ly sheet, price fourpence--was issued on
the first of September 1810. With varied popularity, this paper existed
during the space of a year; and owing to the perseverance of the
conductor might have subsisted a longer period, but for a certain
ruggedness which occasionally disfigured it. As a whole, being chiefly
the composition of a shepherd, who could only read at eighteen, and
write at twenty-six, and who, to use his own words, "knew no more of
human life or manners than a child," the work presented a remarkable
record in the annals of literature. As a business concern, it did not
much avail the projector, but it served indirectly towards improving his
condition, by inducing the habit of composing readily, and with
undeviating industry. A copy of "The Spy" is now rare.

From his literary exertions, Hogg was long, subsequent to his arrival in
the metropolis, in deriving substantial pecuniary emolument. In these
circumstances, he was fortunate in the friendship of Mr John Grieve, and
his partner Mr Henry Scott, hat manufacturers in the city, who, fully
appreciating his genius, aided him with money so long as he required
their assistance. These are his own words, "They suffered me to want for
nothing, either in money or clothes, and I did not even need to ask
these." To Mr Grieve, Hogg was especially indebted; six months he was an
inmate of his house, and afterwards he occupied comfortable lodgings,
secured him by his friend's beneficence. Besides these two invaluable
benefactors, the Shepherd soon acquired the regard and friendship of
several respectable men of letters, both in Edinburgh and elsewhere. As
contributors to "The Spy," he could record the names of James Gray of
the High School, and his accomplished wife; Thomas Gillespie, afterwards
Professor of Humanity in the University of St Andrews; J. Black,
subsequently of the _Morning Chronicle_; William Gillespie, the
ingenious minister of Kells; and John Sym, the renowned Timothy Tickler
of the "_Noctes_." Of these literary friends, Mr James Gray was the more
conspicuous and devoted. This excellent individual, the friend of so
many literary aspirants, was a native of Dunse, and had the merit of
raising himself from humble circumstances to the office of a master in
the High School of Edinburgh. Possessed of elegant and refined tastes,
an enthusiastic admirer of genius, and a poet himself,[30] Mr Gray
entertained at his table the more esteemed wits of the capital; he