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

i6o FAMOUS SCOTS
any other man save Scott. Worthy of such veneration,
then, is he, both as a poet and as a man ; and though the
extravagant admiration wherewith he was regarded in his
own day, has given place to a soberer estimate of his
rank in the hierarchy of letters, yet Allan Ramsay can
never be held as other than one of the most delightful, if
he can no longer be rated as one of the greatest, of Scottish
poets. That his immortal pastoral can ever be consigned
to the limbo of oblivion is as improbable as that our
posterity will forget Tam d Shanter and the Cotter's
Saturday Night. The opinion of Robert Burns regard-
ing the permanence of his ' poetical forebear's ' fame will
be cordially endorsed by every leal-hearted Scot, in whose
memory the sturdy manliness of Patie and the winning
beauty of Peggy are everlastingly enshrined
' Yes ! there is ane : a Scottish callan,
—
There's ane ; come forrit, honest Allan,
Thou needna jouk behint the hallan,
A chiel' sae clever :
The teeth o' time may gnaw Tantallan,
But thou's
'
for ever !
THE END.