“Blythe may he be who o’er the haugh,
All free from care, may sing and laugh,”
which is dated “Pennycuick, May 9, 1755.”
The present picture, very similar to that which was excellently mezzotinted by George White, shows the poet nearly to the waist, clad in a brown coat, the shirt open at the throat and without a cravat. No wig is worn, but the head is wound round tightly, cap-fashion, with a low-toned orange handkerchief, beneath which appears the bright, alert, intelligent face, with its bushy eyebrows and very black eyes, its wide-nostrilled, humorous, slightly retroussé nose, and its large-lipped mouth, full and rippling over with good-nature and sensitiveness. We are enabled to fix the exact date of the picture by means of the following interesting inscription on the back, in the autograph of Sir John, the second Baronet:—
“A Roundlet in Mr. Ramsay’s own Way.
Here painted on this canvass clout,
By Aikman’s hand is Ramsay’s snout,
The picture’s value none might doubt,
For ten to one I’ll venture,
The greatest criticks could not tell