The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

748 Ihe Highland Monthly.
Cum g-u caithriseach 'na dhuisg e
Air eagal gu'n caill e 'chota
'G iarraidh phogan anns na cuilean.
DUGHALL LISEADAIR.
Dugald Macpherson or Dughall Mac-Mhuirich, from
Troternish (1700), seems to have been more of a
hymnologist. At anyrate, his best known composition is
" Laoidh mu'n Bhas." There are thirty-six verses in it,,
from which I quote the first three :
—
An cluinn thu 'dhuine, bi air d' fhaicill,
'S madainn na h-aiserigh dluth dhut
Eisd an trompaid 's thoir an aire,
Guth an aingil 'thig dh' ad' ionnsuidh.
Ge socair thu air do leabaidh,
Cuimhnich gur h-aithghearr an uine ;
'S ma tha curam ort mu d' anam
Greas ort gu h-ealamh 's dian d' urnaigh.
Cha 'ni 'n urnaigh ghoirid, fhionnar
Cuimhnich, a dhuine, ni cuis dhut ;
Bheir an urnaigh ni dhut buinnig,
Ort gu 'n guil thu air do shuilean.
.
WILLIAM ROSS.
WilHam Ross is a poet of a very high order of merit
"one of the sweetest minstrels the Highlands have
produced." He was born at Broadford in the year 1762.
His mother was daughter to John Mackay, the celebrated
Piobaire Dall. ^
While William Ross was still young his parents removed
to Forres. Here Ross attended school, and it is related
that he made unusual progress in his studies. Thereafter
his father started as a travelling pedlar, and William, his
^ Professor Blackie makes a serious mistake aljout this, which he repeats
twice in his "Language and Literature of the Scottish Highlands;" *'his mother
was a native of Gairloch, in Ross-shire, a daughter of the famous blind Allan
the Piper," and again " AiU-afi Da// oi Blind Allan, Ross's father-in-law."
That is, in one place he makes Ailean Dall to be Ross's grandfather, and in
another place to be his father-in-law. Ailean Ball was born in 1750, only 12
years before Ross's birth."
;
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