ALEXANDER WILSON. 23 



in abstraction or reverie, and delighted in what may 

 be termed day dreams. So great was the pleasure 

 enjoyed in such fancies, that he would frequently 

 retire to bed during the day, with the hope of 

 following up these impressions. His solitary musing 

 rambles were still continued, and often extended to 

 the residence of his father and family, or to the 

 banks of his favourite Calder ; and as the game- 

 laws were then not so strict as at present, a gun 

 was his frequent companion, and poaching some- 

 times the result. To such expeditions may be 

 assigned his first lessons at discriminating various 

 sorts of game, both here and on the American 

 Continent. 



Wilson, at this period, while on a visit to his 

 brother-in-law, William Duncan, at Queensferry 

 on the Forth, agreed to accompany him on a busi- 

 ness excursion to some of the eastern districts of 

 Scotland, the greatest distance he had travelled from 

 the place of his birth. It was during this journey 

 that the new scenes and variety of incident met 

 with, induced him to form the notion of becoming 

 a travelling-merchant or packman, a change which 

 he esteemed preferable to the irksome drudgery of 

 the loom ; and being assisted by kind friends, he 

 was, as he informs us, " fitted up with a proper 

 budget, consisting of silks, muslins, prints, &c. &c. 

 for the accommodation of those good people who 

 may prove his customers," and with a light heart 

 he commenced his new and more varied career, 

 sanguine of success, 



