are more specific representations of sounds, but we do not often find words so discriminating. His references to trees, flowers, and birds are of the same general, limited sort. There are “bonny haughs” and “bonny woods;” there are rising plants, primroses, daisies, and gowans; there are “quiristers on high,” the merle, the mavis, and the lark. But there is no subtle, detailed observation. It is the open, frank, spontaneous joy of a child happy in the glad world about him. Ramsay’s best lines are descriptive of shining days, clear heavens, dancing streams. “The sun shines sweetly, a’ the lift looks blue,”[240] “ae shining day,” “ae clear morn of May,” “the morning shines,” “the lift’s unclouded blue,” “fair simmer mornings” indicate the general atmosphere of the scenery introduced. Occasional closer touches are seen in such lines as, I’ve seen with shining fair the morning rise, And soon the fleecy clouds mirk a’ the skies,[241] and For yet the sun was wading thro’ the mist.[242] Best of all are the lines about streams; A trotting burnie wimpling through the ground Its channel pebbles, shining, smooth and round,[243] A little fount Where water poplin springs.[244] I’ve seen the silver spring a while rin clear And soon the mossy puddles disappear,[245] Between twa birks out o’er a little lin The water fa’s and makes a singan din, A pool breast-deep, beneath, as clear as glass, Kisses with easy whirles the bord’ring grass,[246] are descriptions almost perfect of their kind. In their beauty and freshness they show that the eye was on the object. Mr. Shairp says of Habbie’s How, “A pool in a burn among the Lowland Hills could hardly be more naturally described,” and one need not be a Scotchman to feel sure that the same is true of the minor descriptive touches. Though Ramsay was brought up in a rugged part of Scotland, he seems to have had none of the modern feeling for mountains. But he speaks of “black, heathery mountains,” of “northern mountains clad with snow,” of “mountains clad with purple bloom,” and of hills that “smile with purple heather.” Once he exclaims, Look up to Pentland’s tow’ring top. Buried beneath great wreaths of snaw, O’er ilka cleugh, ilk scar, and slap, As high as any Roman wa,’[247] and he notes that Speats aft roar frae mountains heigh.[248] Such passages, though they show no love for the mountains, are yet sufficiently picturesque and exact to save Ramsay from the imputation of never having seen the wild country around him. To the ocean he gives but a single line, Along wild shores, where tumbling billows break.[249] It is interesting to note that in Ramsay as in Gay, Nature is made subordinate to man, in the sense that the pictures from Nature are nowhere elaborated or dwelt upon ostensibly for their own sake. The main interest is in the study of the characters.