mployers declined his services. He found that, till he
should redeem his reputation for business and good management, there was
no home for him in Ettrick Forest. Hogg was not a man who would tamely
surrender to the pressure of misfortune: amidst his losses he could
claim the strictest honesty of intention, and he was not unconscious of
his powers. With his plaid over his shoulders, he reached Edinburgh in
the month of February 1810, to begin, in his fortieth year, the career
of a man of letters. The scheme was singularly adventurous, but the die
was cast; he was in the position of the man on the tread-wheel, and felt
that he must write or perish.

It affords no matter of surprise that the Shepherd was received coldly
by the booksellers, and that his offers of contributing to their
periodicals were respectfully declined. His volume, "The Mountain Bard,"
had been forgotten; and though his literary fitness had been undisputed,
his lengthened want of success in life seemed to imply a doubt of his
general steadiness. Mr Constable, his former publisher, proved the most
friendly; he consented to publish a collection of songs and ballads,
which he had prepared, two-thirds being his own composition, and the
remainder that of his ingenious friends. This publication, known as "The
Forest Minstrel," had a slow sale, and conferred no benefit on the
unfortunate author. What the booksellers would not do for him, Hogg
resolved to do for himself; he originated a periodical, which he
designated "The Spy," acting as his own publisher. The first number of
this publication--a quarto weekly sheet, price fourpence--was issued on
the first of September 1810. With varied popularity, this paper existed
during the space of a year; and owing to the perseverance of the
conductor might have subsisted a longer period, but for a certain
ruggedness which occasionally disfigured it. As a whole, being chiefly
the composition of a shepherd, who could only read at eighteen, and
write at twenty-six, and who, to use his own words, "knew no more of
human life or manners than a child," the work presented a remarkable
record in the annals of literature. As a business concern, it did not
much avail the projector, but it served indirectly towards improving his
condition, by inducing the habit of composing readily, and with
undeviating industry. A copy of "The Spy" is now rare.

From his literary exertions, Hogg was long, subsequent to his arrival in
the metropo