With sharper grief is Yarrow smitten,
And Ettrick mourns with her their shepherd dead."
These extracts throw a deal of light on the peculiar character of Hogg's mind. Simple, candid to an astonishment, vain without an attempt to conceal it, sensitive to an extreme, with such a development of self-esteem that no rebuffs or ridicule could daunt him, and full of talent and fancy. But, to estimate the extent of all these qualities, you must read his prose as well as his poetry; and these, considering how late he began to write, and that he did not die very old, are pretty voluminous. During the greater part of his literary life he was a very popular contributor to various magazines. Of his collected works he gives us this list.
| VOL. | |
| The Queen's Wake | 1 |
| Pilgrims of the Sun | 1 |
| The Hunting of Badlewe | 1 |
| Mador of the Moor | 1 |
| Poetic Mirror | 1 |
| Dramatic Tales | 2 |
| Brownie of Bodsbeck | 2 |
| Winter Evening Tales | 2 |
| Sacred Melodies | 1 |
| Border Garland | 1 |
| Jacobite Relics of Scotland | 2 |
| The Spy | 1 |
| Queen Hynde | 1 |
| The Three Perils of Man | 3 |
| The Three Perils of Woman | 3 |
| Confessions of a Sinner | 1 |
| The Shepherd's Calendar | 2 |
| A Selection of Songs | 1 |
| The Queer Book | 1 |
| The Royal Jubilee | 1 |
| The Mountain Bard | 1 |
| The Forest Minstrel | 1 |
| Total | 31 |
It may be imagined that while the produce of his literary pen was so abundant, that of his sheep-pen would hardly bear comparison with it. That was the case. Hogg continually broke down, as a shepherd and a farmer. He
"Tended his flocks upon Parnassus hill;"
his imagination was in Fairyland, his heart was in Edinburgh, and his affairs always went wrong. To give him a certain chance of support, the Duke of Buccleugh gave him, rent-free for life, a little farm at Altrive in Yarrow, and then Hogg took a much larger farm on the opposite side of the river, which he called Mount Benger. From this it will be recollected that he often dated his literary articles. The farm was beyond his capital, and far beyond his care. It brought him into embarrassments. To the last, however, he had Altrive Lake to retreat to; and here he lived, and wrote, and fished, and shot grouse on the moors. Let us, before visiting his haunts, take a specimen or two of his poetry, that we may have a clear idea of the man we have in view.
In all Hogg's poetry there is none which has been more popular than the Legend of Kilmeny, in the Queen's Wake. It is the tradition of a beautiful cottage maiden, who disappears for a time and returns again home, but, as it were, glorified and not of the earth. She has, for her purity, been transported to the land of spirits, and bathed in the river of immortal life.
"They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away,
And she walked in the light of a sunless day: