uage, they could
bear no comparison with his truly superior compositions in Gaelic. It is
a matter of much regret that so few of his Gaelic poems are extant. Like
many bards he unfortunately trusted his productions to his memory; and
although well qualified, as a Gaelic writer, to commit them to paper,
yet he neglected it, and hence hundreds of our best pieces in Gaelic
poetry are lost for ever. Had they been all preserved, and given to the
public in a collected shape, they would have raised the talented author
to that high rank among the Celtic bards, which his genius so richly
merited.

In appearance _Lachlan Mac Thearlaich_ was tall, handsome, and
fascinating. He was distinguished by a winning gentleness and modesty of
manners, as well as by his generous sensibility and steadfast
friendship. His presence was courted in every company, and he was
everywhere made welcome. Of most of the chieftains and Highland lairds
he was a very acceptable acquaintance, while no public assembly, or
social meeting was considered complete if that object of universal
favour, the bard of Strath, were absent.

When a very young man he was united in marriage to Flora, daughter of Mr
Campbell of Strond, in the Island of Harris. Fondly attached to his
native isle, he rented from his chief the farm of Breakish, with the
grazing Island of Pabbay, at L24 sterling annually. And as an instance
of the many changes effected by time, it may be mentioned that the same
tenement is now rented at about L250 a-year. From what has been said of
the bard's amiable disposition and gentle manners, it will seem no wise
surprising that he proved to be one of the most affectionate of
husbands, and dutiful of fathers. The happiness of the matrimonial state
was to him, however, but of short duration. His wife, to whom he was
greatly attached, died in the prime and vigour of life. He was rendered
so disconsolate by means of his sudden and unexpected bereavement, that
he took a dislike to the scene of his transient happiness, and
relinquished his farm in Strath. Having removed from Skye, he took
possession of a new tenement of lands from Mackenzie in Kintail. Greatly
struck by what he considered the unrefined manners of his new neighbours
in that quarter, and contrasting them with the more genial deportment of
his own distinguished clan in Strath, he had the misfortune to exercise
his poetic genius in the composition of some pungent satires and
lampoons directed ag