During this period Gaelic scholars and culture were encouraged and fostered by the Princes, afterwards the Lords of the Isles. These Princes were also very liberal in their benefactions to the Church; it was one of them, the great Somerled, that endowed the Abbey of Paisley. Iona and other places over which their sway extended had always their constant help. And thus in their patronage of churchmen they afforded shelter and protection to literature. The MacVurichs and the Beatons, already mentioned, were at one time their secretaries and senachies or clan-historians. Having in course of time extensive possessions in Ireland as well as in Scotland, much intercourse was maintained between the two countries, bards and scholars of both countries going and coming in their train. The most distinguished of them after Somerled were Donald, from whom the clan, Donald Bulloch, with his brother John Mor, and James Macdonald the last of the Isles who thus signs his name in a missive to the Irish Privy Council, on January 24, 1546:—“James M’Connail of Dunnewaik and ye Glinnis, and aperand aeyr of ye Yllis.” The Macdonalds, at one time or another, as Princes or Lords of the Isles, ruled for upwards of five centuries of the historical period over nearly the half of Scotland and part of the north of Ireland. They occupy a prominent place in Norse, Irish, and Scottish history. The Macdonalds finally lost all their lands in the West, the most of which passed into the hands of their powerful rivals the Campbells:— The Halls of Finlaggan no longer sound To joyous feasts and dances as of yore: The bard is dumb, the harper plays no more Where the proud princes of the Isles were crowned:— Their palace waste! while sadness sits around; And weeds and nettles flourish on the floor; Stark silence hovers round the islet’s shore Where tread of warriors oft had shook the ground. The chiefs and chieftains of the isles and west Are seen no more at great Macdonald’s court; Their galleys traverse not the island seas: They with their furious feuds are now at rest: Razed is each castle, ruined is each fort, Within thy bounds, Queen of the Hebrides!