y
easy position of a shepherd, he began to think of teaching himself to
read. From Mrs Laidlaw, the wife of the farmer at Willinslee, on which
he served, he was privileged with the loan of two works, of which the
reputation had been familiar to him from childhood. These were Henry the
Minstrel's "Life and Adventures of Sir William Wallace," and the "Gentle
Shepherd" of Allan Ramsay. On these the future poet with much difficulty
learned to read, in his eighteenth year. He afterwards read a number of
theological works, from his employer's collection of books; and among
others of a speculative cast, "Burnet's Theory of the Conflagration of
the Earth," the perusal of which, he has recorded, "nearly overturned
his brain."

At Whitsunday 1790, in his twentieth year, Hogg entered the service, as
shepherd, of Mr James Laidlaw, tenant of Blackhouse,--a farm situate on
the Douglasburn in Yarrow. This proved the most signally fortunate step
which he had yet taken. Mr Laidlaw was a man of singular shrewdness and
of a highly cultivated mind; he readily perceived his shepherd's
aptitude for learning, and gave him the use of his library. But the
poet's connexion with Blackhouse was especially valuable in enabling him
to form the intimacy of Mr William Laidlaw, his master's son, the future
factor and amanuensis of Sir Walter Scott. Though ten years his junior,
and consequently a mere youth at the period of his coming to Blackhouse,
young Laidlaw began early to sympathise with the Shepherd's
predilections, and afterwards devoted a large portion of time to his
society. The friendship which ensued proved useful to both. A MS.
narrative of the poet's life by this unfailing friend, which has been
made available in the preparation of this Memoir, enables us to supply
an authentic account of this portion of his career. "He was not long,"
writes Mr Laidlaw, "in going through all the books belonging to my
father; and learning from me that Mr Elder, bookseller, Peebles, had a
large collection of books which he used as a circulating library, he
forthwith became a subscriber, and by that means read Smollett's and
Fielding's novels, and those voyages and travels which were published at
the time, including those of Cook, Carteret, and others."

The progress of the Shepherd in learning was singularly tardy. He was,
by a persevering course of reading, sufficiently familiar with the more
esteemed writers in English literature, ere he attempted penmans