SKETCH OF SIR DANIEL WILSON. 257 



tury, still visible on the rocks, was a source of never-failing won- 

 der to us. The ruins of Both well and Crichton Castles, of Roman 

 camps, and historical scenes already possessed an interest for us. 

 A good deal of antiquarianism mingled with our natural history, 

 and two of us were already embryo numismatists, and knew a 

 Roman denarius from a bodle as well as Edie Ochiltree himself." 



Daniel's education was commenced in the famous High School 

 of Edinburgh, whence he passed to the still more famous univer- 

 sity of that city. At this period the special turn and capacity for 

 art which he always retained was so strong as to induce him, on 

 his graduation, to decide to make the pursuit of it his profession. 

 With this object he removed to London, where a notable group 

 of great painters was then rising into fame. At their head was 

 Turner, with whom he soon became intimate. He describes him 

 as an " old, slovenly, slouching little man, as remote from the 

 ideal of artist or poet as could well be conceived ; but the flash of 

 his keen gray eyes redeemed the face from the otherwise vulgar 

 and sensual look." The door of the strange house in Queen Anne 

 Street was freely open to the young student ; and he found in his 

 repeated visits that the great painter could be kind and genial to 

 an enthusiastic youth, while grimly ridiculing his enthusiasm. 



In 1840 Wilson brought to London as his bride a Scottish lady. 

 They had three daughters, the first of whom was born in London. 

 She died ten months later, when with her mother visiting the old 

 home. This affliction changed the course of the parents' life. 

 They decided to return to Edinburgh, and Wilson, giving up art 

 as a life-pursuit, devoted himself to literature. His diligent pen 

 and varied talents soon found ample occupation. " He was," we 

 are told by one of his biographers, " a constant contributor to The 

 Scotsman, and wrote for Tait's Magazine, Chambers's Miscellany, 

 the British Quarterly, North British Review, Edinburgh Philo- 

 sophical Journal, Gentleman's Magazine, and other periodicals. 

 He contributed articles to the edition of the Encyclopaedia Bri- 

 tannica then in progress, as well as to subsequent issues, and he 

 edited for a time the Proceedings of the Scottish Antiquary. He 

 also prepared for friendly publishers some historical books, which, 

 though creditably written, he afterward refused to include in the 

 list of his acknowledged writings, counting them mere compila- 

 tions and craftsman's work, as distinguished from the produc- 

 tions of original research, to which he was soon to owe his fame. 



The first of these was published in 1848, under the title of 

 Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time, by Daniel Wilson, 

 Acting Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. It 

 filled two quarto volumes, illustrated throughout with fine en- 

 gravings of the buildings and localities described, all from his 

 own drawings. The pictures are enlivened by characteristic 



VOL. XLIV. 21 



