Excerpt from The Ettrick Shepherd, Vol. 9: A Biography Hogg wrote an autobiography that is true to fact in the main but which contains innumerable errors due to a playful but wilful exaggeration, and to lapses of memory. SO far as the present writer knows, no biographer has taken the trouble to investigate the facts contained in the Autobiography, much less to note the unsigned and original draft, that differed so much in detail, and that appeared in the Old Scots' Magazine. It has been the present writer's pleasant task to search out many details that put the story of Hogg's life, in parts, in a new light. In perusing these three biographies of Hogg the reader is struck with the fact that none of them deals with him as a literary artist. The fact that he wrote, and what he wrote, seems to be important, but the quality and character of what he wrote is quite neglected. In the following pages some notice of this aspect of his life is taken. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.