[Martin's 1931 biography of Ramsay was considered definitive until it was supplanted by Alexander Kinghorn in 1970 with his The Works of Allan Ramsay. In the following excerpt, Martin discusses Ramsay's reputation among his contemporaries and in the latter half of the eighteenth century.]

There is no reason for thinking that before 1719 Ramsay was known beyond the city of Edinburgh. But in that year we have his correspondence with Hamilton of Gilbertfield, the englishing of "Richy and Sandy" by Josiah Burchet, and the exchange of riming epistles with the Irishman, James Arbuckle. From this time Ramsay's fame spread rapidly beyond the walls of the Good Town, not without the help of his friends. Before Steele went to Edinburgh on government business in 1720, he instructed James Anderson to find him lodgings. The latter in reporting to his superior concluded his letter thus: "I enclose you a poem of Mr. Ramsay's, whose performances, I presume, you are not a stranger to." This specimen must have found favour with the Englishman, for he subsequently subscribed for two copies of the quarto of 1721. About a year later, Sir William Bennet of Grubet wrote the Countess Dowager of Roxburghe: "I send your ladyship Allan Ramsay's essay one [sic] the cutting of my Lord Bowmont's hair." Whatever we may think of the tradition that the housewives of Edinburgh were in the habit of sending their children to buy Allan Ramsay's latest piece to be read over a dish of tea, we must grant, in the light of these letters, that the citizens of Edinburgh looked upon a new poem by him as somewhat of an event to be communicated to friends abroad. The congratulatory verses and the list of subscribers published in Poems (1721)—at least one copy went to New England—gives the same impression of an ever-growing and widening popularity. Indeed, one feels that during his life Ramsay must have received homage in verse from every poetaster in Scotland and many of those in England. Dublin had an edition of his works in 1724, seven years before London; and when in 1727 a rumour spread through the Irish capital that Ramsay had died, a broadside elegy of the usual quality was hawked in the streets. In 1726 Ramsay subscribed for thirty copies of a new edition of Hudibras with illustrations by Hogarth. When the artist shortly afterwards republished twelve of the plates, he dedicated the edition jointly to William Ward of Great Houghton and Allan Ramsay of Edinburgh. Gratitude may have induced Hogarth's action—or, possibly, a feeling of kinship with the satiric observer of Edinburgh low-life.

There is a tradition that Ramsay's shop, admirably situated as it was on the High Street near the Cross, was the rendezvous for the wits of the city. Southerners seem to have found it a pleasant place to while away the time. William Tytler remembered having seen Gay there. We have already noted that the Earl of Oxford visited Ramsay while in Edinburgh. There can be little doubt, in view of the above quotation, that Steele found his way to Ramsay's shop when he was in the north. But it is uncertain that Tom D'Urfey and Ramsay met, for when D'Urfey was young enough to make the long journey to Edinburgh, Ramsay had not yet become so prominent. Englishmen did not need, however, to travel to Edinburgh to hear of Ramsay, for his works were in the London bookshops, and his name in the journals. The British Journal for March 9, 1723, published a translation of a short passage in Vergil purported to have been made by the Scottish poet Allan Ramsay for which the translator had received the sum of twenty marks. In the issues of October 3 and 24, 1724, the same journal had a version of Ramsay's elegy on the Duchess of Hamilton, contributed by an ardent admirer; but the text being abbreviated and debased, Ramsay sent the editor a true copy with a letter, both of which were published in the issue of November 14. About the same time (November 2, 1724), the Plain Dealer had a letter in defence of Scottish as a poetic medium; the writer thought "Our Allan Ramsay, a living Versifier in Old-Style, uses few words that are not to be met with in Shakespear, Spencer, &c …except, when he coins Words, by virtue of his extra-judicial Poetick Privileges, that never were, and never will be, used by any Mortal, besides Him-self." But if Ramsay's friends were doing their best to keep his name before the London reader, his critics also had their turn. In the Weekly Journal or Saturday's Post for September 14, 1723, appeared what seems to be a covert attack on the poet. The writer of an essay on Fortune, bemoaning the human failing of deserting a tried and proved trade for one less suitable, remarks that he has known "a good Taylor turn an ignorant Chymist and an expert Barber become a miserable Poet." Then under the guise of friendliness he delivers his blow:

I do not say this in the least to reflect upon Mr. Allen Ramsey of Edinburgh, whose Works I have read with Pleasure; I understand he uses Poetry like a Gentleman, that is, only plays with it at leisure Hours, when the more important Business of his Trade is over, he smooths a Verse and a Chin with the same Facility; I have seen of his Work in both Capacities, and confess I can't help thinking his Perriwigs and his Poetry both very good.

Incidentally, we have here for the first time the mistaken idea, which was to have such a long history, that Ramsay was a barber. As late as 1745 we find Ramsay's name dragged into an attack on Curll in a pamphlet, Remarks on 'Squire Ayre's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. Pope. In a Letter to Mr. Edmund Curl, Bookseller, etc. Perhaps a quotation will be pardoned, as it shows the eighteenth-century method of carrying on literary quarrels:

Allen Ramsay, the Scotch Poet, whose Works you have, with your usual Propriety, forc'd in, to the great Assistance and Amplification of your own, you treat in another manner. No malicious Critic's Censure, no witty Sneer, nor boisterous Mirth will you permit to keep down his rising Honours, but all is Praise, all Fame, all Glory, and Allen Ramsay, any one must think, who would be taught to judge from you, has more Merit, and deserves more Fame than Pope, or Gay, than Tasso or Guarini…. Why do you praise? For what peculiar Beauties is it he has run away with such a double Portion of your Encomiums? Why, for no peculiar Beauties at all, (except indeed those of the Binding) but for a Reason worth a Million such, because you have forty Sets of them (a dead Stock) upon your Hands, and would be very glad, by a worse Means than this Puff, as it is call'd, to sell some of them.

This use of Ramsay as a means of attacking some other person we have already seen in connection with the North Briton's campaign against Lord Bute.

But the criticism of Ramsay in London was naught compared with the vituperation poured on him by enemies at home. [Wodrow attacked] his library as corrupting the youth and servant women of the city. The author of "The Flight of Religious Piety from Scotland" …has Piety describe Ramsay's influence in these terms:

The Pulpits there did represent
The Glories of the Lord of Hosts
Until the Devil sow'd the Seed
Of Poetry in Ramsay's Brain,
Who never for God's Glory stood,
But only for his private Gain.
I strove in vain to gain the Youth
Whose Reason Ramsay hath debauch'd.

Indeed, the poet's critics never could forget that he, a mere wigmaker, had become wealthy. In the same poem the devil addresses Ramsay thus:

Now Ramsay my brave Adjutant,
Which I once took from picking Hair,
I told thee, that thou shouldst not want,
If thou but with me wouldst take Fare.
Have I once fail'd, at thy Request,
To grant more than thy Heart could wish?
Herrings and Fardles did please thy Taste;
Now thou canst get a dainty Dish:
Thou heldst an House then but for Hire,
And glad to poll a Teat of Hare;
To face the Cross, thy Nest and Fire,
Thy House I have procur'd thee there;
Thy piss-brown Wig, thou us'd to wear
I have turn'd to a three-tail'd Buckle;
I have procur'd thee all thy Gear,
Thy Block-Head then to me must truckle.

A cleverer method of attack was used by the anonymous author of "Allan Ramsay Metamorphosed to a Heather-Bloter Poet in a Pastoral between Aegon and Melibae": one character praises Ramsay on various accounts only that the other may turn the seeming eulogy to censure. Aegon finds that Ramsay uses the vernacular because he was bred in either the Braid or the Pentland Hills; he criticizes the poet's choice of themes and his writings for the stage. His closing lines have a familiar ring:

Then Melibae, If you praise his Deeds,
Provide a Block unto his high flowing Wigs.

The criticism of Ramsay's use of the vernacular in the last writer is interesting, for as the century moves along, we find that it is this characteristic of Ramsay's work that wins most praise. In 1746 there was published in London a poem entitled "The Saddle put on the right Horse …A Poem in the Stile of Allan Ramsay's Poetical Works." The author of the poem, which is in Scots, says that he has been induced to publish it because his friends have pronounced it the equal of Ramsay's. In 1750 "Orestes" contributed a poem to the Scots Magazine, entitled "To a Gentleman, upon saying he had in vain attempted to answer a few lines sent him in Scots verse; and that he feared, either that Allan was dead, or that I had borrowed his muse." The poet tells of a talk with the Scottish muse ("landart lass"), who says she has well nigh lost her strength since Allan sits at home and writes no more verse. "Orestes" tries to cheer her with the hope that Ramsay will again turn to poetry. This poem, like so many others addressed to Ramsay, is in Scots, and herein lies its significance. To those who were interested in the vernacular at a time when the more ambitious were painfully trying to drop all Scotticisms from their speech Ramsay seemed a pillar of strength.

Ramsay's death in 1758 produced, despite statements to the contrary, a number of tributes. The Scots Magazine published an elegy, "To the Memory of Mr. Allan Ramsay." Another appeared in the columns of the Caledonian Mercury, and a broadside was published in Dublin. We have also noticed that in 1758 several performances of The Gentle Shepherd were given. In other words, by the time of his death Ramsay had become a minor national figure, especially to those who were proud of the native dialect. When Smollet wished to exalt Scottish humorous verse in Humphrey Clinker (1771), he had a Scot vaunt of Ramsay's Ever Green. It became the fashion to mention Ramsay in praising a new poet. So we find "Geordie Buck" writing "Claudero":

To this the recipient answered:

But thou has screw'd my muse so high,
Like Daedalus, in air to fly,
She dreads his fate, and must implore,
Beneath fam'd Allan's wings to soar.

In the latter part of the century Ramsay's and Fergusson's names were linked together. John Learmont wrote "An Encomium on Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson, without, however, trying to decide their relative merits." On April 14, 1791, a debate took place at the Pantheon, a literary club in Edinburgh, to decide which of the two poets had done the more for Scottish poetry. R. Cummings and E. Picken read poems in Ramsay's praise. The former devoted his time to The Gentle Shepherd, while the latter stressed Ramsay's work in reviving the vernacular, and the naturalness and simplicity of his style. A. Wilson, who upheld Fergusson's claims, maintained his superiority in virtue of his greater realism; with his conclusion we cannot but agree:

It's my opinion, John, that this young fallow,
Excels them a', an' beats auld Allan hallow,
An' shews, at twenty-twa, as great a giftie
For painting just, as Allan did at fifty.

With the advent of Burns we have his name linked with his predecessors by all aspirants to poetic fame. One of many examples is [by George Galloway]:

Such allusions to the Scottish trinity continue through the first decade of the nineteenth century, but after that they become rare, the cause of the change being most probably a just realization of the superiority of Burns. At the same time a new form of respect was paid Ramsay. The events of his life began to attract attention, the first biography being published in 1797. Then arose the celebrated dispute about the site of The Gentle Shepherd. It was inevitable that a monument should be suggested, but whether it should be erected in Edinburgh or on the site of Ramsay's pastoral was not easily decided. Some years passed, and in 1820 a tablet was placed on the south wall of Greyfriars Church. About 1850 a proposal was advanced to build a great stone terrace in front of Ramsay Gardens with a statue of Ramsay thereon. Although there was adverse criticism, the work proceeded until it fissured and collapsed. In 1865, through the generosity of Lord Murray, the present handsome monument in Princes Street Gardens was erected. Throughout the century writers on romantic old Edinburgh busied themselves in collecting or making anecdotes about Ramsay, and the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland began to collect relics. The "Goose-Pie" became a university residence. By all these tokens Ramsay had become a classic, and the time for reading and enjoying him had passed.

Little need be said here about Ramsay's influence. The Gentle Shepherd … did much to break down the prejudice against the stage, and it also served as a model for certain writers. We [note] Ramsay's service to the vernacular by his use of it at a time when it was rapidly passing out of favour. Poets and poetasters of the century were inspired by his example to write in Scots. We need not attempt to trace the influence of Ramsay on Burns, as that has been done adequately elsewhere. To show his influence on minor writers of the period we shall mention two instances. The following passage from Thomas Blair's "Gibbie and Wattie" should be compared with Ramsay's "Robert, Richy, and Sandy":

He held out his snout forgainst the peat-stack 'now,
Wi' mony a lengsome elrich wough, wough, wow,
I ran to chase him but a' was in vain.
He fletted frae his seat, and yowld again.
I cry'd 'isk 'isk poor Batie, hae tak a piece, but the grumbling tyke
Ran farther off and yowl'd at the fauld dyke.

David Bruce, a political writer in Pennsylvania in the last decade of the eighteenth century, imitated Ramsay in both diction and stanza. His opponents, who soon saw the source of his inspiration, called him "Allan Ramsay degenerated into a rough, dull, shrill, reminiscence of his former greatness." It is a far cry from the streets of Edinburgh to the frontiers of Pennsylvania, but the voice of Allan Ramsay was heard in both places.