Sir, In the interests of veracity, I feel I should respond to Cyril Bonnett’s comments (Letters, Thursday January 18).
In my poem, I was quoting from Mary of Unnimore’s evidence to the Napier Commission as related in Philip Gaskell’s Morvern Transformed (page 34). Mary, understandably, gave her evidence in Gaelic: I was quoting from Norman MacLeod’s rendering into English. He arguably used an anachronism; I was using an already published statement.
Incidentally, Iain Thornber in his article in The Oban Times of Thursday December 7, quoted the same phrase ‘Saxon shepherd’ from the same source.