Edinburgh. When his father died, in 1757, he settled a pension on his unmarried sister, Janet Ramsay, who lived till 1804. In short, before Ramsay became a favourite with the King, he had accumulated an independent fortune amounting to about £40,000.

After George III. ascended the throne, court favour smiled freely upon Ramsay. In 1767 he was appointed portrait-painter to the court, which brought him a great increase of work, and he had to engage five assistants. There was such a strong desire to have portraits by him, that he was glad to employ any one to aid in advancing his pictures; but he always painted the head with his own hands. As the king often presented portraits of himself and the queen to his ambassadors and governors of colonies, Ramsay had a busy time manufacturing these royal effigies.4

When he was intently engaged on the first portrait of Queen Charlotte, all the crown jewels and regalia were sent to him; and he said that such a mass of jewels and gold deserved a guard, and accordingly sentinels were posted, day and night, around his house.

"It often happened that the king desired the painter to convey his easel and canvas to the royal dining-room, that he might observe his progress and have the pleasure of his conversation. The painter, a bold, spirited, wellinformed man, perfectly conversant with the state of the various kingdoms of Europe, spoke freely, and without disguise; and he was the only person about the court, save the domestics, who could speak German; the queen, more especially, found it an agreeable variety to chat with him in her native language. Ramsay, in short, was a great favourite. When the king had finished his usual allowance of boiled mutton and turnips, he would rise and say, “Now, Ramsay, sit down in my place and take your dinner." This partiality produced, of course, abundance of enemies; but they could do him no harm-for he was not dependent upon royal favour; and the extent of his fortune was, at least, as well known, and as sincerely envied, as either his accomplishments or his courtly success. He had many high friends: Lord Bute, the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Bath, Lord Chesterfield, and the Duke of Richmond, in particular, were frequently at his house, and that more, it was said, on matters connected with politics than painting. Ramsay loved and enjoyed this, for politics were his delight; he wrote with great vigour and facility, and dipped his pen freely in the public controversies of those times. He was known to be the author of many ingenious pieces on history, politics, and criticism, signed "Investigator," and since collected in a volume. He corresponded, too, with Voltaire and Rousseau; both of whom he had visited when abroad; and his letters are said to have been elegant and witty. Ramsay, in short, led the life of an elegant, accomplished man of the world, and public favourite; the companion of the first of his day, and the admitted ornament of the highest societies."Cunningham's Lives of British Painters, Vol. V., pp. 39-40.

He resided on the west side of Harley Street, and his studio consisted of a set of coachmen's rooms and haylofts gutted, and formed into one long gallery.

Unfortunately, he sustained a serious accident, which dislocated his right arm in so severe a way that he never fully recovered from its effects. Feeling his constitution shaken, and finding himself disabled, he left his work in Reniagle's hands-one of his own pupils, and went to Italy, where he resided for several years. But he never regained his strength, and died in August, 1784.

In his own art, "his execution was neat, careful, and finished; but the freedom of his pencilling never reached the character of boldness: the placid and the contemplative were his element, energy he never even attempted; and his colouring seldom deserted the regions of the pale and the grey." 5

Alexander Runciman was born in Edinburgh in 1736, a son of an architect; and it was reported that he began to make drawings at an early age. When fourteen years of age, he was placed in the studio of John and Robert Norris, the former of whom was a landscape painter of some note in his time. He applied himself earnestly to the art, and in 1755 he commenced on his own account as a landscape painter. He did not succeed, however, in this branch; although many praised his paintings and sketches, yet few purchased any of them; nevertheless, he worked hard, and hoped that his hour of fame would come. In 1766, he went to Rome with the object of improving his powers by a study of the great works in the ancient city. He remained in Rome for five years, and practised his hand and eye in drawing from the antique, copying the works of the great masters, and studying the historic paintings in the Italian galleries.

At this time, as indicated in preceding chapters, the national spirit was rapidly recovering from the effects of the Rising of 1746, and resuming its energy in every direction; thus associations for the promotion of the fine arts began to be formed, and, in 1760, an academy was established in Edinburgh. While in 1753 Robert and Andrew Foulis, of Glasgow, had established in that city an academy of fine arts, in which engraving, modelling, and drawing were taught; and in which specimens of antique art were collected, and aspiring youths invited to come there and study free of all expense. Of course, an institution of this kind could hardly continue long; but for a time its influence was attractive and exceedingly beneficial.

Lives of British Painters, by Cunningham, Vol. V., pp. 44.

When Runciman returned from Rome in 1771, he was solicited to become the head of the new academy in Edinburgh, at a salary of £120 per annum. He accepted the post, and commenced his task as

a teacher.

He was very fond of historic painting, and submitted the design of a grand national work to Sir John Clerk, namely, to embellish the hall at Penicuik with a series of paintings from Ossian. Sir John at once agreed to this. But, when it became publicly known that Penicuik was to be adorned with a series of paintings from Ossian's poems, and that the hall was to be called Ossian's hall, the mirth and scorn of those who disbelieved in the authenticity of the poems was loud and unbounded. But the artist worked on, although it involved much bodily pain, as he had to lie upon his back while engaged on the ceiling of the hall, and his health began to fail; yet, he bravely pushed on and finished this great and romantic undertaking.

The work consists of twelve principal paintings, representing some of the finest passages in the poems; and at the time of its execution it was hailed as an original and national work. Although it was defective in several essential points, still it was entitled to be ranked with compositions of the epic order. He produced various other paintings, but the above was his greatest effort. For years his health had been failing; and on the 21st of October, 1785, he dropped down at the door of his lodgings, and expired, in the forty-ninth year of

his age.

Touching his merits as an artist, there are different opinions. He sometimes violated the recognised rules of art in drawing and in other particulars; nevertheless, most of his efforts bear traces of real artistic genius. Brown, his pupil and friend, an able artist himself, says:"His fancy was fertile; his discernment of character keen; his taste truly elegant; and his conceptions always great. Though his genius seems to be best suited to the grand and serious, yet many of his works amply prove that he could move with equal success in the less elevated line of the gay and the pleasing. His chief excellence was in composition, the noblest part of the art, in which it is doubtful whether he had any living superior. With regard to the truth, the harmony, the richness, and the gravity of colouring-that style, in short, which is the peculiar characteristic of the ancient Venetian, and the direct contrast of the modern English school, he was unrivalled. His works, it must be granted, like all those of the present time, were far from being perfect."

David Allan was born in Alloa, on 13th of February, 1744. He received the rudiments of education in the parish school, and early manifested a bent for drawing; so it was resolved to send him to the new academy of Glasgow, and in February, 1755, he was apprenticed to Robert Foulis, to learn the art of drawing, painting, and engraving. He applied himself diligently to his work, and made good progress. He always spoke gratefully of the kindness of Robert and Andrew Foulis; and after his own reputation had risen, and their fortunes from speculation in art had sunk, he did all that he could to assist them.

In 1764, he left the academy of Glasgow and returned to his father's house. It was then agreed among his friends that he should be sent to Rome to prosecute the study of art; accordingly, in the summer of 1764, he started, with hope glowing in his breast, and various letters of credit and introduction. He resided in Rome eleven years. When receiving instruction, he first gained a silver medal for skill in drawing; and next the gold medal of the academy of St. Luke, for the best historic composition; he was the second Scotsman found worthy of such an honour, Gavin Hamilton being the first.

The picture which gained him this prize is one of much merit, and excels everything else in the same style which Allan ever produced. The subject of the picture is the old dream of the "Origin of painting, or the Corinthian maid drawing the shadow of her lover." Of this small picture it has been said: "There is a happy elegance and serene grace about the group which have seldom been surpassed, and I have heard Wilkie praise it as one of the best told stories that colour and canvas ever united to relate." 6 While in Rome he produced several other pictures, and made four humourous sketches of Rome during the Saturnalia of the Carnival. But the paintings of the rustic manners of his own native land are the best of his many efforts.

Having returned home, he settled in Edinburgh. In 1786 he was appointed to the mastership of the Academy in Edinburgh, in succession to Runciman. He held this position for ten years, and found leisure to plan and execute a work which he had contemplated in early life. This was an edition of Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, illustrated with landscapes and groups of characters copied from the scenes where the drama was laid. With this object he

6 Lives of British Painters, by Cunningham, Vol. VI., p. 27.

visited the district and every hill, dale, stream, and cottage, which could be admitted into the landscape of the poem. He copied whatever appeared suitable, admitted freely the faces of the old men and women into his sketches, and used them afterwards in his finished drawings. His finished drawings numbered twelve, but they are of unequal merit. Those in which age is depicted have most merit. Although he was not in all his delineations quite successful in catching the scenes of the poem, yet in his cottage scenes he has seldom been surpassed.

Touching the designs, and the way in which the plates were prepared for the work, he says:-"I have engraved them in the manner called agnatmenta-a late invention which has been brought to great perfection by Mr. Paul Smedly. A painter finds his advantage in this method, in which the pencil may be associated with the graver. It will be easily seen that I am not a master in the mechanical part of this art, but my chief intention was not to offer smooth and expensive engraving, but expressive characters and designs. How far I have succeeded it does not become me to say." He was right; the engraving is rough, quite unlike the smooth work produced now, still it is full of nature, which compensates for many defects. The poem associated with its illustrations was beautifully printed, and appeared in 1788; it was one of the first works of the kind produced in Scotland, and it rendered Allan popular.

His mind teemed with varied subjects-historic and domesticbut his homely subjects are the most interesting. The more important of these were "The Highland Dance" and "The Scotch Wedding," that is, the "Penny Wedding." The wedding is full of joy, quiet humour, and boisterous glee; it was engraved and exhibited over Scotland, and few who saw it could resist laughter. Such subjects, in whatever form presented, were for long dear to the peasantry.

Burns had just commenced his career when Allan's rustic pictures began to attract public attention, and the poet was amongst the first to perceive the characteristic merit of these pictures. When Burns was writing his fine lyrics, the idea occurred to Mr. Thomson, the proprietor of the work for which they were designed, that the hand of Allan might be employed to illustrate some of the best scenes in Scottish song. Accordingly, about twelve illustrative scenes were produced, some of which embodied the images, serious and comic, of Burns, and were exceedingly rich and expressive. Mr. Thomson