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

ALLAN RAMSAY 55
same in spite of the revolutions of fashion and the change
of language.'
The task was no easy one, but Ramsay succeeded with
remarkable skill in dovetailing the second and third
cantos into the first, so that they read as the production
of one mind. For faithful portraiture of Scottish rural
manners, for a fidelity, even in the minutest details,
recalling Teniers and his vividly realistic pictures of
Dutch rustic life, the cantos are unrivalled in Scottish
literature, save by the scenes of his own Gentle Shepherd.