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

I02 FAMOUS SCOTS
ingly animated one. Mr. Robert Chambers, with that
graphic power of Hterary scene-painting he possessed in
measure so rich, represented the picture, in his Tradi-
tions of Edifihurgh^ in colours so vivid, and with a
minuteness of detail so striking, that subsequent descrip-
tions have been little more than reproductions of his.
Let us take advantage of his admirable sketch of the
scene round the Cross, fiUing in any important details
he may have omitted.
The jostlement and huddlement was extreme every-
where. Ladies and gentlemen paraded along in the
stately attire of the period : grave Lords of Session, and
leading legal luminaries, bustling Writers to the Signet
and their attendant clerks, were all there. Tradesmen
chatted in groups, often bareheaded, at their shop doors ;
caddies whisked about, bearing messages or attending to
the affairs of strangers ; children darted about in noisy
sport; corduroyed carters from Gilmerton are bawling
' coals ' and ' yellow sand ' ; fishwives are crying their
' caller baddies ' from Newhaven ; whimsicals and
idiots going about, each with his or her crowd of tor-
mentors ; tronmen with their bags of soot ; town-guardsmen
in rusty uniform, and with their ancient Lochaber
axes ; water-carriers with their dripping barrels ; High-
land drovers in philabeg, sporran, and cap ; Liddesdale
farmers with their blue Lowland bonnets ; sedan chair-
men, with here and there a red uniform from the
castle—such was the scene upon which, in the early
months of the year 1732,—alas ! his last on earth,—the
celebrated London poet, John Gay, gazed from the
windows of Allan Ramsay's shop. Beside him stood
the redoubtable Allan himself, pointing out to him the