The Jacobite Relics of Scotland, Volume I

by James Hogg, Murray Pittock (Editor)

James Hogg's Jacobite Relics, originally commissioned by the Highland Society of London in 1817, is an important addition to The Collected Works of James Hogg. It created a canon for the Jacobite song which had an enormous influence on subsequent collections, and was of great importance in defining the relationship between the Scottish song tradition and its Romantic editors and collectors. From the first publication of the Relics in 1819, there has been speculation about how many of them were authored or at least substantially altered by Hogg. Murray Pittock has conducted extensive research in this area since 1987, and has identified several previously unknown sources from which Hogg would have worked as he developed his collection.

The introduction to Volume I addresses the crucial issue of Hogg's relationship to the Jacobite song tradition, and the place of the Relics within Hogg's career and personal context, facilitating further interpretations of Hogg's range of creative strategies. It provides considerable annotation accurately to communicate the context of the songs and Hogg's relationship to the textuality of Jacobite culture. Volume I also includes a bibliography and glossary.

584 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1819

About the author

James Hogg was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in 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, and the character name he was given in the widely read series 'Noctes Ambrosianae', published in Blackwood's Magazine. He is best known today for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. His other works include the long poem The Queen's Wake, his collection of songs Jacobite Reliques, and the novels The Three Perils of Man, The Three Perils of Woman, and The Brownie of Bodsbeck.