Hogg, James

SL V 14 contains holograph letters, 1800-1821 from James Hogg to William Laidlaw and Sir Walter Scott. SL V 15 is a notebook, c1813, containing a manuscript of a collection of Scots ballads entitled The Jacobite and National Songs of Scotland , mostly written by James Scott, with notes made by Sir Walter Scott.

James Hogg was born in Ettrick, Selkshire, Scotland in November 1770. Having received little formal education, Hogg taught himself to read and write in his late teens. He continued to work as a labourer and shepherd for twenty five years. Between 1794-1810 Hogg wrote songs which appeared in magazines and in two small collections. Determined to make a career as a professional writer, Hogg, aged 40, moved to Edinburgh in 1810. In Edinburgh, Hogg established a weekly paper entitled, The Spy but only managed to keep it going for a year and in 1813 he decided to return to writing poetry again. He died in 1835.

Access to the items in the collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the controlled environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Uncatalogued material may not be seen. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

University of London Library, The Sterling library: a catalogue of the printed books and literary manuscripts collected by Sir Louis Sterling and presented by him to the University of London , Cambridge, (1954).

The National Library of Scotland holds letters to Oliver and Boyd, 1818-1834 (Ref: NRA(S)0264 Dep 312), letters to Blackwood's Publishers and manuscripts of poems, 1811-1835 (Ref: MSS 4001-4854 passim), correspondence and papers, 1800-1833, and miscellaneous poems and letters (Ref: MSS 9634, 10279, 20440); the British Library contains letters to George Thomson (Ref: Add MSS 35264-5); the Beinecke Library, Yale University, holds correspondence and papers; Homel Library, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, has letter (Ref: NRA(S) 0118 (P7)).

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