History Laing finished
Robert Henry's
History of Great Britain with a final volume in 1793, and wrote a
History of Scotland from the Union of the Crowns to the Union of the Kingdoms (1800). Like
George Brodie and
Ebenezer Marshal, Laing dwelled on negative feudal and other features of
early modern Scottish history. In 1804 also Laing edited
The Historie and Life of King James the Sext. 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. He endorsed the views of
John Pinkerton on the matter, as did
John Jamieson and
James Sibbald.
Ossian critic 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. 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. 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. Others they attacked were
Sir John Dalrymple, 4th Baronet and
Thomas Somerville. The underlying issue was Tory and Jacobite
revisionism of the fabricated Whig historical narrative. 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. On the other hand, the
Report of the Highland Society (1805) upheld the authenticity claims. Percy took the eirenic view that the blame game, at least, should cease. ==Family==