40 



Indiana University Studies 



with a bludgeon, and apparently somewhat intoxicated, and accom- 

 panied by a man having the appearance of a shop porter, attempted a 

 violent assault, but without injury, the attack being repelled and re- 

 taliated by the free use of the horsewhip. A crowd, attracted by the 

 occurrence, speedily separated the parties. 



Blackwood replied to this paragraph by a letter whose main 

 point was to show that Douglas got far the worst of it, and 

 Hogg wrote the following : 



To the Editor of the Glasgov/ Chronicle, 

 Sir, 



A copy of the Glasgow Chronicle has just been handed to me, in 

 which I observe a paragraph concerning Mr. Blackwood and a gentle- 

 man from Glasgow, which I declare to be manifestly false. The para- 

 graph must have been written by that same gentleman himself, as no 

 other spectator could possibly have given such a statement. Among 

 other matters, he says that Mr. B. was "accompanied by a man having 

 the appearance of a shop-porter". He is a gentleman from Glasgoiu, 

 and I am '"a man having the appearance of a shop-porter" (for there 

 was no person accompanying Mr. B. but myself). Now I do not take 

 this extremely well, and should like to know what it is that makes him 

 a gentleman and me so far below one. Plain man as I am, it can- 

 not be my appearance; I will show myself on the steps at the door of 

 Mackay's Hotel with him whenever he pleases, or any where else. It 

 cannot be on account of my parents or relations, for in that I am like- 

 wise willing to abide the test. If it is, as is commonly believed, that 

 a man is known by his company, I can tell this same gentleman that 

 I am a frec^uent and welcome guest in companies where he would not be 

 admitted as a waiter. If it is to any behaviour of mine that he alludes 

 in this his low species of wit, I hereby declare, Sir, to you and to the 

 world, that / never attacked a defenceless man ivho ivas apparently one 

 half beloiv me in size and strength, nor stood patiently and was cudgeled 

 like an ox when that person thought proper to retaliate. As to the cir- 

 cumstances of the drubbing Mr. Blackwood gave the same gentleman 

 from Glasgow, so many witnessed it, there can be no mistake about the 

 truth. 



James Hogg. 



No. 6, Charles Street, Edinburgh, 

 13th May, 1818. 



Amusing as this exhibition of offended pride is, Scott in his 

 Journal gives us another anecdote that puts the Shepherd's 

 fierceness in quite a different light. 



Our poor friend Hogg has had an affair of honour. . . . Two 

 mornings ago about seven in the morning, my servant announced w^hile 

 I was shaving in my dressing-room, that Mr. Hogg wished earnestly to 

 speak to me. He was ushered in, and I cannot describe the half startled, 



