[Footnote 3: Allan Ramsay the painter studied his art both at London and Rome. He was the projector and founder of the Select Society of Edinburgh in 1754. In 1767 he was appointed portrait painter to his Majesty. On his return from Italy he died at Dover, on the 10th of August, 1784, leaving a fortune of £40,000. He was twice married, first to Miss Bayne, daughter of Professor Bayne of Edinburgh, and sister of the late gallant Capt. Bayne of the Navy. She brought him one daughter, who died young. His second wife was the eldest daughter of Sir Alexander Lindsay of Evelich, Baronet, by Emilia, daughter of the Viscount of Stormont, and niece to the great Earl of Mansfield; she was also the sister of the late Sir David and Sir John Lindsay. She died in 1782, and left by Allan Ramsay two daughters and a son. One of his daughters was married to the late General Sir Archibald Campbell, K. B. of Inverneil in Argyleshire, and the other to Colonel Malcolm. His son, John Ramsay, has attained the rank of Lieutenant-General in the army. Of our Poet's daughters only two survived him; Christian, who died about the year 1800, and Janet, who died in New-street, Canongate, Edinburgh, on the 14th of January, 1804.] About the year 1711 or 1712 our Poet seems first to have ventured into the regions of rhyme. The clubs and societies of Edinburgh had provoked in him this new passion, and his earliest effort, so far as is known, is an Address, supplicatory of admission, "To the most happy members of the Easy Club," a production bearing every mark of unskilfulness and juvenility. Of this club he was afterwards appointed poet-laureate, in which capacity he was wont to recite to that jolly fraternity his successive productions, for their criticisms and their applause. Many of these poems were published in a detached form at a penny a-piece, and his name became by this means celebrated in the city. About the year 1716, and ere he relinquished his avocation of wig-maker, he published an edition of the excellent old poem of "Christ's Kirk on the Green," with a second canto by himself. Having thus associated himself in the walks of humour with the King of Scotland, he was induced, by the approbation which he gained, and the rapid sale of the book, to "keep a little more company with these comical characters," and to complete the story, by adding afterwards a third canto. This attempt was crowned with all the success he anticipated, and numerous editions of the work afforded him satisfactory proof, that, in the public opinion, he had not unworthily put himself into partnership with the royal humourist.[4] [Footnote 4: A passage in one of those modern cantos of Ramsay's, describing a husband fascinated homewards from a scene of drunkenness by the gentle persuasions of his wife, has been tastefully selected by Wilkie, and been made the subject of his admirable pencil. Hogarth dedicated to Ramsay, in 1726, his twelve plates of Hudibras.]