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

70
FAMOUS SCOTS
Henceforward I'll not tempt my fate,
On dazzling rays to stare
Lest I should tine dear self-conceit
And read and write nae mair.'
His position in Edinburgh society was greatly im-
proved by the success of the volume. The magnates
of ' Auld Reekie ' who still clung to the capital their
forefathers had loved,—the legal luminaries of Bench and
Bar, the Professors of the University, the great medicos
of the town,—all were proud to know the one man who
was redeeming the Scottish poetry of that age from the
charge of utter sterility. There was the Countess of
Eglinton, 'the beautiful Susannah Kennedy of the
house of Colzean,' whose ' Eglinton air ' and manners
in society were, for half a century, regarded as the models
for all young maidens to imitate. Living as she did
until 1780, when she had attained the great age of
ninety-one, she was visited by Dr. Johnson during his
visit to Scotland in 1773. On that occasion it transpired
that the Countess had been married before the lexico-
grapher was born ; whereupon, says Grant, * she smartly
and graciously said to him that she might have been his
mother, and now adopted him ; and at parting she
embraced him, a mark of affection and condescension
which made a lasting impression on the mind of the
great literary bear.' She was one of Ramsay's warmest
admirers. Then there were Lord Stair and his lovely
lady, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, then about to become
Lord Advocate : also, Laurence Dundas, Professor of
Humanity ; Colin Drummond, of Metaphysics ; William
Law, of Moral Philosophy ; Alexander Monro (prhnus),
of Anatomy, and George Preston, of Botany, all of the
;