thside, Dumfriesshire, on
the 7th December 1784. Of his ancestry, some account has been given in
the memoir of his elder brother Thomas.[6] He was the fourth son of his
parents, and from both of them inherited shrewdness and strong
talent.[7] Receiving an ordinary elementary education at a school,
taught by an enthusiastic Cameronian, he was apprenticed in his eleventh
year to his eldest brother James as a stone-mason. His hours of leisure
were applied to mental improvement; he read diligently the considerable
collection of books possessed by his father, and listened to the
numerous legendary tales which his mother took delight in narrating at
the family hearth. A native love for verse-making, which he possessed in
common with his brother Thomas, was fostered and strengthened by his
being early brought into personal contact with the poet Burns. In 1790,
his father removed to Dalswinton, in the capacity of land-steward to Mr
Miller, the proprietor, and Burns' farm of Ellisland lay on the opposite
side of the Nith. The two families in consequence met very frequently;
and Allan, though a mere boy, was sufficiently sagacious to appreciate
the merits of the great bard. Though, at the period of Burns' death, in
1796, he was only twelve years old, the appearance and habits of the
poet had left an indelible impression on his mind.

In his fifteenth year, Allan had the misfortune to lose his father, who
had sunk to the grave under the pressure of poverty and misfortune; he
thus became necessitated to assist in the general support of the family.
At the age of eighteen he obtained the acquaintance of the Ettrick
Shepherd; Hogg was then tending the flocks of Mr Harkness of
Mitchelslack, in Nithsdale, and Cunningham, who had read some of his
stray ballads, formed a high estimate of his genius. Along with his
elder brother James, he paid a visit to the Shepherd one autumn
afternoon on the great hill of Queensberry; and the circumstances of the
meeting, Hogg has been at pains minutely to record. James Cunningham
came forward and frankly addressed the Shepherd, asking if his name was
Hogg, and at the same time supplying his own; he then introduced his
brother Allan, who diffidently lagged behind, and proceeded to assure
the Shepherd that he had brought to see him "the greatest admirer he had
on earth, and himself a young aspiring poet of some promise." Hogg
warmly saluted his brother bard, and, taking both the strangers to his
booth on