Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

CHAPTER VIII
RESTING ON HIS LAURELS; BUILDS HIS THEATRE;
HIS BOOK OF 'SCOTS PROVERBS'— 1730-40
Ramsay had now reached the pinnacle of his fame.
He was forty - four years of age, prosperous in
business, enjoying a reputation not alone confined to
Great Britain, but which had extended to France, to
Holland, and to Italy. His great pastoral was lauded in
terms the most gratifying by critics everywhere as the
most perfect example of the pure idyll that had appeared
since the days of Theocritus. The proudest of the
nobility were not ashamed to take his arm for a walk
down High Street, or to spend an hour cracking jokes
and discussing literature with him under the sign of Ben
Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden.
What Chambers says in his Eminent Scotsmen^ from
which are culled the following facts, is strictly accurate :
'Ramsay had now risen to wealth and high respect-
ability, numbering among his familiar friends the best
and the wisest men in the nation. By the greater part
of the Scottish nobility he was caressed, and at the
houses of some of the most distinguished of them,
Hamilton Palace, Loudoun Castle, etc., was a frequent
visitor.' With Duncan Forbes, Lord Advocate (and
before many years to be Lord President), with Sir John
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