Letter

Dear Sir

I much approve of Your saying Nothing of Migration, tho it was going on when You was here And I heartyly repent to have desired you to Speak to Mr Archibald Macdonald on that head, tho it was on the Encouragement of his writing Me that he woud Endeavour Manibus Pedibus to stop the further progress of that work.⁴

If you Are pleased to Publish Any Part of the Scrapes I sent you, you will need mend the Sense And the Language, Especially the Latter.

you will permitt Me to Inform you, that I have a Son, John Macqueen a preacher, Who hath had the Benefit of Edūcation, beyond you Men of his size, from this part of the Countrey, is possessed of a tolerable genius And a good heart, to which Several besides Me woud bear Testimony. When you have read this far, you will be Apt to Say, what is the meaning of All this. — I will Explain that to you.

I am Just now informed that Mr John Maclean Minister of Kintail, on Lord Seafort's Estate, close to the Neighbourhood of Sky is no more. I wou'd be content to get my Son into this Parish — the King is patron of it, Yet My Lord's Stewards have more to Say in Settling the vacancies on his Estate, than his Majesty or his Lordship — they will, from Motives of their own, recommend a young man to his Lordship and he procure the presentation. I have no Interest or connection with these Men or tho I had, I woud be Loath to Ask a favour of them. If you are acquainted with his Lordship could I ask you to speak to him or to Employ a few minutes of Your Time, in bringing about the Setlement? Is it any Recommendation that he, My Son, is descended of four Ministers Successively, who served in this And the Neighbouring parish, of which My Lords Ancestors were once Patrons And presented My Grand father and Great grand father to their Liveings. It is Like this young man will be Less troublesome to the Heritor And Parishioners, than Any of the Growth of that Estate, being Intent on his Studies And not in absolute want. You Will be so good As to Acquaint me, in Course, What part you will be disposed to Act in this Matter or Wether you shall take Any Notice of it or not — Whatever turn it takes You may Ask me what further Queries you please in your Letter, for You shall Always find Me,

with much Esteem, Dear Sir,
Your Affectionate & very Obedient Servant

Don: Macqueen

Kilmuir february 19^th
1774.

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Enclosure

p.1^st

Poetry, Singing And dancing have been common to all Ages And nations from Terra del Fuego in the South Untill you come to the Eskimaux as well as ^on the whole Length of the Other Hemisphere And from before the days of Moses, who Mentions former Songs, down to our own Times. The most Savage Nations, the most Civilized, as well as the tame Insignificant Inhabitants of St Kilda compose, Sing & dance. These are Exercises which I take to be coeval with Society And as natural to man as thought, Speech or Motion. We have a wonderful propensity to Analyse And Simplify human Actions And reduce them to a primitive narrow principle. How much have Phylosophers heated and fatigued themselves in deriving Virtue, some from disinterested Benevolence, some from Self-Love, some from Feeling and others from Reason, Without considering that the Mind As well As the Body is a complex, much diversifyed peice of Workmanship, furnished out with Several Facūlties, Passions & feelings, to Any of Which Complexion & Edúcation may give an Ascendant over the Rest And Each of Which may give occasion in it's turn to any of our Actions. In the same manner they have strained their Immaginations to find out the Origine of Poetry. Many have imputed it to real Inspiration, Some to the Aw, Love & Gratitude struck into the Mind by the presence of the Supreme Being in his Marvellous works. Had they not spoke more Naturally? If they had said in the General, that Men of warm Immaginations, Penetrated with a Lively Sense of External Objects and^or accidents will Express themselves in Terms of the greatest Energy And force And when Simple words come Short of the forcible impressions they have received, they fly to the Use of tropes & figures and Even to the Abuse of the boldest Metaphors. When Plain Language Sinks below them, that of bombast and Exaggeration fills it's place, Especially among those who Labour Under the transports of Enthusiasm or whose passions Are in the Natural Untamed State. In Every Language there are words & Expressions Suited to our Feelings, whether harsh, sweet or calm and came as Easily out of the mouth of a Savage, as he finds his Gestures, Motions & Limbs obedient to his Internal Sentiments And Expressive of them, as well As Language, A Man thus Susceptible of Lively impressions, whether Employed in the Worship of his Maker or in describing the Heroic Actions of a Champion in

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2^d

His Tribe or his own Escape from danger or the remembrance of signal Benefits, the Beauties of a Mistress or Whatsoever touched his heart to the quick, wou'd speak in the poetical stile And at Last woud fit it to Feet, Number, Cadence, to help the Memory to preserve it, to please the Ear in the Repetition And to be in full concert with the External Motions of the body, particularly of the Head, hands and Feet, which go Under the Name of dancing. The Odes, singing and dancing went Originally together — Hence are derived these Terms in Poetry, a long foot, a short foot, Scaning, measure, cadence: thus they were Jointly Employed in Public Worship, at Public festivals, Even in going down to Batle And on Every Occasion when he was meant to please or touch the heart.

When or where Rimeing began is impossible to determine. It woud seem it was of a very old standing in Europe, for the poetry among the barbarous Tribes was of that kind, tho, Often, something different from the present Mode in the composition of English and French verses, for sometimes a word in the Midle Answered to that in the End and Sometimes to that in the Midle of the next Line. The Runic poems according to Olaus wormius never had the final Syllables of One Sound, tho there were Rules to direct the Use of the same Letters, of the vowels Especially in Other parts of the Couplet. I am apt to believe that as their Religion, Laws & History were comprehended in Poems, which it was the Ambition of all to Masters of, And in which their Learning consisted, that Rime was introduced As a help to the Memory, for the Rime in the first Line of the Couplet woud naturally Lead them to the Second And the Variety of the Rime depended on the Air to which the Poem was Sung — The solemn Poems of Ossien As well As Homer & Hesiod were put to vocal & Instrument Music And I remember to have heard Homer Often sung to the tune of Coir an Neasa a Highland Song.

The Uncivilized Tribes were so Accustomed to hear the Works of their Bards And So much delighted with them, that on Every Occasion they had some Song or Other in their mouths. In the Western Isles we Remember the Beanicha Baird, i.e. the Bard's blessing at the Wedding, the Coranich, that is, a Lamentation in dismal Shrieks, which was an Extemporary Effusion in praise of the dead, in which a great Crowd of women often Joined in Jarring discord, agreeable Enough to the Ears of those Whose Relations were mentioned with Extravagant Encomiums — And indeed they Often hit Upon Strong poetical figures, the Offspring of a Mechanical Enthusiasm, for they were not sincere, tho Seemingly Serious & very Much Affected.

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p.3^rd

We remember Also their foul and Abusive Satires. But the Poetical talent is now much Laid Aside, for want of honour or Encouragement to support it. I know indeed that the Late Sir James Macdonald setled a Pension Upon a Bard in Long Island which he still continues to draw. There are now Some shreds Only of the old Customs preserved. Our Young Men And Women continue to dance to a Song, When they have no Instrumental Music. They Sing Also to Amuse them at their work and to Enliven their Spirits to the hasty performance of it. Our Rowers Sing at the Oar And beat time to their own Music. One Man Sings the words And the whole of them Join in the Chorūs — if they have a good Master, fair Weather And Some Usquebah to drink, they Possess more Unmixed Joy, than the Slaves of Cleopatra when rowing up the Cydnus to the Music of flutes, Pipes and harps. This Song is called the Jorram.

Our Women Sing After the same manner in time of Shearing down our Corn, And are Surely more hearty & Lively in their Progress than when Silent. The women also sing when grinding their Corn at the hand Miln, as they do when wakeing their Cloaths on Flakes made of wicker: At this Exercise they drive, with their hands & Sometimes with their feet, the Cloath, after it is sprinkled with a Nauseous decoction of their own Makeing, from one Side of the Flake to the Other, keeping time to the Air of the Song in all their Motions, their Sweet hearts often Looking on, admiring their voice, their air and Every beauty about them.¹ These sort of Songs were in Use among the Celtic Tribes, from beyond the reach of History and go ^went in their Language Under the general name of Litierses in Athenæus — Laoi-do-herves i.e. a Song for Work.

The Indian huts ² are often found on the Long Island Shore — A few only Upon our Coast which, I am told, are Generally Shūt up in the roots of Tangles. The tangle seed which Nature hath provided with a clammy kind of Gum, to keep hold of Any Solid body it touches, Lighting on ^or rather near the hut, may, I suppose, in the Progress of it's growth, stretch its roots & fibres over the hut And bring it along with it when pulled down by a storm.

The name of the Piper you dined with is Donald MacArthur — how Long his Ancestors have been Pipers in the Family of Macdonald, no Man Alive can determine.³ Tradition only informs Us that Angus Macdonald, Lord of the Isles, father to John

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4^th

Who marryed King Robert the 2^ds daughter And Grand father to Donald Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles, who fought the battle of Harlaw, he received in the thirteenth Century with O Cane of the County of Colranis daughter, by way of Dowry Sixty Gentlemen's Sons, when Men were more Esteemed than Money, of which Number MacArthur was one And it is supposed that his grandson played the tempestuous Tune I formerly mentioned called an Ca-gailich, whose posterity Served in the Office of Piper all the time to this, Excepting when a Minority or Incapacity Might have intervened. The Name of the Instrument in Erse is, pibe-mhore ie the big pipes. The only person in the Island whom I could trust with noteingAny Old tunes is Factor to the Knight of Macdonald And Just now at Edinr

Mackinnon's seat is at Kilmore. Mr Martin was a native of this parish.

MacLeod is now at Dunvegan in Sky, where he Intends to reside till midsummer at Least

The Birds of Passage which frequent Sky, appear much about the middle of October and go off about the Midle of March. Their Motions in coming or going are not fixed to a day, if the month of October is cold winter-like weather they cast Up the Earlyer And if it is a dry warm March they decamp Sooner than Ordinary ^or vice versa. The woodcock is never Seen in the Parish but one at a time, if there is a pair of them to me met with it is in the month of March. they are more numerous in the woody parts of the Islands, tho I cannot Say there is plenty of them Even there, And as they are not Observed to go or come in Flocks, the Hunter can only Judge [...] of the time of their Arrival by their Appearance in the woods And of their departure When he finds None there.

I remember I writ in some former Scrawl, that our Priests seem to have been Marryed And gave it As one of the Reasons for my thinking So, that their Descendants preserve the names of the different orders they came of, Such as Mac and Tagart, the Preist's Son Macpherson the Parson's Son &c. There is an Obvious Objection can be started to this Opinion; That these Ecclesiastics had a dispensation for

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5^th.

For keeping Concubines And as Particular appointments by the Pope of Rome put upon some of our Great men to provide certain Priests therein mentioned with a Female Semel in uno quoque Mense ad purgund os re nes. When the begeting of Children was Justifyed by so great And Infallible an Authority, the Fathers needed not be ashamed of the Children, nor the Children of the Fathers. Whether What I formerly writ Obviated this Objection I cannot now remember. But it is certain the first Scots Clergy, the Culdees or Kelle dei, had wives & Children, that the distinguishing tenets of Popery made but a slow progress over the Kingdom, that these primitive Ecclesiastics were not persecuted but allowed to dy out where they were most discountenanced As in the Neighbourhood of a powerful Bishop ^when that Order was Established among them And that some of them were provided for, even at Dunfermline, Untill the End of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth Century. This and the Neighbouring Isles being at So great a distance from the Metropolis, secured ^them from the fashions And Opinions Which prevailed in the more Civilized Part of the nation, by seas high Mountains and Extensive Waste Mūirs And withal asserting an Independancy on the Laws And on the Authority of the Sovereign, may be supposed to have conformed very Slightly to the Edicts of the holy Father And to have Litle dreaded the thunders of the Vatican. Further, the Reformations me with no Opposition amongst Us And the Now Popish Island of Barra, was protestant As Early As Any, but being an Appendage of the distant Island of Harris, Whose Minister happening to Neglect that troublesome part of his Charge, left it Open to be perverted by Itinerant Priests, who found themselves Uneasy Elsewhere. In Short, our Tradition asserts that the Clergy were maryed And you see how far it is countenanced by Appearances. If the Abbacy of Icolumkill had not been often distressed And at Last destroyed by ^the Norwegian Rovers the Records of it would cast full Light on this And on Several Other branches of Civil & Ecclesiastical History.

In Mentioning Nero As a player on the Bagpipe, I misplaced the name of Galba, which you will Easyly Observe.
— turn over.

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Editorial notes

1. Pennant gives an account of the Jorram in A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774), p.334. A description of the songs sung by women at work on the cloth (Luagh) and quern, accompanied by a plate, appears at pp.327-329, plate XXXIV.
2. Probably a reference to shielings, temporary dwellings used by herdsman. A Moses Griffith drawing of Sheilings on Jura appears in Pennant A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774), plate XV, p.246.
3. Pennant incorporates elements of MacQueen's history of the MacDonalds and their pipers into A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774), pp.347-48, although MacArthur himself is not named.
4. See MacQueen's letter of February 28 1773.