Between two birks, out o’er a little lin,[40]
The water fa’s an’ maks a singan din:
A pool breast-deep, beneath as clear as glass,
Kisses wi’ easy whirls the bord’ring grass.
We’ll end our washing while the morning’s cool;
An’ when the day grows het, we’ll to the pool,
There wash oursells—’tis healthfu’ now as May,
An sweetly cauler on sae warm a day.
The Gentle Shepherd, the poem on which Allan Ramsay’s reputation is mainly founded, is a pastoral of great beauty and charm. The original MS. was presented by the author to the Countess of Eglinton. It is a folio Vol. of 105 pages, clearly written by his own hand, and has a few comic pen-and-ink sketches added at the beginning or end of the acts, and at the close is this note:
“Finished the 29ᵗʰ of April, 1725, just as eleven o’clock strikes, by Allan Ramsay.