Part 7 (1/2)

Be this as it rievously vexed by the co it, in the pride of his heart, to the witty Lord Elibank, who duly admired its unrivalled prospect, he added, 'And yet, use-pie'

'Deed, Allan, noo I see ye intilt, I'' History does not record Allan's rejoinder

Scarcely had he entered his newto enjoy there reat sorrow of his life fell upon hi partner, who had stood by him amid all the storm and stress of his busy career, was taken from him, after thirty years of unbroken affection and devotion She was interred in the Greyfriars Churchyard, as the cemetery records show, on the 28th of March 1743 So intense was her husband's grief that he, who for ies instinct with deep syret, could not trust hiither into hters, realising to the full the part that now devolved on theap left in his dost thetributes Rairls,' over whoone from them, he watched with a wealth of paternal love and an anxious solicitude, as unsparing as it was unre

And thus did the life of Allan Rah placid reaches of do fourteen years of existence Though he did not formally retire from business until 1755, he left it almost entirely in the hands of capable subordinates He had worked hard in his day, and now, as he said--

----'I the best and fairest please, A littleThat rudely ly, he lived quietly in the 'goose-pie,' 'faulding his li to concern hi political, social, or ecclesiastical calculated to bring worry and trouble upon hi the Rebellion of 1745, tradition states that Prince Charles Edward, after the capture of the city by the Highland ar hin's favour ular, indeed, it was, that the poet should have selected the day in question to repair to his friend James Clerk's mansion at Penicuik, and that he should there have been seized with so severe an indisposition as to prevent hih a Tory and a Jacobite, honest Allan knew upon which side his bread was buttered Such honours as would have been conferred would have been inconvenient

Moreover, the Rebellion had not yet attained dimensions sufficient to transmute it from a rebellion into a revolution Pawkiness and caution were prominent traits in his character, and they were never used to e than in the instance in question

To the end of life, Raenial, honourable man, whose appearance in any of the social circles he frequented, was the signal for 'quips and cranks and wreathed so round, and for the feast of reason and the flow of soul to coh Street on his way to his shop in the Luckenbooths, his head covered with the quaint three-cornered hat of the period, beneath which peeped his tie-as one of the faers with a pride and an affection that never diminished In his little villa on the Castlehill he entertained his friends in true Horatian style, and with a hospitality every whit as warreat Roman promised Maecenas, he ive

Foibles he had,--and who is without them? faults, too,--for what character lacks them? yet his very foibles and his faults leaned to virtue's side Vain he certainly was, deny the fact who can? his egotism, also,as his own, but whose liberality inallowances for human weaknesses was less Nay, he ard to certain little things, though this was the result of his hu, where, in the household economy of the Crichtons, a pound was a fortune But once break through the crust of his old-fashi+oned for appeal for aid, and instantly we touch the core of a ready and warm sympathy--a sympathy as catholic in the radius of its beneficence as it was munificent in the , to theand the orphan, to the fatherless and the friendless, Allan Ramsay was ever the readiest to help where help was really needed; and if his vanity liked the fact to be made public property, wherein lay the harm?

Do our published subscription-lists to-day not testify to the existence of the same foible in nine-tenths of us? To the iar, and to the thousand and one forms mendicity--supported byyour wa's,' he would say to such; 'gar your elbuck earn what your mooth eats, and ye'll be a better man'

Allan has had the misfortune to be rated by what he did not do in the way of charity, rather than by what he did Because he esteein at home, and that he should provide for his own before participating in any sche for others, he has been rated as selfish and miserly The opposite is the case Prudent, careful, and econoo from which he did not see the probability, at least, of an adequate return Hence, during the South Sea madness, he kept his head when many a better man went mad with the speculative ed with that gloootry which characterised hteenth centuries in Scotland As he put the matter himself in his _Epistle to James Arbuckle_:

'Neist, Anti-Toland, Blunt, and Whiston, Know positively I' thrawn parties would agree'

He delighted in sociality and conviviality, but recoiled fro of licence or excess To coarseness, it is true, he may at times have stooped in his work; but wea spade a spade, and not 'an iree greater than did Swift, or Steele, or Arbuthnot, or Gay, can Allan Raes with references either ribald or indelicate

The spirit of the age was in fault when coarseness was rated as wit; and to be true to life, the painters of the manners around them had to represent these as they were, not as they would have liked the to his friend, Ja epistle, had said--

'Now seventy years are o'er my head, And thirty mae may lay me dead'

Alas! the 'Shadow feared of reat distance farther on in his life's journey For soums, which in the end attacked his jawbone and affected his speech To the close, however, he retained his cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirits When the last great suth came to hination

Ahter Janet, who survived until 1807, were these: 'I' Star has risen and is shi+ning mair and mair unto the perfect day' And so he passed 'into the unseen' on the 7th January 1758, in the seventy-second year of his age He was interred two days after in the Greyfriars Churchyard, where his gravestone is still visible, bearing the inscription: 'In this cemetery was interred the mortal part of an immortal poet, Allan Ramsay, author of _The Gentle Shepherd_ and other admirable poems in the Scottish dialect He was born in 1686 and died in 1758

'No sculptured marble here, no pompous lay, No storied urn, no animated bust; This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust[2]

Though here you're buried, worthy Allan, We'll ne'er forget you, canty callan; For while your soul lives in the sky, Your ”Gentle Shepherd” ne'er shall die'

Sir John Clerk, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Scotland, who adenius and was one of his most intimate friends, erected at his family seat at Penicuik an obelisk to his memory; while Mr

Alexander Fraser-Tytler, at Woodhouselee, near the Glencorse _locale_ of _The Gentle Shepherd_, has erected a rustic temple which bears the inscription--

'ALLANO RAMSAY ET GENIO LOCI

'Here ht thy Doric Muse Her sweetest song,--the hills, the woods, and strea the while Her Gentle Shepherd's tender tale of love

Scenes which thy pencil, true to Nature, gave To live for ever Sacred be this shrine; And unprofaned, by ruder hands, the stone That owes its honours to thy deathless name'