v autor; and the remains of which Mrs Murray espposed a be the remains of gilding. The stone at the a se inseries, as in colour like a ruby." Antiquarians in is a Cairngorm. Cairngorms are of various tuur of the Quigrich Cairngorm is that of an opaque sams of perplish hue-a colour combining red and blue, As my Aust may have supposed to be that of a ruby. * 2 maving on the stone as she says. But the plate beneath if the crook, has an engraving; a figure on a cross with a asa sude of it-meant no doubt to be a representation of the The figure which she says is engraved on the stone-suprepresent the original owner, is on the silver immediately above tsu at all likely, considering the veneration in which the Quighas been held by the keepers of it, that they have in any way tamwin it I am willing therefore to believe that Mrs Murray Aust may have unintentionally erred slightly in her description of it, rather a suppose that so interresting a relic differs in any respect, as now exted, from what it has always been during the ages of the past, along which it has been so carefully and even sacredly handed down to us. ALLAN SINCLAIR. NEW CELTIC WORK.-In our last issue a circular was issued giving Pull description of the important work, "LEABHAR NAM FIOR GHAIDHEAL, or Book of the Club of True Highlanders," in course of preparation for she press, by Mr C. N. Macintyre North, architect, London, and Chief of 200 above-named Club. The work is to be published by subscription as soon as a sufficient number of names have been received to secure the author at loss. We are glad to find this will very soon be assured; for names are fast coming in. Hardly any one, we are told, who has seen the specimen plates, and who can afford the price - namely, £3 3s to subscribers-but have subscribed. The circular issued shows that of these fine plates (13) by 17 inches), described as "admirable" by such a high authority as Sir Noel Paron, there shall be no less that fifty-nine in the work, as follows: -Club the Highlanders-title page--portraits: Spalding, Menzies, Logan, 4 ; None and bronze implements-ancient Keltic town-Druid temples-battle ai storming the forts, 4; Oghams-futhore-alphabets-agricultural implemenia domestic duties, 3; Ancient ivory casket, 2; Highland and Lowland dress compared, 8; sporrans, ornaments, and brooches, 5; celebrated bushes, 4; Keltio swords, targets, and other weapons, 2; Two-handed wwera, and targets-claymores, pistols, targets, &c.-mode of attack- CulAsden, P; Lochaber axes, dirks, chariots, and horse-trappings, 3; harps and harpers-bagpipes and pipers, 6; pipe music, dancing, dance music, songs, and mode of singing, 5; Camanachd, and other games and customs, The Duke of Hamilton, Cluny, Lord Blantyre, Lord W. P. Lennox, as well as Nir Nool Paton, and Professor Stephen, the great Runic scholar, and a great many others, have spoken most flatteringly of the plates. So many Motives of relion connected with Prince Charlie have been received by the author, that he intends to add another chapter and set of plates in addition what is promised in the circular already issued. From the specimens, plates, and letter press before us, we are satisfied that few if any such sumpuous works as that on which Mr Macintyre North is engaged have ever Fo published in connection with the Highlands. Names of intending suba will be received at this office, where specimens of the plates and of atpress may be seen; or we shall be glad to forward them by post to uding subsoriber who may desire to see them. CALL FARAIS. DAN ANN AN DA-DHUAN-DHeug LEIS AN ARD FHILIDH IAIN MILTON, Air a thionndadh gu Garlic le AILEAN SINCLAIR, M.A. A CHEUD DUAN. Mu pheacadh an duin' air tùs, 'S meas na craoibh' bu chiuirteich' blas, Gach cràdh 'us dòlas air fad. Triomh ar n' Iuil an Slan'fhear mor Can a Cheolraidh bhinn nan Aird', Na ma's annsa Sion leat, P 'Ga aoirneagaich féin 'san teas, Ti 'b' fhaisg' air an neart 'san giomh An Ceannamhor. Bho bhalbh thosdachd na searbh sheamh. An' tus' e, ars' èsan, 'n tu? O am mugh' th'ort seach mar bhà An leir-sgrios millt' 'sar feachd! 'S na 's urrainn a ghéur fhearg bhorb HIGHLAND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. Ar a recent meeting of the Antiquarian Society, a notice of the Ancient Musical Instruments of Scotland, by Mr Robert Glen, musical instrument maker, was communicated by Mr George G. Cunninghame, advocate, F.S.A., Scot. The author began by noticing the musical instruments mentioned in the poem of "The Houlate," dating from the 15th century. Of all the instruments of music used by man, the horn or trumpet was probably the most primitive. The discovery of a trumpet of bronze at Caprington, in Ayrshire, showed that metallic instruments of this kind had been in use in Scotland before the dawn of history. He next noticed the bagpipe, which had been styled the national instrument, but was not peculiar to Scotland, having been at one time popular in all parts of Europe. There was no evidence to show when the instrument was introduced into Scotland. The Exchequer Rolls record a payment to the King's pipers in 1362. Pipers formed part of the municipal institutions of every large town, and in some burghs, as Jedburgh for instance, the office was hereditary. But it was in the Highlands, among the Celtic population, that the pipes were most popular. The author possessed a set of Highland bagpipes (which were exhibited) bearing the exceedingly early date of 1409. This instrument possessed only two small drones and chanter, and previous to the beginning of last century bagpipes in this country had no large or bass drone. But if the Gael could not claim the merit of inventing the bagpipes, he could at least boast that he had made the instrument his own by inventing a style of execution which had turned its imperfections into beauties, and composed a rich and varied stock of music so specially adapted for it that it could not be properly rendered by any other instrument. The old name of the harp was the clarsach, and it appears frequently in Scottish documents. The last native harper in Scotland was Murdoch Macdonald, a retainer of Maclean of Coll, who died about 1739. The lute is familiar to all readers of Scottish poetry, from Davy Lindsay's mention of it, and other allusions of constant occurrence. It appears in the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer 1474. Originally it had eight thin catgut strings arranged in four pairs, tuned in unison. In course of time more strings were added, and during the seventeenth century it had twenty-four strings. In conclusion, the author remarked that there had been great improvements in the construction of musical instruments in modern times, but it was questionable whether what had been gained in one respect had not been lost in another by lessening the individuality of the separate instruments. The paper was illustrated by a series of beautiful water-colour drawings of nearly 100 musical instruments by Mr Glen, In reference to the Highland bagpipes the following letter appeared in a recent issue of the Scotsman : "Kinlochmoidart, Fort-William, February 13, 1880. "SIR,-In your issue of the 10th inst., in reporting proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, mention is made of a bagpipe bearing the date 1409. I have the chanter and blow pipe of one which I believe to be older. Its history is this:-It was given in the end of last century to my maternal uncle, Donald Macdonald of Kinlochmoidart, Colonel of the Royals (who I now represent), by the M'Intyres, who were the hereditary pipers to the Clanranald branch of the Macdonalds, as they were on the point of emigrating to America. They told him the Macdonalds had followed its inspiring strains into the battle of Bannockburn, and that it had never been played at any lost battle; that believing him to be the chief of the Macdonalds, they left it with him as the proper person to have it. The chanter is perfect, and the worn state of the holes shows it to have been much used.-I am, &c., "WM. ROBERTSON MACDONALD.” Literature. FLOWER LORE: THE TEACHINGS OF FLOWERS, HISTORICAL, LEGENDARY, Poetical, aND SYMBOLICAL. Belfast: M'CAW, STEVENSON, & ORB, WE cannot conceive any feasible reason why this book should have been published anonymously, for beyond question it is in its every aspect a piece of work that all concerned have the utmost reason to be proud of. To speak of it even as it appears to the eye of sense, the work is the very perfection of the compositor, the engraver, and the binder's art. The typography is antique, and ornate to a high degree. There are red and black letter titles alternately at the head of the pages, and large red letters at the commencement of each division, each new chapter being surmounted by admirably executed, quaint, old-fashioned-looking garden, rural, floral, and fairy scenes, all evidently prepared specially for this work. The illustrations proper of the work, on the other hand, consist of very superior representations of a large number of the principal flowers, shrubs, and trees, which come in for tender and tasteful dealing at the hands of the author. In referring to the author's handiwork, we have to continue the same style of unqualified praise as in dealing with the other departments of the work. Perhaps the reader will save us the trouble of detailed criticism by anticipating what the merits of the work should be, when we mention what ought to be no secret, that the author is Mrs Paterson, daughter of the late lamented Dr Carruthers, editor of the Inverness Courier, and when we further observe that the book before us furnishes ample evidence that the succession to the accomplished father's rich and extensive heritage of culture, taste, and information, has not conformed to the salic law. by confining itself to "heirs male of the body." The work consists of nine divisions or chapters, each treating of flowers, trees, and plants, whether as objects of use, ornament, religious emblem, or heraldic badge; the nature and habits of plants, and, in fact, almost every conceivable purpose to which they have been devoted by the necessities or the fancies of man. Monkish legend, the store-houses of story, and the rich treasuries of poetry in every time and clime, have been put under tribute to complete the vast accumulation of "flower lore" which the gifted author has brought together, and all selected with the most admirable discrimination and taste. Nor is the tender and loving admiration of the subject which is necessary in a work of this kind to be met with merely in the numerous extracts from all the sources placed under contribution, but the author herself, if not in point of fact, a poet, is possessed of a very large share of the constituents from which poets are made, one of them being a large and loving admiration of the works of nature, with a sympathetic appreciation of all that is beautiful and elevating and good in the world around. This work is certainly composed in the "language of flowers," not in the ordinary and arbitrary acceptation of that phrase; it is a faithful interpreter of the speech of the "tongues in trees" spoken of by the poet, well as of the utterances of the "heart," which the fancy of the ancients "in every stirring leaf." |