Forms: 5 clareschaw, clerschew, 7 clersha, 8 clarishoe, 9 clarshech, clearsach, clairschach, clairsach. [Gael. and Ir. clairseach harp, perh. f. clar table, board; but the rest of the word is obscure.] The old Celtic harp strung with wire.
1490. Act. Dom. Concil., 172 (Jam.). For the spoliacioune and takin fra him of … ane clareschaw, & certane stuff and insicht of houshald. Ibid. (1491), 204 (Jam.). Clerschew.
1700. J. Brome, Trav., iii. (1707), 179. [Highlanders] delight much in Musick, but chiefly in Harps and Clarishoes of their own Fashion, the strings of which are made of Brass-Wire, and the strings of their Harps with Sinews.
1824. Praed, Poems (1864), I. 283. Of clairschachs and of atabals.
a. 1844. Campbell, O’Connor’s Child, viii. And berries from the wood provide And play my clarshech [edd. the clarsech] by thy side.
1862. Grant, Capt. Guard, vi. A clairsach, or harp of the old Scottish form, being only thirty inches or so in height, and furnished with thirty string holes.
