EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
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1756. From a complete Catalogue cf modern Books pul)lished from the beginning of the cen- UTT to this period, from which " all pamphlets Ad tracts" are excluded, it appears tnat 6,280 lew -works had been published, which exhibits in average of ninety-three new works each year.
1767, Jan. 7. Dxed, Allan Ramsat, a cele- >rated poet, and for many years a respectable XMkseller in the <Aty of Edinburgh. He was >om at the village of Leadhills, in Lanarkshire, 3ct. 16, 1686. His parentage was respectable, ind his ancestry even dignified. He had the >enefit of the parish school till he was in his fif- eenth year, but of the progress he had made n his studies, we have no particular account; it ieitainlv made him acquainted with Horace, as 8 abundantly evident in his poems. In 1701 he Has apprenticed to a periwig maker, in Edin- >urgh, which appears to have been at that time \ flourishing profession. There can be no doubt hat Allan Runsay served out his apprenticeship lononrably, and aherwards for a number of years >ractised his trade as a master successfully: he xMsessed independence; and, while, in the com- lany of respectable fellow-citizens, he indulged md improved his social qualities, he, by taUng a wife an excellent woman. Christian R(ms, the laughter of a writer in Edinburgh, laid the foundation of a lifetime of domestic felicity. It was in the year 1712, and in the twenty-sixth rear of his age, that he entered into the state of matrimony; and the earliest of his poetical pro- luctions that can now be traced, is an epistle 'x> the most happy members of the Easy Club, iated the same year. This club originated, as le himself, who was one of its members, informs 18, " in the antipathy we all seemed to have at iie ill humour and contradiction which arise from trifles, especially those that constitute Whig Uld Tory, wivumt having the grand reason for t(." This club was in factformed of Jacobites, and die restoration of the Stuarts was the grand reason lere alluded to. In the presence of this club, R,amsay was in the habit of reading his first pro- luctions, which, it would appear, were published jy or under the patronage of the fraternity. But ■he rising of Mar put an end to its meetings; md Ramsay, though still a keen Jacobite, felt it for his interest to be so in secret. It was now, lowever, that he commenced in earnest his }oetical career, and speedily rose to a degree of Mipularity, which had been attained by no poet n Scotland since the days of sir IHivid Lindsay. ?ot more than a century, indeed, Soittish poetry lad been under an eclipse, while such poetical genius as the age afforded chose Latin as the nedium of communication. Semple, however, tnd Hamilton of Gilbertlield, had of late years «vired the notes of the Doric reed; and it seems x> have been some of their compositions, as pub- ished in Watson's collection in 1706, Uiat first nspired Ramsay. Unlike the greater number )f men of poetical talent, Ramsay had the most lerfect command over himself; and the blind ptiping of the cyclops of ambition within, led lim to no premature attempts to obtain distinc-
tion. Though he must have entertained day- dreams of immortality, he enjoyed them with moderation; and, without indulging either des- pondency or dejection, he waited with patience for their realization. An elegy on Maggy John- ston seems to have been one of the earliest of his productions, and is highly characteristic of his
fenius; this was speedily followed by that on ohn Cowper, quite in the same strain of broad humour. The exact time when, or the manner how he changed his original profession for that of a bookseller, has not been recorded; but it was previously to 1718, when he published a second edition of king James's Christ Kirk on the Green, that Allan Runsay had commenced the booksel- ling business, for it was " printed for the author, at the Mercury, opposite to Niddry's Wynd;" At the Mercury, he seems to have prosecuted his business as an original author, editor, and bookseller, with great dmgence,for a considerable number of years. His poems he continued to print as they were written, in single sheets or naif sheets, in which shape they are reported to have found a ready sale, the citizens being in the habit of sending their children with a penny "for Allan Ramsay's last piece." In 1720,heis8ued proposals for publishing the whole of his poems, in one volume 4to. The estimation in which the poet was now held, was clearly de- monstrated by the rapid filling up of a list of subscribers, containing the names of all that were eminent for talents, learning, or dignity in Scot- land. The volume, handsomely printed by the Ruddimans, ornamented with a portrait of the author, was published in the succeeding year, and the fortunate poet realized four hundred guineas by the speculation. This volume was, according to the fashion of the times, prefaced with several copies of recommendatory verses. In 1726 appeared his dramatic pastoral, under the title of the Gentle Shepherd, which met with instant and triumphant success. In this year he removed from Niddty's Wynd to a house at the east end of the Luckenbooths, which had for- merly been the London coffee house. Here, in Slace of Mercury, he adopted the heads of Ben onson and Drummond of Hawthomden, and in addition to his business as a bookseller, estab- lished a circulating library, which was the first in Scotland. In this shop the wits of Edinburgh continued daily to meet for information and amusement during the days of Ramsay and his successors in trade. He had now risen to wealth and respectability, numberingamong his familiar friends the best and the wisest men in the nation. With ootemporary poets his intercourse was ex- tensive and of the most friendly kind. The two Hamiltons of Bangour and Gilbertfield, were his most intimate friends. He addressed verses to Pope, to Gay, and to Somerville,* the last of whom returned his poetical salutations in land. In the year 1765, he is supposed to have re-
• wmUun Bomerrille, uitbor of the Cham, HoMnot, FieU Spmit, and other poemi, wu born in lOfa, aod died July 90, 1741. He was burled at Wotton, near Henley In Arden.WarwickBhire. Mr.SomerrillewaaauaocomiiUabed genHemui, a lUlfiil sportaman, and a Joatice of the peace.
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