James Thomson

“ The father, about the time of his marriage, having saved a considerable sum of money, took a lease of the farms of Ettrick House and Ettrick Hall, and commenced dealing in sheep. A sudden fall in the price of these, and the absconding of his principal debtor, ruined him when our Hogg was in his sixth year; everything was sold by auction, and the family was turned out of doors without a farthing in the world. A good man, Brydon of Crosslee, had compassion, took a short lease of the Ettrick House, made the father his shepherd there, and was kind to them all till the day of his death. ”

“ I cannot make out one sentence by study, without the pen in my hand to catch the ideas as they arise, and I never write two copies of the same thing. My manner of composing poetry is very different. Let the piece be of what length it will, I compose and correct it wholly in my mind, or on a slate, or ever I put pen to paper ; and then I write it down as fast as the A B C." "The first time I ever heard of Burns was in 1797, the year after he died. One day during that summer a half-daft man, named John Scott, came to me on the hill, and, to amuse me, repeated 'Tam O'Shanter.' I was delighted ! ”

“ During this time he was supported by an old Ettrick friend, then a thriving hat manufac- turer — "a man of cultivated mind and generous dis- position," says Lockhart ; " a friend of my father's, a man of good judgment, and refined and elegant pur- suits," says Wilson's daughter in the " Memoir " — Mr. John Grieve, who had firm faith in the genius of Hogg as well as great delight in his company, who kept him in his own house the first six months, and whose partner, a Mr. Scott, became as firmly attached as himself to the simple poet. " ”

“ Fortunately the real Shepherd is pretty fully pictured to us in his own reminiscences and other writings, whose self-por- traiture agrees very well with the various casual sketches by his contemporaries, for he was genuine and simple to the core, and delightfully outspoken j and by help of these we can discern that there is a good deal of the actual man in the stage-presentation of the "Noctes." ”

“ It may be mentioned here that in 1793 he had a bit of travel which considerably influenced him, having gone with a flock of his master's sheep to Strathfillan, in Perthshire, and viewed the wild grandeur of the mountains and glens of the West Highlands. Here is another bit of peasant Ufe worth recording; as Mr. Thomson says, " It was the third Eclogue of Virgil starting into life among the braes of Ettrick — it was Menalcas, Damoetus, and Palaemon preparing to pipe over again, with the stake of a kid against a bicker of beech-wood!" ”

“ Hogg had many a tiff with Blackwood and his asso- ciates, who put the Shepherd's name to all sorts of things he never wrote, and who, Lockhart especially, were continually mystifying him ; and he had another quarrel with Wilson, i.e., a quarrel all on his own side, about the way in which he was exhibited in the "Noctes," though these, by the notoriety they gave him, must have immensely increased his literary earnings. The " Chaldee MS." Hogg always looked upon as an innocent joke, and could never under- stand why people got in a rage about it. ”

“ Hogg had been gathering old Border traditions and turning many of them into new-old ballads. These Scott warmly praised, and the next time Hogg went to Edinburgh with sheep he waited on Scott to ask his influence toward their publication. Scott invited him and Laidlaw to dinner in Castle Street. The good shepherd was quite aware that his manners were rustical and not urbane, but thought he could never do wrong to copy the lady of the house ”

“ Scott as 'Charlotte,'" Here be it noted once for all, though the remark scarcely apphes to the preceding quotation, save to the word "civi- lised," where "polished" would have been not only kindlier but more accurate, that Lockhart throughout speaks of Hogg in a carping, depreciatory style, which does far more discredit to the writer than to his sub- ject. Large-natured, genial men of genius, like Scott and Wilson, could easily condone the shepherd's rough oddities and all the petulances of his most frank vanity ”

“ The local officials took the places of honour; the Commissioner of Police for the ward — a very great man — in the chair, the Bailie and the Moderator of the Society of High Constables (what swelling titles the bodies have !) croupiers. The rest seat themselves as they can, and many are left seatless till a new table is rigged up along the side of the room. A mixed company ! Meal-dealers from the Grassmarket, gen- teel young men from the Parliament House, printers from the Cowgate, booksellers from the New Town ”

“ To the question of Allan Cunningham, "What is your pen about now, Mr. Hogg?" he answered, "Pen! it might as well be in the goose's wing; I cannot get writing any for the visits of my friends: I'm never a day without some." And if he could not 428 CRITICAL STUDIES get writing any we may be sure he could not get farm- ing much, through these same admirable "friends," the devouring locusts borne on the winds of vanity. ”

“ King, Royal Family, Army, Navy ; then the toast of the evening, with a genuine bumper, and such eloquent eulogy as this : " Mr. Hogg is an old acquaintance of mine [let us hope only at such merry meetings] , and I have read his works. He has had the merit of raising himself from a humble station to a high place amongst the literary men of his country. When I look around me, gentlemen, at the respectable company here assembled —when I see so many met to do honour [at his expense] to one who was once but a shepherd on a lonely hill — I cannot but feel, gentlemen, that much has been done by Mr. ”

“ Sleeping always in stables or cow-houses, his sawing at night usually disturbed nobody but himself and the quadrupeds, JAMES HOGG 405 "whom I believed to be greatly delighted with my strains. At all events, they never complained, which the biped part of my neighbours did frequently, to my pity and utter indignation." At length, having passed the stage of farm drudge of all work, he arrived at the dignity of shepherd to Laidlaw of Willenslee, and here, in his eighteenth year, got his first perusal of Allan Ramsay's " Gentle Shepherd " and Blind Harry's " Life and. ”

“ The younger stood at a respectful distance, as if I had been the Duke of Queensberry, instead of a ragged servant lad [age about 34] herding sheep. The other seized my hand and said, ' Well, then, sir, I am glad to see you. JAMES HOGG 417 There is not a man in Scotland whose hand I am prouder to hold.' ... He continued : ' This is my brother Allan, the greatest admirer that you have on earth, and himself a young aspiring poet of some promise. ”

“ The days are come I'm no sae crouse — An ingle-cheek— a cogie douce. An' fash nae shears about the house Wi' cuttin' o' my hair. " It was an awfu' head, I trow, It waur'd baith young and old to cow. An' burnin' red as heather-Iowe, Gar'd neeboors start and stare. The mair ye cut the mair it grew. An' aye the fiercer flamed its hue — I in my time hae paid enew For cuttin' o' my hair." He first began to write verses in the spring of 1 796, and for several years composed only songs and ballads for the lassies to sing in chorus ”

“ Sir Walter sought me out in the wilderness and attached him- self to me before I had ever seen him, and although I took cross fits with him, his interest in me never subsided for one day or one moment." As we shall find when we get farther on. He was born in a lowly cottage at Ettrickhall, near the church and school, his father being a shepherd. No Southron swinish associations defiled the family name, which was rather exceedingly appropriate, hog, or hogg, in their venacular meaning, a year-old sheep ”

“ Every herring should hang by its own head," firmly refused to take part in the first scheme ; Hogg, in a furious fit of childish rage, wrote to him, beginning " Damned Sir," and ending "Believe me, Sir, yours with disgust," &c. The great-hearted took no notice; but Hogg, with that candour which redeems all his faults, tells us how when he lay dangerously ill with an inflammatory fever (the result of five or six weeks of the Baccha- nalian " Right and Wrong Club ") , Scott called every day on returning from the Parliament House to inquire after him, and enjoined Mr. ”

“ He himself was decided as to the day and month, it being the anniversary of the birth of Burns ; and not less decided as to the year, if we may trust a 400 CRITICAL STUDIES charmingly characteristic passage in his reminiscences of Scott, who, as we know, was born August 15, 1 7 7 1 : " There are not above five people in the world who, I think, know Sir Walter better, or under- stand his character better than I do : and if I outlive him, which is likely, as I am five months and ten days younger, I shall draw a mental portrait of him, the likeness of which to the original shall not be disputed." ”

“ His mother was of the Laidlaws of Phaup and Craik, a woman of strong natural talents and humour, and remarkable for her knowledge of Border 2 C 402 CRITICAL STUDIES lore, in ballads, songs, and traditions, so that her cottage was a favourite resort of the shepherds of Ettrick and Yarrow. In the " Shepherd's Calendar," he celebrates one of her ancestors, Will o' Phaup, " one of the genuine Laidlaws of Craik," a famous runner, fighter, and good fellow, and the last man of that wild region who was on intimate terms with the fairies. ”

“ Pilgrims of the Sun " he bedevils viking Haug into Hugo of Norroway, a pious and peaceful minstrel, who marries Mary Lee of Carelha', and is an utterly impossible milksop : — " For he loved not the field of foray and scathe, Nor the bow, nor the shield, nor the sword of death ”

“ He did outlive Scott, just three years and two months (let us be as precise as himself) , dying November 21, 1835 (in his ^xiy-fourth year, says Mr. Thomson, after correcting Hogg's birth- date!) ; and in 1834 he published the "Domestic Manners and Private Life of Sir Walter Scott," wherein he exclaims, with honest and reverent enthusiasm : "Is it not a proud boast for an old shepherd, that for thirty years he could call this man 'friend,' and associate with him every day and hour that he chose ? ”

“ He thinks that he changed masters so often be- cause he was yearly growing stronger, and thus fit for harder tasks and higher wage; he was always recommended from one to the other, especially for his inoflfensive behaviour. ”

“ Hogg, and that it is something fine to be a poet. (Great applause.) " The toast drunk enthusiastically, the Shepherd made his usual acknowledgment : " Gentlemen, I was ever proud to be called a poet, but I never was so proud as I am this nicht," &c. There is now for two hours no more of Hogg; the municipal bodies have the ball among them, and no one else can get a kick at it. The Chairman gives the Magistrates of Edinburgh ”

“ However, I resolved to be a poet, and to follow in the steps of Burns." II A little more must be given, and as much of it as possible in his own characteristic language, concerning the youth of Hogg ; not only because it is biographi- cally the most interesting part of his hfe, but because it illustrates the general life and character of that noble peasantry of which he is but a type ; a brilliant type in literature, no doubt, especially when account is taken of his uncommon lack of early schooling ”

“ Laird o' Lamington," the " Women Folk," and " Paddy O'Rafferty," he gives with irresistible force and fire. About this time, however, the reporters (i.e., R. C.) with it is not in our power to state any further of the Candlemaker Row Festival.
And so farewell to the sweet-voiced, warm-hearted Shepherd.
↑ "The Works of the Ettrick Shepherd. A new Edition; with a Memoir of the Author, by the Rev. Thomas Thomson [and Hogg's Autobiography and Reminiscences and Illustrative Engravings] ." Two vols. Blackie and Son; Lndon, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. ”

“ They war made for singing, an' no for reading ; an' they're nouther right spelled nor right setten down." " Heh-heh-heh ! Take ye that, Mr. Scott," said I -aid- law ; and Scott laughed heartily. After two or three journeys to the Highlands and Hebrides, Hogg with another took a sheep farm in the island of Harris ; but the tacksman's right to it was disputed, and our shepherd lost by the affair the j£2oo he had saved during his ten years' service at Blackhouse. ”