When more favoured youths spent the second decade of their life at higher schools, he had either to do manual work or to teach in little side schools away in the Glens. He had almost entirely to teach himself the classics and mathematics needed to enter the Universities. He entered Edinburgh University about the age of twenty, and after his Arts course passed through the Free Church Divinity College, becoming licensed in 1856. His first charge was Renton, where he laboured till 1874. Then he became minister of Brodick, where he died. His ecclesiastical career was somewhat stormy, and, much to the loss of Gaelic literature, the last two or three years of his life were almost altogether taken up with a barren struggle against the Courts of his Church. On the field of Gaelic literature, too, he ran tilt against the leading literary men of his time, whose accuracy in the matter of writing and spelling Gaelic he questioned with uncompromising severity. For Dr Cameron's feeling for accuracy almost amounted to a disease, and caused delays in his publications and the impression of dilatoriness which clings to his memory. But this is not all; genial and kindly as he was in reality, he presented, on account of this critical exactness, too often the unlovely side of a really noble character. His work in Gaelic philology began with his appointment to the Joint Commission of the General Assemblies for the Revision of the Gaelic Scriptures in 1862, and with the controversies on Gaelic spelling that arose therefrom. In 1872-3-4 he published a series of excellent articles on Gaelic philology in the Gael, where some five hundred and fifty root words were discussed, and where he showed himself fully abreast of the linguistic knowledge of that time. These articles are important as showing the strong Norse element there is in Gaelic. In 1881 he started the Scottish Celtic Review, and completed the first volume, four numbers, by the year 1885. Here, and also in the Scottish Review, he published some of the Dean of Lismore's Ossianic ballads, and he contributed as well valuable articles on Gaelic philology and grammar, besides translating Professor Windisch's paper on old Gaelic terminations. The Gaelic philologi ! ca! dictionary which he had begun can only be a fragment, and almost all the other rescarches and discoveries in philology and literature that he had made have gone down with him to the grave; an irreparable loss to Gaelic literature! The past year has shown a fair amount of literary activity in connection with the Highlands. Rev. Mr Macneill, Cawdor, has translated Miss Rainy's "Gospel in India" into excellent and racy Gaelic; Miss Dempster's papers on "Sutherlandshire folklore" are appearing in the Journal of the Folklore Society of London, and are both interesting and important; and we gladly welcome the effusions, English though they be, of Mr George Mackenzie in his "Highland Day-Dreams." We are sorry, however, to record the demise of the Celtic Magazine at the end of its 13th volume, but we observe with pleasure that, undaunted by previous failures, another magazine is to appear soon under the title of the "Highland Monthly," conducted by two excellent members of our Society, Mr Campbell and Mr Macbain. Casting a hurried glance over the work in general Celtic literature for the past year, we have to record a more than ordinary activity. Dr Whitley Stokes is ever to the front, and his "St Patrick," in two volumes, is a work that no Gaelic scholar should be without. Rev. T. Olden has published an interesting book on the "Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," which gives the comments of the Irish or Gaelic monks and priests on the epistles of St Paul. Dr Atkinson has published the Homilies from the Leabhar Breac, with an excellent dictionary. Professor Rhys has published his masterpiece in the Hibbert Lectures--" Celtic Heathendom." Mr Alfred Nutt has written a volume on the "Legend of the Holy Grail," where he dissects the legend into its Celtic components, and he has also contributed an able, learned, and lively article on "Celtic Myth and Saga" to the Archeological Review. The columns of this last Review have been enriched by contributions from Dr Masson and Mr Kuno Meyer. Professor Zimmer is continuing his "Celtic Studies and Contributions," and they are both philological and literary as usual, and considerably more voluminous. D'Arbois de Jubainville, editor of the Revue Celtique, has published the first volume of a new and recast edition of the "First Inhabitants of Europe." Educational matters have not been going smoothly in the Highlands during the year. Some of the Lews School Boards could not meet their monetary obligations, and the Education Department has stepped in to help them. The extra money is to be furnished from the Treasury, but the Boards who consent to the arrangement must demit their powers to two of their members and the Inspector of Schools for the district. Mr Robertson has been appointed Inspector of Schools for the Isles, and he forms one of the trio that will conduct the schools. In the matter of Gaelic teaching, things are as before: no schedule of Gaelic instruction for the specific subject, only the placing of Gaelic on the list of specific subjects, the possibility of having intelligence tested in Gaelic, the possible employment of a Gaelic pupil teacher for the younger children to give instruction in that language, and a Gaelic examination paper at the Midsummer Normal Examinations for such pupil teachers. Mackintosh of Mackintosh, the Chief for the past two years, has kindly offered, in connection with this Society, a prize of ten guineas for the best essay on "The Social Condition of the Highlands since 1800." Members wishing to send essays with a view to this prize must adopt a nom de plume which they will subscribe to their essay. They must also enclose their own name and their nom de plume in a separate envelope, which, with the essay, under one cover, must be sent to the Secretary before the 30th of April first. INVERNESS, January, 1889. Unpublished Correspondence between Lord Lovat, Macleod of Macleod, Lord Loudon, and others, in connection with the Rebellion of 1745-Mr William Mackay Highland Ghosts-Mr Alexander Macdonald A Highlander Philologically Dissected-Rev. A. Maclean Gleanings from Lord Macdonald's Charter Chest-Mr Teann Sios a Dhomhuill Oig-Rev. John Macrury The Sheiling: Its Traditions and Songs-Mrs Mary Kinross-shire Place Names-Mr W. J. N. Liddall, advocate Mackintosh, M.P. Sketches of the Old Ministers of Badenoch-Mr Alexander Notes on the Parish of Alness-Mr Roderick Maclean Highland Superstition-Mr Alexander Macbain, M.A. Two Letters by Simon Lord Lovat-Mr William Mackay Popular Domestic Medicine in the Highlands Fifty Years Ago-Rev. Donald Masson, M.D., A.M. |