have been traced to his own authorship; and, what is equally blameworthy, having made considerable alterations and additions to pieces by the old authors. Two of his own poems thus introduced, which on account of their | political bias he did not think it prudent to acknowledge, are, "The Vision," and "The Eagle and the Robin Redbreast." The first, his greatest imaginative poem, was so successful an imitation of the ancient manner and language, that it imposed upon the learned, as a poem of the time of Queen Mary, for half a century. The second, too, has been attributed to other authors, and though not so successful an imitation of an ancient poem, is quite a gem of its kind, and an excellent specimen of Ramsay's pawky humour.

His next production, The Gentle Shepherd, which appeared in 1725, is the purest, most successful, and in every better quality the master-piece of his genius. Its opening scene, published as a separate pastoral in 1718, under the title of "Patie and Roger," was followed in 1721 by the song, "Patie❘ and Peggy;' while in 1723, "Jenny and Meggy" appeared as "A sequel to Patie and Roger." The evidence afforded by these of his powers of reproducing the manners and sentiments of the pastoral inhabitants of the south of Scotland, in their own language and modes of expression, induced his literary friends at Newhall to urge him to make an effort in which these powers might have more scope. He was furnished with the story which serves as the frame-work of the drama, by Dr Pennecuik, a brother poet of

some local celebrity, who, in 1715, published a "Description of Tweed-dale," and up to 1703, was proprietor of Newhall, the locality of which best answers the topography of the poem. Ramsay himself appears to have felt that, as this was his most ambitious attempt, it was also his greatest achievement, and did justice to his genius.

The Gentle Shepherd reached its tenth edition in 1750, and has gone through a great many more since; while its popularity is still quite vigorous and likely to last. It was the first Scottish poem that inspired a native artist to produce illustrations worthy of the poetry; and the edition of 1788, published by the well-known R. & A. Foulis of Glasgow, and illustrated by David Allan, is unique as a purely native product of Scottish poetry and art.

Nor is there any other Scottish poem, and few poems in any language, that have been the subject of so much unqualified praise. Lord Woodhouselee, whose analysis of Ramsay's writings is the most elaborate and discriminating to which they have been subjected, after comparing The Gentle Shepherd with the most celebrated European pastoral dramas, comes to the conclusion, that "if truth to nature is to be made the standard of excellence, this excels all the pastorals that ever were written. The test which," he remarks, "is the surest criterion of its merits, as a true delineation of nature, is that it is universally relished and admired by that class of people whose habits of life and manners are there described." As an instance of the range of its influence, he states, on the authority of a near relative of Dr Arbuthnot, that Pope was

particularly delighted with it, and was wont to make Arbuthnot explain to him those passages he could not easily understand. Its reception by Dr Johnson, if different, was characteristic. "I spoke," says Boswell, "of The Gentle Shepherd as the best pastoral that ever was written, not only abounding in beautiful rural imagery, and just and pleasing sentiments, but a real picture of manners; and offered to teach Dr Johnson to understand it. 'No, sir! I won't learn. You shall retain your superiority by my not knowing it."" Reviewing a reprint of Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, in December 1872, the Athenæum remarks: "His fame, however, will rest upon his Gentle Shepherd. Here simplicity and nature, shrewdness and humour, are never lost sight of, and many of the lines are become familiar quotations." It has even been insinuated that Ramsay's genius was not equal to its production, and that at least he must have been assisted by his friends. Lord Hailes objects, that "those who thus try to depreciate his fame, ought first to prove that his friends and patrons were capable of composing The Gentle Shepherd."

On its completion, Ramsay rested his muse for some time; and in 1726, while the second edition was passing through the press of his friend Thomas Ruddiman, he changed his shop from the sign of the "Mercury," opposite Niddry's Wynd, to one in the east end of the Luckenbooths. Here discarding his first patron divinity, he set over his door the heads of Drummond of Hawthornden and Ben Jonson.

It was here that Ramsay was visited by Gay, to whom, from the door, he delighted to point out the local celebrities, to explain such passages of The Gentle Shepherd as Gay wished to explain to Pope, who, he was delighted to know, was a great admirer of it. Here, too, he commenced his Circulating Library-said to be the first established in Britain-evincing his commercial sagacity and shrewdness in supplying a public want. A most honourable tribute to his genius, about this time, was the dedication, by Hogarth, to Allan Ramsay of Edinburgh, and William Wood of Great Houghton, of his illustrations to Butler's Hudibras.

With the poems which he wrote since the publication of the collection of 1721, he, in 1728, issued a second volume in quarto, and in 1729 in octavo. A rhyming epistle "To his Friends in Ireland," in reference to a report of his having died, gives us some of those glimpses which enable us to see the man.

"Banish all your care and grieving,
Allan's hale, and well, and living:
Early up on morning's shining,
Ilka fancy warm refining;
Giving ilka verse a burnish
That maun second volume furnish,
To bring in frae lord and lady
Meikle fame, and part of ready."

In 1730, he published his Collection of Fables, some of which, he says, " are taken from La Fontaine and La Motte, whom I have endeavoured to make speak Scots with as much ease as I can, at the same time aiming at the spirit of these eminent authors, without being too servile a translator."

His songs, written at intervals during the whole of his writing career, exhibit varying degrees of merit-some being excellent, and others poor and affected -his best being those in which character and humour predominate. His imitations of Horace, which have been classed among his lyrics, contain some of his happiest short pieces, and exhibit him in his most natural moods. His

last piece of literary work was his collection of Scots Proverbs-a congenial task, for which he was admirably qualified. Urging their study upon his readers in his wonted style, he says: “Use your een, and lend your lugs to these guid auld says, that shine with wailed sense, and will as lang as the world wags." The issue of his Proverbs, in 1736, brings him to the end of his literary career, in the 50th year of his age; and a letter from his pen, dated 10th May of this year, to his friend Smibert, the painter, then settled in America, is at once so excellent a specimen of Scotch colloquialism-so like the man-and authentic data for some family particulars which have not hitherto been noticed, that it needs no apology for giving it in full :

"MY DEAR OLD FRIEND,-Your health and happiness are ever ane addition to my satisfaction. God make your life ever easy and pleasant. Half a century of years have now row'd o'er my pow; yes, row'd o'er my pow, that begins now to be lyart; yet, thanks to my Author, I can eat, drink, and sleep as sound as I did twenty years syne; yes, I laugh heartily, too, and find as many subjects to employ that faculty

upon as ever: fools, fops, and knaves grow as rank as formerly; yet here and there are to be found good and worthy men, who are an honour to human life. We have small hopes of seeing you again in our old world; then let us be virtuous, and hope to meet in heaven. My good auld wife is still my bedfellow; my son Allan has been pursuing your science since he was a dozen years' auld-was with Mr Hyssing at London for some time, about two years ago-has been since at home, painting here like a Raphael: sets out for the seat of the beast, beyond the Alps, within a month hence—to be away for two years. I'm sweer to part with him, but canna stem the current which flows from the advice of his patrons and his own inclinations. I have three daughters

one of 17, one of 16, and one of 12 years old, and no waly-dragle amang them-all fine girls. These six or seven years past I have not wrote a line of poetry. I e'en gave o'er in good time, before the coolness of fancy that attends advanced years should make me risk the reputation I had acquired.

"Frae twenty-five to five-and-forty,

My muse was nowther sweer nor dorty: My Pegasus wad break his tether E'en at the shagging of a feather, An' thro' ideas scour like drift, Streaking his wings up to the lift; Then, then my saul was in a low That gart my numbers safely row; But eild and judgment 'gin to say, Let be your sangs, and learn to pray. "I am, Sir, your friend and servant, "ALLAN RAMSAY."

His son Allan, born in October 1713, a year after his parents' marriage, and inheriting much of his father's genius,

was now successfully prosecuting his profession of artist, in the study of which he received every advantage. He afterwards rose to such eminence as to be appointed portrait-painter to King George III., with whom he was on the most friendly terms. He was held in great esteem by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and might even have attained to greater fame as an artist had he been less of a scholar and poet. He was in every sense a noble fellow; and died in 1784, in the arms of his son, Major-General Ramsay.

That Ramsay very early acquired a taste for theatrical representation may be inferred from his having written a prologue, which was recited at the acting of "The Orphans,” in Edinburgh, in 1719. He appears to have always looked upon the stage as a means of recreation, if not of instruction, deserving to be encouraged, and which might also be made a source of profit as well as of entertainment. Actuated by some such ideas and motives, he, in 1736, built in Carrubber's Close, at "vast expense," a new playhouse, in which he proposed that "his troop should only preach, from moral fable, the best instruction they were able." The magistrates, however, did not consider it for the good of the lieges that Allan's preaching should be tolerated, and took advantage of the act for licensing the theatre, passed in 1737, to shut up his temple before the preaching was little more than begun.

From the number and titles of the poetical lampoons issued on the occasion, the spirit of vulgar fanaticism would seem to have broke loose; and

Ramsay was made the victim of its unreasoning fury. That the miscarriage of his design involved him in heavy loss must be obvious; and from a private letter to the Lord President, found in the MS. collection of Culloden House, it would seem that his bookselling business, too, shared the effects of the rancour directed against his theatrical project.

A circumstance is related by Wilson, in his Memorials of Edinburgh, and which, if true, must be referred to about this time, viz.: "that Allan applied to the Crown for as much ground on the Castle-hill as would serve to build a cage for his bird,' meaning his wife, to whom he was warmly attached." Whether the application, in the terms quoted, be one of those characteristic pleasantries which his witty friends were fond of attributing to him, or whether the site was a grant from the Crown, in consideration of the loss he incurred through the suppression of his theatre, we have no means of ascertaining; yet certain it is, that about 1744 he built upon the north slope of the Castle-hill the building still known as Ramsay Lodge; although, if intended for his wife's comfort, she can hardly have seen the beginning of it, as she died in 1743, and was buried in Greyfriars' Churchyard, on the 28th March of that year.

It is said that he was his own architect, which is more than probable, and if in the design he had shown half as much taste as in the selection of the site, it could hardly have become the subject of his friends' jokes. That of Lord Elibank, though considerably overrated,

has become so intimately associated with it, that it could hardly be omitted in connection. His lordship one day visiting at this somewhat fantastical mansion, and while being shown over it, was informed by the poet, who relished a joke even at his own expense, that the city wags had compared it to a goose-pie. "Indeed, Allan," he replied, "now that I see you in it, I think the term not inappropriately applied."

An unexpected glimpse of him, by his own pen, "From my Bower on the Castle Bank of Edinburgh, March 10th, 1747," is obtained from some verses which accompanied a present of his Poems to Dr Boswell, uncle of Johnson's biographer, sent by a descendant of the Doctor to the Athenæum of October 10, 1874. They bear unmistakable marks of their origin, the last three stanzas being specially characteristic, and interesting in reference to the point in his life to which our narrative is brought down.

"From my first setting out in Rhime,

neer fourty years have wheeld,
- Like Israel's Sons, so long a Time
through fancy's wiles I've reeled.
May powers propitious by me stand,
since it is all my claim,

As they enjoyed their promised land,
may I my promised fame.

While blythness then on health attends,
and love on Beautys young,

My merry Tales shall have their friends,
and Sonnets shall be sung."

Having about 1755 given up business entirely, he spent a great deal of his time after in the company of his friends, Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik, and Sir Alexander Dick of Prestonfield, who

not only respected him for the ingenuous openness of his character, but delighted in his quaint wit and humour. Nor was he less made of by his city friends, whose children, especially in his latter years, it was his pleasure to entertain about his house. It was his delight to give them juvenile parties—a fact of which Dr Robert Chambers, in 1825, was informed by Mrs Murray of Henderland, who knew Ramsay during the last ten years of his life, and now, near her hundredth year, spoke of him as the most amiable man she had ever known, remarking that his cheerfulness and lively conversational powers made him a favourite among persons of rank, whose guest he frequently was.

In May 1755, he wrote James Clerk, Esq. of Pennycuik, what may be considered the last of his rhymed epistles. After some preliminary remarks, he observes :

"And now in years and sense grown auld,
In ease I like my limbs to fauld.
Debts I abhor, and plan to be
Frae shakling trade and danger free :
That I may, loose frae care and strife,
With calmness view the edge of life;
And when a full ripe age shall crave,
Slide easily unto my grave.
Now seventy years are o'er my head,
And thirty more may lay me dead."

While thus pleasantly jesting about the addition of other thirty years to his already completed threescore-and-ten, in less than three he was laid beside his gude auld wife in the Greyfriars' Churchyard. He died from an affection of scurvy in the gums, on the 7th, and was buried on the 9th, January 1758, in his 72d year.

Of his personal appearance and habits