CHAPTER 5 



LIFE AT ALTRIVE LAKE 



In the summer of 1814 Hogg, while upon one of his numer- 

 ous trips to the Highlands, was for some time laid up with a 

 cold at Kinnaird House in Athole, the residence of Mr. Chal- 

 mers Izett. It was while here that Mrs. Izett proposed to 

 Hogg that he do something to ''prevent his mind from rust- 

 ing". The result of this suggestion is Mador of the Moor, a 

 poem that contains much commendable description, but of 

 which the structure is so loose and the matter so commonplace 

 that it adds little or nothing to its author's reputation. At 

 the time, however, it was passably well received, and Hogg was 

 gratified by the following letter- from the Duke of Buccleugh : 



Penrich, May 7, 1816. 



Sir, 



I return you my thanks for your present of Mador of the Moor. This 

 poem has gratified and amused me mucli. I do not pretend to be a 

 critic, or judge of poetry in proportion to tlie interest it creates in me. 

 I sliall therefore only add that Mador shall be immediately re-read as 

 soon as the different individuals of my family shall have perused it, a 

 period at no great distance. 



Your friend and well-wisher, 



Buccleugh, &c. 



Hogg's celebrity was now sufficient to warrant the painting 

 of a portrait. Nicholas was at work upon it in 1815 ; and on 

 St. Valentine's Day Hogg addressed a letter- to his friend 

 Laidlaw. 



Dear Laidlaw, 



If I cannot procure Lion before this day eight days, I am positively 

 condemned to sit ages and centuries in company with, a butcher's collie, 

 in the town, as unlike my strumpit whelp as I to Hercules. If you can 

 submit to this, why, then, I must; but positively I shall never look at 

 my own picture. If I were to come myself I have no time to stay, for 

 the artist says he Vv'ould not that my picture were not in the exliibition 

 this year for 50 pounds, and he cannot give it a tone until the figures 

 are adjusted. Two nights and a day are quite sufficient for Rob to stay 

 here, and in that case he will get the dog home with him. 



Yours ever. — J. H. 



1 Published by Mrs. Garden, page 106. 

 - Quoted by Mrs. Garden, page 83. 



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