Sae braif lyke, and graif lyke,
He seemt to be a sanct.

Grit daring dartit frae his ee,
A braird-sword schogled at his thie,
On his left arm a targe;

A shinnand speir fill'd his richt hand,
Of stalwart mak in bane and brawnd,
Of just proportions large;
A various rainbow-colourt plaid

Oure his left spaul he threw ;
Down his braid-back, frae his quhyte heid,
The silver wymplers grew;
Amaisit, I gaisit,

To se led at command,
A strampant and rampant
Ferss lyon in his hand.

In none of his other pieces has Ramsay reached the elevation displayed in this; although many incidental flights might be quoted, which shew that the vein in which he indulged, in this secret effusion, was that to which his poetic nature inclined more than to any other take, for example, the following passages, which are quite captivating for the vigour and brilliancy of imagination which they display.

From two impassioned Lovers.

Sun, gallop down the westlin skies,
Gang soon to bed an' quickly rise;
O, lash your steeds, post time away,
An' haste about our bridal day!

An' if ye're wearied, honest light,
Sleep gin ye like a week that night.
Gentle Shepherd.

Now Sol wi' his lang whip gae cracks
Upon his nichering cooser's backs,

Το
gar them tak th' Olympian brae
Wi' a cart load o' bleezing day!

Tale of the Three Bonnets.

It is greatly to be regretted, though possibly less on the author's account, than that of the many who delight in genuine poetry, that Ramsay did not oftener revisit the regions of fancy. He has certainly left a great mass of indifferent poetry, which no one can doubt his ability to have supplanted by better. His love of pleasing, and of profiting by those he pleased, led him to make rather inordinate sacrifices; and has been the means of augmenting the volume of his works by a number of pieces, condolatory and complimentary, which add nothing to his fame.

The merits of the Gentle Shepherd have been allowed, by all critics, to be of a very high order. It was Ramsay's own hope, that he might "be classed with Tasso and Guarini ;" and the station is one which posterity has not denied him. In simplicity, that quality by which pastoral poetry ought to be most distinguished, he has strong claims to rank, even higher than either of the Italian bards. In the Gentle Shepherd, we find few such conceits and artifices as abound in the Aminta, but more especially in the Pastor Fido. The fable has a high degree of proba

bility; the dialogue and sentiments are natural, and the language delightfully idiomatic.

His "Fables," on which Ramsay himself justly set great store, are little, if at all, inferior to his comedy. They evince great skill in story-telling, and abound in point and humour. The "Three Bonnets" and the "Twa Cats and the Cheese" are among the best. The 66 Monk and the Miller's Wife" would perhaps deserve the first place, were it not so close a paraphrase of Dunbar's Freirs of Berwik.

As a song writer, Ramsay does not rank high. A want of soul-stirring energy is the great defect in all his productions of this class. Many of them, however, still retain their popularity; and this they could not have done, without possessing very considerable merit. The Lass of Patie's Mill,* the Yellow Haired Laddie, Farewell to Lochaber, Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, are among those which appear to stand the fairest chance of lengthened renown.

As a poet, generally, Ramsay had the great merit

* The parish of Keith Hall, in Aberdeenshire, disputes with that of Galston in Ayrshire the honour of giving birth to this song. In the Statistical Account of Keith Hall, "The Lass's" father is said to have been proprietor of Patie's Mill in that parish. One Sangster, laird of Boddom, in New Machar parish, made an attempt to carry her off, but was interrupted by a dog, and very roughly handled by her father, who was called Black John Anderson.

Burns, on the other hand, in one of his letters to Mr. Thomson, gives the following as the genuine history of the song. He says, he had it from Sir WilPART 1.]

L

of being the first to restore the Scottish Muse to her native garb, after a lapse of nearly a century, during which she had been wasting her strength in a dead language. Ever since the accession of James VI. to the English throne, Scotsmen of talents had ceased to write in their native tongue, because it had ceased to be acceptable to the ear of their pedantic prince; and, as national prejudices made them averse to studying the niceties of the English, they had recourse to the Latin, which James affected to speak and write with great purity. Hence the quantity of exquisite poetic talent, which may be said to have been lost to its native country, in the Delicia Poetarum Scotorum, or collection of the beauties of the Scottish Latin writers of this period. Ramsay, obliged by necessity to rely on the powers of his native tongue, shewed, by his signal success in it, how unwisely it had been abandoned; and drawing away all the popularity after him, was naturally the means of bringing back into the same course all who made the meed of fame the object of their ambition.

T. T.

liam Cunningham, of Robertland, who had it of John Earl of Loudoun.

"Allan Ramsay was residing at Loudoun Castle with the then Earl, father to Earl John; and one forenoon riding or walking out together, his lordship and Allan passed a sweet romantic spot on Irvine water, still called "Patie's Mill," where a bonie lass was "tedding hay bareheaded on the green." " My Lord observed to Allan, that it would be a fine theme for a song. Ramsay took the hint, and lingering behind, he composed the first sketch of it, which he produced at dinner."

A. S.

WILLIAM MESTON.

AMONG the more remarkable adventurers in the rebellion of 1715 was William Meston, Professor of Philosophy in the Marischal College of Aberdeen. He was born in the parish of Midmar about the year 1688, and was the son of a blacksmith, much respected among his neighbours for his information and sagacity. Young Meston having evinced, in his early years, great quickness of parts, his father, notwithstanding his narrow means, resolved that the boy should want no advantage which a liberal education could supply, to give him a fair chance of rising to that eminence in the world, which, in his parental partiality, he saw dawning upon him. After he had acquired all that was to be learned at the village school, he was sent to the Marischal College, Aberdeen. Among his fellow students, he became speedily distinguished for his diligence and attainments, and when he had completed his academic studies, was looked upon as a young man to whom the road to fame and fortune was open. To the father, to whose liberality he was so much indebted for arriving at this point, he afterwards testified his gratitude by a monument erected in the parish church of Midmar, on which an epitaph is inscribed, which is praised by Dr. Ogilvie, in the Statistical Account, for its " pure and classical style."