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

irh
62 FAMOUS SCOTS
Gilbertfield that he felt taller already by this com-
mendation
—
' When Hamilton the bauld and gay
Lends me a heezy,
In verse that slides sae smooth away,
Well tell'd and easy.'
Then he proceeds to shower on his correspondent his
return compliments as follows
—
* When I begoud first to cun verse,
And could your " Ardry Whins " rehearse,
Where Bonny Heck ran fast and fierce,
It warmed my breast
Then emulation did me pierce,
Whilk since ne'er ceast.'
Three epistles were exchanged on either side, bristling
with flattery, and with a little poetic criticism scattered
here and there. In Ramsay's second letter his irrepres-
sible vanity takes the bit in its teeth and runs away with
him. He appends a note with reference to his change
of occupation, as though he dreaded the world might
not know of it. 'The muse,' he says, 'not unreasonably
angry, puts me here in mind of the favours she had
done by bringing me from stalking over bogs or wild
marshes, to lift my head a little brisker among the polite
world, which could never have been acquired by the low
movements of a mechanic' He was a bookseller now,
of course, and could afford to look down on wigmakers
as base mechanics ! His lovableness and generosity
notwithstanding, Ramsay's vanity and self-complacency
meets us at every turn. To omit mentioning it would
be to present an unfaithful portrait of the honest poet.
On the other hand, justice compels one to state that, if
vain, he was neither jealous nor ungenerous. He was
;