What this difference is owing to, I leave to be determined by others, who are better acquainted, than I am, with such circumstances of the Scottish Highlands, as might prove more favourable towards keeping up the perfect knowledge of their language for so many generations. But, be that as it may, it is not my intent to enter into the dispute, which has arisen in relation to the antiquity of Ossian’s poems. My concern is only about the opinion the world may entertain of the intrinsic value of those which I offer. They seem to me, though not so methodical and regular in their composition as many poems of other nations, yet not to be wanting in poetical merit; and if I am not totally deceived in my judgment, I shall have no reason to repent of the pains I have taken to draw them out of that state of obscurity, in which they have hitherto been buried, and in which they run great risk of mouldering away. It might perhaps be expected, that I should say something of the Bards in general on this occasion; but as I have treated that subject in my Latin Dissertation, which I shall annex to these translations, it will be sufficient to observe here, that the usual subjects of their poems were the brave feats of their warriors in the field, their hospitality and generosity, with other commendable qualities in domestic life, and elegies upon their great men, which were sung to the harp at their feasts, before a numerous audience of their friends and relations. This is the account that the Greek and Roman writers have given of them, as I have shown at large in the above-mentioned treatise, which I intend to publish. The following poems, from among many others of greater length, and of equal merit, were taken from a manuscript of the learned Dr. Davies, author of the Dictionary, which he had transcribed from an ancient vellom MS. which was wrote, partly in Edward the Second and Third’s time, and partly in Henry the Fifth’s, containing the works of all the Bards from the Conquest to the death of Llewelyn, the last prince of the British line. This is a noble treasure, and very rare to be met with; for Edward the First ordered all our Bards, and their works, to be destroyed, as is attested by Sir John Wynne of Gwydir, in the history he compiled of his ancestors at Carnarvon. What remained of their works were conveyed in his time to the Exchequer, where he complains they lay in great confusion, when he had occasion to consult them. As to the translation, I have endeavoured to render the sense of the Bards faithfully, without confining myself to too servile a version; nor have I, on the other hand, taken liberty to wander much from the originals; unless where I saw it absolutely necessary, on account of the different phraseology and idiom of language.