CHAPTER 8 



HOGG AS A PROSE WRITER 



Tho Hogg is more notable as a prose writer than as a poet, 

 his tales are not without many faults. In practice he did not 

 always live up to the excellent description of what a short 

 story should be, which opens Gordon the Gypsy. Hogg says : 



It has been tritely, because truly said, that the boldest efforts of 

 human imagination cannot exceed the romance of real life. The best 

 written tale is not that which most resembles the ordinary chain of events 

 and characters, but that which, by selecting and combining- them, conceals 

 those inconsistencies and deficiencies that leave, in real life, our sense of 

 sight unsatisfied. An author delights his reader when he exhibits inci- 

 dents distinctly and naturally according with moral justice; his portraits 

 delight us when they resemble our fellow creatures, without too accu- 

 rately tracing their moles and blemishes. This elegant delight is the 

 breathing of a purer spirit within us that asserts its claim to a nobler 

 and more perfect state; yet another, though an austerer kind of pleasure, 

 arises when we consider how much of the divinity appears even in man's 

 most erring state, and how much of "goodliness in evil." 



Hogg's tales, with one or two exceptions, are all of a kind. 

 He was essentially a short-story writer. He is at his best in 

 stories that are short, and his long compositions are often 

 but a succession of incidents loosely strung together. In fact, 

 The Adventures of George Cochrane originally appeared as a 

 series of separate adventures in The Spy. 



In his volumes of short stories appear many purely descrip- 

 tive sketches which, however, are usually written in the nar- 

 rative form. Description of a special kind was Hogg's par- 

 ticular forte; namely, the wild, rugged scenery of his native 

 land, and the fierce commotion of the elements. The paper 

 on Storms, now usually included in The Shepherd's Calendar, 

 is a most splendid piece of writing. 



However, Hogg's special contribution to Scottish literature 

 is relative to the history of folklore tradition. He knew the 

 tales of the Forest as Dickens knew the streets of London. 

 'Customs, beliefs, happenings, have been rescued from forgot- 

 ten obscurity and reproduced in Hogg's writings by the mul- 

 titude. Of fairies, he knew all, and his knowledge of ghosts 

 was unlimited. 



Hogg's manner of dealing with such matters was naive. It 

 must be borne in mind that the Ettrick Forest eighty years ago 



(85) 



