the range of possibility--that the scion of the house
of Ramsay, whose anxiety to let the world know he was of gentle lineage
was so chronic, may have felt himself a cut above the children of the
bonnet-lairdie. Ramsay's nature was not one wherein the finer sympathies
and delicate regard for the feelings of others were mortised into a
sturdy independence and a desire to carve his fortunes out of the block
of favouring opportunity. From start to finish of his career a subtle
egoism, born of his lonely situation in life and fostered by his
inordinate vanity, was his distinguishing trait. Generous acts he did,
benevolent and kindly on numerous occasions he undoubtedly was, but his
charity was not altruism. He was not the man to deny himself for the
good of others.

Henceforth Edinburgh was to be Ramsay's life's home. He was enrolled as
an apprentice early in January 1701. Although, as an apprentice, he was
obliged to undertake duties distinctly domestic and menial,--for, in
those days of strict social and ecclesiastical discipline, a master was
expected to discharge towards those indentured to him much that
appertains solely to the province of the parent,--still, there would be
many spare hours wherein he would be free to devote himself to such
pursuits as his taste led him.

What induced him to select wig-making as his life's _metier_ is unknown.
Perhaps his stepfather may have had some friend in that line of business
who for 'auld lang syne' was willing to take the boy and teach him his
trade. There is, of course, the other side of the question to be taken
into account, that the work did not demand much bodily strength for its
successful prosecution, and that it was cleanly, neat, and artistic. The
recent development of the art of the _coiffeur_ in France, in
consequence of the attempts of Louis XIV. to conceal his natural defects
of diminutive stature and a phenomenally small head,--defects impairing
the effect of that majestic mien which the pupil of Mazarin so
persistently cultivated,--had spread into England, and thence into
Scotland. The enormous periwigs rendered fashionable by _Le Grand
Monarque_ admitted of a variety of artistic treatment. The heyday of
wig-making may therefore be said to have extended over at least the
greater part of Ramsay's career in this branch of trade, and in his day
the poet was reckoned the most ingenious of Edinburgh _perruquiers_.

Another consideration probably influenced him in hi