This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The original letter is extant and usually available for academic research purposes
Gregorian
This letter is part of the Primary Texts section of the Thomas Gray Archive.
XML created for the Thomas Gray Archive.
This letter is part of the correspondence calendar of the complete correspondence of Thomas Gray. The calendar contains detailed bibliographic records for all known original, copied, or published letters written by or to the poet as well as the full-text, where available. Each record is accompanied by digitised images of the manuscript, where available, or digitised images of the first printed edition.
A Note
Having made many enquiries about the authenticity of these Fragments; I have got a letter from Mr David Hume (the Historian) wch is more satisfactory than any thing I have yet met with on that subject. he says,
Certain it is, that these poems are in every body's mouth in the High-lands, have been handed down from Father to Son, & are of an age beyond all memory & tradition. Adam Smith, the celebrated Professor in Glasgow, told me, that the Piper of the Argyleshire Militia repeated to him all those, wch Mr Macpherson has translated, & many more of equal beauty. Major Mackay (Ld Rae's Brother) told me, that he remembers them perfectly well; as likewise did the Laird of Macfarline (the greatest Antiquarian we have in this country) & who insists strongly on the historical truth, as well as the poetical beauty of these productions. I could add the Laird & Lady Macleod, with many more, that live in different parts of the highlands, very remote from each other, & could only be acquainted with what had become (in a manner) national works. there is a Country-Surgeon in Lochaber, who has by heart the entire Epic Poem mention'd by Mr Macpherson in his Preface, & as he is old; is perhaps the only person living, that knows it all; & has never committed it to writing; we are in the more hast to recover a Monument, wch will certainly be regarded as a curiosity in the Republick of Letters: we have therefore set about a subscription of a Guinea or two Guineas apiece in order to enable Mr Macpherson to undertake a Mission into the Highlands to recover this poem, & other fragments of antiquity.
I forgot to mention to you that the names of Fingal, Oscian, Oscur, &c: are still given in the Highlands to large Mastiffs, as we give to ours the names of Cæsar, Pompey, Hector &c: