Banjo Paterson Travelling with fiancée, Sarah Riley, they met with her old school friend, Christina Macpherson, who had recently attended a race at Warrnambool in Victoria. She had heard a band playing a tune there, which became stuck in her head and replayed it for Paterson on the autoharp. The melody also resonated with him and propelled him to write "Waltzing Matilda" While there has been much debate about what inspired the words, the song became one of his most his widely known and sung ballads. In addition, he wrote the lyrics for songs with piano scores, such as "The Daylight is
John Macpherson (minister) John Macpherson (minister) John Macpherson (1710–1765) was a Scottish minister and antiquarian. The son of Dugald Macpherson, minister at Duirinish, Skye, he studied classics at Aberdeen University, graduating M.A. 1728, and D.D. 1761. He was minister of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, 1734 to 1742, and of Sleat on Skye, from 1742 to 1765. Macpherson published "Critical Dissertations on the Origin, Antiquities, Language, Government, Manners, Religion of the Ancient Caledonians, their Posterity, the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots", London, 1768. This work on the Ossian controversy upheld the authenticity of the poems attributed to Ossian. Though not closely