RANTS AY, ALLAN, a Scottish poet of considerable ce lebrity, was born at Leadhills in Lanarkshire, in October 1686. His father was occupied in the management of Lord Hopetoun's mines ; but having died early, and his widow having married again, their son Allan seems to have been employed till his fifteenth year, in the ordi nary operations of working and preparing the lead ore for smelting.
In 1701, 'he was bound apprentice to a wigmaker in Edinburgh ; and he seems io have exercised this profes sion till the year 1716. One of the earliest of his pro ductions now known, was an Address to the Most Happy Members of the Easy Club, which appeared in 712, when he was only 26 years old. The reputation among his acquaintances, which this and other pieces obtained for him, induced him to exchange the occupation of a wigmaker for the more literary one of a bookseller. In 1721, he published by subscription his detached poeias in 1 vol. 4to. In 1724, he published the first volume of his well-known collection, called, Tile Tea Table Miscellany ; the second appeared soon after ; the third in 1797 ; and the fourth alter another similar interval. He next published what he called the Evergreen, a col lection of Scottish poems, written prior to 1600 In the year 1725, Ramsay brought out his Gentle Shepherd, a work which will continue to be read as long, as the Scottish language shall be understood. The first part of the drama, called Patie and Roger, appeared in' 1721, and the second, entitled Jenny and Meggy, in 1723 ; but under its new title, it was formed into a regu lar dramatic composition.
A second volume of his poems appeared in and so widely had these writings extended his fame, that a new edition of his poetical works was published by the London booksellers ; and two years afterwards, they were re-printed at Dublin. Allan Ramsay is said to have been
the first person who established a circulating library in Edinburgh. He published a collection of fables in 1730, which terminated his labours as an author.
But though he now laid aside his pen, yet his active mind would not suffer him to be idle. He built at his own expense, the first theatre for dramatic performan ces in Edinburgh, which opened in Carruber's Close, in the year 1736. He was obliged, however, by the Magis trates to shut it up, as he required his Majesty's letters patent for such an establishment. In the year 1775, in the 69th year of his age, our author quitted the profes sion of a bookseller, and retired to a small house, which he had built on the north side of the Castle Hill. He was now attacked with. a severe scorbutic complaint, by which he lost all his teeth, and which put an end to his life, on the 7th of June 175:4, in the 71st year of his age.
His son, Allan Ramsay, who was born in 1709, at tained to considerable eminence as a painter of portraits, his skill in which he had improved considerablrby four visits to Italy. He was the anther also of some literary productions, which never excited much notice.
lie was a man of good character, was painter in or dinary to the king for England, and lived to the advan ced age of 75.