Allan Ramsay

The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr. Joseph Brown, and the printing from the press of Messrs. Morrison & Gibb, Edinburgh.

TO

DAVID MASSON, LL.D.

EMERITUS-PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED

in grateful acknowledgment of kindly encouragement given in years long gone by, and of intellectual stimulus received from him by his former student

THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

Since this Volume was in type, I have received some additional information which I feel constrained to lay before my readers.

With reference to the Easy Club, I have been favoured, through the courtesy of the Rev. Dr. A. B. Grosart, with a sight of the complete Minutes of the Club. From them I observe that Ramsay was one of the earliest members admitted, and that his song 'Were I but a Prince or King' was formally presented to the Club after his admission not before, though its rough draft must have been shown to the members prior to that event.

Next, as regards the Editions of The Gentle Shepherd, a valued correspondent, Mr. J. W. Scott, Dowanhill, Glasgow, kindly calls my attention to two 'Translations into English' of the Poem which appear to have hitherto escaped notice. These are 'Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, translated into English by W. Ward, 8vo, 1785.' Ward, as Mr. Scott states, seems to have been a 'naturalised Englishman' residing at Musselburgh. Five years after Ward's production, appeared another, and in many respects a better Edition, to wit, 'The Gentle Shepherd, a Scotch Pastoral by Allan Ramsay, Attempted in English by Margaret Turner, London, 1790.' It was dedicated to the Prince of Wales, and its list of Subscribers contains the names of most of the nobility of Scotland. Is this not a reliable gauge of the popularity of the Poem?

EDINBURGH, March 1896.

CONTENTS

PAGE CHAPTER I

THE FAMILY TREE 9

CHAPTER II

RAMSAY'S APPRENTICESHIP; A BURGESS OF THE TOWN--1701-7 23

CHAPTER III

SCOTLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; THE UNION; RAMSAY'S MARRIAGE--1707-12 28

CHAPTER IV

THE EASY CLUB; EARLY POEMS; EDINBURGH OF LAST CENTURY--1712-16 41

CHAPTER V

THE FAVOURITE OF THE 'FOUR 'OORS'; FROM WIGMAKER TO BOOKSELLER; THE QUARTO OF 1721--1717-21 56

CHAPTER VI

RAMSAY AS AN EDITOR: THE TEA-TABLE MISCELLANY AND THE EVERGREEN--1721-25 68

CHAPTER VII

THE GENTLE SHEPHERD; SCOTTISH IDYLLIC POETRY; RAMSAY'S PASTORALS--1725-30 85

CHAPTER VIII

RESTING ON HIS LAURELS; BUILDS HIS THEATRE; HIS BOOK OF SCOTS PROVERBS--1730-40 97

CHAPTER IX

CLOSING YEARS OF LIFE; HIS HOUSE ON CASTLEHILL; HIS FAMILY; HIS PORTRAITS--1740-58 112

CHAPTER X

RAMSAY AS A PASTORAL POET AND AN ELEGIST 122

CHAPTER XI

RAMSAY AS A SATIRIST AND A SONG-WRITER 144

CHAPTER XII

RAMSAY'S MISCELLANEOUS POEMS; CONCLUSION 154

ALLAN RAMSAY

CHAPTER I

THE FAMILY TREE

'Ye'd better let me gang doon wi' the wig, Miss Kirsty,' said Peggy, the 'serving-lass' in the household of Mr. James Ross, writer, of the Castlehill.

'Oh no! I'd as leif take it doon mysel' to Allan Ramsay's, for the sake o' the walk and the bit crack wi' the canty callant,' replied the young lady, a blush crimsoning her fair, rounded cheek.

And Peggy would retire from these periodical but good-humoured passages-at-arms, with a knowing smile on her face, to confide the fact, mayhap,--of course as a profound secret,--to her cronies in the same stair, that Miss Kirsty Ross was 'unco ta'en up wi' that spruce genty wigmaker, Maister Allan Ramsay, doon ayont the Tron Kirk.'

Yea! verily, it was a love drama, but as yet only in the first scene of the first act. The 'Miss Kirsty' of the brief dialogue recorded above--for the authenticity of which there is abundant evidence--was Miss Christian Ross, eldest daughter of Mr. James Ross, a lawyer of some repute in his day, whose practice lay largely in the Bailie's and Sheriff's Courts, and with minor cases in the Justiciary Court, but not with civil business before the Court of Session, an honour rigorously reserved for the members of that close Corporation--the Writers to His Majesty's Signet.