great Seneca who to give the greater weight and authority to the moral precepts they delyvered to the people of Rome they conjure up the ghosts of Scipio, Laelius, Cato, Appius and thesse other worthies, and bringe them upon the Stage, teaching their own posterity the principles of vertue which is observed to have left a far greater impression, and have proselyted and convinced the mynds of the hearers more than what the greatest philosophers delyvered only as their own sentiments and opinions.  And because it is not usuall to wryte the lyves of men whyle[722] they be dead, Theirfor I will begin with your maternall lyne and sett befor you some of the most eminent transactions wheirin that excellent Gentleman, Sir Andrew Ramsay, your grandfather, was most concerned in, with the severall vertues and good qualities that made him so famous and considerable, which ought to be ane spurr and incitement to all good and vertuous actions, and to non so much as to his oun grand-chyld.  And because it layes ane great tye and obligation wheir on is descended of ane race that never did anything that was base and unwurthy of a Gentleman, Theirfor I will also shortly as I can give you ane account of his pedegrie and descent befor I come to descrybe his oun personall merit and actions.  For tho the poet sayes true, Et genus et proavos et quae non fecimus ipsi, vix ea nostra voco, yet to be of ane honourable descent of good people as it raises the expectation of the wurld that they will not beley their kynd as Horace sayes, Fortes creantur fortibus, so they turn contemptibly hatefull when they degenerat and by their vices blacken and sully the glory and honour their ancestors had gained, and they turn a disgrace to the family and relations they are come of.  Bot to begin:  Sr Andrew was the 3d sone of Mr. Andrew Ramsay, minister of Edr., and Mary Frazer.  He being a sone of the Laird of Balmaynes, and shee a daughter of the Laird of Dores, and it being fitt that a man should know his oun genealogie that wheir ane of them has been signalized for vertue it may be ane motive to provock our imitation, and if they have att any tymes been led out of the way of vertue that it may serve for ane beacon and scar-crow to the descendants to hold of thesse rocks and shelves wheir they may see the bones of their friends as the memento of Lots wyfe to beware of thesse fatall errors.  And tho a man should know the history of his oun nation and not be domi talpa, yet there is no part of that history so usefull as that of his genealogie, and therfor I would give you some account of that family of Balmayn and of some remarkable things have happened therin.

The first of them was John Ramsay, sone to the Laird of Corstoun in Fyfe, who being ane handsome young boy was made choyse of to attend Ki:  Ja:  3d att the Grammar School.  Their was pains taken for another Gentleman’s sone, who had been bred in the high-school of Edr. and both read and wrote better, yet the young King thinking