In the hope of procuring a situation as an
overseer of some extensive sheep-farm, he made several excursions into
the northern Highlands, waiting upon many influential persons, to whom
he had letters of recommendation. These journeys were eminently
advantageous in acquainting him with many interesting and celebrated
scenes, and in storing his mind with images drawn from the sublimities
and wild scenery of nature, but were of no account as concerned the
object for which they were undertaken. Without procuring employment, he
returned, with very reduced finances, to Ettrick Forest. He published a
rough narrative of his travels in the _Scots Magazine_; and wrote two
essays on the rearing and management of sheep, for the Highland Society,
which were acknowledged with premiums. Frustrated in an attempt to
procure a farm from the Duke of Buccleuch, and declining an offer of
Scott to appoint him to the charge of his small sheep-farm at Ashestiel,
he was led to indulge in the scheme of settling in the island of Harris.
It was in the expectation of being speedily separated from the loved
haunts of his youth, that he composed his "Farewell to Ettrick,"
afterwards published in the "Mountain Bard," one of the most touching
and pathetic ballads in the language. The Harris enterprise was not
carried out; and the poet, "to avoid a great many disagreeable questions
and explanations," went for several months to England.
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