The Juvenile Forget-Me-Not.

1830

Hogg AY13 JZ2

Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis

At the front of this volume are two designations of provenance. On the left is the bookplate of the Scottish poet, James Hogg (1770-1835). The harp image symbolises the Gaelic tradition of the musical recitation of poetry, and links to the appearance of a harp in Hogg’s epic poem, ‘The Queen’s Wake’ (1813). Although he did not play the harp, it fits with Hogg’s self-styled ‘bardic identity’. The Latin motto – Naturae Donum, meaning ‘Gift of Nature’ – signifies that his talent as a poet was raw, self-taught, and ‘rooted in the culture of his native Ettrick’. The inscription is to James Hogg Junior (b. 1821), Hogg’s first born, from the book’s editor, Mrs Anna Maria Hall (1800-81) with her ‘best respects’.