The Tea-Table Miscellany by Alan Ramsay (Volume II)

Hardcover. Condition: Good+. 1876. Robert Forrester (Glasgow). Reprinted from the 14th Edition. Odd Volume.

A collection of choice songs Scots & English.

Well bound, pages uncut. Some of label is fading on spine. Corners bumped. General shelfwear and edge wear. Minimal to no foxing.

Allan Ramsay’s major contribution to Scottish literature in the 18th century is both as a writer and as a collector and editor of older Scottish poetry. His The Gentle Shepherd was major influence on both Scottish drama and the pastoral genre, while his use of the ‘standard habbie’ brought this poetic form to the notice of later Scottish poets, notably Robert Fergusson and Robert Burns. 

The Tea-table Miscellany was a collection of songs including some by Ramsay and his friends, several well-known ballads and songs, and some earlier verse from the 17th century. Disappointment with the Act of Union (1707) between Scotland and England is thought to have been the impetus that turned Ramsay to literature, and his writing in Scots dates from around 1711, though he continued to write in English as well. These pages show Ramsay code-switching between Scots and English, the manuscript ‘R’ indicating that the poems are by Ramsay.