The Autobiography of William Jerdan
James Hogg to William Jerdan, [June 1827]
“Mount Bangor by Selkirk.
“Dear Sir,
“I received your’s, containing the valuable
present, with no little astonishment; indeed ‘I could hardly believe my
ain een,’ as we say, when I opened it. I now see what hitherto I have
sparingly believed, that it is not those who ![]()
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make the most
glowing expressions of esteem and admiration, &c, that are most to be
depended on. I was three days with Sir W.
Scott, at Abbotsford, last month, and among the first things he
inquired was, if I had written to you, and of your answer. I told him
your’s was a friendly letter, but cherished no hopes whatever. He said he
was sorry for that, for whatever you took by the end you generally made a point
of carrying, and he heard there was, or soon to be, a pecuniary vacancy, and no
more passed. I am yet at a loss whether it is the same society which we
corresponded about, or another one, to whom I am indebted for this most timely
and welcome relief, but, at all events, I am sure you were the moving spring of
the grateful act. I shall speak of it to no man save Sir W.
Scott, and for your credit I cannot but mention it to him. My
circumstances are, at present, such that, in spite of the spirit of
independence natural to a Scotsman, I gladly accept of the proffered boon,
although I would fain hope only as a loan. And after the deep interest you have
taken in me, it is proper you should know that it is not my own family concerns
that have straitened me most, but those of others; the whole weight of three
families, with their expenses, having fallen on me, and just at a time when
both farming and literature were standing with their backs at the wa’,
and my means quite inadequate to the charge. For four of these individuals I
expect remuneration in whole or in part, at some future period, but at present
it is wanting. My father-in-law is removed from this stage of existence since I
wrote you,—an excellent old man, reduced from great affluence to a total
dependence on me. My frail mother-in-law, with her attendants, are now
incorporated with our own family, so that, in that respect too, my expenses
will be greatly shortened, and upon the whole I ![]()
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hope to
get over my present difficulties. I have a good many MSS. lying by me, for
which I can get no conditions for the present whatever, and the whole of my
works (save the last poem) are, I believe, out of print. If there are any you
could advise me to republish, with a little furbishing up, I should be very
glad of your advice. I have been thinking of two neat vols, of ‘The Shepherd’s
Callander,’ never yet published by itself, but have tried
nobody. If you were to announce it, it might give it some éclat. But I am wearying you, my dear
sir, with selfish considerations, for I am really so proud at finding that I
have a real and sterling literary friend which to my fondest estimations has
hitherto proved rather equivocal, that I hardly know what I am saying. Be so
kind as return my grateful thanks to the benevolent society that sent me this
timely aid, and not mine only, but those of the aged and infirm, as well as the
young and the destitute, and believe me ever,
James Hogg [The Ettrick Shepherd] (1770-1835)
Scottish autodidact, poet, and novelist; author of
The Queen's
Wake (1813) and
Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified
Sinner (1824).
