Note 9 — INTRODUCTION.

Scottish Collection of Gaelic MSS. in Advocates’ Library, No. XVI., A.A., line 2. For the correct reading as well as translation of this interesting manuscript the Editor is indebted to Professor Mackinnon. In the “Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the Poems of Ossian” (Edinburgh, 1805), it is, on the authority of Mr Astle, stated to be a writing of the ninth or tenth century (Report, p. 305). In the opinion of Professor Mackinnon the manuscript cannot be assigned to an earlier period than about 1400.