“My mother is actually a living miscellany of old songs. I never…” — James Hogg | V2Melody

“My mother is actually a living miscellany of old songs. I never believed that she had half so many until I came to a trial: there are none in your collection of which she hath not a part.”

Paying tribute to the oral tradition carried by his mother, Margaret Laidlaw, who supplied material for Scott's Minstrelsy · Letter to Sir Walter Scott, 30 June 1802

About James Hogg

James Hogg

c. 9 December 1770–21 November 1835

The story of James Hogg is one of the most remarkable and unlikely ascents in the history of British literature. Born into the humblest of circumstances in the wilds of the Scottish Borders, he rose from a life of manual labour to stand, albeit often awkwardly, alongside the literary giants of his age. He was a man of…

More by James Hogg

Poems by James Hogg

A Witch's Chant Listen

More remarks by James Hogg

“Dear Sir Walter! Ye can never suppose that I helang to your School o' Chivalry! Ye are the king o' that school, but I'm the king o' the Mountain and Fairy School, which is a far higher ane nor yours.”

Asserting his distinctive territory in the supernatural and mountain lore of the Borders against Scott's chivalric mode · Letter to Sir Walter Scott

“A shepherd may be a very able, trusty, and good shepherd, without a sweetheart—better, perhaps, than with one. But what is he without his dog?”

On the indispensable partnership between shepherd and dog · Writings on shepherding

“A certain keenness of disposition, prompting to the most active exertions, is the first ingredient in the happiness of man. Happiness is the mind and the object in full possession of one another. A man's life will be always pleasant, if he enter with all his heart and soul into the concerns of it.”

Defining happiness through energetic engagement rather than passive contentment · Personal reflection (as recorded in biographical accounts)