Letter

Dear Sir

I met with your acceptable favour Last week in my way to Sconser and must Acknowledge you have prettily dressed up Small matters, So as to render them Entertaining & agreeable, for tho I am Acquainted with all your Observations, I am much pleased when I read them in your descriptive Stile. The Corrections on the Other Page, are of Litle consequence — if they Overtake You in my time, they may be attended to, if not, One in five thousand of Your Readers will not advert to them, tho, Indeed, a work of Yours Which hath a Chance to be read for read for Generations to come, shoud not be neglected in the Smallest Particle.

Your Character of Mr MacLeod,⁵ seems to me Just Enough, which you have properly qualyfyed with the words "actions if persisted in, for it is said of Brittanicus retinuit famam Sine Experimento and the Same might be said of your Edward the 6^th And there were several who had their Golden days and the reverse.⁶

I shoud be Sorry that you gave Yourself Unnecessary trouble in the Affair of Lord Seaforth, for I hear his Factor hath recommended a Tennant's Son of his own.In his previous letter, MacQueen had asked for Pennant's assistance in securing his son John's preferment as minister to a parish on Seaforth's estate.

I shall be glad to hear from you when you Are at Leisure,

for I am with true
Esteem Dr Sir,
Your very Obedient & very humble Servt

Don: Macqueen

Kilmuir April the 11^th
1774.

I told you some where that it woud Seem to me that our Celtic Ancestors Sung And danced to the Creation of the world for thus they Expressed all their Religious Doctrines. I have taken Up an opinion that they Also danced to A Song called the Conflagration of the world ορχησίς τισ κοσμου εκπυρωσίς Athen. dipnosoph Lib. 14. Analogous in Some degree to the Spirit of this dance was the conduct of Nero, when he Entered into his Domestic Theatre And sung or acted the destruction of Troy while Rome was in Flames about his Ears, a part which few ill be disposed to Act in time of the General ruin, prefigured in the above dance. This however is out of your road & I shall trouble you no More about it.

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Enclosure

Corrigenda¹

For Ormadale page 283. Line 2^d. read Armadale. In stead of tyed with Ropes, fastened from the horn p.284 line 17^th. read tyed with twisted woodies, fastened from the Under-chain of the one to the tail of the preceeding. In stead of Luaghadh p.285 Line 27^th. read Luagh. In stead of Bein-na-grian p.287 read Bein-an-ghrianan.² Grianan or Grianhan, the house of the Sun, is the name of Various places amongst Us, where there is Generally a Litle Inclosure, in which on the Return of that Salutary Planet, they burnt large fires and very probabley offered Sacrifices in honour of the Intelligence which they supposed had Animated it. Hence the Grinneus Appollo of the Greeks and the Appollo Grannus of the Scots which is the word Grianich ^Sunny Latinized, from the root Grian the Sun. The Spirit of the Sun is in our Language called Grūagich, the One with the fair tresses, answering Literally to the Epithet ακερσε-κομος given by Homer to Appollo.³ A Stone or Altar for Gruagich lies almost in Every district for he seems to have drawn more of the attention of the people than the Other Subaltern Divinities As guideing the Source of Light And Fertility around the world. He contented himself with Small Libations of Milk on Every Saturday in the Last ^generation And some of the Preceeding generations, tho I know they Offered him more costly Sacrifices before the Introduction of Christianity. This is a Digression.

If it were not to spoil the very pretty Elegant description you have given of Quillin on this page, I woud say that the Cluster of Hills which go Under that name, have no connection with our Countrey man Cuchullin, for Quillin or Cuilin plainly Signifies narrow dark hollows, which are numerous Among these Lofty Excrescences And Imports the same meaning with the furcæ Caudinæ of Italy, the Forks of North America And Seems not much different from the Mons Grampiūs of Caledonia, for Gramp is the common Erse word for a fork. The Highest hill in old Arcadia was Also Cyllene which when the C is pronounced like the greek καππα is the very Name of our Hill. yet I woud be Loath to Sacrifice your Poetical beauties to so dull And but to a few so very Uninteresting Observation Unless it were Enlivened Under Your hand.

For Camisketel 287 Line 16^th. read Camiseketel. The paragraph preceeding the words "to the recent Victory of Culloden woud infer that the two-handed Swords Were Used in the year 1745, whereas it is Universally known, that upwards of a Century Preceeding that Period, they were altogether Laid Aside.⁴ In stead of Braolauch Page 295. read Braloch.

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Editorial notes

1. The following are apparently corrections for draft sheets of Pennant's A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774). The page references given by MacQueen do not correspond to those of the published text.
2. An adjoining peak of Beinn na Caillich on Skye, possibly Beinn Dearg Mhòr. See Pennant, A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774), p.329.
3. This account of the origins of the Gruagach appears in A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774), p.359. See also the description based on MacQueen's letter of August 18 1774 in Pennant, A Tour in Scotland 1772, part II (1776), pp.434-38.
4. See Pennant's description of Highland weaponry, A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774), pp.332-33.
5. A reference to Pennant's guarded approval of Norman Macleod's paternalistic conduct as a Highland chief in A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774) p.338.
6. MacQueen is comparing Macleod, then around the age of twenty, to promising rulers from history whose lives were cut short by early death.