Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/59

 to excite them to predatory incursions upon that of. the English. They were described to us as breath- ing a spirit more ferocious than even the Epinikia or Epecidia of the Danes and Norwegians ; so mag- nificent in their imagery, and so terrible in their sentiments, as to have petrified a whole company with horror, before whom two or three of them were sung by a gentleman who could give proper effect, and expression to the compositions. They promise to be a very curious and valuable acquisi- tion ro the public, as affording the only examples of very ancient Scotch poetry; since the genuineness of Ossian's poems is now, I believe, generally given up, and the volumes allowed, even by their admirers, to be an ingenious manufacture of Mr. M'Pherson ; or, if they possess anything original, to be similar to the poor man's old knife, which he asserted to be the implement of his great grandfather, though having at one time had a new handle to it, at another a fresh blade, and last of all a second sheath; nothing remaining of the original toy bin the name stat nomin'u umbra. We could i:c;t bin advert, on looking at one of the proof-sheets, to the agreeable view which it afforded us of the pro- gress of civilization in the bordering counties, and the good. effeels of regular government, tlr.it in the very spot where these wild effusions of original

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