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422 CRITICAL STUDIES publishers and to procure influential subscribers, of whom above 500 were secured; Constable (who brought out the work) giving Hogg a half-guinea copy for each, in addition to a small sum of money ; he likewise gave him ^86 for " that celebrated work, ' Hogg on Sheep,' and I was now richer than ever I was before." His mode of dealing with his sub- scribers was characteristic : "I had no regular plan of delivering those copies that were subscribed for, but sent them simply to the people, intending to take their money in return ; but, though some paid me double, triple, and even ten times tha price, about one third of my subscribers thought proper to take the copies for nothing, never paying for them to this day." HI " Master of nearly ^300, I went perfectly mad." He took a pasture farm for a great deal more than it was worth, and added to it another, the two needing about ten times his capital. Here he blundered and struggled on for three years, then let his creditors take all, without getting from them any settlement. " None of these matters had the least effect in depress- ing my spirits — I was generally rather most cheer- ful when most unfortunate." He would go back to herding; but all Ettrick looked upon him askance as a ne'er-do-weel, reckless, and unstable, and none even of his old employers would take him back. So in February, 1810, he went to Edinburgh, in utter desperation, determined to push his fortune as a literary man. Constable, reluctant but friendly,