Shepherds, be it remembered, were always a poetical tribe. The Ballads of Mr. Hogg are in the true style of that sort of writing. They are simple and natural, and contain many spirited and picturesque ideas and descriptions, and, occasionally, strokes of genuine humour. The songs also are good.' The reviews of the 1821 volume were mostly much less favourable than those of the first edition, Hogg's expanded memoir with its disconcertingly frank account of his experience of literary Edinburgh coming in for particular adverse criticism from the Scottish periodicals.