Though the " &trick Shepherd" of Blackwood's Nodes was a
far more interesting and poetical personage than the real James Hogg, yet James had a fine vein of poetry in him too, especially in the department of song. Be had not, like Burns, the art of •being humorous without vulgarity— his attempts of this kind have the coarseness of his education and habits. But when his imagination or his feelings were awakened, he could take lofty flights into the regions of fancy, and vie even with Burns in delicacy and tenderness of sentiment, and in felicity of expression. Mr. Wilson, with great judgment, has added to his vocal entertainment a selection of "Songs by the Ettrick Shepherd," which he gave for the first time in the rooms at Store Street last Monday evening, to the great delight of the audience; and he will evidently render some of Hogg's best songs as popu- lar on this side of the Tweed as those of Barns.
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