that, in visiting such a woman, he had spent his day well. This celebrated patronefs of poets was the accomplished daughter of the noble houfe of Kennedy, who having married, in 1708, Alexander the Earl of Eglinton, by whom fhe had three fons, two of whom fucceeded to the earldom, and feven daughters, who married into honourable families, died on the 18th of March 1780, at the patriarchal age of ninety-one *.

The fecond edition of this paftoral comedy was printed by Ruddiman, in 1726, for the author, who still refided at his fhop, as a bookseller, oppofite the Cross at Edinburgh †. The tenth edition of it was reprinted by the elegant types of R. and A. Foulis, at Glasgow, in 1750. It has fince paffed through many editions, fome of them with greater, and fome with lefs elegance, and accuracy. What has thus pleafed many, and pleafed long, it would be useless to praise, and idle to cenfure: yet, has hypercriticism, with as much dulnefs, as abfurdity,

* Scots Mag. p. 167.

In the parish regifter, which records the baptifm of his children, Ramfay is called a piriwige-maker, in 1713; a weegmaker, in 1714, 1715, and 1716; but on the 10th of Auguft 1725, he is called a bookfeller.

abfurdity, declared The Gentle Shepherd "to be

66

more barbarous, and stupid, than The Beggars' Opera!" When this captivating drama was first acted, cannot be easily ascertained; but, it certainly was reprefented after The Orphan, in January 1729, when the author of it contributed an epilogue.

It has been the fate of Ramfay, as it was, indeed, of Terence, to have his fame leffened by detraction, which has attributed to others his dramatic powers: Scipio, and Lælius, are faid to have had a great share in the compofition of Terence's plays: Sir John Clerk, and Sir William Bennet, are alleged, on lefs authority, to have affifted Ramfay, in his Gentle Shepherd: but, it has been well obferved by the late Lord Hailes, "that they who attempt "to depreciate his fame, by infinuating, that his "friends and patrons compofed the works, which pass under his name, ought first to prove, that "his friends, and patrons, were capable of com"pofing The Gentle Shepherd +."

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Ramfay fhewed, alfo, his dramatical propensities, by writing prologues, and epilogues, for occafional dramas:

* Ancient Scot. Poems, 1786, p. 133.
Ancient Scotifh Poems, 1768, p. 8.

dramas: he began this congenial practice in 1719, and concluded it in 1729. Some of these may vie with the finest, in the English language, for propriety of fatire, and happiness of point; delicacy of wit, and neatness of phrafe: this commendation is amply justified by his prologue, which was spoken by one of the gentlemen, who acted at Edinburgh The Orphan, and The Cheats of Scapin, for their diverfion, on the last night of the year 1719.

The celebrity of Ramsay was attended, however, like the other felicities of life, with circumftances of mortification. He had to ftruggle with contemporary contenders for poetic fame. There were published, about that time, fome ftanzas, intitled, "A Block for Allan Ramfay's Wigs, or, "the famous Poet fallen in a trance." There were also printed fome verfes, called, "Allan "Ramfay metamorphofed to a Heatherbloter "Poet; in a pastoral, between Egon and Me"libiæ." Ramfay was thus induced to give his "Reasons for not anfwering the Hackney Scrib"blers :"

These to my blyth indulgent friends;

Το

Dull foes nought at my hands deferve :
pump an answer 's a' their ends;
But, not a line, if they should starve.

By the attacks of such scribblers, Ramsay seems not to have been much moved. He continued to please his numerous readers, by publishing, fucceffively, popular poems: he printed his Fables and Tales, in 1722; his Tale of Three Bonnets, in the fame year; The Fair Affembly, in 1723; his poem On Health, which he addreffed to the celebrated Earl of Stair: and he was thus enabled to publifh, in 1728, a fecond volume of his poems, in quarto; including The Gentle Shepherd, and his Mafque on the nuptials of the Duke of Hamilton, which brings to our recollection the fimilar madrigals of Ben Jonfon. Of this quarto, an octavo edition was published, in 1729 both the volumes were re-published, at London, for the bookfellers, during the year 1731. The poetry of Ramfay met with a flattering welcome, not only in Scotland, and in England, but also in the colonies, and in Ireland and there was published, at Dublin, an edition of his poems in 1733. Of this univerfality of reception, our bard delighted to fing, in grateful strains, both as a poet, and a bookfeller.

In 1730, Ramfay published "A Collection of "thirty Fables." In this fpecies of poetry, he appears to have greatly indulged; because what he eafily found, he readily delivered: yet, about this

time,

time, he seems to have ceased writing for the public, at the age of forty-five; having diligently tried, during twenty years, to please his countrymen, and benefit himself. In his letter to Smibert, he fays, in 1736, "these fix or seven years paft I have not written a line of poetry: I e'en gave over in "good time, before the coolness of fancy, that at"tends advanced years, fhould make me risk the "reputation I had acquired *." Ramfay had now obtained, by his poetry, all the fame, which was to be had: and he was incited, by his love of profit, to bufy himself, not in writing, but in felling, and circulating books. In 1726, he removed from his original dwelling, at the Mercury, oppofite the Cross-well, to a houfe, which had been the London Coffee-house, in the east end of the Luckenbooths. With this change of fituation, he altered his fign; and inftead of the original Mercury, he now adopted the heads of two poets, Drummond of Hawthornden, and Ben Jonfon: here he fold, and lent, books, till a late period of his life here the wits of Edinburgh used to meet for amusement, and for information. From this commodious

* This curious letter, which is dated the 10th of May 1736, was first published in the Gent. Mag. September 1784, p. 672; and was thence copied into other mifcellanies.