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Allan Ramsay

Portrait by by William Aikman (1682 – 1731)[1]
Born:	October 15, 1686 Leadhills, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Died:	January 7, 1758
Occupation:	poet
Nationality:	Scottish

Allan Ramsay (October 15, 1686 – January 7, 1758) was a Scottish poet. Image File history File links Current_event_marker. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... In the public domain by age This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years). ... 1686 (MDCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Scotland. ... Leadhills is a village in Lanarkshire, Scotland, 5¾ miles WSW of Elvanfoot. ... Lanarkshire (Siorrachd Lannraig in Gaelic) is a traditional county of Scotland. ... Motto: (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity(English) Wha daur meddle wi me? (Scots)[1] Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots[2] Government  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1758 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... For the album by the Kaiser Chiefs see Employment (album) Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... Motto: (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity(English) Wha daur meddle wi me? (Scots)[1] Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots[2] Government  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years). ... 1686 (MDCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... January 7 is the seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1758 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Motto: (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity(English) Wha daur meddle wi me? (Scots)[1] Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots[2] Government  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ...

Life and career

Allan Ramsay was born at Leadhills, Lanarkshire to John Ramsay, superintendent of Lord Hopetoun's lead-mines and his wife, Alice Bower, a native of Derbyshire. He was educated at the parish school of Crawford, and in 1701 was apprenticed to a wig-maker in Edinburgh. He married Christian Ross in 1712; a few years after he had established himself as a wig-maker (not as a barber, as has been often said) in the High Street, and soon found himself in comfortable circumstances. They had six children. His eldest child was Allan Ramsay, the portrait painter. Leadhills is a village in Lanarkshire, Scotland, 5¾ miles WSW of Elvanfoot. ... Lanarkshire (Siorrachd Lannraig in Gaelic) is a traditional county of Scotland. ... Missing image Lord Linlithgow John Adrian Louis Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, 7th Earl of Hopetoun (25 September 1860 - 29 February 1908), first Governor-General of Australia, was born at Queensferry, Linlithgowshire, Scotland, on 25 September 1860, the eldest son of the sixth Earl of Hopetoun. ... For Pb as an abbreviation, see Pb. ... Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. ... // Crawford may refer to: Abel Crawford, early American mountaineer and entrepreneur Alexander Crawford, American Civil War sailor and Medal of Honor recipient Billy Crawford, American-Filipino-singer Broderick Crawford (born 1911), actor Chris Crawford (basketball player) Chris Crawford (game designer), American, video games Carl Crawford, baseball player Carolyn Crawford, singer... WIG, originally an acronym for Warszawski Indeks Giełdowy (Warsaw Stock Exchange Index) is the oldest index for the Warsaw Stock Exchange. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Portrait of David Hume by Allan Ramsay, 1766. ...

Ramsay's first efforts in verse-making were inspired by the meetings of the Easy Club (founded in 1712), of which he was an original member; and in 1715 he became the Club Laureate. In the society of the members he assumed the name of "Isaac Bickerstaff," and later of "Gawin Douglas," the latter partly in memory of his maternal grandfather Douglas of Muthill (Perthshire), and partly to give point to his boast that he was a "poet sprung from a Douglas loin." The choice of the two names has some significance, when we consider his later literary life as the associate of the Queen Anne poets and as a collector of old Lowland Scots poetry. Ruined 12th Century Church at Muthill Muthill is a village in Perth and Kinross, Perthshire, Scotland. ... Perthshire (Siorrachd Pheairt in Gaelic) was a county in central Scotland, which extended from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south. ... Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714) became Queen of England and Ireland and Queen of Scots on 8 March 1702. ... Scots refers to the Anglic varieties spoken in parts of Scotland. ...

By 1718 he had made some reputation as a writer of occasional verse, which he published in broadsheets, and then (or a year earlier) he turned bookseller in the premises where he had hitherto plied his craft of wig-making. In 1716 he had published a rough transcript of Christ's Kirk on the Green from the Bannatyne manuscript, with some additions of his own. In 1718 he republished the piece with more supplementary verses. In the following year he printed a collection of Scots Songs. The success of these ventures prompted him to collect his poems in 1722. The volume was issued by subscription, and brought in the sum of four hundred guineas. Four years later he removed to another shop, in the neighbouring Luckenbooths, where he opened a circulating library (the first in Scotland) and extended his business as a bookseller. // The Funj warrior aristocracy deposes the reigning mek and places one of their own ranks on the throne of Sennar. ... The Bannatyne Club was founded by Sir Walter Scott to print rare works of Scottish interest, whether in history, poetry, or general literature. ... // The Funj warrior aristocracy deposes the reigning mek and places one of their own ranks on the throne of Sennar. ...

Between the publication of the collected edition of his poems and his settling down in the Luckenbooths, he had published a few shorter poems and had issued the first instalments of The Tea-Table Miscellany and The Ever Green (both 1724-1727). The Tea-Table Miscellany is "A Collection of Choice Songs Scots and English," containing some of Ramsay's own, some by his friends, several well-known ballads and songs, and some Caroline verse. Its title was suggested by the programme of The Spectator: and the compiler claimed the place for his songs "e'en while the tea's fill'd reeking round," which Addison sought for his speculations at the hour set apart " for tea and bread and butter." The Spectator was a daily publication of 1711–12, founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England. ...

In The Ever Green, being a Collection of Scots Poems wrote by the Ingenious before 1600, Ramsay had another purpose, to reawaken an interest in the older national literature. Nearly all the pieces were taken from the Bannatyne manuscript, though they are by no means verbatim copies. They included his version of Christ's Kirk and a remarkable pastiche by the editor entitled the Vision. While engaged on these two series, he produced, in 1725, his dramatic pastoral The Gentle Shepherd. In the volume of poems published in 1722 Ramsay had shown his bent to this genre, especially in "Patie and Roger," which supplies two of the dramatis personae to his greater work. The success of the drama was remarkable. It passed through several editions, and was performed at the theatre in Edinburgh; its title is still known in every corner of Scotland, even if it be no longer read. 1600 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Ramsay wrote little afterwards, though he published a few shorter poems, and new editions of his earlier work. A complete edition of his Poems appeared in London n 1731 and in Dublin in 1733. With a touch of vanity he expressed the fear lest "the coolness of fancy that attends advanced years should make me risk the reputation I had acquired." He was already on terms of intimacy with the eading men of letters in Scotland and England. He corresponded with Hamilton of Bangour, William Somervile, John Gay and Alexander Pope. Gay visited him in Edinburgh, and Pope praised his pastoral--compliments which were undoubtedly responsible for some of Ramsay's unhappy poetic ventures seyond his Scots vernacular. The poet had for many years been a warm supporter of the stage. Some of his prologues and epilogues were written for the London theatres. In 1736 he set about the erection of a new theatre, "at vast expense," in Carrubber's Close, Edinburgh; but the opposition was too strong, and the new house was closed in 1737. In 1755 he retired from his shop to the house on the slope of the Castle Rock, still known as Ramsay Lodge. In this house, called by his friends "the goose-pie," because of its octagonal shape. William Somervile or Somerville (September 2, 1675 - July 19, 1742) was an English poet. ... John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 - 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist. ... Alexander Pope, an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism and Rape of the Lock Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) is generally regarded as the greatest English poet of the early eighteenth century, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. ... Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

He is buried at Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh. Greyfriars Kirk, today Greyfriars Tolbooth & Highland Kirk, is a parish kirk (church) of the Church of Scotland in central Edinburgh, Scotland. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Work

Ramsay's importance in literary history is twofold. As a pastoral writer ("in some respects the best in the world," according to James Henry Leigh Hunt) he contributed, at an early stage, to the naturalistic reaction of the 18th century. His Gentle Shepherd, by its directness of impression and its appreciation of country life, anticipates the attitude of the school which broke with neo-classical tradition. It has the "mixed" faults which make the greater poem of his Scots successor, Thomson, a " transitional " document, but these give it an historical, if not an individual, interest. His chief place is, however, as an editor. He is the connecting-link between the greater "Makars" of the 15th and 16th centuries, and Robert Fergusson and Robert Burns. He revived the interest in vernacular literature, and directly inspired the genius of his greater successors. The preface to his Ever Green is a protest against "imported trimming" and "foreign embroidery in our writings," and a plea for a return to simple Scottish tradition. He had no scholarly interest in the past, and he never hesitated to transform the texts when he could give contemporary " point " to a poem; but his instinct was good, and he did much to stimulate an ignorant public to fresh enjoyment. In this respect, too, he anticipates the reaction in England which followed securely on the publication of Percy's Reliques. An artists rendering of James Henry Leigh Hunt James Henry Leigh Hunt (October 19, 1784 - August 28, 1859) was an English essayist and writer. ... A makar in Scottish literature is a poet or bard, often attached to the royal court. ...   Statue of Fergusson on Edinburghs Royal Mile Robert Fergusson (September 5, 1750 - October 16, 1774), Scottish poet, son of Sir William Fergusson, a clerk in the British Linen Company, was born at Edinburgh. ... Robert Burns, foremost Scottish poet Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796) was a poet and a lyricist. ... Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular - the speech of the common people. ... The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (sometimes known as Reliques of Ancient Poetry or simply Percys Reliques) is a collection of ballads and popular songs collected by Thomas Percy and published in 1765. ...

The Tea-Table Miscellany was reprinted in 1871 (2 vols., Glasgow; John Crum); The Ever Green in 1875 (2 vols., Glasgow; Robert Forrester); The Poems of Allan Ramsay in 1877 (2 vols., Paisley; Alex. Gardner). These volumes are uniform in size and binding, though issued by different publishers. A selection of the Poems appeared in 1887 (1 vol. 16mo, London; Walter Scott). There are many popular reprints of The Gentle Shepherd.

Books

• The Tea-Table Miscellany
• The Ever Green
• The Poems of Allan Ramsay
• The Gentle Shepherd (1725)
• Kirk

Footnotes

1. ^ Ramsay's friend, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, owned Aikman's portrait of Ramsay, in imitation of whose verse he had written on the back of the canvas:
   Here painted on this canvas clout
   by Aikman's hand is Ramsay's snout[1]

References

• Burns Martin, Allan Ramsay: A Study of his Life and Works

External links

• More information, including full text, on Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd at the University of North Texas Music Library's Virtual Rare Book Room

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.