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been concealed in that family, and of his female dress, were however traced out; in consequence of which FLORA and her father in law were seized and carried prisoners, with many others, on board a frigate then lying in the road, and taken to London, in order to be tried for misprision of trea

son.

No. 33.

To ages yet unborn th' undying song.—P. 92.

The Isle of Sky still retains, in some degree, its ancient pre-eminence above the rest of the Hebrides; it is the native region of Gaelic music and poetry. The inhabitants held their land on very easy terms; the surrounding sea poured all its riches upon their coasts, and even foreign luxuries, from the frequent passage of Dutch and Danish vessels through their straits, were obtained at an easier rate than in most other places. They had a succession of very learned and intelligent clergy among them, one of whom, DR MACPHERSON, father to the present SIR JOHN, was the first who threw light upon Gaelic antiquities. It is singular enough, that the Sky gentlemen, though more enlightened and informed than almost any set of people of their own rank, did not often acquire much taste for the English classics. Having early cultivated a poetical taste at home, that taste, formed on the simple and sublime models of OSSIAN, and the poets of his remote age, was gratified at college chiefly by the perusal of the Greek and Roman poets. MILTON was the only Eng

lish poet they set any value on; they read and quoted Latin all their life after being at college; but, instead of studying English poetry, returned with a heightened relish to the admiration of their own. Hence the latter Gaelic songs in the Isle of Sky, abound with classical allusions. HECtor, Helen, JuNO, and VENUS, are there most familiarly used,

"To point a moral, or adorn a tale.”

No. 34,

TO FLORA long had vow'd his plighted truth.-P. 93. FLORA MACDONALD, who was a young woman of singular good sense and excellent principles, added to these advantages a genteel figure, mild, pleasing countenance, great self-command, and soft decorous manners. She was the daughter of a respectable gentleman in the island of South Uist; who dying very young, his widow, in FLORA's infancy, married MACDONALD of Kingsburgh, who had one son by a former marriage. These young people, as they grew up, contracted an attachment to each other, and were in a manner betrothed at the time she was carried away prisoner,

No. 35.

The just applause due to the dauntless maid.-P. 96.

"

FLORA, on this trying occasion, behaved with astonishing composure and propriety; for she had death in im mediate prospect, and did not indulge a hope of escaping. KINGSBURGH, her fellow-sufferer, was asked afterwards if

he did not feel a very lively pleasure in being relieved from the terrors of death, and restored to a family in which he was known to be singularly happy. He said, no; he was not in the least elated; the bitterness of death was over with him; he had divorced his mind from its dearest earthly ties, made every preparation for his change, and was quite resigned, in full hope of the divine aid to support it like a Christian. He had brought himself to consider lengthened life as merely protracted sin and suffering, and could hardly hope again to prepare himself for death at full leisure, in possession of all his faculties.

No. 36.

That treacherous FLORA royal blood betray'd.-P. 97.

It was truly in consequence of such a conversation as is here recited, that FLORA and her associates were discharged; and from the greatness of mind shewn by the Monarch on this occasion, there is room to conclude, that had not the royal ear been engrossed by inhuman and unwise counsellors, the overstrained rigour of that juncture would not have been permitted to stain the annals of a reign otherwise glorious.

No. 37.

Preserves the simple manners of the plain.-P. 98.

It is a fact, that during the time FLORA staid in London after her discharge, she received distinguished attentions from the discontented party; every day carriages waited at her door with invitations from ladies of distinction,

who loaded her with civilities and presents. She is said also to have had very advantageous offers of marriage, and to have been much admired in her own circle. Determined however to assume no new character, incompatible with that to which she was resolved to return, she, with the finest linen and most valuable trinkets, always preserved a characteristic and national form of dress; she wore the Highland plaid, adjusted in the modest and becoming form then usual among Scottish ladies; and her gown, though the finest of the kind to be had, was invariably tartan. During the remainder of her life she received a pension from some of the leaders of the declining faction in England.

No. 38.

And oft to want his liberal bounty dealt.-P. 99.

FLORA was very happily married, and made an excellent wife and mother. Some of her descendents, worthy of their parents, are still alive. KINGSBURGH was a man of great worth and spirit, but affected a liberal and showy stile of living, rather beyond his circumstances, though these were very easy; this concurred, with other causes alluded to in the poem, to induce the family to emigrate to America in the year 1776,

No. 39.

Endur'd the rigid law's forbidding frown.-P, 103. Nothing could depress the Highlanders more than the imagined policy of depriving them of a national habit which

they greatly preferred to any other, and found better adapted to the purposes of hunting, climbing the mountains, fishing, and above all, sleeping out in the heaths, which they often did, wrapped in the plaid, the colours of which were so well suited to the woods and dusky verdure of their high grounds, that they could come very near their game unperceived. They shewed great fancy and taste, both in disposing the colours, and adjusting the form of this variegated drapery; it was the manufacture of their women, and the distinction of their clans, each having had a sett, (as they styled it,) of tartan peculiarly their own.

No. 40.

Where beasts were free, and free-born men restrain'd.-P. 103.

The horror and dismay, the dejection and languor, which the disarming act spread through the Highlands, are inconceivable. All the lower class had arms which they used occasionally; but costly, well finished, and high polished arms, formed part of a gentleman's dress, without which he never stirred from home. They were at once his ornament and defence; and when they did not adorn his person, they decorated his house, where his own arms, those of his ancestors, the musical instruments they had played on, and the strange birds or animals they had killed and stuffed, constituted the chief ornamental furniture. With these arms too they always visited their friends; and as their way lay across moors and mountains, they seldom came to a house without bringing game of their own killing. After the disarming act, this resource, a very fruitful one in

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