CHAPTER 4 



RESIDENCE IN EDINBURGH 



The man whose character has been sketched in the pre- 

 ceding chapter set out, as has been related, to make his for- 

 tune in the capital as a man of letters. Enough has been 

 already said to show how unsuited he was by training for 

 the task he had undertaken. He had but few friends in the 

 city and none who could be of much use to him. The better 

 part of a year passed and he was unable to make any money ; 

 and, had it not been for the hospitality of an acquaintance 

 he would have been in great practical straits at this time. 



After much solicitation Mr. Constable was persuaded to 

 undertake the publication of another volume of verse. The 

 Forest Minstrel, as it was called, was dedicated to Lady Dal- 

 keith, who sent Hogg, in consequence, a present of a hundred 

 guineas; but this was all the profit he ever received. The 

 book fell flat; and, in this case, the popular verdict was just 

 criticism. For some years the Shepherd's time had been so 

 taken up with his disastrous experiments in agriculture that 

 he had had no time to write verse. 



He had drawn upon the best of what he calls his ''youthful 

 songs" when he published The Mountain Ba rd, and he had but 

 the refuse left to form into a new volume. There are some 

 stanzas of merit to be found in The Forest Minstrel and some 

 of the poems are better than others; but, on the whole, one 

 docs not And any difficulty in comprehending the contempo- 

 rary unpopularity of the book — a judgment that time has not 

 reversed. 



Yet the poet who had just made such a failure was not to 

 be put down by bad luck. His indomitable spirits and un- 

 limited egotism came nobly to his rescue. If Mr. Jeffrey 

 could conduct a review, why could not he, James Hogg, do 

 the same with a weekly journal of literature and criticism? 

 So, likely, he reasoned to himself. At any rate, he resolved 

 to undertake such a task and The Spy resulted. To ordinary 

 readers The Spy is quite inaccessible, there being not above 

 half a dozen copies in existence, if there be so many. There- 

 fore the present writer feels justified in commenting upon it 

 in detail; for, in his opinion, it constitutes the Ettrick Shep- 

 herd's highest claim, if not to fame, at least to our admira- 



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