Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

THE TWELFTH ON ETTRICK. 321
as well as admission to a class of society quite inacces-
sible to any other man of his degree. " I was a fre-
quent guest at his Grace's table," he says, " and as he
placed me always next him on his right hand, I en-
joyed a great deal of his conversation." Hogg's posi-
tion at the Duke's right hand may perhaps require
authentication ; but he had unquestionably a still
higher advancement, being received familiarly and
kindly into his most intimate circle by Scott ; and in
the young group of the Blackwood men he was at first
an important figure. The following letter is dated
from his little farmhouse among the hills, August 12,
1816, before as yet the great enterprise of the Maga-
zine had been taken up :
James Hogg to W. Blackioood.
—
You may think me ungrateful in not writing to you as I
promised, especially when you have been so mindful of me ; but
once you see how barren my letter is, you will think different.
There is not an article here that can have any interest to a
citizen ; for though there are a number of blackcocks, muirfowl,
&c., on our hills, there are such a crew of idle fellows (mostly
from Edinburgh, I daresay) broke loose on them to-day, that it
seems to a peaceful listener at a distance like me as if the
French were arrived at the Forest. Yet all this, and everything
I have it in my power to mention, you know must take place of
course. In fact, the people of Edinburgh should always write to
their friends in the country, and never expect any answer. For
my part, I know that all the letters I ever received from the
country while I was there were most insipid, nor can it other-
wise be. "We converse only with the elements, and our concerns
are of the most trivial and simple nature. For my part, I feel
myself so much at home here, and so much in the plain rustic
state in which I spent my early years, that I have even forgot
to think or muse at all, and my thoughts seem as vacant as the
wilderness around me. I even wonder at some of my own past
VOL. I. X