Chapter M’Lennan to Mair of M by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

M’Lennan to Mair

M’Lennan, John Ferguson (1827-1881).—Sociologist, born at Inverness, and ed. at Aberdeen and Cambridge, was in 1857 called to the Scottish Bar, and was subsequently Parliamentary Draftsman for Scotland. His main contribution to literature is his original and learned book, Primitive Marriage (1865). Another work, The Patriarchal Theory, left unfinished, was completed by his brother (1884). These works and other papers by M’Lennan gave a great impulse to the study of the problems with which they deal, and cognate questions. M’Lennan received the degree of LL.D. from Aberdeen in 1874.

“Macleod, Fiona” (See Sharp, William).

Macleod, Norman (1812-1872).—Scottish divine and miscellaneous writer, son of the Rev. Norman Macleod, D.D., a distinguished minister of the Scottish Church, studied at Edinburgh, and was ordained in 1838. He became one of the most distinguished ministers, and most popular preaches of his Church, was made one of the Royal Chaplains in Scotland in 1857, and became a trusted friend of Queen Victoria. He was the first ed. of Good Words, to which he contributed many articles and stories, including Wee Davie, The Starling, and The Old Lieutenant and his Son.

Macneill, Hector (1746-1818).—Poet, was in the West Indies 1780-86, and clerk on a flagship. He wrote various political pamphlets, two novels, and several poems, The Harp (1789), The Carse of Forth, and Scotland’s Skaith, the last against drunkenness, but is best known for his songs, such as My Boy Tammy, I lo’ed ne’er a Laddie but ane, and Come under my Plaidie.

Macpherson, James (1736?-1796).—Alleged translator of the Ossianic poems, son of a small farmer at Ruthven, Invernessshire, studied for the Church at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, became teacher of the school in his native parish, and afterwards tutor in a gentleman’s family. In 1758 he published The Highlander, an ambitious poem in 6 cantos, which, however, attracted no attention. But in the following year he submitted to John Home (q.v., the author of Douglas, certain writings which he represented to be translations from ancient Gaelic poems. By the help of Home and some of his friends Macpherson was enabled to published a considerable number of his Fragments of Poetry translated from the Gaelic and Erse Languages. These were received with profound and widely-spread interest, and gave rise to a controversy which can hardly yet be said to be settled. While some authorities received them with enthusiastic admiration, others immediately called their genuineness in question. In the first instance, however, a subscription was raised to enable Macpherson to make a journey in search of further poetic remains, the result of which was the production in 1761 of Fingal, an epic in 6 books, and in 1763 of Temora, also an epic, in 8 books. The fame which these brought to their discoverer was great, and the sales enormous. In 1764 Macpherson went as secretrayto the Governor of Pensacola in Florida. Returning in 1766 he settled in London, became an energetic pamphleteer in support of the Government, and in 1780 entered Parliament, and was next year appointed to the lucrative post of Agent for the Nabob of Arcot. He retired in 1789, and bought an estate in his native parish, where he died in 1796. Great doubt still rests upon the subject of the Ossianic poems: it is, however, generally admitted that Macpherson took great liberties with the originals, even if they ever really existed in anything at all resembling the form given in the alleged translations. No manuscripts in the original have ever been forthcoming. Few, however, will deny that Macpherson either discovered, or composed, a body of poetry unlike anything that has preceded it, of unequal merit, indeed, but containing many striking and beautiful passages, and which unquestionably contributed to break up the tyranny of the classical school and thus prepare the way for the romantic revival.

Maginn, William (1793-1842).—Journalist and miscellaneous writer, born at Cork, became a contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine, and afterwards foreign correspondent to The Representative, a paper started by J. Murray, the publisher, and when its short career was run, one of the leading supporters of Fraser’s Magazine. One of the most brilliant periodical writers of his time, he has left no permanent work behind him. In his later years he fell into intemperate habits, and died in poverty.

Mahony, Francis Sylvester (Father Prout) (1804-1866).—Humorist, born at Cork, and educated at the Jesuit College at Clongoweswood, Co. Kildare, at Amiens, and at Rome, becoming a member of the society, was Professor of Rhetoric at Clongoweswood, but was soon after expelled from the order. He