Journal of a Tour in the Highlands and Western Islands
of Scot- land in 1800. By John Leyden. Edited, with a Bibliography, by James Surton. (Blackwood and Sons. 6s. net.)—There is nothing of special interest in this Journal, now published for the first time. Leyden's special object was an inquiry into the genuineness of Macpherson's "Ossian." He heard of poems again and again, but they eluded him ; his quest was, of course, hindered by his ignorance of Gaelic. But, on the whole, he came away more believing than he went ; but believing, we fancy, rather in the general existence of the poetical legends than in Macpherson's presentation of them. Leyden mentions one matter which it might be worth while to examine a little more closely. Did the Highlanders deteriorate in morals in the sixteenth century? "While under the powerful influence of the Romish clergy they were neither so ignorant nor so disorderly as after the Reforma- tion." If the Roman clergy of the first half of the century were as bad as the Bishops, they could hardly have influenced their people for good.
Previous page
