Sc%. SHS.il) SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY FOURTH SERIES VOLUME 3 Letters of John Ramsay Letters of John Ramsay OF OCHTERTYRE I799—1812 edited by Barbara L. H. Horn ★ ★ EDINBURGH printed for the Scottish History Society by X. AND A. CONSTABLE LTD 1966 © Scottish History Society 1966 -V _'B Printed in Great Britain PREFACE I am grateful to the late Lt.-Col. James Colin Dundas ofOchter- tyre, d. s.o., for permission to publish these letters and for his interest in the task of editing them. I greatly regret that his death in August 1966 prevented him from seeing the letters in print. My thanks are also due to my father, Professor D. B. Horn, for his help and guidance. B. L.H.H. Edinburgh November, 1966 A generous contribution from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland towards the cost of producing this volume is gratefully acknowledged by the Council of the Society CONTENTS Preface v Introduction xi LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY I Ramsay-Dundas Family Tree 305 Index 307 ILLUSTRATIONS Facsimile of letter of 5 August 1800 page 20 Facsimile of letter of 31 December 1805 page 174 Introduction These letters are part of the Dundas of Ochtertyre muniments, deposited in the Scottish Record Office, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh.1 They were written by John Ramsay of Ochter- tyre to Elizabeth Graham, wife of James Dundas, an Edinburgh lawyer and Ramsay’s cousin. The estate of Ochtertyre is situated in southern Perthshire, although it is only four miles from the town of Stirling. The family of Ramsay first became lairds of it by a disposition granted to John Ramsay on i December 1697 by Robert Muschett, brother of the deceased David Muschett, portioner of Ochtertyre. The estate was held of James, earl of Perth, Lord Drummond and Stobhall, in terms of a charter by him dated 7 May 1698.2 John Ramsay, the first laird of Ochtertyre, was succeeded by his sonjames Ramsay, a Writer to the Signet, who was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates on 25 February 1723, and married Anne Dundas, daughter of Ralph Dundas of Manor, on 24 March 1734.3 James Ramsay had two sons. The elder, John Ramsay, the author of these letters, was born on 26 August 173 6,4 and the younger, Ralph, was born on 20 January 1739.5 Ralph was indentured as an apprentice to John Rattray, surgeon, apothecary, burgess of Edinburgh, in November 1754.6 There is a reference to Ralph in a letter of John Ramsay, his brother, to James Dundas: ‘As for my brother, poor man, if he ever returns, he never liked the place 1 a 3 SRO, GD 35/94/1-217. A copy survives in GD 35/9. Register of Marriages for parish of Edinburgh, 1701-1750, ed. Henry Paton (Scottish Record4 Society, 1908), p. 444. GD 35/236/7; Scotland and Scotsmen in the eighteenth century, ed. A. Allardyce (2 vols., Edinburgh,5 1888), i, p.6 ix (hereafter cited as Scotland and Scotsmen). GD 35/236/7. GD 35/40. Xll LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY [ Ochtertyre] and still less would he now when matters are so sadly- changed. A place where he can have the company of some old guns and his bottle of wine and chat would be more to his taste’.1 The date of Ralph’s death is unknown. James Ramsay died of apoplexy on 2 November 17482 and thus at the age of twelve John Ramsay succeeded to the estate of Ochtertyre. John Ramsay attended the grammar school at Dalkeith and, ac- cording to the editor of his literary manuscripts, attended classes at the university of Edinburgh and passed as an advocate.3 There is no record of Ramsay’s graduation, though this is hardly surprising as actual graduation in Arts had almost ceased by this time. It is quite possible that he did attend classes without leaving any trace in the fragmentary records of the university.4 However, it is curious that his name does not appear in the standard list of Scots advocates.5 Little is known of Ramsay’s life. In 1787 he was visited by Robert Burns, and 1793 by Sir Walter Scott. A copy survives of a letter written by Ramsay to Burns on 22 October 1787, in which Ramsay gave his approval to Burns’s ‘plan of retiring from din and dissipation to a farm of very moderate size’,6 and advised him to keep clear of satire and to study the spirit of the dialogue in The Gentle Shepherd. In 1796 Scott sent Ramsay a copy of his translation, Ballads from Burger, which Ramsay acknowledged.7 In company with Andrew Drummond, a banker, he visited London several times, according to Allardyce, the first in 1758. He also visited Edinburgh frequently, presumably before he wrote this series of letters, and also, as appears from them, in 1799,1800,1803,1804,1806,1808 and 1809. According to his friend. Dr John Stuart, minister of Luss, ‘the report of those associated with his [Ramsay’s] more private life was, that being engaged to a young lady, who lost her life by the fall of the North Bridge, Edinburgh, on the third of August 1769, when four others lost their lives by the same accident, the memory of this early sorrow caused him to form no similar attachment’.8 From the accounts of 1 3 4GD 35/53/14. * F.J. Grant, op. cit, 293. Scotland and Scotsmen, i, p. xi. I am grateful to Mr C. P. Finlayson,5 Keeper of Manuscripts, Edinburgh8 University- 7Library, for this information. F.J. Grant, op. dt. GD 35/75. Ramsay’s letter is printed in J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott (Boston, 1907), i, 234. * Local Notes and Queries reprinted from the Stirling Observer, ed. W. B. Cook (Stirling, 1883), pp. 36-39. INTRODUCTION Xlll the accident given in the Edinburgh Evening Courant, 5-14 August 1769, it seems that the lady was Mary, daughter of Dr Thomas Dundas, Ramsay’s uncle. There is no independent proof of the truth of this story, and I am doubtful whether in fact an accident at the age of 33 could really be described as an ‘early’ sorrow, but Ramsay wrote an epitaph for her, in warm if hardly loverlike tones.1 Apart from his visits to Edinburgh and to his various maternal relations, Ramsay seems to have remained at home, looking after his small estate, reading, engaging in literary work and conducting a voluminous correspondence. With the exception of the series of letters to Elizabeth Dundas, now published, and some thirty letters to James Dundas, her husband,2 very few of Ramsay’s letters have survived. He certainly corresponded with Elizabeth Abercromby, widow of Major Alexander Joass, Mrs Stuart, wife of Dr Stuart of Luss, and Dr Hugh Macleod, professor of ecclesiastical history at Glasgow university.3 As frequent complaints in his correspondence with Mrs Dundas suggest, his ill-health was probably the reason why these letters ceased in 1812, two years before his death, which took place on 2 March 1814.4 According to Dr Stuart of Luss, Ramsay was buried in his family burying-place in the old parish church, Kincardine-in-Menteith. There is a monument erected to his memory i the new church, built in 1814-16, with a latin epitaph written by himself.5 Ramsay’s manuscripts, or ‘lucubrations’ as he called them, are deposited in the National Library of Scotland (mss. 1635-44). They consist of a series of essays on Scotland in the eighteenth century, along with brief biographies of his friends and relations no longer living. Although there are ten folio volumes, Ramsay repeated himself fre- quently when treating the same subject under different headings, and Allardyce, by compression, has got most of the substance into the two volumes produced under the title Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eight- eenth Century, although this work is badly jumbled, indifferently transcribed and infrequently footnoted. Apart from two quotations 1 1 3 GDA letter 35/44. from Ramsay, GD dated35/53 17(1-28). December 1787, to Dr Robert Henry, minister of New Greyfriars, Edinburgh, is in the possession of Lord Moncrieff of Tullibole. I owe my knowledge of this to my colleague Mr A. M. Broom, Secretary of the National 4Register of Archives, Scotland. 6 Sects Magazine, 1814, p. 397. Scotland and Scotsmen, i, pp. xxiii-iv. xiv LETTERS OF JOHN RAMSAY relating to Scottish poetry, in Currie’s edition of Burns’ works,1 Ramsay’s only published production appears to be an essay ‘On Scottish Songs’, signed ‘J. Runcole’, which appeared in 1791.2 An extensive search has been made for a portrait or drawing of Ramsay, but without success. Allardyce, however, was fortunately able to obtain a description of him from Dr G. R. Gleig, son of Ramsay’s friend the bishop of Brechin, who remembered Ramsay from his own youth. Dr Gleig wrote: ‘When I knew him he was an old man, and having lived as he did a bachelor, he had fallen, when alone, into slovenly habits of dress. When receiving company his appointments were those of a gentleman of the old school - a coat, usually blue, with bright metal buttons, a high collar, and lace frills at the wrist. I think he wore hair-powder, but I am not quite sure, though of his carefully tied queue or pigtail I have a clear remem- brance. Breeches and blue stockings, with silver buckles in his shoes, were also worn on those occasions.