“ The varied sources of his work and its worthlessness as a transcript of actual Celtic poems do not alter the fact that he produced a work of art which by its deep appreciation of natural beauty and the melancholy tenderness of its treatment of the ancient legend did more than any single work to bring about the romantic movement in European, and especially in German, literature. ”

“ In his later years he bought an estate, to which he gave the name of Belville, in his native county of Inverness, where he died on the 17th of February 1796.
After Macpherson’s death, Malcolm Laing, in an appendix to his History of Scotland (1800) , propounded the extreme view that the so-called Ossianic poems were altogether modern in origin, and that Macpherson’s authorities were practically non-existent. For a discussion of this question see Celt: Scottish Gaelic Literature. Much of Macpherson’s matter is clearly his own, and he confounds the stories belonging to different cycles. ”

“ He also showed him MSS. of Gaelic poetry, supposed to have been picked up in the Highlands, and, encouraged by Home and others, he produced a number of pieces translated from the Gaelic, which he was induced to publish at Edinburgh in 1760 as Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland. Dr Hugh Blair, who was a firm believer in the authenticity of the poems, got up a subscription to allow Macpherson to pursue his Gaelic researches. In the autumn he set out to visit western Inverness, the islands of Skye, North and South Uist and Benbecula. ”