Page:Poems of Ossian.djvu/55

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INTRODUCTION.
liii

the loch distinctly identifies the spot as the home of the poem's hero. It is Dun Mac Uisneachan, the fort of the sons of Uisnach. Boece and his followers and careless transcribers assigned to it the name Beregonium, but they mistook it for the Roman Rerigonium on Loch Ryan. The correct situation of the latter may be made out from Ptolemy, and its moat is still to be seen on Invermessan farm, near Stranraer. At Balure, near Dun Mac Uisneachan, lies Cambus Naish, the bay of Naisi (softened by Macpherson to "Nathos" for English ears). Near the head of the loch the remains of the hunting lodges used by the three brothers are still to be seen on Eilean Uisneachan, the isle of the sons of Uisnach (Macpherson's "Usnoth"). Half-way up Glen Etive are the Grianan Dartheil, Darthula's sunning-place, with "Darthula's Field" close by. And near Taynuilt still grows "the wood of Naisi," coille naish. The connection is made complete when the writer quotes Darthula's song translated by Skene from Dean of Lismore's Book

"Glen Etive, O Glen Etive
There I raised my earliest house,
Beautiful its woods on rising
When the sun fell on Glen Etive."

Mr. Clerk of Oban, referred to by Dr. Smith,