190 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



gress her domains for wild and beautiful fancies 

 wherewith to beflower his page. He revived the old, 

 elfin superstitions of his country strewed with ideal 

 structures the valley ed hills, and cast over them a 

 new mantle of glowing and kindly associations. Much 

 of what the Ettrick Shepherd has written will con- 

 tinue imperishable, and much also lie entombed with 

 himself, or, at any rate, remain, as matter of mere 

 curiosity, whereon may speculate some sage unborn 

 philosopher, the pride and paragon of a future century. 

 Hogg, talking of him as the man, not the poet, 

 was out of his element in society. He appeared to 

 anything but advantage abroad from his own fireside, 

 His real character became disguised among follies and 

 affectations, to which, in his calm and natural mo- 

 ments he was an utter stranger. To such as knew 

 him intimately, these feelings had a very different 

 seeming from what they possessed in the eyes of 

 others. The latter regarded them as habitual and 

 monstrous improprieties ; the former as mere vagaries 

 of the moment, brought into play, certainly, without 

 forethought, but in perfect innocence and in want of 

 wrong motive. At home within his family circle, the 

 Ettrick Shepherd was a different being ; he had the 

 feelings of the husband, the father, and the Christian 

 and was, besides, without measure benevolent and 

 hospitable, full of those charities which commend 

 themselves to the heart, and so winning in his con- 

 duct and conversation as to subdue at once the stub- 



