Stephenson: The Ettrick Shepherd 59 



Before long he set about the task of building a new cottage, 

 the need of which is shown by the following: 



On Tuesday morning I walked to Hogg's, a distance of about eight 

 miles, fishing as I went, and surprised him in his cottage bottling whisky. 

 He is well and dressed pastorally. His house is not habitable, but the 

 situation is good, and may become pretty. There being no beds in his 

 domicile, we last night came here, a farmer's house about a quaiter of 

 a mile from him, where I have been treated most kindly and hospitably.' 



Hogg's one injunction to the architect of the new cottage 

 was so to design the building that all the smoke would come 

 out of one chimney. His sudden access of fame had subjected 

 him to a press of visitors, ''trippers" we should call them now, 

 and his architectural suggestion was his way of fooling them 

 into the notion that no one was at home save the occupant of 

 the kitchen. His brilliant idea, however, was not successful, 

 and, before long, Altrive Lake became the constant meeting- 

 place of all the intellectual men of the Scottish Border : truly 

 a Mermaid tavern in the midst of Elysian Fields. 



The country round about Yarrow was even more isolated in 

 those days than it is at present. He writes in 1819 : 



I see your letter is of old date, and yet it is several days since I 

 got it ; but at this season I am quite secluded almost from the possibility 

 of communication with this world, it being only by chance that I get 

 my letters at all; and I do not even know if I shall get this away to 

 the post. 



In fact, the usual way of reaching Altrive Lake from Edin- 

 burgh was by the Peebles Coach to Peebles, then a six-mile 

 journey to Innerleithen, and the remaining seven miles, often 

 afoot to Altrive. Until many years subsequent to this time 

 there were few, practically no, carriage roads in either the 

 Ettrick or Yarrow valleys. 



The first gig ever introduced into Yarrow parish was that of Mr. 

 Thomas Milne, who came as tenant to Dryhope in 1812. He w^as lame 

 and could not ride, and such an unusual luxury was for that reason 

 excused in a farmer. . . . The farm houses were thatched, small, 

 and low-roofed. They were on one model — a room in one end, the 

 kitchen in the other, and through the kitchen another room used as a 

 bedroom, with, perhaps, two small attics above, reached by a trap lad- 

 der, and lighted by a few small panes through the thatch. I remem- 

 ber Ladhope, Mt. Benger [later occupied by Hogg], Newhouse, and New- 

 burgh, being in this style. . . . The cottages for the hinds and shep- 

 herds were little better than dark smoky hovels. Their walls were of 



* Letter from Wilson to his wife. 



