he '_Where are they?_' was too bad! I have always some hopes
that De Quincey was _leeing_, for I did not myself hear Wordsworth utter
the words."

Appended to this anecdote is a characteristic observation on the poetry
of Wordsworth.

"It relates to the richness of his works for quotations. For these they
are a mine that is altogether inexhaustible. There is nothing in nature
that you may not get a quotation out of Wordsworth to suit, and a
quotation too that breathes the very soul of poetry. There are only
three books in the world that are worth the opening in search of mottos
and quotations, and all of them are alike rich. These are, the Old
Testament, Shakspeare, and the poetical works of Wordsworth, and,
strange to say, the 'Excursion' abounds most in them."

We chanced to fall upon the Shepherd's allusion to the liberties taken
with his name in _Blackwood's Magazine_, which work owes its
establishment and much of its early success to Mr. Hogg's co-operation.
We believe it to be pretty well known that the offensive language
attributed to the Shepherd in the "Noctes" has no more to do with Mr.
Hogg than by attempting to imitate his conversational style. This
impropriety, which is beyond a literary joke, was reprobated some months
since by the _Quarterly Review_, but here the offending parties are
properly visited with a burst of honest indignation which may not pass
unheeded. Mr. Hogg says

"For my part, after twenty years of feelings hardly suppressed, he
has driven me beyond the bounds of human patience. That Magazine of
his, which owes its rise principally to myself, has often put words
and sentiments into my mouth of which I have been greatly ashamed,
and which have given much pain to my family and relations, and many
of those after a solemn written promise that such freedoms should
never be repeated. I have been often urged to restrain and humble
him by legal measures as an incorrigible offender deserves. I know I
have it in my power, and if he dares me to the task, I want but a
hair to make a tether of."

The Shepherd appears to have written since 1813, fifteen volumes of
poetry and as many volumes of prose, besides his contributions to
periodical works; and, what is not the less extraordinary he was forty
years of age before he wrote his first poem.

The Tales in the present volume are the Adventures of Captain Lochy, the
Pongos, and Marion's Jock.

*