Hector Maclean, of the same period, was bard to Sir Lachlan Maclean of Duart, from whom he had a small annuity. Two poems of his, the “Chief’s Elegy” and “Song,” are reckoned among the beauties of Gaelic poetry, and have also attracted the attention of Sir Walter Scott, who translated or imitated in the abrupt style of the original a fragment of the latter, entitled “War-Song of Lachlan, High-Chief of Maclean.” This song, like many of the early Gaelic productions, makes a rapid transition from one subject to another. From the situation of a forlorn maiden of the clan, who opens with an address to her absent lover, it passes finally to an eulogium over the martial glories of the chieftain. Thus:— A weary month has wandered o’er Since last we parted on the shore; Heaven! that I saw thee, Love, once more, Safe on that shore again! ’Twas valiant Lachlan gave the word; Lachlan, of many a galley lord; He call’d his kindred bands on board, And launched them on the main. Clan Gillian is to ocean gone, Clan Gillian, fierce in foray known; Rejoicing in the glory won In many a bloody broil; For wide is heard the thundering fray, The rout, the ruin, the dismay, When from the twilight glens away Clan Gillian drives the spoil. Woe to the hills that shall rebound Our banner’d bagpipes’ maddening sound; Clan Gillian’s onset echoing round, Shall shake their inmost cell. Woe to the bark whose crew shall gaze Where Lachlan’s silken streamer plays! The fools might face the lightning’s blaze As wisely and as well! Lachlan Mackinnon of Strath, Isle of Skye, is the next to figure in this succession. Unlike so many of the others, he was not unlettered, nor ignorant of such knowledge of the language as may be gleaned from a critical study of its structure. Hence his Gaelic is wonderfully pure and correct. In early life he filled the rôle of a strolling musician, carrying his violin about with him from place to place, till certain personal considerations obliged him to desist.