sages which the attestations procured by Blair have specified, as recited or even as remembered in the Highlands. But Cu

any; as to the second, I do remember in my early days to have heard the exploits of the Fions recited almost by every body, and I still retain some of what I then heard, particularly relating to Oscar; but, upon comparison, (I) find the circumstances differ widely from what is contained in the printed poems." Letter from Mr Duncan Macfarlane, dated Drumon Manse, November 28. 1763. But why was this conscientious letter suppressed? Another writes, "I lost no time in making due enquiries about the authenticity of Fingal's poem. I confined my intelligence at first to Strathspey, hoping to find there such information as would satisfy you on the subject; but, being disappointed in my expectations, I therefore endeavoured to pick up proper information through the counties of Inverness and Ross, at least so far of them as I had access to; the result of the whole is, that the manners of the people in these northern counties are quite different from what they were half a century ago. People of old were wont to impress upon the minds of their children, the songs of the bards; but this custom has fallen so much into desuetude, that there is scarce to be found any one who can repeat, from memory, the whole of Fingal's poem. Old Rothiemurchus and Dal

thullin's car is an Irish ballad, containing little more than the names and epithets of the horses. The episode of Fainasolis is an alteration of Dan na Inghin, or the Maid's Tragedy, a well known ballad, upon which the Fragment of Oscar's combat with Ullin is also constructed. Ossian's Exploits at Lochlego are taken from the

rachney, desired to be named as vouchers of it. They remember to have heard it in their younger days; and they are positive, that Mr Macpherson's edition is the genuine translation of Fingal, a poem that has been transmitted from father to son for a great number of past centuries. I am promised a copy of Fingal in the original: if it proves agreeable to my taste and liking, I will in that event transmit it to you by my brother Sandy, who goes to Edinburgh in a few weeks hence." Letter from Lewis Grant, dated Duthil, 26th January, 1764. But this letter has been also suppressed, though Blair (omitting the negative evidence) rests upon Rothiemurchus's and Dalrachney's absurd attestations. Yet the correspondence with Blair is the original evidence, upon which the poems must ultimately depend; and it is curious to compare the meagre evidence contained in the letters, with the magnificent form whic it assumes in Blair's appendix.

Suireadh Oisin, or courtship of Evirallin, another Irish ballad. Ullin's war-song is merely a detached panegyric upon Gaul. The terms of peace proposed by Morla, are from the ballad of Magnus; but the terms, as one witness more conscientious than the rest acknowledges, are proposed by Magnus, king of Lochlin, to Fingal, and not by the unheard of Swaran to Cuthullin ". The standard, or sun-beam of battle, the choice of an adversary by each chieftain, and the single combat between Swaran and Fingal, are all taken from the same ballad of Fingal and Magnus. The battle of Lora is founded on Teantach mor na Feine (the greatest danger the Fingalians ever sustained) or, the invasion of Ireland by Erragon, king of Lochlin, of which Macpherson confessedly obtained a copy from Maclaggen ", but no trace of the battle of Lora has ever been discovered.

17 Id. 29. Report, 56.

13 Id. Appendix, 24. 154.

Lathmon derives its story from Lammonmore, another Irish ballad; Darthula, from Deirdar, and the Children of Uisleachan: the Death of Oscar from Bhas Oscar, the sole foundation upon which the Temora is constructed; the lamentation of Dargo's spouse, from Marbhran Deirg, a ballad very different from Macpherson's poem; but in these ballads we would search in vain for the address to the moon in Darthula, or for a single poetical image or sentiment almost in Macpherson's Ossian 1.

The only remaining passages, attested in the correspondence with Blair, are the death of Agandecca, and the story of Orla in Fingal ; Gauland Ossian sitting on the green banks of Lubar; a part of the War of Inisthona; the address to the evening star, and the death of

19 Of these ballads, which Macpherson himself has stigmatized as Irish, the combat of Fingal and Magnus, or Ossian agus an Clerich, with others collected by Mr Hill, may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1782-3. Ossian's courtship of Evirallin, the Maid's

Connal in the Fragment of Connal and Crimora". Neither the death of Agandecca, which was probably mistaken for the Maid's Tragedy, nor the story of Orla, nor any part of the war of Inisthona, has hitherto been discovered; "Then Gaul and Ossian sat on the green banks of Lubar," is an imitation of the 137th

Tragedy, the Lamentation of Dargo's wife, the Tale of Con son of Dargo, Teantach mor na Feine, or the Tale of Erragon, the Death of Oscar, collected by Dr Young, may be, found in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. I. Cuthullin's car, the Address to Gaul, Lammon-more, Deirdar, the Children of Uisleachan, (of which I possess, or have seen translations) Garibhe Mac Stairn, and a few others, have never been published. An extract from one of the ballads of Deirdar is published from an old MS. by D. Smith, in the Appendix to Mr Mackenzie's Report, p. 290, but not a syllable of Macpherson's Darthula.

20 Id. 2. 23. 29. 30. Something like the beginning of the episode of Agandecca, appears in the appendix to Mackenzie's Report, 219, where Fion is invited and goes to Bergen, (Bheirge) to marry the king of Lochlin's daughter; but the catastrophe is wanting, as well as the names of Starno, Agandecca, &c.