The story of James Hogg is by far the most fascinating of those connected with _Blackwood’s_; and in a later series of articles in that magazine on these first three stars, the writer says: “Hogg was undoubtedly the most remarkable. For his was an untaught and self-educated genius, which shone with rare though fitful lustre in spite of all disadvantages, and surmounted obstacles that were seemingly insuperable.”[62] It is difficult to ascertain his exact relations with the magazine. One thing at least is certain,--he contributed much. Wilson and Lockhart found great joy in “drawing” him, and Hogg was kept wavering between vexation and pride “at occupying so much space in the most popular periodical of the day”.[63] As Saintsbury puts it, he was at once the “inspiration, model, and butt of _Blackwood’s Magazine_”[64]. But indeed the shepherd drawn so cleverly in the Noctes “was not”, his daughter testifies, “the Shepherd of Ettrick, or the man James Hogg”. And in all justice to him, there can be no doubt that he is totally misrepresented therein. [62] _Memorials of James Hogg_, p. 11 [63] J. H. Millar: _A Literary History of Scotland_, p. 530 [64] Saintsbury: _Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860_, p. 37 His poetry is his only claim upon the world. It was the one thing dearest to his own heart, and the one thing for which he claimed or craved distinction or recognition of any kind. The heart warms to this youth with his dreams and aspirations, brain teeming with poems years before he learned to write. As might be expected from a man whose own grandfather had conversed with fairies, in Hogg’s poetry the supernatural is close to the natural world. He is reported once to have said to his friend Sir Walter Scott: “Dear Sir Walter! Ye can never suppose that I belang to your School o’ Chivalry! Ye are the king o’ that school, but I’m the king o’ the Mountain and Fairy School, which is a far higher ane nor yours.”[65] This “sublime egotism” is not displeasing in one whose heart and soul was wrapt up in an earnest belief in and reverence for his art. It is the egotism of a deep nature which scorns to hide its talents in the earth. James Hogg spoke to the heart of Scotland, and was proud and content in so doing. [65] _Memorials of James Hogg_, p. x