undoubted genius could
have led him, and that one thing was a tendency to
lethargy which crippled his energy. He filled, however,
several important public positions. He was assistant
commissioner to the 1865 Education Commission, and his
report on the educational state of the Highlands and
Islands is a model of its kind even from a literary stand-
point, having been pronounced the " most readable bluebook
ever printed." He was also a member of Lord
Napier's Commission of 1883 appointed to inquire into the
condition of the crofters, and his knowledge of the country
and its people was of immense service to his colleagues.
His literary labours consisted largely of fugitive pieces
and newspaper and magazine articles, much of which must
be lost. Many of his poems are well known and cherished
by his countrymen. His great marching song, " Agus Ho
Mhorag," to which he was adding verse after verse, was
completed by the time of his death, and we hope soon to
put it before our readers in its entirety, under the editorial
supervision of Mr Magnus Maclean in connection with his
" Skye Bards." It should be mentioned that Sheriff
Nicolson was an enthusiastic Volunteer, and his marching
song is full of fine touches, both stirring and pathetic.
Among his other pieces we may note as having caught the
popular fancy, his bilingual one, entitled an " Edinburgh
Summer Song," where his passionate love for his native Isle
finds fullest expression, and also the song of the " Britisli
Ass," written in connection with the visit of the British
Association to Edinburgh in 1871. He wrote a memoir
of his friend Adam Black, the publisher, a work which was
nearly lost at the wreck of the " Lively " near Stornowa\',
when that ill-fated vessel jeopardised the lives of the Napier
Commissioners and their press friends. His magnum opus
is his "Gaelic Proverbs," professedly based on the Rev. Dr
Mackintosh's collection, first published in 1785. Sheriff
Nicolson's work is, however, practically an original work.