owever,
desirous of procuring the means of comfortable self-support,
independently of his literary exertions; and had modestly preferred the
request that he might receive a small farm in lease on the Buccleuch
estates. The request was at length responded to. The Duchess, who took a
deep interest in him, made a request to the Duke, on her death-bed, that
something might be done for her ingenious protege. After her decease,
the late Charles, Duke of Buccleuch, gave the Shepherd a life-lease of
the farm of Altrive Lake, in Yarrow, at a nominal rent, no portion of
which was ever exacted. The Duke subsequently honoured him with his
personal friendship, and made him frequently share of his hospitality.

From the time of his abandoning "The Spy," Hogg had contemplated the
publication of a periodical on an extended scale. At length, finding a
coadjutor in Mr Thomas Pringle, he explained their united proposal to
his friend, Mr Blackwood, the publisher, who highly approved of the
design. Preliminaries were arranged, and the afterwards celebrated
_Blackwood's Magazine_ took its origin. Hogg was now resident at
Altrive, and the editorship was entrusted to Pringle and his literary
friend Cleghorn. The vessel had scarcely been well launched, however, on
the ocean of letters, when storms arose a-head; hot disputes occurred
between the publisher and the editors, which ultimately terminated in
the withdrawal of the latter from the concern, and their connexion with
the _Edinburgh Magazine_, an opposition periodical established by Mr
Constable. The combating parties had referred to the Shepherd, who was
led to accord his support to Mr Blackwood. He conceived the idea of the
"Chaldee Manuscript," as a means of ridiculing the oppositionists. Of
this famous satire, the first thirty-seven verses of chapter first, with
several other sentences throughout, were his own composition, the
remaining portion being the joint fabrication of his friends Wilson and
Lockhart.[39] This singular production produced a sensation in the
capital unequalled in the history of any other literary performance; and
though, from the evident personalities and the keenness of the satire,
it had to be cancelled, so that a copy in the pages of the magazine is
now a rarity, it sufficiently attained the purpose of directing public
attention to the newly-established periodical. The "Chaldee Manuscript"
appeared in the seventh number of _Blackwood's Magazine_, published in
Oc