Hamilla; tell me why'--in these fascinating volumes, even as the Peggies
and the Jennies of the ewe-bughts and the corn-rigs rejoiced to note
that 'Katy's Answer,' 'Polwart on the Green,' 'My Daddy forbad, my Minny
forbad,' and 'The Auld Gudeman,' had not been lost sight of. For many a
long day, at each tea-party in town, or rustic gathering in the country,
the _Tea-Table Miscellany_ was in demand, or the songs taken from it,
for the entertainment of those assembled.

The widespread delight evoked by the _Miscellany_ allured Ramsay to
essay next a task for which, it must be confessed, his qualifications
were scanty. Nine months after the publication of the first volume of
the _Miscellany_--to wit, in October 1724--appeared another compilation,
_The Evergrene: being ane Collection of Scots Poems, wrote by the
Ingenious before 1600_. It was dedicated to the Duke of Hamilton, and
in the dedicatory epistle he informs his Grace that 'the following old
bards present you with an entertainment that can never be disagreeable
to any Scotsman.... They now make a demand for that immortal fame that
tuned their souls some hundred years ago. They do not address you with
an indigent face and a thousand pitiful apologies to bribe the goodwill
of the critics. No; 'tis long since they were superior to the spleen of
these sour gentlemen.' He had been granted access to the 'Bannatyne
MSS.'--the literary remains of George Bannatyne, poet, antiquarian, and
collector of ancient manuscripts of Scottish poetry. This valuable
repository of much that otherwise would have perished was lent to Ramsay
by the Hon. William Carmichael of Skirling, advocate (brother to the
Earl of Hyndford), with permission to extract what he required. From
this priceless treasure-trove he drew specimens of Dunbar, Henryson,
Alexander Scott, Lyndsay, Kennedy, Montgomery, Sempill, Gavin Douglas,
and others. A similar favour was in 1770 granted to Lord Hailes when
preparing his volume, _Ancient Scottish Poems_. Interesting, therefore,
it is, to compare the manner in which the two editors respectively
fulfilled their tasks.

In Ramsay's case the poems he selected from the Bannatyne MSS. were
passed through the alembic of his own brain. Everything was sacrificed
to popularity and intelligibility. Lord Hailes, on the other hand, was
the most scrupulous of editors, refusing to alter a single letter; for,
as he said, the value of the poems lies in the insight they afford us
i