TO THE BINDER. The MAP precedes the Title of the First Volume. The Print of TURA, or CARRICKFERGUS, to face the Title of the First Volume. The Print of SHANE'S CASTLE, to face page 84 of the Data, in the First Volume. And the Print or View of CROMLA to face the Title of the Second Volume. TO THE MOST NOBLE FRANCIS, Marquis of Hastings, Earl of Moira, and Viscount Loudon, Governor General of India, &c. &c. &c. MY LORD MARQUIS, THAT the gratitude of so obscure an individual as I am, should fly over seas to you, in a remote quarter of the Globe, cannot be matter of surprize, when that of hundreds, whether of the literary men whom you have fostered and cherished, or of the army of emigrants whom you so generously fed and sheltered, traverse the same regions, and confess themselves not more grateful for the benevolence of a truly noble mind, than for the endearing manner in which its excellent qualities were exercised. As patrons now-a-days are become unfashionable, and are merely nominal, not virtual beings, so, in fairness, I cannot be charged with ought but vanity,after five years researches-in attempting to give your name to posterity with that of the first of British poets; for in so doing, perhaps, I may preserve my own. And, though my rank and means prevent me following you in your practice of the noblest maxim of true philosophy; namely, in "doing the greatest possible good with the least portion of ill," yet I am anxious to do all the good I can; and, farther, that I should not appear wanting in gratitude, when any public opportunity presents itself, of confessing myself grateful. Besides, to you, my Lord Marquis, the fame of the poet Ossian cannot be wholly matter of indifference, after his authenticity has been so long doubted and disputed by many of your literary friends and acquaintance; particularly as "the Reedy Lego" Legan of Ossian flows through your paternal park at Moira, on the one hand; and, as it would require no great portion of genealogical research on the other, to prove that your son and daughters are descended from Fingal, as well as from the noble stem which produced the gallant Wallace. The Campbells and M'Leods are indisputably descended from the Aborigines, or Celta of the north; and tradition goes farther, and declares the former noble family the lineal offspring of Dermid, one of the sons of Fingal, king of Morven; whose lands are still in their possession, as a part of those of the ancient kings of Atha, in Ulster, continue to this day in the possession of thei descendants the present noble family of O'Neill. The descent of the Campbells, however, before the ninth century, is only recorded in traditionary legends; but in a country unblest with the use of letters, where public events are consigned to man's memory, Tradı The mother of the great and gallant Wallace, was a daughter of Sir Ronald Crauford, of Loudon, the direct ancestor of the Marchioness of Hastings. The fair cousin of Wallace, Susannah, heiress of Loudon, married Sir Hugh Campbell, of Red Castle, in 1307; hence the family name of Loudon during the last five centuries. |
