s_,
written 1411-12. The best part of this is an autobiographical prelude
_Mal Regle de T. Hoccleve_, in which he holds up his youthful follies as
a warning. It is also interesting as containing, in the MS. in the
British Museum, a drawing of Chaucer, from which all subsequent portraits
have been taken.

HOFFMAN, CHARLES FENNO (1806-1884).--Poet, etc., _b._ in New York, _s._
of a lawyer, was bred to the same profession, but early deserted it for
literature. He wrote a successful novel, _Greyslaer_, and much verse,
some of which displayed more lyrical power than any which had preceded it
in America.

HOGG, JAMES (THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD) (1770-1835).--Poet, and writer of
tales, belonged to a race of shepherds, and began life by herding cows
until he was old enough to be trusted with a flock of sheep. His
imagination was fed by his mother, who was possessed of an inexhaustible
stock of ballads and folk-lore. He had little schooling, and had great
difficulty in writing out his earlier poems, but was earnest in giving
himself such culture as he could. Entering the service of Mr. Laidlaw,
the friend of Scott, he was by him introduced to the poet, and assisted
him in collecting material for his _Border Minstrelsy_. In 1796 he had
begun to write his songs, and when on a visit to Edin. in 1801 he _coll._
his poems under the title of _Scottish Pastorals, etc._, and in 1807
there followed _The Mountain Bard_. A treatise on the diseases of sheep
brought him L300, on the strength of which he embarked upon a
sheep-farming enterprise in Dumfriesshire which, like a previous smaller
venture in Harris, proved a failure, and he returned to Ettrick bankrupt.
Thenceforward he relied almost entirely on literature for support. With
this view he, in 1810, settled in Edin., _pub._ _The Forest Minstrel_,
and started the _Spy_, a critical journal, which ran for a year. In 1813
_The Queen's Wake_ showed his full powers, and finally settled his right
to an assured place among the poets of his country. He joined the staff
of _Blackwood_, and became the friend of Wilson, Wordsworth, and Byron.
Other poems followed, _The Pilgrims of the Sun_ (1815), _Madoc of the
Moor_, _The Poetic Mirror_, and _Queen Hynde_ (1826); and in prose
_Winter Evening Tales_ (1820), _The Three Perils of Man_ (1822), and _The
Three Perils of Woman_. In his later years his home was a cottage at
Altrive on 70 acres of moorland presented to him by the Duchess of
Buccleuch, w