In July 1881, Campbell further notes:
“I am often asked about the second vol. of Leabhar na Feinne. This is a sample of part of the volume which probably never will be written. . . . . So if I were to set myself to this, I could work out vol. ii on this sort of plan. But if I did, the Irishmen would hate me for making their heroes the men of whom people tell wild tales. Nobody would read such rubbish. Nevertheless, no country in Europe has such a stock of heroic tradition as the West Highlands, orally preserved.
“The time of the action is the first five centuries of our era, according to Irish writers.
“I tell the story without dates, as I have learnt it orally from the poorest classes, or as I have got it from writings which purport to have been orally collected in Scotland from people equally untaught.
“I have found ready help from Irish scholars and books. Nature is better than Art when Art produces popular ballads like ‘Sam Hall’, and the natural man sings about his mythical ancestors out in the wilds.”
I think that even in 1881 Campbell was mistaken, and that he would have received more appreciative criticism at the hands of Irishmen and more welcome from the public than he looked for. At all events, if things have changed for the better in both respects, it is mainly owing to the influence of his life work.
This volume originally consisted of 74 pages folio (blue foolscap at beginning, white afterwards), but has been increased by the insertion of a number of unpaged, chiefly white, sheets of different sizes. At the beginning is a list of Contents for the original MS., which I transcribe. I had not time to draft in the additions.
