Note 167 — SUSANNA, COUNTESS OF EGLINTOUNE.
Reading edition
As a specimen of the complimentary intercourse of the poet with Lady Eglintoune, an anecdote is told of her having once sent him a basket of fine fruit; to which he returned this stanza:
‘Now, Priam’s son, ye may be mute, For I can bauldly brag wi’ thee; Thou to the fairest gave the fruit— The fairest gave the fruit to me.’
The love of raillery has recorded that on this being communicated by Ramsay to his friend Eustace Budgell, the following comment was soon after received from the English wit:
‘As Juno fair, as Venus kind, She may have been who gave the fruit; But had she had Minerva’s mind, She’d ne’er have given ’t to such a brute.’