ALEXANDER WILSON. 21 



The sallies of his youthful wit and ridicule 

 among his companions, soon acquired for him su- 

 periority; while such a power shortly afterwards 

 turned -out a most dangerous faculty in hands such 

 as his. 



During his residence at Lochwinnoch he enjoyed 

 the reputation of a sober good workman : still, the 

 thought that he had been disappointed in his am- 

 bition to fill a higher sphere, his utter distaste 

 for the trade to which he had been destined, 

 together with the feelings which his slight literary 

 education had awakened, greatly interfered with 

 the regular performance of his tedious tasks. Added 

 to these, the proximity of the romantic banks of 

 the river Calder,* and the recesses of the woods 

 of Castle-Semple, often allured him from the loom, 

 and confirmed that pensiveness and diffidence in 

 his temperament which never afterwards left him. 

 It was during these rambles that he brooded over 

 what he imagined his hard fate, and laid many airy 

 schemes for his future course in the world ; it was 

 here also he first was affected with the admiration 

 of Nature :- her green woodlands and clear run- 

 ning streams, her brawling brooks, with the fleecy 

 clouds of a Scottish sky as seen in this beautiful 

 district he afterwards happily contrasted, in his 

 poetical effusions, with the glowing lights and ma- 



* The banks of the Calder furnished the incidents for the 

 tale of " The Disconsolate Wren," which is marked with great 

 feeling and simplicity, and evinces accurate observation of the 

 nature and manners of the birds introduced. 



