Malcolm Laing

[10] He introduced merino sheep on the islands of Eday and Sanday, purchasing a flock from Tweeddale that had belonged to Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet.

[8] Like George Brodie and Ebenezer Marshal, Laing dwelled on negative feudal and other features of early modern Scottish history.

[16] By modern standards, Laing erred by endorsing a "Scottish Gothic" theory of the Picts: that this founding group of the Kingdom of Scotland were not Celts, but had a Teutonic origin.

[17] In 1805 Laing published in two volumes Poems of Ossian, containing the Poetical Works of James MacPherson in Prose and Verse, with Notes and Illustrations.

[18] Laing's flawed criticism was seminal for a far fetched theory that Macpherson had used Robert Lowth's study of Hebrew verse to construction his own alleged translations.

[19] For Charles James Fox, as explained in a letter to Laing, Macpherson was in the ranks of politically mischievous historians, led by David Hume and his A History of England.

[20] The "Ossian debate", on the poems' authenticity to supposed ancient sources, was coming to a head that year.

Via Robert Anderson, Laing claimed he was in possession of a confession by Macpherson of the complete fabrication to another party, Sir John Elliott, who had mentioned it to Thomas Percy.