with the wisdom and lofty idealizings of the one, nor with the characteristic humour and coarseness of the other.” The Three Perils of Woman (1820), and The Three Perils of Man (1822), were followed in 1825 by an epic poem, Queen Hynde, which was unfavourably received. He visited London in 1832, and was much lionized. On his return a public dinner was given to him in Peebles,—Professor Wilson in the chair,—and he acknowledged that he had at last “found fame.” His health, however, was seriously impaired. With his pen in his hand to the last, Hogg in 1834 published a volume of Lay Sermons, and The Domestic Manners and Private Life of Sir Walter Scott, a book which Lockhart regarded as an infringement on his rights. In 1835 appeared three volumes of Tales of the Wars of Montrose. Hogg died on the 21st of November 1835, and was buried in the churchyard of his native parish Ettrick. His fame had seemed to fill the whole district, and was brightest at its close; his presence was associated with all the border sports and festivities; and as a man James Hogg was ever frank, joyous and charitable. It is mainly as a great peasant poet that he lives in literature. Some of his lyrics and minor poems—his “Skylark,” “When the Kye comes Hame,” his verses on the “Comet” and “Evening Star,” and his “Address to Lady Ann Scott”—are exquisite. The Queen’s Wake unites his characteristic excellences—his command of the old romantic ballad style, his graceful fairy mythology and his aerial flights of imagination. In the fairy story of Kilmeny in this work Hogg seems completely transformed; he is absorbed in the ideal and supernatural, and writes under direct and immediate inspiration.
See Hogg’s “Memoir of the Author’s Life, written by himself,” prefixed to the 3rd edition (1821) of The Mountain Bard, also Memorials of James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, edited by his daughter, Mrs M. G. Garden (enlarged edition with preface by Professor Veitch, 1903), and Sir G. B. S. Douglas, James Hogg (1899) in the “Famous Scots” series; also The Poems of James Hogg, selected by William Wallace (1903). John Wilson (“Christopher North”) had a real affection for Hogg, but for some reason or other made no use of the materials placed in his hands for a biography of the poet. The memoir mentioned on the title-page of the Works (1838–1840) never appeared, and the memoir prefixed to the edition of Hogg’s works published by Blackie & Co. (1865) was written by the Rev. Thomas Thompson. See also Wilson’s Noctes Ambrosianae; Mrs Oliphant’s Annals of a Publishing House, vol. i. chap. vii.; Gilfillan’s First Gallery of Literary Portraits; Cunningham’s Biog. and Crit. Hist. of Lit.; and the general index to Blackwood’s Magazine. A collected edition of Hogg’s Tales appeared in 1837 in 6 vols., and a second in 1851; his Poetical Works were published in 1822, 1838–1840 and 1865–1866. For an admirable account of the social entertainments Hogg used to give in Edinburgh, see Memoir of Robert Chambers (1874), by Dr William Chambers, pp. 263-270.
HOGG, THOMAS JEFFERSON (1792–1862), English man of
letters, was born at Norton, Durham, on the 24th of May 1792.
He was educated at Durham grammar school and at University
College, Oxford. Here he became the intimate friend of the
poet Shelley, with whom in 1811 he was expelled from the
university for refusing to disclaim connexion with the authorship
of the pamphlet The Necessity for Atheism. He was then
sent to study law at York, where he remained for six months.
Hogg’s behaviour to Harriet Shelley interrupted his relations
with her husband for some time, but in 1813 the friendship
was renewed in London. In 1817 Hogg was called to the bar,
and became later a revising barrister. In 1844 he inherited
£2000 under Shelley’s will, and in 1855, in accordance with
the wishes of the poet’s family, began to write Shelley’s
biography. The first two volumes of it were published in 1858,
but they proved to be far more an autobiography than a
biography, and Shelley’s representatives refused Hogg further
access to the materials necessary for its completion. Hogg died
on the 27th of August 1862.
HOGMANAY, the name in Scotland and some parts of the
north of England for New Year’s Eve, as also for the cake then
given to the children. On the morning of the 31st of December
the children in small bands go from door to door singing:
“Hogmanay
Trollolay
Gie’s o’ your white bread and nane o’ your grey”;
and begging for small gifts or alms. These usually take the form of an oaten cake. The derivation of the term has been much disputed. Cotgrave (1611) says: “It is the voice of the country folks begging small presents or New Year’s gifts ... an ancient term of rejoicing derived from the Druids, who were wont the first of each January to go into the woods, where, having sacrificed and banquetted together, they gathered mistletoe, esteeming it excellent to make beasts fruitful and most soverayne against all poyson.” And he connects the word, through such Norman French forms as hoguinané, with the old French aguilanneuf, which he explains as au gui-l’an-neuf, “to the mistletoe! the New Year!”—this being (on his interpretation) the Druidical salutation to the coming year as the revellers issued from the woods armed with boughs of mistletoe. But though this explanation may be accepted as containing the truth in referring the word to a French original, Cotgrave’s detailed etymology is now repudiated by scientific philologists, and the identical French aguilanneuf remains, like it, in obscurity.
HOGSHEAD, a cask for holding liquor or other commodities,
such as tobacco, sugar, molasses, &c.; also a liquid measure
of capacity, varying with the contents. As a measure for beer,
cider, &c., it equals 54 gallons. A statute of Richard III. (1483)
fixed the hogshead of wine at 63 wine-gallons, i.e. 52½ imperial
gallons. The etymology of the word has been much discussed.
According to Skeat, the origin is to be found in the name for a
cask or liquid measure appearing in various forms in several
Teutonic languages, in Dutch oxhooft (modern okshoofd), Dan.
oxehoved, O. Swed. oxhufvod, &c. The word should therefore
be “oxhead,” and “hogshead” is a mere corruption. It has
been suggested that the name arose from the branding of such
a measure with the head of an ox (see Notes and Queries, series
iv. 2, 46, note by H. Tiedeman). The New English Dictionary
does not attempt any explanation of the term, and takes
“hogshead” as the original form, from which the forms in other
languages have been corrupted. The earlier Dutch forms
hukeshovet and hoekshoot are nearer to the English form, and,
further, the Dutch for “ox” is os.
HOHENASPERG, an ancient fortress of Germany, in the
kingdom of Württemberg, 10 m. N. of Stuttgart, is situated
on a conical hill, 1100 ft. high, overlooking the town of Asperg.
It was formerly strongly fortified and was long the state prison
of the kingdom of Württemberg. Among the many who have
been interned here may be mentioned the notorious Jew financier,
Joseph Süss-Oppenheimer (1692–1738) and the poet C. F. D.
Schubart (1739–1791). It is now a reformatory. Hohenasperg
originally belonged to the counts of Calw; it next passed to
the counts palatine of Tübingen and from them was acquired
in 1308 by Württemberg. In 1535 the fortifications were
extended and strengthened, and in 1635 the town was taken
by the Imperialists, who occupied it until 1649.
See Schön, Die Staatsgefangenen von Hohenasperg (Stuttgart, 1899); and Biffart, Geschichte der Württembergischen Feste Hohenasperg (Stuttgart, 1858).
HOHENFRIEDBERG, or Hohenfriedeberg, a village of
Silesia, about 6 m. from the small town of Striegau. It gives its name to a battle (also called the battle of Striegau) in the War of the Austrian Succession, fought on the 3rd of June 1745 between the Prussians under Frederick the Great and the Austrians and Saxons commanded by Prince Charles of Lorraine. In May the king, whose army had occupied extended winter quarters in Silesia, had drawn it together into a position about Neisse whence he could manœuvre against the Austrians, whether they invaded Silesia by Troppau or Glatz, or joined their allies (who, under the duke of Weissenfels, were on the upper Elbe), and made their advance on Schweidnitz, Breslau or Liegnitz. On the Austrians concentrating towards the Elbe, Frederick gradually drew his army north-westward along the edge of the mountain country until on the 1st of June it was near Schweidnitz. At that date the Austro-Saxons were advancing (very slowly owing to the poorness of the roads and the dilatoriness of the Saxon artillery train) from Waldenburg
