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

24
FAMOUS SCOTS
amongst the dour^ stolid, phlegmatic miners, would have
been to foster the development of asperities on both
sides, calculated to break off all further intercourse. Met
they may have, and parted on the terms we surmise,
but of such meeting no hint was ever dropped, and a
veil of separation drops between the household at
Crawfordmuir and the young Jacob who thus was sent
forth, from the shadow of what was to him the paternal
roof, to war with the world at his own charges. That
David Crichton had done his duty nobly by the lad
was evident; but other children were shooting up to
youth's estate, and when the elder bird was full fledged,
it must e'en take its flight from the parent nest to make
room for others.
There is another view of the case not so creditable
to the future poet, but still within the range of possi-
bihty—that the scion of the house of Ramsay, whose
anxiety to let the world know he was of gentle lineage
was so chronic, may have felt himself a cut above the
children of the bonnet -lairdie. Ramsay's nature was
not one wherein the finer sympathies and delicate regard
for the feeUngs of others were mortised into a sturdy
independence and a desire to carve his fortunes out of
the block of favouring opportunity. From start to finish
of his career a subtle egoism, born of his lonely situa-
tion in life and fostered by his inordinate vanity, was
his distinguishing trait. Generous acts he did, benevolent
and kindly on numerous occasions he undoubtedly was,
but his charity was not altruism. He was not the man
to deny himself for the good of others.
Henceforth Edinburgh was to be Ramsay's life's
home. He was enrolled as an apprentice early in