220 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. IX. 



breath whilst I get a dip of ink] ; it was this that made 

 men patriots. I could not fight stoutly for the marshes I 

 saw about Cambridge, but I would fight * a bit ' for a coun- 

 tryside like this. But what have I to do with fighting? 

 Nothink ! Therefore let me go on to say that we visited 

 a colony of those lively pretty birds, the jackdaws ; and 

 that I saw a bird I never saw before, namely, a jay, a 

 beautiful creature, prettily parti-coloured, and active on the 

 wing. We got but a glimpse of him, for he was not sure 

 of us." 



In the spring of 1847, a poem, addressed by him "To 

 the Stethoscope," attracted much notice. It appeared in 

 " Blackwood's Magazine," and the Edinburgh doctors, who 

 eagerly sought to discover the author, were not a little sur- 

 prised to find him one of themselves. In the few words of 

 preface to the lines, he says, "The stethoscope has long 

 ceased to excite merely professional interest. There are 

 few families to whom it has not proved an object of horror 

 and the saddest remembrance, as connected with the loss of 

 dear relatives, though it is but a revealer, not a producer of 

 physical suffering." 



Having occasion to send to Lord Jeffrey, with whom a 

 warm friendship was springing up, a volume for perusal, a 

 copy of the " Stethoscope " accompanied it, which was ac- 

 knowledged by him thus : " I have not yet had time to read 

 much except the poem with which I was much gratified, 

 and (if you will allow me to say so) also a little surprised. 

 From the nature of your pursuits, I certainly was not pre- 

 pared to find this among your gifts. But it is one of which 

 you have reason to be proud, the specimen you have 

 sent me being full of beauty and deep feeling, as well as 

 having a great command both of versification and poetical 



