ter such a glowing tribute, Allan could do no less than dip deep into
his cask of compliments also, and assure Gilbertfield that he felt
taller already by this commendation--

'When Hamilton the bauld and gay
Lends me a heezy,
In verse that slides sae smooth away,
Well tell'd and easy.'

Then he proceeds to shower on his correspondent his return compliments
as follows--

'When I begoud first to cun verse,
And could your "Ardry Whins" rehearse,
Where Bonny Heck ran fast and fierce,
It warmed my breast;
Then emulation did me pierce,
Whilk since ne'er ceast.'

Three epistles were exchanged on either side, bristling with flattery,
and with a little poetic criticism scattered here and there. In Ramsay's
second letter his irrepressible vanity takes the bit in its teeth and
runs away with him. He appends a note with reference to his change of
occupation, as though he dreaded the world might not know of it. 'The
muse,' he says, 'not unreasonably angry, puts me here in mind of the
favours she had done by bringing me from stalking over bogs or wild
marshes, to lift my head a little brisker among the polite world, which
could never have been acquired by the low movements of a mechanic.' He
was a bookseller now, of course, and could afford to look down on
wigmakers as base mechanics! His lovableness and generosity
notwithstanding, Ramsay's vanity and self-complacency meets us at every
turn. To omit mentioning it would be to present an unfaithful portrait
of the honest poet. On the other hand, justice compels one to state
that, if vain, he was neither jealous nor ungenerous. He was always
ready to recognise the merits of others, and his egoism was not
selfishness. Though he might not care to deny himself to his own despite
for the good of others, he was perfectly ready to assist his neighbour
when his own and his family's needs had been satisfied.

At this time, also, Sir William Scott of Thirlestane, Bart., a
contemporary Latin poet, as Chalmers records, of no inconsiderable
powers, hailed Ramsay as one of the genuine poets whose images adorned
the temple of Apollo. In the 'Poemata D. Gulielmi Scoti de Thirlestane,'
printed along with the 'Selecta Poemata Archibaldi Pitcarnii'
(Edinburgh, 1727), the following lines occur--

'_Effigies Allani Ramsaei, Poetae Scoti, inter caeteras Poetarum
Imagines in Templo Apollinis suspensa_:

D