Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ramage, Craufurd Tait

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649924Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 47 — Ramage, Craufurd Tait1896Thompson Cooper

RAMAGE, CRAUFURD TAIT (1803–1878), miscellaneous writer, born at Annefield, near Newhaven, on 10 Sept. 1803, was educated successively at Wallace Hall Academy, Dumfriesshire, at the Edinburgh high school, and the university, where he graduated M.A. in 1825. While at the university he took private pupils, including Archibald Campbell Tait, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. After leaving college Ramage became tutor in the family of Sir Henry Lushington, and spent three years with his pupils in Naples, afterwards making the tour of Italy. For fifteen years after his return he was tutor in the family of Thomas Spring-Rice, afterwards Lord Monteagle [q. v.] He devoted his leisure to literary pursuits, and contributed to the ‘Quarterly Journal of Education,’ the ‘Penny Cyclopædia,’ and the seventh edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica.’

In 1841 Ramage was appointed vice-master of Wallace Hall Academy, and he succeeded, on the death of Dr. Mundell, to the rectorship in 1842. He was nominated a justice of the peace for Dumfriesshire in 1848, and the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the university of Glasgow in 1852. He died at Wallace Hall on 29 Nov. 1878.

He published four anthologies, entitled ‘Beautiful Thoughts,’ respectively ‘from Greek Authors, with English Translations, and Lives of the Authors,’ Liverpool, 1864, 8vo; ‘from Latin Authors, with English Translations,’ Liverpool, 1864, 8vo; 3rd edit. enlarged, 1877, 8vo; ‘from French and Italian Authors, with English Translations and Lives of the Authors,’ Liverpool, 1866, 8vo; ‘from German and Spanish Authors,’ Liverpool, 1868, 8vo. His other works are: 1. ‘Defence of the Parochial Schools of Scotland,’ Edinburgh, 1854, 8vo. 2. ‘The Nooks and Byways of Italy. Wanderings in Search of its Ancient Remains and Modern Superstitions,’ Liverpool, 1868, 8vo. 3. ‘Drumlanrig Castle and the Douglases: with the Early History and Ancient Remains of Durisdeer, Closeburn, and Morton,’ Dumfries, 1876, 8vo. 4. ‘Bible Echoes in Ancient Classics,’ Edinburgh, 1878, 8vo.

[Private information.]

T. C.