Even with respect to the ladies, Ramsay is free from the imputation of extravagant praise. "His dedication of the Gentle Shepherd,' says Mr. R. Chambers in his account of the Countess of Eglinton, "which appears to contain the usual amount of extravagant praise, was perhaps little beyond the truth, and he assuredly overstrained his conscience very little when he said of this lady that she was 'possessed of every outward charm in the most extraordinary degree.' Neither was it," says he, "too much to speak of the unfading beauties of piety and wisdom which adorned her ladyship's mind." Hamilton of Bangour's prefatory verses to her ladyship are equally laudatory, and well bestowed. And of the minor beauties celebrated by him, the truth of his praise, already exhibited by the quotations from contemporary writers in the cases already given, receives further confirmation, in the case of Miss Mary Sleigh, afterwards Lady Brodie of Brodie, referred to in vol. I. p. 203, and vol. III. p. 245, from a contemporary manuscript ballad copied by Mr. R. Chambers. "The name is given by mistake," he says, "however, as Lee, not Sleigh, it being a revivification of an old broad sheet." The following is a quotation from that document:

Paterson (for cherishing this doubt) is, that probably Hamilton moved n a circle above that of the humble devotee of letters, a fact we dispute, we may set that aside. As well at the time Bangour wrote this imitation, as at that of his writing the imitation of the Ode xxi. Book iii., quoted below, Hamilton of Bangour was a younger brother without estate or office, and hanging about town with the young men of the day. Ramsay was then in the zenith of his fame, and the companion and friend of the highest as well as the most accomplished in the land. The reference in the latter Ode is as follows:

"TO A CASK OF TWENTY-YEAR-OLD BEER.

"O born with me, when Anna reign'd,
And prudent Warrender sustain'd,
The rights of Edin town;

Come now, good fellow, and descend,
Decreed to entertain a friend,,

'Tis Ramsay calls thee down."

"Frae Seton's land a countess fair looked o'er a window hie, And pined to see the genty shape of bonnie Mally Lee. And we're a' gaun east and west, we're a' gaun ajee, We're a' gaun east and west, a-courtin' Mally Lee.

And when she reached the palace porch, there lounged Earls three,

And ilk ane thought his Kate and Meg a drab to Mally Lee. And we're a' gaun, &c.

The dance gaed through the palace ha', a comely sight to

see;

But nane was there so bright or braw as bonnie Mally Lee. And we're a' gaun, &c.

Though some had jewels in their hair, like stars 'mang cluds did shine,

Yet Mally did surpass them a' wi' her but glancing eyne. And we're a' gaun east and west, we're a' gaun ajee, We're a' gaun east and west, a-courtin' Mally Lee."

The Tea Table Miscellany,' as a treasury where is stored up the impressions of society as respects the most distinguished of its members, many of which impressions the world would not "willingly let die," derives additional importance from the circumstance that it presents a state of society now nearly extinct, and not likely to be revived. The simple singing of Scotch songs, without any accompaniment whatever, was one of the amusements resorted to by the best society in Edinburgh, at those assemblages then so fashionable, called evening parties. Cards and gambling, we are told, could not keep their ground against this fascination, in which the first ladies and gentlemen of the land took their share. When the lovely Lady Mary Lilias Scott, the younger 'Flower of Yarrow,' the heroine of Crawford's 'Tweedside,' sang, alone or with her elder sister, both excellent

singers, Ramsay's ballad of 'Lochaber,' (1) "she did it," says Stenhouse, " with such feeling and effect as to draw tears from those who heard her." And when Lady Murray of Stanhope, to whom Ramsay dedicated the second part of his 'Scots' Music,' daughter of Lady Grizel Baillie, whose tea-parties, given in a flat in the Parliamentsquare, and esteemed the most delightful affairs that could be, used to sing Lord Yester's set of 'Tweedside,' "she did it," says Mr. R. Chambers, “with such thrilling pathos, that at each cadence at the end of the verses, where the despairing swain laments the necessity of 'laying his banes far from the Tweed,' there was generally a sob of tenderness heard from the company, and they never failed to be found in tears at the conclusion. The accomplished Countess of Eglinton is recorded to have sung Mallet's ballad, 'A youth adorned with every art,' composed on the loves of Lady Jean Home and Lord Robert Kerr when at an advanced age, and throughout the central portion of the last century, Scottish song formed a great portion of the entertainment of the better

(1) "From the import of this song," says Stenhouse, "it would seem that Ramsay had composed it in compliment to some young military friend, probably a native of Lochaber, then about to leave his country and his Jean to join the army on the continent." We may perhaps be allowed to conjecture that the hero of it was Captain Stewart, afterwards Sir John Stewart of Grandtully in Perthshire, near to Lochaber, and to whom its braes must have been endeared by youthful associations,-who affianced to Lady Jane Douglas, but inferior to her in rank and wealth, served in the army, because he says,

"Without it, I ne'er can have merit for thee;
And without thy favour I'd better not be.
I'll gae then, my lass, to win honour and fame,
And if I should luck to come gloriously hame,
I'll bring a heart to thee with love running o'er,
And then I'll leave thee and Lochaber no more."

And in reward of his devotion and constancy-if our surmise be correct -the lady refused every other alliance, and remained single until after she had reached the age of 50, when they were married, and became the subjects of a history as interesting as is to be found in the annals of that epoch. See note p. 397.

orders of people in Scotland. Sir Gilbert Elliott, Dr. Austin, Sir John Clerk of Pennicuick, Dr. Webster, Miss Jane Elliot, and Mrs. Cockburn-all of whom moved in the very best circle of society in Edinburgh—were active writers of verses to Scotch tunes. The public, it is true, is only acquainted with one song by each of these individuals, but some of them in reality wrote many such things." (1) How far Ramsay mingled in such society, or had leisure for it, we cannot ascertain; but the allusions in his songs to the charms of the singing of his heroines, are so frequent and so special, that it cannot be doubted he spoke from personally hearing them. In inscribing, on the occasion of their insertion in his quarto of 1721, the Scots songs probably then there published for the first time, to Mrs. Nisbet of Dirleton, he expresses his hope she may sing them. (2) In his 'Bonny Christie,' the first song in the 'Miscellany,' of which we believe she was the heroine,- -as the lady referred to in the note vol. II. p. 248, was of the older version of that piece,— he makes the singing of the lady one of her chief attractions. (3)

"That this was indeed," says Robert Chambers, speaking of the epoch of the 'Miscellany,' "the golden age of Scottish music and song, is abundantly clear. How else should Ramsay's volume have been intended, as he himself says, to 'steal itself into the ladies' bosoms?' How else should he have said of his book,

(2) Chambers'' Introduction to Scottish Song,' in which he gives proof of this.

(2) This inscription, consisting of a few lines, will be found at p. 18 of this volume, where unfortunately their connection with the songs referred to is not only not noticed, but their position makes it impossible to guess at the occasion of their composition. Nisbet of Dirleton appears in the histories of that period as a Jacobite of considerable influence.

(3) Compare lines p. 18 with second stanza of Bonny Christy,' vol. II. p. 248. Mrs. Nisbet's first name was Christian.

"The wanton wee thing will rejoice,
When tented by a sparkling e'e,
The spinnet tinkling to her voice,
It lying on her lovely knee:'

these wee things' being Ladies Charlotte Anne and Jean, the flower of the nobility of Scotland? And that most of the songs, thus sung and thus composed by Ramsay, were in reference to this nest of noble beauties and their companions, is evident from Mallet's letter at the time of their appearance. 'Ramsay has wonderfully obliged the young creatures, by making public those pretty love songs, where their sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks, and snowy breasts are so tenderly described." "

66

VIII. ADDITIONAL PIECES.

I.

CONTENTS OF THE 'EVERGREEN.'(')

"As Mr. Dunbar," says Mr. David Laing in his account of the contents of George Bannatyne's manuscripts, in the memorials of that collector published by the Bannatyne club, as Mr. Dunbar, and several other of our old poets, are under great obligations to Allan Ramsay, who was the first to recommend them to public notice, we shall here insert some lines by him, which are not included in any edition of his works. They were intended to have been prefixed to the 'Evergreen,' and are worthy of preservation, not so much in regard to any merit which they possess, but as expressing his sentiments respecting the merits of some of our early Makers:"