Old Photograph Ettrick Scotland

Old photograph of people and cottages in Ettrick, Borders, Scotland. The area around Ettrick has several literary connections. The poet James Hogg, born 1770, died 1835, known as the Ettrick Shepherd, was born at a farm in Ettrick, by Ettrick Hall, and is buried in Ettrick Kirkyard cemetery. James was a a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self educated through reading. He was a friend of many of the great writers of his day, including Sir Walter Scott, of whom he later wrote an unauthorized biography. He became widely known as the Ettrick Shepherd, a nickname under which some of his works were published. His father, Robert Hogg, born 1729, died 1820, was a tenant farmer while his mother, Margaret Hogg, née Laidlaw, born 1730, died 1813, was noted for collecting native Scottish ballads. Margaret Laidlaw's father, known as Will o' Phawhope, was said to have been the last man in the Border country to speak with the fairies. James was the second eldest of four brothers, his siblings being William, David, and Robert. Robert and David later emigrated to the USA, while James and William remained in Scotland for their entire lives. Laverlaw, the fictional estate of Sandy Arbuthnot, Lord Clanroyden, in the works of John Buchan, is set near Ettrick. Robert Louis Stevenson's hero David Balfour in Kidnapped hails from the fictitious village of Essendean in Ettrick Forest. It is also mentioned in the traditional Scottish folk song, Ettrick Lady, recorded by The Corries. The Ettrick valley was used as the setting for the story No Advantages, from Alice Munro's short story collection, The View from Castle Rock. Ettrick was also home to one of Scotland's most enduring pastor theologians, Thomas Boston, born 1676, died 1732, minister from 1707. His seminal work, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, was widely read throughout Scotland by people of all classes and is still in print today.




All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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