JAMES HOGG "THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD" - A FAMOUS ANCESTOR

My 6xgreat grandfather, William LAIDLAW,  is James Hogg's grandfather - James' mother and my 5xgreat grandfather, Robert Laidlaw, are sister and brother.

James HOGG (1770-1835) is my first cousin (six times removed) and is commonly referred to as "The Ettrick Shepherd". He was a poet and novelist who wrote in both Scots and English and who became one of the most unlikely literary figures ever to emerge from Scotland. He was born and brought up in a farming family in Ettrick and after leaving school at the age of 7 he became a shepherd. Largely self-educated he began publishing poems and longer works and rose to become a star of the Edinburgh literary scene and a friend of Sir Walter Scott, of whom he later wrote an unauthorised biography. He is probably best known today for his novel "The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of A Justified Sinner". He remained close to the land, however, and continued to work as a farmer in Ettrick and Yarrow until his death.

In 1801 Hogg had been recruited to collect ballads for Walter Scott's collection "The Minstrelsy Of The Scottish Borders". He met Scott himself the following year and began working for the Edinburgh Magazine. In the summer of 1802 he embarked on the first of three tours of the Highlands with a view to securing a farm of his own. He eventually found a farm on Harris but due to trouble with his finances and a legal issue he was unable to secure a lease by 1804. His experiences on his Highland tours were described in letters to Scott which were published in the Scots Magazine.

In 1814 he met William Wordsworth and made a visit to the Lake District to see Wordsworth and other poets. In 1815 the Duke of Buccleuch granted him a small farm at Eltrive Moss in Yarrow, where he could live rent-free for his lifetime.

Hogg's Poetical Works in four volumes were published in 1822, as was his novel The Three Perils of Man. In 1823, in debt to Blackwood, Hogg began publishing his work the Shepherd's Calendar in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. Later in the year he published his novel The Three Perils of Woman. In June 1824 he published his best known work, the novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. His epic poem Queen Hynde was published at the end of the year.

In 1833 Hogg had an accident while curling, falling through the ice, causing a serious illness. In 1834 his biographical work Familiar Anecdotes of Sir Walter Scott was published in the United States, due to publishing difficulties in Great Britain.

James Hogg died in 1835 in Ettrick and is buried in the churchyard at Ettrick Church.

Upon Hogg's death, Wordsworth wrote a poem entitled "Extempore Effusion Upon The Death Of James Hogg",

When first, descending from the moorlands, 
I saw the Stream of Yarrow glide 
Along a bare and open valley, 
The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide. 

When last along its banks I wandered, 

Through groves that had begun to shed 

Their golden leaves upon the pathways, 

My steps the Border-minstrel led. 

The mighty Minstrel breathes no longer, 

'Mid mouldering ruins low he lies; 

And death upon the braes of Yarrow, 

Has closed the Shepherd-poet's eyes: 

Nor has the rolling year twice measured, 

From sign to sign, its stedfast course, 

Since every mortal power of Coleridge 

Was frozen at its marvellous source; 

The rapt One, of the godlike forehead, 

The heaven-eyed creature sleeps in earth: 

And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle, 

Has vanished from his lonely hearth. 

Like clouds that rake the mountain-summits, 

Or waves that own no curbing hand, 

How fast has brother followed brother, 

From sunshine to the sunless land! 

Yet I, whose lids from infant slumber 

Were earlier raised, remain to hear 

A timid voice, that asks in whispers, 

"Who next will drop and disappear?" 

Our haughty life is crowned with darkness, 

Like London with its own black wreath, 

On which with thee, O Crabbe! forth-looking, 

I gazed from Hampstead's breezy heath. 

As if but yesterday departed, 

Thou too art gone before; but why, 

O'er ripe fruit, seasonably gathered, 

Should frail survivors heave a sigh? 

Mourn rather for that holy Spirit, 

Sweet as the spring, as ocean deep; 

For Her who, ere her summer faded, 

Has sunk into a breathless sleep. 

No more of old romantic sorrows, 

For slaughtered Youth or love-lorn Maid! 

With sharper grief is Yarrow smitten, 

And Ettrick mourns with her their Poet dead. 

This eulogy notwithstanding, Wordsworth's notes state "Hogg was undoubtedly a man of original genius, but of coarse manners and low and offensive opinions".

So some of Hogg's personality may have been passed down the line - it's just a pity it wasn't his "original genius" (heh, heh).

Hogg's reputation was significant during his lifetime but waned until the 1920's when interest in The Confessions led to the rediscovery and reconsideration of his other work in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Now his novel The Three Perils of Woman is also considered a classic and all his work, including his letters, is undergoing major publication in the Stirling/Carolina editions. However, Justified Sinner remains his most important work and is now seen as one of the major Scottish novels of its time, and absolutely crucial in terms of exploring one of the key themes of Scottish culture and identity: Calvinism. In a 2006 interview with Melvyn Bragg for ITV1, Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh cited Hogg, especially The Confessions, as a major influence on his writing. A James Hogg Society was founded in 1981 to encourage the study of his life and writings. Hogg's story "The Brownie Of The Black Haggs" was dramatised for BBC Radio 4 in 2003.

Finally, at the head of St Mary’s Loch, on the Selkirk to Moffat road, there is a statue to James Hogg. It was carved in 1860 by the Borders sculptor and antiquary, Andrew Currie of Darnick, who made a successful career in recreating characters from the works of both James Hogg and Walter Scott. Hogg is shown seated, larger than life, and in the familiar costume of his portraits with his collie dog Hector, neatly carved at his feet. He faces westwards and looks over the loch to the distant hills where his shepherding days had begun.

Monument on the site of the cottage in Ettrick, where James Hogg was born

The gravestones of James Hogg and William Laidlaw, in Ettrick Kirkyard

The statue of James Hogg, overlooking Tibbie Shiels Inn and St Mary's Loch

Front view of the statue

Me in The Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, standing beside a portrait of James Hogg, by Sir John Watson Gordon