In February 1810 Hogg exchanged life as a shepherd in the south of Scotland for a literary career in Edinburgh.
The words 'Printed for the Editor' on the title-page suggest that the publication involved a degree of authorial subsidy.
[2] Most of these were revised for the new publication, with a tendency to tone down their rural localism, colloquialism, and earthiness to make them more acceptable for polite readers and performers: 'The Forest Minstrel is meant for the young lady at her piano'.
That in The Scots Magazine valued 'the plainness, and even rudeness of the language' combined with 'loftiness' of thought, but had reservations about the compatibility of Hogg's old simple style with a new 'taste for rich and artificial ornament'.
[6] The Critical Review had essentially the same complaint, but was more socially aggressive and found Hogg's originality forced and tasteless.