ich begins "'S mi'm shuidhe air an tulaich." For
the details of her career, which are the subject of some dispute, the
reader may be referred to a paper by Alexander Mackenzie in the
_Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness_, vol. xxii. pp. 43-66.
Mary Macleod is accounted one of the most musical and original of the
Highland bards.

"Iain Lom."

John Macdonald, better known as Iain Lom (d. c. 1710), was a vigorous
political poet whose verses exercised an extraordinary influence during
his lifetime. He is said to have received a yearly pension from Charles
II. for his services to the Stuart cause. His best-known poems are _Mort
na Ceapach_, on the murder of the heir of Keppoch, who was eventually
avenged through the poet's efforts, and a piece on the battle of
Inverlochay (1645). However great the inspiration of Mary Macleod and
Iain Lorn, they were after all but political or family bards. In
succession to them there arose a small band of men with loftier
thoughts, a wider outlook and greater art. The literature of the
Scottish Highlands culminates in the names of Alexander Macdonald,
Duncan Ban MacIntyre and Dugald Buchanan.

Alexander Macdonald.

Alexander Macdonald, commonly called Alasdair MacMaighstir Alasdair (b.
c. 1700), was the son of an Episcopalian clergyman in Moidart. He was
sent to Glasgow University to fit himself for a professional career. But
an imprudent marriage caused him to abandon his studies, and about 1729
he received an appointment as a Presbyterian teacher in his native
district. He was moved from place to place, and from 1739 to 1745 he
taught at Corryvullin on the Sound of Mull, the scene of some of his
most beautiful lyrics. About 1740 he was invited to compile a Gaelic
vocabulary, which was published in 1741. Macdonald has thus the double
distinction of being the author of the first book printed in Scotch
Gaelic and of being the father of Highland lexicography. The news of the
landing of the Pretender brought visions of release to the
poverty-stricken poet, who was by this time heartily sick of teaching
and farming. He turned Roman Catholic, and was present at the unfurling
of the Stuart standard. He was given the rank of captain, but rendered
greater services to the Jacobite cause with his stirring poems than with
the sword. After Culloden he suffered great privations. But in 1751 he
visited Edinburgh and brought out a collection of his poetry, which has
the honour of b