Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/447

JAMES HOGG 43 I a severe illness of four weeks, he died on the 21st of November, 1835. He was buried in the churchyard of Ettrick, near to which he was born ; a plain stone, with name and dates and harp, shows his grave. He left a widow with one son and four daughters, the children all young, and very little for their subsistence. What private beneficence may have done for the poor family, who by their husband and father had such strong claims on the national gratitude, I know not ; but eighteen* years elapsed before a royal pension was granted to Mrs. Hogg — giving her and her young ones ample time to perish of starvation ! In i860 a monument was erected to him midway between the loch of the Lowas and St. Mary's Loch. "There, upon a square pedestal, about ten feet in height, and adorned with characteristic emblems and inscriptions, sits the figure of the poet upon an oak-root, his head slightly depressed towards St. Mary's Loch, which he loved so well, and on the banks of which he was so often visited with his best inspiration, while his favourite dog Hector is couched lovingly at his feet." Even Lockhart, embittered beyond his usual bitter- ness, terms him " perhaps the most remarkable man that ever wore the maud of a shepherd ; " and says of him when Scott first met him in 1801 : "As yet his naturally kind and simple character had not been exposed to any of the dangerous flatteries of the world; his heart was pure — his enthusiasm buoyant as that of a happy child j and well as Scott knew that reflection, sagacity, wit, and wisdom were scattered abundantly among the humblest rangers of these pastoral solitudes, there was here a depth and a brightness that filled him with wonder, combined with