ut in 1724 our poet showed himself ambitious of winning distinction in
a new field. In 1718, as was stated previously, he had published a
volume of _Scots Songs_, some of them original, but a large number of
them adapted from older and imperfect copies. So successful had the
venture been, that a second edition had been called for in 1719, and a
third in 1722. To attempt something of a cognate character, yet upon a
larger scale, Ramsay now felt encouraged. In January 1724 appeared the
first volume of the _Tea-table Miscellany: a Collection of Scots Sangs_.
The second volume was published in 1725, with the note by Ramsay: 'Being
assured how acceptable new words to known good tunes would prove, I
engaged to make verses for above sixty of them in these two volumes;
about thirty were done by some ingenious young gentlemen, who were so
pleased with my undertaking that they generously lent me their
assistance.' 'Among those young gentlemen,' as Professor Masson says in
his excellent monograph on Ramsay in his _Edinburgh Sketches and
Memories_, 'we can identify Hamilton of Bangour, young David Malloch
(afterwards Mallet), William Crawford, William Walkinshaw,' to which we
would add James Preston. A third volume of the _Miscellany_ appeared in
1727 and a fourth in 1732, though, as regards the last, grave doubts
exist whether Ramsay were really its editor or collector. Few
compilations have ever been more popular. In twenty-five years twelve
large editions were exhausted, and since Ramsay's death several others
have seen the light, some better, some worse, than the original. All
classes in the community were appealed to by the songs contained in the
_Miscellany_. That he intended such to be the case is evident from the
first four lines of his dedication, in which he offers the contents--

'To ilka lovely British lass,
Frae ladies Charlotte, Anne, and Jean,
Down to ilk bonny singing Bess,
Wha dances barefoot on the green.'

In the collection each stratum of society finds the songs wherewith it
had been familiar from infancy to age. Tunes that were old as the days
of James V. were wedded to words that caught the cadences of the music
with admirable felicity; words, too, had tunes assigned them which
enabled them to be sung in castle and cot, in hall and hut, throughout
'braid Scotland.' The denizens of fashionable drawing-rooms found their
favourites--'Ye powers! was Damon then so blest?' 'Gilderoy,' 'Tell me,