21 8 BUSINESS, RECKEATION ; SUNSHINE, SHADOW. 



who certainly bears about her none of the wild eccentrici- 

 ties of Noma of the Fitful Head ? Not much essentially, 

 though I doubt not, it was the narration of the Grant 

 tragedy that furnished Sir Walter Scott with both the 

 designation of Noma, and the most awful event in her 

 history. Mrs Grierson's husband (a Shetland laird) was 

 proprietor of Fitful Head, the most south-western por- 

 tion of Shetland, and she herself is at present Mrs Grierson, 

 senior, of the same. I doubt not that when Scott in the 

 course of his Shetland voyage passed by the magnificent 

 promontory so named, and inquired its owners or occupiers, 

 he might learn the fate of Mrs Grierson's parents, and 

 would afterwards entwine that sad portion of her own or 

 sister's history in his fictitious picture of Shetland scenery 

 and manners." 



As Dr George Wilson has remarked in his beautiful 

 tribute to the memory of Mr Wilson,* "His mind was 

 essentially a poetical one, and he strongly sympathised 

 with that comparatively small class of scientific men who 

 find food for the imagination as well as for the intellect 

 in their studies, and employ both in prosecuting them." 

 In early life especially, he read with avidity works of 

 imagination, and was familiar with the masterpieces of 

 British genius. Byron became a great favourite, and he 



* Iu the Edinburgh Ne& Philosophical Journal, July 1856. 



