246 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN SCOTLAND CHAP, vn 



the Waverley Novels so often, and remembered them 

 so vividly, that their characters served in his memory 

 as personages whom he could almost believe that he 

 had actually known. How earnest he would grow 

 as he discoursed on the plot of Ivanhoe and its 

 relation to the known historical events of the time to 

 which it was referred ! His extensive knowledge of 

 English scenery enabled him to picture vividly the 

 surroundings of Gurth and Wamba, and to enlarge 

 on Scott's marvellous power of seizing the dominant 

 features and local characteristics of a landscape, which 

 perhaps he had only seen casually, and straightway 

 colouring them with a vivid glow of human interest. 

 Among English poets one of his greatest favourites 

 was Keats. He would sometimes speak as if he would 

 rather have been the author of Hyperion than of any 

 other poem in the language. The quaint conceits in 

 the Ode to a Grecian Urn delighted him, and 

 various lines in it were often on his lips ' for ever 

 piping songs for ever new,' 'heard melodies are 

 sweet, but those unheard are sweeter,' 'beauty is 

 truth, truth beauty.' How often have we been re- 

 quested to proceed with a statement by the quotation, 

 ' Therefore, ye soft pipes, play on ! ' 



There was yet another feature of Ramsay's mind 

 which made these excursions singularly pleasant. 

 Though not in any sense an antiquary, he knew a 

 good deal about the history of architecture, and as has 

 already been remarked, took a keen delight in visiting 

 ruins and trying to form a mental picture of what they 

 must have been before the gnawing tooth of time had 

 dismantled them. Whatever, indeed, linked him with 

 the past had a charm for him. He never willingly 

 missed an opportunity of seeing a ruined castle or keep, 



