Opinion. The Parfon [9] has begot himself Children, made himself Gardens and Orchards, and planted Trees in them of all Kinds. He hath made himself Pools of Water, to water therewith the Trees; and he has had Poffeffion of great Cattle above all that were in WHEATFIELD before him. VALAET RES LUDIC RA.. [9] This Paffages alludes to the Rector's numerous Family of nine Children-To his Love for Gardens and Plantations-To his ma❤ king some small Pieces of Water, and to his very accidental Breeding and Feeding a large Bullock, that, after Sale, was made a Shew of FRAGMENTS OF ANCIENT POETRY, Collected in the HIGHLANDS of SCOTLAND, AND Tranflated from the GALIC or ERSE Language, Vos quoque, qui fortes animas belloque peremptas Plurima fecuri fudiftis carmina, Bardi. LUCAN. Firft Printed in the Year 1760. PREFACE. TH HE Public may depend on the following Fragments as genuine Remains of ancient Scottish Poetry, The Date of their Compofition cannot be exactly ascertained. Tradition, in the Country where they were written, refers them to an Era of the moft remote Antiquity: And this Tradition is fupported by the Spirit and Strain of the Poems themselves; which abound with those Ideas, and paint those Manners, that belong to the moft early State of Society, The Diction too, in the Original, is very obfolete; and differs widely from the Style of fuch Poems as have been written in the fame Language two or three Centuries ago. They were certainly compofed before the Establishment of Clanship in the Northern Part of Scotland, which is itself very ancient; for had Clans been then formed and known, they must have made a confiderable Figure in the Work of a Highland Bard; whereas there is not the leaft Mention of them in these Poems. It is remarkable that there are I 4 |