EARLY YEARS. 



which was the day when first he saw the light ; and as it 

 was Paisley, in the month of November, the likelihood is 

 that there Avas not much light to be seen. He was born 

 in the year 1795. 



His father, a manufacturer in extensive business, and a 

 banker, died before his youngest boy could be conscious of 

 the loss ; and, with her numerous sons and daughters, Mrs 

 Wilson removed to Edinburgh, where so many Scottish 

 families, in their day of desolation, seek a second home. 

 Here, with comfortable resources, and with God's blessing 

 on her kind and sensible administration, she was per- 

 mitted to see her children grow up ; and, what seldom 

 happens in our country, twice over did a son marry with- 

 out migrating from under the maternal roof. Her house, 

 No. 53 Queen Street, was the residence of her youngest 

 son till the time of his own marriage. 



Mrs Wilson's maiden name was Margaret Sym. Her 

 brother Robert, the " Timothy Tickler " of the " Noctes," 

 is still an outstanding personage in every Edinburgh 

 memory. At an early hour of any morning his meagre 

 lofty figure, like a peripatetic palm, after eighty summers 

 still retaining its six feet four of altitude, and surmounted 

 by a splendid silvery crown, might be descried by any Qne 

 who was soon enough astir, on its journey from the old 

 town to Trinity, or returning from its quotidian plunge 

 in the sparkling sea. But although advancing years at 



