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

ALLAN RAMSAY 57
increased. Of course, a supply had to be forthcoming
to meet such a demand, but of these, numberless pieces,
on topics of political or merely ephemeral interest, were
never republished after their appearance in broadside "^^fes^
form. By an eminent collector of this species of
literature the fact is stated, that there are considerably
over two score of poems by Ramsay which have thus
been allowed to slip into obhvion. Not that such a
fate was undeserved. In many cases their indehcacy
would debar their admission into any edition nowadays
in others, their lack of permanent general interest.
Such subjects as The Flytin! of Luckie Duff and
Luckie Broivn, A Dookin^ in the Nor' Loch, and A
Whiggish Lament, were not the kind of themes his
calmer and maturer judgment would care to contem-
plate being handed down to posterity as specimens of
his work.
In 1719 Ramsay appears to have concluded, from the
extensive sale his poems enjoyed even in broadside form,
that the trade of a bookseller would not only be more
remunerative than a wigmaker's, but would also be more
in accord with his literary tastes and aspirations. For
some months he had virtually carried on the two trades
concurrently, his reputation undoubtedly attracting a
large number of customers to his shop to have their wigs
dressed by the popular poet of the day. But as his
fame increased, so did his vanity. Of praise he was
inordinately fond. ' Tell Allan he's as great a poet as
Pope, and ye may get what ye like from him,' said the
witty and outspoken Lord Elibank to a friend. The
charge had more than a grain of truth in it. That man
did not lack more than his share of self-complacent
;