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

I40 FAMOUS SCOTS
interspersed throughout the pastoral are gems of rustic
song j not high-class poetry, otherwise they would have
been as out of place as would the Johnsonian minnows,
talking, as Goldsmith said, like whales.
Only to one other production of Ramsay's genius will
attention be called under this head, namely, his continua-
tion of James the First's poem, Christ's Kirk on the
Green. Of this, the first canto only was written by its
royal author. Ramsay, therefore, conceived the design
of completing it, as was remarked before. The king
had painted with great spirit the squabble that arose
at a rustic wedding at Christ's Kirk, in the parish of
Kinnethmont, in that part of the county of Aberdeen
near Leslie called the Garioch. Ramsay seems to have
mistaken it for Leslie in Fife. Two cantos were added
by our poet to the piece, in the one of which he exhibited
the company, their differences ended, as engaging in
feasting and good cheer ; in the other, their appearance
the following morning, after they had slept off the effects
of the orgies, and when they proceed to the bridegroom's
house to offer gifts. The skill wherewith Ramsay dove-
tailed his work into that of his royal predecessor, and
developed the king's characters along lines fully in accord
with their inception, is very remarkable. There is a
Rabelaisian element in the headlong fun and broad
rough - and - tumble humour Ramsay introduces into
his portion of the poem, but it is not discordant with
the king's ideas. The whole piece is almost photo-
graphic in the vividness of the several portraits; the
'moment' of delineation selected for each being that
best calculated to afford a clue to the type of character.
The following picture of the 'reader,' or church pre-