The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

224 The Highland Monthly.
afflicted by such assertions rankle with so keen a smart
that I am unable to allay them, and this part of the
business I cannot endure"— [To Sir Walter Scott from
Hogg, Altrive Lake, Oct. 3, 1821]. To his family they
were a source of pain, and it was indeed apparently only
when the chief authors saw him thoroughly roused that
they expressed their regret, each in his characteristic way,
for the liberty they had taken wath his name ; and a letter
written by Sir Walter Scott, in reply to this I have quoted
from, with a consideration for all parties, seems to have
tended not a little to bring about a friendly reconciliation.
The once-famous " Noctes Ambrosianae " certainly do not
convey a correct idea of Hogg. Naturally of a happy
disposition, he brought cheerfulness into the houses he
visited, for he had tales and farmers' gossip for the older
members, and songs and the fiddle—on which he played
fairly—for the younger members, who hailed with delight
his arrival. Pleased at the notice taken of him, his animal
spirits often led him into such gaucheries perhaps as that
recorded in the " Life of Scott," though it is possible Lock-
hart may have made the most of it, for he never liked the
Shepherd. That his manners were brusque is undoubted^
and in the forgetfulness of his excitement he would start
up, and tap a lady on the shoulder familiarly. Or he might
express himself as he did when first introduced to L. E. L.^
who was looking perhaps as described in Lord Beaconsfield's
" Home Letters," " the very personification of Brompton—
pink satin dress, and white satin shoes, red cheeks,
snub nose, and her hair a la Sappho." Looking down upon
her, Hogg exclaimed, " I've said mony hard things of you ;
I'll dae sae nae mair. I never thocht you were so bonnie."
Or he would commit such a breach of the proprieties, in his
admiration of a man, as he did in asking Professor Wilson
to dinner without an introduction— " When no other shift
was left, I sat down and wrote a note, telling him I wished
much to see him, and, if he wanted to see me, he might