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

ALLAN RAMSAY 69
Not he wha whilome wi' his harp could ca'
The dancing stanes to big the Theban wa' ;
Nor he (shame fa's fool head !) as stories tell,
Could whistle back an auld dead wife frae hell.'
James Clerk of Penicuik considered Homer and
Milton to be the only worthy compeers of the
Caledonian bard ; and Sir William Bennet of Marie-
field insisted the Poet - Laureateship should be con-
ferred on Ramsay, as the singer who united in himself
the three great qualifications— genius, loyalty, and
respectability ! Certainly honest Allan would have
been a Triton amongst such minnows as Nicholas
Rowe, who held the bays from 1714-18, or
Laurence Eusden, whose tenure of the office lasted
from 1718 to 1730, but of whose verse scarce a scrap
remains.
Compliments reached Ramsay from all quarters of
the compass. Burchet, Arbuckle, Aikman, Arbuthnot,
Ambrose Philips, Tickell, and many others, put on
record their appreciation of his merits as a poet. But
of all the testimonies, that which reached him from
Pope was the most valued, and drew from Allan the
following lines, indicative of his intense gratification,
while also forming a favourable example of his skill in
epigram
—
' Three times I've read your Iliad o'er :
The first time pleased me well
'i^Q^N beauties unobserved before,
Next pleased me better still.
Again I tried to find a flaw,
Examined ilka line ;
The third time pleased me best of a',
The labour seem'd divine.
;