musing arts of
pastoral life, finds a dwelling in the Scottish heart.

Of the Shepherd it has been recorded by one[48] who knew him well, that
at the time of his death he had certainly the youngest heart of all who
had ever attained his age; he was possessed of a buoyancy which
misfortune might temporarily depress, but could not subdue. To the close
of his career, he rejoiced in the sports and field exercises of his
youth; in his best days he had, in the games of leaping and running,
been usually victorious in the annual competitions at Eskdalemuir; in
his advanced years, he was constituted judge at the annual Scottish
games at Innerleithen. A sportsman, he was famous alike on the moor and
by the river; the report of his musket was familiar on his native hills;
and hardly a stream in south or north but had yielded him their finny
brood. By young authors he was frequently consulted, and he entered with
enthusiasm into their concerns; many poets ushered their volumes into
the world under his kindly patronage. He had his weaker points; but his
worth and genius were such as to extort the reluctant testimony of one
who was latterly an avowed antagonist, that he was "the most remarkable
man that ever wore the _maud_ of a Shepherd."[49]

Hogg left some MSS. which are still unpublished,--the journals of his
Highland tours being in the possession of Mr Peter Cunningham of London.
Since his death, a uniform edition of many of his best works,
illustrated with engravings from sketches by Mr D. O. Hill, has been
published, with the concurrence of the family, by the Messrs Blackie of
Glasgow, in eleven volumes duodecimo. A Memoir, undertaken for that
edition by the late Professor Wilson, was indefinitely postponed. A
pension on the Civil List of L50 was conferred by the Queen on Mrs Hogg,
the poet's widow, in October 1853; and since her husband's death, she
has received an annuity of L40 from the Duke of Buccleuch. Of a family
of five, one son and three daughters survive, some of whom are
comfortably settled in life.

[28] The Shepherd entertained the belief that he was born on the 25th of
January 1772.

[29] Mr Macturk is well remembered in Dumfriesshire as a person of
remarkable shrewdness and unbounded generosity.

[30] Mr Gray was the author of "Cona, or the Vale of Clywyd," "A Sabbath
among the Mountains," and other poems.

[31] The ballad of "Gilmanscleuch" appeared in "The Mountain Bard." See
"The Ettrick Shepherd's P