Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/22

158 one of his jaw bones. He died at Edinburgh on the 7th of January, 1757, in the 73rd year of his age. He was buried on the 9th of the month, without any particular honours, and with him for a time was buried Scottish poetry, there not being so much as one poet found in Scotland to sing a requiem over his grave. His wife, Christian Ross, seems to have brought him seven children, three sons and four daughters ; of these Allan, the eldest, and two daughters survived him. Of the character of Ramsay, the outlines we presume may be drawn from the comprehensive sketch which we have exhibited of the events of his life. Prudent self-control seems to have been his leading characteristic, and the acquisition of a competency the great object of his life. He was one of the few poets to whom, in a pecuniary point of view, poetry has been really a blessing, and who could combine poetic pursuits with those of ordinary business.

RAMSAY,, an eminent portrait-painter, was the eldest son of the subject of the preceding article, and was born in Edinburgh in the year 1713. He received a liberal education, and displayed in boyhood a taste for the art which he afterwards successfully cultivated. His father, writing to his friend Smibert in 1736, says : " My son Allan has been pursuing your science since he was a dozen years auld ; was with Mr Hyffidg in London for some time, about two years ago ; has since been painting here like a Raphael : sets out for the seat of the beast beyond the Alps within a month hence, to be away two years. I'm sweer [loath] to part with him, but canna stem the current which flows from the advice of his patrons and his own inclination." It is to be supposed that the father would be the less inclined to control his son in this matter, as he was himself, in early life, anxious to be brought up as a painter. In Italy young Ramsay studied three years under Solimano and Imperial!, two artists of celebrity. He then returned to his native country, and commenced business, painting, amongst others, his father's friend, president Forbes, and his own sister, Janet Ramsay, whose portraits are preserved in Newhall house, and an excellent full-length of Archibald duke of Argyle, in his robes as an extraordinary lord of session, now in the Town Hall, Glasgow. The name of Allan Ramsay junior, is found in the list of the members of the Academy of St Luke, an association of painters and lovers of painting, instituted at Edinburgh in 1729, but which does not appear to have done anything worthy of record. It would also appear that he employed part of his time in giving private instructions in drawing, for it was while thus engaged in the family of Sir Alexander Lindsay of Evelick, that he gained the heart and hand of the baronet's eldest daughter, Margaret—a niece of the illustrious Mansfield—by whom he had three children. In 1754, he became the founder of the Select Society, which comprised all the eminent learned characters then living in the Scottish capital, and which he was well qualified to adorn, as he was an excel- lent classical scholar, knew French and Italian perfectly, and had all the polish and liberal feeling of a highly instructed man.

Previously to this period he had made London his habitual residence, though he occasionally visited both Rome and Edinburgh. In Bouquet's pamphlet on "the Present State of the Fine Arts in England," published in 1755, he is spoken of as "an able painter, who, acknowledging no other guide than nature, brought a rational taste of resemblance with him from Italy. Even in his portraits," says this writer, " he shows that just steady spirit, which he so agreeably displays in his conversation." He found in the earl of Bridgewater, one of