Catholic times, has often been admired, as almost Chaucerian, for its force and truth-- 'The latter-gae of haly rhime, Sat up at the boord head, And a' he said 'twas thought a crime To contradict indeed. For in clerk lear he was right prime, And could baith write and read, And drank sae firm till ne'er a styme He could keek on a bead Or book that day.' The coarseness of the pieces cannot be denied. Still, withal, there is a robust, manly strength in the ideas and a picturesque force in the vocabulary that covers a multitude of sins. His picture of morning has often been compared with that of Butler in _Hudibras_, but the advantage undoubtedly lies with Ramsay. Butler describes the dawn as follows-- 'The sun had long since in the lap Of Thetis taken out his nap, And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn From black to red began to turn.' Ramsay, in his description, says-- 'Now frae th' east neuk o' Fife the dawn Speel'd westlines up the lift; Carles wha heard the cock had crawn, Begoud to rax and rift; And greedy wives, wi' girning thrawn, Cry'd "Lasses, up to thrift"; Dogs barkèd, and the lads frae hand Bang'd to their breeks like drift, Be break o' day.' It must be remembered, the poem was addressed to rustics, who would neither have understood nor appreciated anything of a higher or less broadly Hogarthian nature. In _Christ's Kirk on the Green_ we have stereotyped to all time a picture of manners unsurpassed for vigour and accuracy of detail, to which antiquarians have gone, and will go, for information that is furnished in no other quarter. In his elegies pure and simple, namely, those divested of any humorous element, Ramsay has done good work; but it is not by any means on a par with what is expected from the poet who could write _The Gentle Shepherd_. A painter of low life in its aspects both humorous and farcical was Ramsay's distinctive _métier_. Pity it was his vanity and ambition ever induced him to turn aside from the path wherein he was supreme. His 'Ode to the Memory of Lady Mary Anstruther,' that to 'the Memory of Lady Garlies,' the one to Sir John Clerk on the death of his son James Clerk, and the 'Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Forbes of Newhall,' are his best elegies. The versification is correct, the ideas expressed are sympathetically tender, poetic propriety and the modesty of nature are not infringed by any exaggerated expressions of grief, but the glow of genius is lacking, and the subtle union of sentiment and expression that are so prominent features in his greater poem. His two finest efforts as an elegist were his _Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Forbes_, beginning-- 'Ah, life! thou short uncertain blaze, Scarce worthy to be wished or loved, Why by strict death so many ways, So soon, the sweetest are removed!