football match,
got up under the auspices of the Duke of Buccleuch, between the men of
the Vale of Yarrow and the Burghers of Selkirk, the particulars of
which will be sufficiently explained by an extract from Ballantyne's
newspaper, written, I can have no doubt, by the Sheriff of the Forest.
But the part taken in this solemnity by the Ettrick Shepherd reminds
me of an extraordinary epistle which Scott had received from him some
months before this time, and of the account given by Hogg himself, in
one of his autobiographies, of the manner in which Scott's kindness
terminated the alienation it refers to.

The Shepherd, being as usual in pecuniary straits, had projected a
work, to be called The Poetic Mirror, in which should appear some
piece by each popular poet of the time, the whole to be edited by
himself, and published for his benefit; and he addressed, accordingly,
to his brother bards a circular petition for their best assistance.
Scott--like Byron and most of the other persons thus applied
to--declined the proposition. The letter in which he signified his
refusal has not been preserved;--indeed it is sufficiently remarkable,
that of all the many letters which Hogg must have received from his
distinguished contemporaries, he appears to have kept not one; but
Scott's decided aversion to joint-stock adventures in authorship must
have been well known ere now to Hogg--and, at all events, nobody can
suspect that his note of refusal was meant to be an unfriendly
communication. The Shepherd, however, took some phrase in high
dudgeon, and penned an answer virulently insolent in spirit and in
language, accusing him of base jealousy of his own superior natural
genius. I am not sure whether it was on this or another occasion of
the like sort, that James varied the usual formulas of {p.082}
epistolary composition, by beginning with "Damned Sir," and ending,
"Believe me, Sir, yours with disgust, etc.;" but certainly the
performance was such that no intercourse took place between the
parties for some weeks, or perhaps months, afterwards. The letter in
which Hogg at length solicits a renewal of kindliness says nothing, it
may be observed, of the circumstance which, according to his
autobiography, confirmed by the recollection of two friends, whom he
names in the letter itself (Mr. John Grieve and Mr. William Laidlaw),
had really caused him to repent of his suspicions, and their
outrageous expression. The fact was, that hearing,