Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/969

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
HOG
915
HOH

as a shepherd, Hogg entered at Whitsunday, 1790, into the service of Mr. Laidlaw of Blackhouse in Yarrow, father of William Laidlaw, the confidential friend of Sir Walter Scott. There he remained for nine years, had access to a considerable collection of books, and received every facility for the cultivation of his poetical genius. It was through William Laidlaw, too, that he was introduced to Sir Walter Scott, who was greatly interested in Hogg's character and history, and was ever after one of his best friends. It is difficult to say at what period the Shepherd's poetical genius first began to display itself. His first printed piece, entitled "The Mistakes of a Night," appeared in the Scots Magazine for October, 1794. In 1801 he published hastily a small collection of his verses, which he says was full of errors and imperfections, and he afterwards regretted that he had allowed these crude productions to see the light. In 1807 a volume of his songs and poems, of greatly superior merit, appeared under the title of the "Mountain Bard," the profits of which, and of a treatise on the diseases of sheep, amounted to £300. He had previously lost all his savings as a shepherd in a sheep-farming speculation in the island of Harris; but undeterred by this failure he now took a farm in Dumfriesshire, which proved a ruinous concern, and in three years left him penniless. Failing to obtain employment as a shepherd, he took his plaid about his shoulders, he says, and set off for Edinburgh in February, 1810, determined, since no better could be, to push his fortune as a literary man. His first effort was a collection of songs entitled "The Forest Minstrel." He then tried a weekly periodical called the Spy. In spite of all his efforts, however, it would have fared ill with him but for the unwearied kindness and generosity of Mr. John Grieve, a worthy hat manufacturer in Edinburgh, who supported Hogg through all his difficulties and privations, and suffered him to want for nothing. At length in 1813 the publication of "The Queen's Wake," the best of his works, established the Shepherd's reputation as a poet on a permanent and lofty basis. It was followed by "Madoc of the Moor," a poem in the Spenserian stanza; "The Pilgrims of the Sun," in blank verse; "The Poetic Mirror," a collection of pieces in imitation of some living poets; "Queen Hynde," and other poetical pieces; and also by the "Winter Evening Tales;" "The Brownie of Bodsbeck;" "The Confessions of a Justified Sinner;" "The Three Perils of Man," and other novels of very unequal merit. The duke of Buccleuch, in compliance with the deathbed request of his duchess in 1814, that he would be kind to the Ettrick bard, gave him a liferent of a small moorland farm at Altrive in Yarrow, where he built a cottage and went to reside in 1817. Three years later he made an advantageous marriage, and desirous once more to try his fortune as a sheep farmer, he took the large farm of Mount Benger from the duke of Buccleuch; but by the end of his nine years' lease the poet was once more a ruined man. The remainder of his life, with the exception of a visit to London in 1831, and an occasional residence of a few weeks in Edinburgh, was spent at Altrive in the enjoyment of domestic happiness and social hospitality, presiding at Border festivities, and spending much of his time in fishing and field sports, of which he was passionately fond. The inimitable "Noctes Ambrosianæ" kept his name constantly before the public; and though this strange miscellany of poetry, eloquence, wit, fun, and coarse humour, raised a prejudice against the Shepherd in some quarters by frequently representing him in grotesque and ludicrous aspects, yet on the other hand it conveyed an impression much too exalted of his genius, sagacity, and colloquial powers. He died, 21st November, 1835, leaving a widow and five children, and was buried in the churchyard of Ettrick. The works of the Ettrick Shepherd have been collected since his death, and are comprised in eleven volumes. His writings both in prose and verse are very unequal, but they contain not a little which the world will not willingly let die. In grasp of intellect and depth of passion, Hogg was greatly inferior to Burns; but on the other hand his genius was more discursive, playful, and fanciful. His masterpiece, "The Queen's Wake," is admirable, both in design and execution, and the tales and legends which it contains are worthy of a place among the lyric poetry of Scotland's greatest masters of song. "Kilmeny" is one of the finest fairy tales that ever was conceived or penned, and its scenes of supernatural splendour, purity, and happiness, are altogether inimitable. Some of the Shepherd's songs and minor poems, such as "The Skylark;" "When the kye come hame;" "Donald Macdonald;" "The Evening Star," &c., will last as long as the language. The best of his prose works is "The Shepherd's Calendar," which contains a genuine and affecting representation of pastoral life. But Hogg had no skill either in the delineation of character or in arranging the incidents of a story, and his tales are often disfigured by coarseness and exaggeration. The Shepherd's natural character was frank, kind, simple, and enthusiastic as that of a child, generous and hospitable far beyond his means; but he was vain, thoughtless, rash, and improvident, and consequently seldom free from pecuniary difficulties. "Requiescat in pace," says Lockhart; "there never will be such another Ettrick Shepherd again."—J. T.

* HOHE, Friedrich, a celebrated German lithographer, born at Baireuth in 1802, was taught painting by his father, and completed his studies in the art academy of Munich. He at first practised miniature and portrait painting, and drew many of the botanical and natural-history plates for Von Martins' great works on the Brazils, but eventually devoted himself exclusively to lithography. Having acquired a high position by his drawings after Peter Hess, Heideck, and others, and extended his views of art by a visit to Italy, he was in 1828 engaged to superintend the publication of the Leuchtenburg Gallery, and subsequently was for several years occupied on plates after the old masters from pictures in the galleries of Munich and Düsseldorf—works in which his taste, feeling, and technical skill were admirably displayed. Almost equally important with these was the work begun by him on his own account in 1837, "Select Pictures by the Living Painters of Munich."—J. T—e.

HOHENHAUSEN, Elisabeth Philippine Amalie, Baroness von, whose maiden name was Von Ochs, a German poetess and novelist, was born near Cassel on the 4th November, 1789, and died at Frankfort-on-the-Oder on the 2nd December, 1857. Among her poetical works we must mention her excellent translation of Lord Byron's Corsair.—K. E.

HOHENLOHE-INGELFINGEN, Friedrich Ludwig, Prince of, and member of an illustrious family that dates its origin as far back as the twelfth century, was born on the 31st of January, 1746. He took an active interest in affairs of state, and played a memorable part in the history of the Prussian army. In the war against the French he had the honour in 1792 of being nominated to the command of a division, and gained great distinction in the engagements of Oppenheim, Pirmasens, and Hornbach, in 1793, as also for his share in the taking of the Weissenburg lines. In 1794 he was victorious at Kaiserslautern, and in the following year was chosen to confer with Seckendorf, the Austrian general, on the continuance of the war with France. By the death of his father in 1796 he attained to the government of Breslau, but remained in Prussia in active service. Wien in 1805 Prussia advanced its army across the Elbe towards Franconia, Prince Friedrich Ludwig commanded a corps; and in the succeeding year, when the king of Prussia, ashamed of his former indecision, announced to the world his unfortunate determination singly to cope with victorious France, he commanded the troops whose advanced guard was beaten at Saalfeld, and which at length were obliged to succumb on the 14th October at Jena. During the retreat after that fatal battle he had the command in chief; he led the wrecks of the army which had been collected at Magdeburg towards the Oder; and on the 26th October, that is to say, on the twelfth day after the battle of Jena, he was obliged to capitulate with seventeen thousand men. Having upon this vindicated himself to the king, the prince resigned all his appointments and retired upon parole to his estate in Upper Silesia, where he died on the 15th February, 1818, aged seventy-two years.—T. P.

HOHENZOLLERN, the name of a princely German family, one branch of which occupies the throne of Prussia. The name is derived from the castle of Zollern, or Hohenzollern, in the south of Suabia, near the springs of the Danube, on the southern summit of the Black Forest. The owners of this castle traced their lineage up to a Count Thasilio, who lived in the days of Charlemagne. The most powerful and famous branch of the family, entitled Hohenzollern-Brandenburg, owes its origin to Conrad, younger son of Frederick IV. of Hohenzollern. He attached himself to the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, by whom he was highly esteemed for his ability, valour, and worth; married the heiress of the Vohburg family, who had long been hereditary burggrafs of Nuremberg; and obtained that office some time before 1176. The descendants of this enterprising baron