maids tripping it to the bughts with leglins and pails, the poem was
admiringly read, and its songs sung. Its performance on the stage in
1726, only served to whet the public appetite. By the leading poets of
the day, Pope, Swift, Gay, Tickell, Ambrose Philips, and Lord Lansdowne,
as well as by the most influential critics, Dennis, Theobald, and Dr.
Ruddiman, the work was hailed as one of the most perfect examples of the
pastoral that had appeared since the _Idylls_ of Theocritus. No less
eminent a judge of poetry than Alexander Pope considered it in many
respects superior to the _Shepherds' Calendar_; while Gay was so
enthusiastic in his admiration that he sent the work over to Swift, with
the remark, 'At last we have a dramatic pastoral, though it _is_ by a
Scot.'

The first edition of _The Gentle Shepherd_ was exhausted in a few
months, and in January 1726 Ruddiman printed the second, while the third
and a cheaper one was called for towards the close of the same year. The
enormous sale of the poem may be estimated by the fact that the tenth
edition was printed in 1750 by R. & A. Foulis of Glasgow. So great was
the accession of popularity accruing to Ramsay through the publication
of _The Gentle Shepherd_, and so rapid the increase in his bookselling
business, that he found it absolutely necessary to shift his place of
business, or _Scotice dictu_, to 'flit' to larger premises, in the first
storey of the eastern gable-end of the Luckenbooths, a block of towering
_lands_ or tenements which, until 1817, stood in the very centre of the
High Street, obstructing the thoroughfare, and affording a curious
commentary on the expedients to which the burgesses of Edinburgh were
compelled to resort, to eke out to the utmost the space enclosed within
the charmed circle of the Flodden Wall.

At his 'flitting,' also, he changed his sign, and, thinking the 'Flying
Mercury' no longer applicable to his new pursuits, he adopted the heads
of Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden, a sign which in local
parlance gradually grew to bear the title of 'The Twa Heids.' In his new
premises also, Ramsay extended the scope of his business, adding to the
other attractions of his establishment a circulating library, the first
of its kind in Scotland. He entered his new shop in May 1726. Sixty
years after, the ground-floor of the same _land_, together with the flat
where formerly Ramsay was located, were in the occupancy of William
Creech, the firs