SOURCE: "Leigh Hunt," in The Gentle Shepherd: A Pastoral Comedy, William Gowans, 1852, pp. lxviii-lxxii.

Hunt is recognized for his articulation of the principles of the Romantic movement. In the following excerpt from an essay originally published in A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla (1848), he praises The Gentle Shepherd for its descriptions of nature and depiction of the emotional lives of its characters.

Poetical expression in humble life is to be found all over the south. In the instances of Burns, Ramsay, and others, the north also has seen it. Indeed, it is not a little remarkable, that Scotland, which is more northern than England, and possesses not even a nightingale, has had more of it than its southern neighbour.

Allan Ramsay is the prince of the homely pastoral drama. He and Burns have helped Scotland for ever to take pride in its heather, and its braes, and...