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

ALLAN RAMSAY 105
Storemasters of the Hills,' shows the value he attached
to this kind of literature. He writes in the colloquial
Scots, and his words are valuable as presenting us with
a reliable example of the Scots vernacular as spoken in
educated circles early last century. ' The following
hoard of Wise Sayings and observations of our fore-
fathers,' he remarks, ' which have been gathering through
many bygone ages, I have collected with great care, and
restored to their proper sense, which had been frequently
fin^ [lost] by publishers that did not understand our
landwart [inland] language. ... As naething helps our
happiness mair than to hae the mind made up with right
principles, I desire you, for the thriving and pleasure of
you and yours, to use your een and lend your lugs to
these guid auld says, that shine wi' wailed sense and will
as lang as the warld wags. Gar your bairns get them by
heart ; let them hae a place among your family-books
and may never a window - sole through the country be
without them. On a spare hour, when the day is clear,
behind a rick, or on the green howm, draw the treasure
frae your pooch and enjoy the pleasant companion. Ye
happy herds, while your hirdsels are feeding on the
flowery braes, ye may eithly mak yoursels masters of the
holy ware.'
Hitherto the sky of Ramsay's Ufe had been well-nigh
cloudless. Misfortune and failure had never shrivelled
his hopes or his enterprises with the frost of disappoint-
ment. Nothing more serious than an envious scribbler's
splenetic effusions had ever assailed him. Now he was
to know the sting of mortification and the pinch of
financial loss.
We have already adverted to the gloomy bigotry of a
;