BAMSAY, ALLAN, an eminent Scottish poet, was born in the parish of Crawford, Lanarkshire, Oct. 15, 1686. His father was manager of lord Hopetoun's mines at Lead hills, and his mother, Alice Bower, was the daughter of a Derbyshire miner. To this maternal descent we may perhaps trace Allan's peculiar frankness and gayety of tem perament. In his 15th year (by which time be had lost both of his parents) he was put apprentice to a wig-maker in Edinburgh. He had received the ordinary education of a parish school, and could read Horace, as he says, " faintly in the original." Ep to his 30th year, he continued to follow the occupation of a wig-maker; and by this time he had become known as a poet, having issued several short humorous pieces, printed as broad-sides, and sold for a penny each. He had also written (1716-18) tv:o additional cantos to the old Scots poem of Christ's Kirk on the Green, attributed to James I. These two cantos gave such genuine pictures of rustic life, and presented such felicitous scenes of broad humor, that it was obvious their author was destined to become the restorer of scottish poetry. Patronized by the highest and worthiest of the land, Ramsay now abandoned wig-making, and commenced business as a bookseller. His shop was •• oppo site Niddry's 1Nrynd," and he placed a sign of Mercury over his door. Subsequently, as his success increased, he removed to the Luckenbooths, and deposing Mercury, set up heads of Drummond and Ben Jonson. He also added to his business a circulating library, the first established in Scotland. From 1718, when he opened shop as a book seller, down to 1755, when he retired to a villa of his own erection, Ramsay's career, worldry and literary, was eminently prosperous. He was careful and industrious, deter mined, be said, to show the world that poortith, or poverty, was not "the poet's lot;" and though lie was always courting patronage, he never selected a fool for his patron, nor did his pride and vanity as a poet ever withdraw him from business. The following are his principal works: Tartana, or the Plaid, 1721; a collected edition of his Poems, pub lished by subscription in 1721, by which it is said the poet realized 400 guineas; lablor and Tales, 1722; Fair Assembly, 1723; Health, a Poem, 1724; The Tea-table Miscellany, a collection of the most choice songs, Scottish and English, 1724, to which a second volume was published in 1725, a third iu 1727, and a fourth in 1740; The Evergreen, "being a collection of Scots poems wrote by the ingenious before 1600," published in 1724; Da Gentle Shepherd, a Pastoral Comedy, 1725, to which songs were added in 1728; a second collection of Poems published by subscription, 1728; Thirty Fables, 1730. Of most of these publications, numerous editions were called for, no less than nine of the Tea-table Miseellany being issued in nine years. One brief cloud overcast the poet's successful career. He entered into a speculation for the encouragement of the drama, and built a theater in Edinburgh, which was almost immediately shut up by the magistrates. in
virtue of the act passed in 1737 prohibiting all dramatic exbibitiOns without special license. This affair was a serious loss to the poet, and subjected him to the annoyance of attacks from poetasters and morose religionists, such as " A Looking-glass for Allan Ramsay," " The Dying Words of Allan Ramsay," " The Flight of Religious Piety from Scotland upon the Account of Ramsay's Lewd Books and the Hell-bred Playhouse Comedians," etc. Allan bore all with Horatian philosophy and indifference; but he addressed a poetical epistle to his friend, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, then lord-advocate, claim ing compensation for his losses, or, at least, that he might be "edged into some canny post." This request does not seem to have been complied with, but Allan had amassed a decent competency. The last two or three years of his life were spent in cheerful retirement in the quaint hut picturesque house he had built on the north side of the Castle hill, and there he. died on 7, 1758. lie had the gratification of seeing his only surviving son, ALLAN RAMSAY (born in 1713, died in 1784) fast rising into distinc tion as a portrait-painter. and esteemed by the most eminent men of his day as an accomplished scholar and gentleman. This second Allan Ramsay had been carefully educated by his father, and sent to Rome to study art. On his return, being introduced to the prince of Wales. afterward George III., he rapidly rose into favor, and in 1767 was appointed principal painter to the king.
The Gentle Shepherd of Ramsay is his greatest work, and, indeed, is esteemed as the best pastoral in any language. Its characters are realities, not shadowy Corydons. or Phyllises, maundering over crooks, or sleeping to the murmur of bees. It contains faithful transcripts of actual life and feeling, such as the poet had witnessed in his youth on the banks of the Clyde and Glengonar. The poetry, too, abounds in• graphic expression and touches of homely nature and arch humor, that to Scotsmen are irresisti ble, while the plot is skillfully constructed, and brings • out rustic character, customs, and superstitions. Some of Ramsay's tales and fables are amusing, but coarse. His songs also are occasionally defective in respect of simplicity and delicacy, though he has made some exquisite additions to our lyrical poetry. In his Jacobite allegory, The Vision, he rises into the higher region of inspiration, apparently imitating, and certainly rivaling Dunbar. As an editor, he has been censured for tampering with the works of the old bards, retouching, adding, or retrenching at his pleasure. But he also rescued many choice productions of the elder muse from neglect, and awakened in Scotland a taste for its native literature. A complete edition of his poems with it blogruby was published by Chalmers (1800; new edition, with essay by Lord Woodhouslee, 1874). Editions appeared in 1854 and in 1870. A monument to Ramsay was erected in Edin burgh iu 1865.