for many years to come. We have been informed that the profits realised are to be devoted to a pure-text edition, at a popular price, to take the place of the Kilmarnock Scott Douglas edition. If at all possible, we would advise the inclusion of at least representative examples of Burns's prose compositions in this projected edition for the use of the masses, so as to afford them clearer grounds of judging what manner of man Robert Burns really was.

EDITOR.

"HONEST ALLAN."

I.

HE term "honest Allan " has an appearance of simplicity

THE and, ex facie, a plain meaning, which can hardly be mis

A search

understood. It indicates, one might say, the personal possession of a well-known, if not a common virtue, viz., honesty. for the individual having a clear title to the distinctive name proves ere long, nevertheless, both difficult and disappointing. The word "honest," moreover, turns out to be itself elusive and uncertain, as may be discovered by pondering the different shades of meaning between " an honest fellow" and "an honest woman." Its usual construction in English hardly supplies more than a shadowy clue to all that is implied in its Scots interpretation.

When, for example, Burns wrote of the "honest men of Ayr, he did not mean to say that they were not addicted to fraud, cheating, or stealing, nor did he mean to place above the might of kings the making of a man who was simply not a thief. In either case, Burns had probably no thought of the vulgarly criminal appropriation of another person's property. A man may, accordingly, be innocent of the decalogued crime and be unim peachably fair in his dealings, and still fall short of the Scots standard of honesty. It implies a certain all-round moral distinction, and such general, sterling solidity of character as inspires confidence. The honest man is alike above subterfuge and moral cowardice. He is to be trusted implicitly in word and deed, as one who speaks only what he deems truth, and does only what he thinks right. To be honest, in the Scots sense is, in fine, to be something of a paragon-a compendium of many virtues-but notably, to be manly and true. It is not unlikely that, in the end, "honest Allan" may turn out a myth, and that not because the

test applied to his ethical sense is either exacting or severe, but because the title has been conferred without due discrimination.

An instance in point occurs in one of the rhymed epistles of Hamilton of Gilbertfield, where he takes the liberty of addressing his correspondent, Allan Ramsay, as "honest Allie." Taking a hint apparently from Hamilton, Burns follows suit, and, looking for a rival to Theocritus, in "Poem on Pastoral Poetry" introduces the couplet

:

"Yes! there is ane; a Scottish callan !

There's ane; come forrit, honest Allan!"

an endorsement sufficient, under ordinary circumstances, to have sent Ramsay down to posterity bearing the label of a quality akin to orthodoxy-namely, Scots respectability. Honours, howeverknighthood, doctorate of laws, and the like--lose their gloss when bestowed without strict selection. Burns may thus have gone slightly astray in nominating a triumvirate of honest Allans. In a letter of 26th October, 1792, to George Thomson, he sends his "best compliments to honest Allan," which, so far as known, must mean David Allan, the artist, called by a stretch of fancy "the Scottish Hogarth," but most widely and favourably known probably by his illustrations of the other honest Allan's Gentle Shepherd. Burns frequently praises his work when writing Peter Cunningham as well as Thomson, but what title he had to admission to the aristocracy of Honest Men is beyond conjecture. The third of the trio is mentioned in a note by Burns to the song "Willie brewed a peck o' maut," inserted in the Riddell interleaved copy of the Scots Musical Museum. Distributing the honours, Burns says: "This air is Masterton's, the song mine. The occasion of it was this-Mr Wm. Nicol, of the High School, Edinburgh, during the autumn vacation, being at Moffat, honest Allan (who was at that time on a visit to Dalswinton) and I went to pay Nicol a visit. We had such a joyous meeting that Mr Masterton and I agreed, each in our own way, that we should celebrate the business." Never, surely, was any other peck o' maut so inspiring of immortal music wedded to immortal verse. William Nicol then filled the title-rôle, while the Poet and Allan

Masterton are the twain who "cam' to see "-- or to "pree," as they did to a purpose. Why, however, a writing-master, with a turn. for musical composition, should be specifically designated "honest" cannot even be guessed, unless it be on the score of possessing all the essential virtues of a boon companion.

There, nevertheless, they stand-a poet, an artist, and a composer--to represent Burns's elastic sense of the word " honest," and so to pass among the immortals. Each might have been left in possession of his pro indiviso share of the honour, had not another claimant put in an appearance bearing a testimonial from Sir Walter Scott. In his Journal, 12th November, 1826, Scott, then in London, notes: "We breakfasted at honest Allan Cunningham's-honest Allan-a leal and true Scotsman of the old cast." The expression had previously been used by Scott in the introduction to The Fortunes of Nigel (1822), where, in kindly reference to possible adverse critics of Cunningham's tragedy of Sir Marmaduke Maxwell, he says: "Never mind them, honest Allan, you are a credit to Caledonia for all that."

Further search may be abandoned. Putting aside David Allan and Allan Masterton as yielding nothing to investigation into validity of title, Allan Ramsay and Allan Cunningham remain for examination in virtue of credentials under the signmanual of their greatest countrymen, Burns and Scott. Both guarantors are at once acquitted of everything but the amiable weakness of trustful kindliness. Burns owed much to Ramsay, and thought more highly of his poetical genius probably than it deserved. That he was acquainted with The Gentle Shepherd and the Tea Table Miscellany is certain; but that he was as familiar with The Ever Green (1724) is doubtful, although it is never safe to put limits to Burns's reading. It may, however, be taken for granted that he had no direct knowledge of the Bannatyne Manuscript, and there is no reason to think that he knew Lord Hailes' Ancient Scottish Poems, published in 1770, taken from that manuscript.

As "skull-thacker" or wig-maker, poet, editor, bookseller, librarian, and theatre-manager, Allan Ramsay may be said to have

lived, and (in 1757) to have died in the odour of respectability. It never appears to have occurred to any of his contemporaries to doubt the strict truthfulness of the prosperous High Street man of business, and proprietor of the architectural goose-pie which he called Ramsay Lodge. When the truth about him appeared, it was not harshly blurted out, but issued gently, and without any of the parade of a clever detective unearthing a fraud. Lord Hailes announced his "find" in his little, unpretentious volume of 1770, "Ancient Scottish Poems, published from the MS. of George Bannatyne, 1568." He pointed out that Ramsay, in his selection from Bannatyne, omitted some stanzas, added others, modernised the versification, and varied the ancient manner of spelling. Ramsay styles his work "The Ever Green: being a collection of Scots Poems, wrote by the Ingenious before 1600." In the preface we read of assistance rendered by The Honourable William Carmichael, advocate, who furnished "a valuable Number of Poems in a large Manuscript book in Folio, collected and wrote by Mr George Bannyntine in anno 1568; from which MS. the most of the following are gathered." The saving words, "the most," do not modify the explicit statement upon the titlepage that the poems were "wrote before 1600."

Following up his minor general charge, Lord Hailes gives these particulars: "Some pieces inserted in The Ever Green were composed in the last age, others in the present. Thus, the "Comparison" and "The Solsequium "* are the work of the Earl of Stirling, Secretary to Charles I.; "The Vision " and "The Eagle and Robin Redbreast"† are obviously modern. "Hardiknute" is probably modern, certainly of no great antiquity. "Jock's Advice to his Dad" is the composition of Heywood, the English Epigrammatist, "The Answer" is modern. The Ever Green "Hardyknute a Fraginent," is a slight variation upon the poem (not described as a fragment) ascribed to Lady Wardlaw (1670-1727). The poems signed "Ar. Scot." are traced to Ramsay himself, the Ar. being his initials, the added Scot. signifying his nationality.

*The Solsequium, or the Lover comparing himself to Sun-Flower, signed Quod Montgomery."

66

Both signed" Quod Ar. Scot."