POEMS OF OSSIAN

Walter Scott, London, no date but inscription on half-title page dated 1906.  The Canterbury Poets, edited by William Sharp.  Small hard cover, 298 pages plus ads.  Blue buckram, blind stamped on front board, with gilt lettering and decoration on front and spine; top edge gilt.  Wear to corners and spine ends with tiny tears and a touch of fraying, some edge wear.  Some denting to front board at lower edge towards spine.  FEP removed, binding sound; notation on front paste-down, prior owner’s name and date on half-title page; remainder of interior clean and unmarked with lightly tanned pages; occasional straightened corner bend.  Translated by James MacPherson, with an introduction, historical and critical, by George Eyre-Todd.  Epic Highland poetry handed down orally.  ‘… met a young Highland schoolmaster, named James MacPherson, who was travelling as tutor to Mr. Graham the younger, of Balgowan, who had in his possession several transcripts of Gaelic poems taken down from the recital of old people in the north.’ (from Introduction)