In addition to writing many volumes of songs and ballads himself, it should be mentioned that Mackay compiled the well-known "A Thousand and One Gems of English Poetry."
From the year 1870 he engaged in little regular work, though he undertook interesting and valuable researches into Celtic philology. His closing years were—through ill-health and age—a period of financial reverses, but the gloom was brightened by the presence of the pet child of his adoption. He worked on till the last, being engaged during the very week of his death in writing two articles, one for Blackwood's Magazine, the other for The Nineteenth Century.
When his adopted daughter's somewhat brief school-days were over, she returned home well fitted to assist Dr. Mackay in his literary work. She was already on familiar terms with his study and his books. A good many of the baby days were spent in the Doctor's study, and as an infant there were evidences that the mind of the little one was of a thoughtful and inquiring bent. She was considered almost too inquiring by those governesses who guided her earliest lessons, religious subjects always having a peculiar attraction for her. "Little girls must be good and try to please God," one governess impressed upon her; and the child's
