Sir Walter Scott. 589 



following year occupied the new poet with the third volume of the 

 Minetrelsy, the Lay of the last Minstrel, and the romance of Sir 

 Tristrem. We have mentioned or rather hinted at Scott's intimacy 

 with the Ettrick Shepherd. The following anecdote, which must be 

 the last, is too piquant for us to pass it over. The affair happened not 

 very long after Scott's first acquaintance with the "Shepherd." 



" Shortly after their first meeting, Hogg, coming into Edinburgh with a 

 flock of sheep, was seized with a sudden ambition of seeing himself in print, 

 and he wrote out that same night 'Willie and Katie/ and a few other bal- 

 lads, already famous in the forest, which some obscure bookseller gratified 

 him by putting forth accordingly; but they appear to have attracted no 

 notice beyond their original sphere. Hogg then made an excursion into the 

 Highlands, in quest of employment as overseer of some extensive sheep-farm ; 

 but, though Scott had furnished him with strong recommendations to various 

 friends, he returned without success. He printed an account of his travels, 

 however, in a set of letters in the ' Scots Magazine,' which, though exceed- 

 ingly rugged and uncouth, had abundant traces of the native shrewdness and 

 genuine poetical feeling of this remarkable man. These also failed to excite 

 attention ; but, undeterred by such disappointments, the Shepherd no sooner 

 read the third volume of the ' Minstrelsy/ than he made up his mind that the 

 editor's ' Imitations of the Ancients' were by no means what they should 

 have been. 'Immediately/ he says, in one of his many memoirs of himself, 

 * I chose a number of traditional facts, and set about imitating the manner 

 of the ancients myself.' These imitations he transmitted to Scott, who warmly 

 praised the many striking beauties scattered over their rough surface. The 

 next time that Hogg's business carried him to Edinburgh, he waited upon 

 Scott, who invited him to dinner in Castle-street, in company with William 

 Laidlaw, who happened also to be in town, and some other admirers of the 

 rustic genius. When Hogg entered the drawing-room, Mrs. Scott, being at 

 the time in a delicate state of health, was reclining on a sofa. The Shepherd, 

 after being presented, and making his best bow, forthwith took possession of 

 another sofa placed opposite to hers, and stretched himself thereupon at all 

 his length ; for, as he said afterwards, ' I thought I could never do wrong to 

 copy the lady of the house.' As his dress at this period w r as precisely that in 

 which an ordinary herdsman attends cattle to the market, and as his hands, 

 moreover, bore most legible marks of a recent sheep-smearing, the lady of 

 the house did not observe with perfect equanimity the novel usage to which 

 her chintz was exposed. The Shepherd, however, remarked nothing of all 

 this dined heartily and drank freely, and, by jest, anecdote, and song, af 

 forded plentiful merriment to the more civilized part of the company. As the 

 liquor operated, his familiarity increased and strengthened ; from ' Mr. Scott/ 

 he advanced to * Sherra/ and thence to ' Scott/ * Walter/ and ' Wattie/ 

 until, at supper, he fairly convulsed the whole party by addressing Mrs. 

 Scott as < Charlotte/ "Vol. i. p. 407409. 



Sir Tristrem appeared in May 1804; hut so little was the ex- 

 pected sale, that only 150 copies were printed ! At the commence- 

 ment of 1805 "the Lay" was published ; and besides 11,000 copies 

 in the collected edition of Scott's poetical works, upwards of 30,000 

 copies of the separate work have been sold. Scott's entire gains 

 from this poem were 769/. 6s. We would willingly turn aside into 

 the pleasant paths whither a criticism of the Lay would lead us, and 

 in fact some analysis of Scott's poetic genius is obligatory on us ; but 

 we must defer it, until all his poems come under our review. 



If, as documents prove, Sir Waller Scott had first entertained lite- 



