BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 97
More recent evils, stranger, I deplore,
The Gael are banished from their native shore !
Shepherds, a sordid few, their lands possess :-
System accursed. What scenes of dire distress
Hath this not caused 0 See you deserted glen,
Of late the blessed abode of happy men ;
‘Tis now a dreary void ! Save where you tree,
By bleak winds blasted, marks the stern decree
Which doomed to ruin all the hamlet round,
And changed to shep-waZks this devoted ground ! ”
These lines, certainly among the best, embody the substance of the Poem,
which is branched out into six books, or chapters. The object of the publication
was to expose the depopulation policy of the Highland proprietors, and
to induce legislative attention to the subject. The proceeds of the sale were to
be given to a proposed fund for cultivating waste lands, that the Gael, in place
of expatriation, might be employed advantageously in their own country.
In the attainment of these patriotic objects, Mr. Campbell’s poetical efforts
fell short ; but there is one circumstance, of a local nature, connected with the
“ Grampians Desolate,” which we cannot pass over in silence, strongly indicative
of the author’s active benevolence, in so far as his influence and means extended.
The story is related by himself in a note to the following couplet :-
“ Wearied and faint, they search, and find at last
A wretched hovel-share a poor repast.”
“It was in the depth of winter (in the year 1784) ; a heavy fall of mow had lain long on the
ground ; the north wind blew keenly, and chilled one almost to death, when Alexander Lawson, a
well-disposed penon (by trade a weaver) came to me and requested my chanty for a poor, destitute
family, who had taken shelter in a wretched hovel, a few doors from his workshop. My curiosity
being excited by the description he gave of their deplorable condition, I followed him to the spot.
We descended a few steps into what had once, perhaps, been a cellar, A small lamp, placed in one
corner of this hole, for it could not be called a habitable place, gave hardly Rufficient light to show
the miserable state of those persons who had taken shelter in it from the inclemency of the storm.
In one row, on a bed of straw made on the cold damp floor, were laid three men ; their only coveiing
plaids, for they were Highlanders, and their dissolution seemed fast approaching. A woman,
apparently past the middle period of life, who supported the head of the eldest on her lap, lifted up
her eyes as we entered, looked wistfully at us, and shook her head, but uttered not a word, nor did
a sigh escape her. ‘Alas ! good.woman,’ said I, ‘have you no one to look after you in this destitute
condition ?’-‘She can converse in no other save her native tongue,’ said my conductor ; and I
addressed her in that language ; when she instantly raised her eyes, in which a faint gleam of joy
seemed for a moment to sparkle. Laying the head of her husband (for such the eldest of the three
men was) gently down on the straw, she suddenly sprang up, came forward, seized me by both hands,
cast a look upwards, and exclaimed, ‘ 0 God ! whom hast Thou sent to comfort us !’ Then looking
me stedfastly in the face, she said, ‘In this wretched condition you thus see me among strangen.
My husband and these my two sons are fast hastening to their graves. Nine days and nights have
their blood boiled in the malignant illness you now see wasting them. It is now almost three days
since I tasted the last morsel of bread.’ She then turned to her dying family, wrung her hands,
and remained silent. On turning from this affecting scene, I observed a decent old woman coming
forward to inquire for the unhappy sufferers; and, by the interest she seemed to take in their
welfare, it led me to hope that, through her kind assistance, I should be enabled to afford them
some relief. Having in the meantime ordered them an immediate supply of things absolutely
necessary, I made haste to call in medical assistance ; but, alas ! it was too late ; for the fever had
already wasted the living energy in them ; and, notwithstanding every1 possible aid art’ could
administer under such unfavourable circumstances as their cases presented, when I called next
morning, I found the father and his eldest son in the agonies of death. AU was silent. In a few
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