James Macpherson, renowned throughout the world for his collecting, translating and editing of the tales of Ossian, died in his Robert Adamdesigned mansion in the heart of the central Highlands on a stormy February night in 1796. Macpherson was mourned by many locals, including the poet and kirk elder in the local parish of Kingussie, Duncan MacKay. Composing the above ‘Lament’ to Seumas Bàn (‘Fair James’, on account of his good looks), MacKay commented on Macpherson's success, wealth, political career and ‘fondness for women’. Intriguingly, MacKay's only reference to his global literary fame occurs in the phrase ‘Tha e sgrìobht’ aig MacMhuirich / G’a chumail ri chéile (Macpherson's written it down / To keep it all together)’. MacKay deliberately placed Macpherson's writing, and his quasi-bardic role preserving the region's memory through its stories, in the context of his concern for the welfare of his fellow Highlanders. Although glossing over some of Macpherson's more controversial methods of estate management, MacKay praised Macpherson's promotion of the region, his care for his tenants (‘the humblest of seedlings’) and his lengthy relationship with the Earl of Bute (‘his Earl’), former Prime Minister and patron of many of Macpherson's publications during the 1760s and 1770s. For MacKay, Macpherson's writing was inextricably linked with his cultural and commercial promotion of the Gàidhealtachd. Macpherson was highly skilled at supporting both his own interests and those of his fellow Gaels and was renowned for placing Highlanders in positions of power and influence across the British Empire, from India and the West Indies, to London.