be,' each member assumed a
fictitious name, generally that of some celebrated writer. The poet, as
he himself relates, at first selected Isaac Beckerstaff, suggestive of
Steele and the _Tatler_. Eventually, however, he altered his
_nom-de-guerre_ to Gawain Douglas, one more in accordance with his
patriotic sentiments.

The membership was limited to _twelve_, but at the time when Ramsay made
his application we only know the names of five of those who belonged to
it. Hepburn of Keith, in East Lothian, an antiquarian of no mean
standing; Professor Pitcairn, late of Leyden, but at that time in the
enjoyment of one of the largest practices as a physician in the
Edinburgh of the period; Dr. Patrick Abercrombie, the eminent historian
and antiquarian, author of _The Martial Achievements of the Scottish
Nation_; Dr. Thomas Ruddiman, philologist, grammarian, printer, and
librarian of the Advocates' Library,--one of the few Scottish polymaths
over and above the Admirable Crichton and George Buchanan,--and James
Ross the lawyer. Tradition has stated that Hamilton of Gilbertfield was
also one of the 'Easy fellows,' as they dubbed themselves, but no
confirmation of this fact could be discovered.

We reach now the commencement of Ramsay's literary career. For four
years--in fact, until the breaking up of the Society after the Rebellion
of 1715--all he wrote was issued with the _imprimatur_ of the Easy Club
upon it. That they were proud of him is evident from the statement made
by Dr. Ruddiman in a letter to a friend: 'Our Easy Club has been
increased by the admission of a young man, Ramsay by name, _sib_ to the
Ramsays of Dalhousie, and married to a daughter of Ross the writer. He
will be heard tell o' yet, I'm thinking, or I am much out of my
reckoning.'

The next pieces which our poet read to his patrons were two he had
written some time previous--to wit, a little Ode on the preservation
from death by drowning of the son of his friend John Bruce, on August
19, 1710; and the _Elegy on Maggy Johnston_, the alewife, to which
reference has already been made. The first of these bears evident traces
of youth and inexperience, in both the esoteric and exoteric or
technical mysteries of his art. For example, when referring to the
danger wherein the lad and his companions had been placed, he remarks--

'Whilst, like the lamp's last flame, their trembling souls
Are on the wing to leave their mortal goals';

and he conjures up th