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HOGG, JAMES (1770-1835)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 570 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HOGG, See also:JAMES (1770-1835) , Scottish poet, known as the " See also:Ettrick Shepherd," was baptized at Ettrick in See also:Selkirkshire for centuries. He received hardly any school training, and seems to have had difficulty in getting books to read. After spending his See also:early years herding See also:sheep for different masters, he was engaged as shepherd by Mr See also:Laidlaw, See also:tenant of Blackhouse, in the See also:parish of See also:Yarrow, from 1790 till 1799. He was treated with See also:great kindness, and had See also:access to a large collection of books. When this was exhausted he subscribed to a circulating library in See also:Peebles. While attending to his See also:flock, he spent a great See also:deal of See also:time in See also:reading. He profited by the See also:company of his See also:master's sons, of whom See also:William Laidlaw is known as the friend of See also:Scott and the author of See also:Lucy's Flittin'. Hogg's first printed piece was " The Mistakes of a See also:Night " in the Scots See also:Magazine for See also:October 1794, and in 18oi he published his Scottish Pastorals. in 1802 Hogg became acquainted with See also:Sir See also:Walter Scott, who was then See also:collecting materials for his Border Minstrelsy. On Scott's recommendation See also:Constable published Hogg's See also:miscellaneous poems (The See also:Mountain See also:Bard) in 1807. By this See also:work, and by The Shepherd's See also:Guide, being a See also:Practical See also:Treatise on the Diseases of Sheep, Hogg realized about boo. With this See also:money he unfortunately embarked in farming in See also:Dumfriesshire, and in three years was utterly ruined, having to abandon all his effects to his creditors. He returned to Ettrick, only to find that he could not even obtain employment as a shepherd; so he set off in See also:February 1810 to push his See also:fortune in See also:Edinburgh as a See also:literary adventurer.

In the same See also:

year he published a collection of songs, The See also:Forest See also:Minstrel, to which he was the largest contributor. This See also:book, being dedicated to the countess of See also:Dalkeith (afterwards duchess of See also:Buccleuch), and recommended to her See also:notice by Scott, was rewarded with a See also:present of See also:loo guineas. He then began a weekly periodical, The See also:Spy, which he continued from See also:September 1810 till See also:August 1811. The See also:appearance of The See also:Queen's See also:Wake in 1813 established Hogg's reputation as a poet; See also:Byron recommended it to See also:John See also:Murray, who brought out an See also:English edition. The See also:scene of the poem is laid in 1561; the queen is See also:Mary See also:Stuart; and the " wake " provides a See also:simple framework for seventeen poems sung by See also:rival bards. It was followed by the Pilgrims of the See also:Sun (1815), and Mader of the See also:Moor (1816). The duchess of Buccleuch, on her See also:death-See also:bed (1814), had asked her See also:husband to do something for the Ettrick bard; and the See also:duke gave him a See also:lease for See also:life of the See also:farm of Altrive in Yarrow, consisting of about 70 acres of moor-See also:land, on which the poet built a See also:house and spent the last years of his life. In See also:order to obtain money to stock his farm Hogg asked various poets to contribute to a See also:volume of See also:verse which should be a See also:kind of poetic " benefit " for himself. Failing in his applications he wrote a volume of parodies, published in 1816, as The Poetic See also:Mirror, or the Living Bards of Great See also:Britain. He took See also:possession of his farm in 1817; but his literary exertions were never relaxed. Before 182o he had written the See also:prose tales of The Brownie of Bodsbeck (1818) and two volumes of See also:Winter Evening Tales (182o), besides collecting, editing and See also:writing See also:part of two volumes of The Jacobite See also:Relics of See also:Scotland (1819-1821), and contributing largely to See also:Blackwood's Magazine. " The See also:Chaldee MS.," which appeared in Blackwood's Magazine (October 1817), and gave such offence that it was immediately withdrawn, was largely Hogg's work.

In 1820 he married See also:

Margaret See also:Phillips, a See also:lady of a See also:good Annandale See also:family, and found himself possessed of about £1000, a good house and a well-stocked farm. Hogg's connexion with Blackwood's Magazine kept him continually before the public; his contributions, which include the best of his prose See also:works, were collected in the Shepherd's See also:Calendar (1829). The wit and See also:mischief of some of his literary See also:friends made See also:free with his name as the " Shepherd " of the Noctes Ambrosianae, and represented him in ludicrous and See also:grotesque aspects; but the effect of the whole was favourable to his popularity. " Whatever may be the merits of the picture of the Shepherd [in the Noctes Ambrosianae]—and no one will deny its See also:power and See also:genius," writes See also:Professor See also:Veitch—" it is true, all the same, that this Shepherd was not the Shepherd of Ettrick or the See also:man James Hogg. He was neither a See also:Socrates nor a Falstaff, neither to be credited with the See also:wisdom and lofty idealizings of the one, nor with the characteristic See also:humour and coarseness of the other." The Three Perils of Woman (182o), and The Three Perils of Man (1822), were followed in 1825 by an epic poem, Queen Hynde, which was unfavourably received. He visited See also:London in 1832, and was much lionized. On his return a public See also:dinner was given to him in Peebles,—Professor See also:Wilson in the See also:chair,—and he acknowledged that he had at last " found fame." His See also:health, however, was seriously impaired. With his See also:pen in his See also:hand to the last, Hogg in 1834 published a volume of See also:Lay Sermons, and The Domestic See also:Manners and Private Life of Sir Walter Scott, a book which See also:Lockhart regarded as an infringement on his rights. In 1835 appeared three volumes of Tales of the See also:Wars of See also:Montrose. Hogg died on the 21st of See also:November 1835, and was buried in the See also:churchyard of his native parish Ettrick. His fame had seemed to fill the whole See also:district, and was brightest at its See also:close; his presence was associated with all the border See also:sports and festivities; and as a See also:map James Hogg was ever See also:frank, joyous and charitable. It is mainly as a great See also:peasant poet that he lives in literature.

Some of his lyrics and See also:

minor poems—his "Skylark," "When the Kye comes Hame," his verses on the " See also:Comet " and " Evening See also:Star," and his " Address to Lady See also:Ann Scott "—are exquisite. The Queen's Wake unites his characteristic excellences--his command of the old romantic ballad See also:style, his graceful See also:fairy See also:mythology and his aerial flights of See also:imagination. In the fairy See also:story of Kilmeny in this work Hogg seems completely transformed; he is absorbed in the ideal and supernatural, and writes under See also:direct and immediate See also:inspiration. See Hogg's "Memoir of the Author's Life, written by himself," prefixed to the 3rd edition (1821) of The Mountain Bard, also Memorials of James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, edited by his daughter, Mrs M. G. See also:Garden (enlarged edition with See also:preface by Professor Veitch, 1903). and Sir G. B. S. See also:Douglas, James Hogg (1899) in the " Famous Scots " See also:series; also The Poems of James Hogg, selected by William See also:Wallace (1903). John Wilson (" See also:Christopher See also:North ") had a real See also:affection for Hogg, but for some See also:reason or other made no use of the materials placed in his hands for a See also:biography of the poet. The memoir mentioned on the See also:title-See also:page of the Works (1838–184o) never appeared, and the memoir prefixed to the edition of Hogg's works published by See also:Blackie & Co. (1865) was written by the Rev.

See also:

Thomas See also:Thompson. See also Wilson's Nodes Ambrosianae; Mrs See also:Oliphant's See also:Annals of a See also:Publishing House, vol. i. See also:chap. vii.; See also:Gilfillan s First See also:Gallery of Literary Portraits; See also:Cunningham's Biog. and Crit. Hist. of Lit.; and the See also:general See also:index to Blackwood's Magazine. A collected edition of Hogg's Tales appeared in 1837 in 6 vols., and a second in 1851; his Poetical Works were published in 1822, 1838–184o and 1865-1866. For an admirable See also:account of the social entertainments Hogg used to give in Edinburgh, see Memoir of See also:Robert See also:Chambers (1874), by Dr William Chambers, pp. 263-270.

End of Article: HOGG, JAMES (1770-1835)

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