"My friends I'm satisfied you'll all behave, Each in his station as I'd wish or crave. Be ever virtuous, soon or late you'll find Reward and satisfaction to your mind. The maze o' life sometimes looks dark and wild; And oft when hopes are highest, we're beguiled. Oft when we stand on brinks of dark despair, Some happy turn, with joy, dispels our care." Thus ends the "Gentle Shepherd," which with all its faults, possesses an inimitable charm. In Scotland it is a sort of household poem. Every one, young and old, reads it with delight. Indeed, it is probably the most popular pastoral drama ever written. The common people, in the rural districts of Scotland, know it by heart. The Bible, the Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe and "the Gentle Shepherd" are read by them a thousand times more than any other book. CHAPTER XI. Biographical Sketch of Allan Ramsay--Lasswade--Ramble along the banks of the North Esk--Glenesk--A Character--Anecdote of Sir W. Scott--Hawthornden--Drummond the Poet--His Character and Genius--Sonnets--Chapel and Castle of Roslin--Barons of Roslin--Ballad of Rosabelle--Hunting Match between Robert Bruce and Sir William St. Clair. Leaving Habbie's Howe, we will let Sandy drive us along the banks of the river, through Auchindinny, Roslin and Hawthornden, to the pretty village of Lasswade, where we will spend the night. Sandy can take the carriage back to Edinburgh, and to-morrow we will ramble on foot through the classic shades of Roslin and Hawthornden, visit Dalkeith and some other places, and return to Edinburgh by the railway. In the meantime I will give you some account of Allan Ramsay. Allan was born on the 15th of October, 1686, in Crawford Muir, Lanarkshire, and died in the city of Edinburgh, in the year 1784. He was at first a wigmaker, and afterwards a bookseller. In 1726 he kept a little bookstore opposite Niddry's Wynd in the city of Edinburgh, whence he removed to another, somewhat more commodious at the east end of the Luckenbooths, having exchanged his old sign of Mercury for the heads of Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden, whom he greatly admired. His early education was limited. He attended the village school at Leadhills, where, as he himself informs us, he acquired just learning enough to read Horace "faintly in the original." Of a vigorous constitution, and a cheerful temper, he spent his time happily in the country, till his fifteenth year, though his lot seems to have been a hard one. "Wading through glens wi' chorking feet, Where neither plaid nor kilt could fend[56] the weet; Yet blithely would he bang out o'er the brae, And stend o'er burns as light as ony rae, Hoping the morn[57] might prove a better day." [Footnote 56: Keep off.] [Footnote 57: To-morrow.]