| Summary: | The notebooks and papers of Captain Alexander Matheson (<i>c</i>. 1833-1897), a shipowner from Dornie, Kintail, are commonly referred to as the Dornie Manuscripts. The bulk of the collection consists of Gaelic verse and song taken down from the oral recitation of old people in Wester Ross, and composed, for the most-part, by poets native to that area. The main aim of this thesis is to present a representative selection of Gaelic verse from Alexander Matheson’s collection. Sixteen texts have been selected for full editorial treatment, ten of which are not known from any other written source. These texts are presented in a standardised Gaelic orthography, in chronological order, together with appropriate notes and references. Also included are relevant indexes, appendices, and a glossary. A substantial part of the thesis consists of transcripts of all the Gaelic verse from the Dornie Manuscripts, with cross-references to other versions and appropriate notes. An index of the poets featured in the collection is included. The introduction to the thesis contains a brief biography of the collector, a description of non-verse material in the manuscripts, and an account of previous work based on the Dornie Manuscripts.
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