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IIOARE HOGG. 



pointed, in 1799, to the honorary post of Foreign 

 secretary to the royal academy, he published in 

 4to. 1802, " Extracts from a Correspondence with 

 the Academies of Vienna and St Petersburg, on 

 the Cultivation of Painting, Sculpture, and Archi- 

 tecture," a work afterwards continued at intervals 

 under the title of " Academic Annals." In 1806, 

 lie published " An Inquiry into the requisite Cul- 

 tivation and present state of the Arts of Design in 

 England." In 1809-10, he edited, in two volumes 

 quarto, " The Artist," a collection of Essays, 

 written chiefly by professional persons, and to 

 which he contributed several papers. In 1813, he 

 published " The Epochs of the Fine Arts, contain- 

 ing Historical Observations on the Use and Pro- 

 gress of Painting and Sculpture." Besides these 

 various works, he was also the author of a poem 

 entitled " Love's Victims," and of a " Life of 

 Granville Sharp," characterised by a delicate per- 

 ception of Christian excellence, as well as a just 

 taste. His last production was an Essay " On the 

 Moral Power of Shakspeare's Dramas," read before 

 the royal society of literature, and printed in their 

 transactions. With this elegant and thoughtful 

 paper he closed his literary career, establishing by 

 arguments and facts the indispensable union of 

 moral truths with dramatic and all literary excel- 

 lence. He died at Brighton, Dec. 22, 1834. The 

 intellectual endowments of Mr Hoare did not sur- 

 pass his benevolence, integrity, and sincerity; the 

 mildness of his manners and kindness of his heart 

 won him the respect and affection of the refined 

 and enlightened circle who enjoyed his friendship. 

 He left his library to the royal society of litera- 

 ture. 



HOARE, SIR RICHAED COLT, bart., the histo- 

 rian of Wiltshire, was born in that county on the 

 9th Dec. 1758, being the eldest son of Sir Richard 

 Hoare, the first baronet. In 1783, he married the 

 eldest daughter of lord Lyttleton, by whom he had 

 a son. She died in 1785, upon which he left Eng- 

 land, and spent several years in foreign travel. His 

 observations made then were, in 1818, condensed 

 and published in four volumes, with the title, " A 

 Classical Tour through Italy and Sicily, tending to 

 illustrate some districts which have not been de- 

 scribed by Mr Eustace." He also published a Tour 

 through Wales in 1806, and one through Ireland in 

 1807. His chief work, however, is his history of 

 Ancient Wiltshire, 1821, 2 vols. folio. This was 

 not completed to the extent he originally contem- 

 plated, but sufficient was produced to entitle him 

 to a high rank among the illustrators of British and 

 Roman antiquities. Sir Richard died on the 19th 

 May, 1838. Besides the above, he printed a num- 

 ber of small tracts on points of local topography, 

 &c. for private circulation only, and was a contri- 

 butor to the transactions of the Society of Anti- 

 quaries and the Gentleman's Magazine. By the 

 death of his son, his landed property and baronetcy 

 devolved on his eldest half brother, the head of an 

 eminent banking house in London. 



HOGG, JAMES, THE ETTKICK SHEPHERD, one 

 of the most distinguished of Scotland's self-taught 

 poets, was born in a cottage on the banks of the 

 Ettrick, in the shire of Selkirk, on the 25th of 

 January, 1772. His education reached no farther 

 than being able to overcome the class that read in 

 the Bible, and " defiling several sheets of paper in 

 vain attempts to form a letter :" in all, he thinks " he 

 might have been about half a year at school." A 

 scene of uninterrupted labour and great privation 



marked his boyhood ; and, at the age of fourteen, 

 having gleaned from his scanty earnings the sum ot 

 five shillings, the bard in embryo laid it out in the 

 purchase ot a fiddle, on which he kept sawing away 

 every night in the cow-house, to his own infinite 

 delight, and the annoyance of every one around 

 him. The Life of Wallace, and Ramsay's Gentle 

 Shepherd, were among the first volumes that fell 

 into his hands ; and, strange to say, he was disap- 

 pointed that they were not written in prose, as in 

 attempting to follow out the line, he often lost the 

 sense altogether. At the age of eighteen he mud- 

 his first attempts in verse; and if they were ot in- 

 different merit, ("bitterly bad," as he calls them,) 

 they were at all events voluminous and varied ; 

 as they consisted of eclogues, epistles, comedies, 

 pastorals, &c. On a visit to Edinburgh to attend 

 the sheep-market, he ventured on a volume, which, 

 as might have been expected from the author being 

 entirely unknown, and the matter rather common- 

 place, was consigned to an early oblivion. The 

 attention of Sir Walter Scott, then Mr Scott, 

 about this time having being drawn to the poetical 

 talent of Mr Hogg, by his advice he was urged on 

 to the publication of a volume of ballads, which 

 shortly after was ushered into the literary world 

 under the title of the " Mountain Bard." These 

 compositions emanating from a rough untutored 

 mind, bore, notwithstanding, many secret indi- 

 cations of that high poetical imagination so pecu- 

 liarly the gift of the author of " Kilmeny;" t^ie 

 ballad of " Sir David Graeme," and one or two 

 others, standing forth as beautiful pieces of com- 

 position, and among the happiest efforts of his muse. 



His " Essay on Sheep," which gained the High- 

 land society premium, coupled with the success of 

 the "Mountain Bard," produced such a fund as 

 tempted him to embark in some wild agricultural 

 scheme, which of course failed ; and he then deter- 

 mined on settling in Edinburgh, and following out 

 the uncertain calling of a literary adventurer. He 

 was scarcely well warmed in his new mode of life 

 before he got some insight into the precarious trade 

 in which he had now enlisted. His first volume 

 was the " Forest Minstrel:" from this, a work of 

 no great merit, no pecuniary return was received. 

 At this bleak and cheerless period, however, when 

 poverty was pressing hard upon him, the well- 

 timed benevolence of his friends Messrs Grieve 

 and Scott, with a kindness almost paternal, sup- 

 plied all his wants ; and, to the honour of the 

 poet, he did not allow the merits of his kind pa- 

 trons to pass without bestowing on them the meed 

 of kind and grateful remembrance. 



The " Forest Minstrel " having failed in the ob- 

 ject of primary importance to its author (at this 

 moment some pecuniary return), Hogg, with his 

 poor and scanty knowledge of men and manners as 

 they then existed, and having but barely dipped 

 into contemporary literature, determined on start- 

 ing a weekly periodical, which he christened " The 

 Spy," the pages of which were to be wholly de- 

 voted, bating a few attempts at criticism, to moral 

 essays, and the refined elegancies of polite litera- 

 ture. How he, who at this time " knew no more 

 of human manners than a child," and " had read 

 next to none," was fitted for his task, the reader 

 may judge, and of course anticipate the unsuccess- 

 ful termination of his work long before the expir- 

 ation of the first year from its birth. 



At this time, the darkest period of bis life, 

 when his literary speculations, from which he an- 



