COUES: "Behind tJic Veiir 197 



Her taste so exalted — her humour so sporting 

 Her heart full of tenderness virtue and glee 

 Each evening sweet Bow'r round thy cliffs will I hover 



In hopes her fair form thro' the foliage to see 

 Heavn or>ly can witness how dearly I love her 

 How sweet Beechen Bower thy shades are to me. 



[Signed] A. Wilson. 



Jan. IS"^ 1804. 



Let us trust that " Anna " came, aud showed herself a woman 

 wise and good enough to tell him that she knew he was a great man, 

 and that his pictures were beautiful, and that the world would know 

 it too some day. In those times Wilson probably needed something 

 of this sort as much as he feared the dangers of riches; and it 

 might have helped him more than anything else could have done, 

 except a little money. 



In one of his books, the late Dr. Turnbull alludes to the portfolio 

 of Wilson's, then in his possession, and reproduces from it a sketch 

 of a Hei'on's head with Wilson's autograph. If not the portfolio 

 itself, its contents at any rate are now in Mr. Wade's posses- 

 sion. This series of Wilson's drawings includes, I should judge, 

 "the biggest half" of the originals of his famous plates. In han- 

 dling these drawings and paintings, of all degrees of completeness, 

 one of sensibility conld but experience some emotions he would not 

 care to formulate in words. But something may properly, perhaps 

 profitably, be said here. I was fairly oppressed with the sad story 

 of poverty, even destitution, which these wan sheets of coarse paper 

 told. Some of Wilson's originals are on the fly-leaves of old books, 

 showing binder's marks along one edge. One of the best portraits, 

 that of the Duck Hawk, is on two pieces of paper pasted together. 

 The man was actually too poor to buy paper ! Some of the drawings 

 are on both sides of the paper ; some show a full picture on one side, 

 and pai't of a mutilated finished painting on the other. Some show 

 the rubbing process by which they were transferred. They are in 

 all stages of completeness, from the rudest outlines to the finished 

 painting. Some are left half-dressed, with pencilled instructions to 

 the engraver to fill in red ochre here, and yellow ochre tliere, etc. 

 Wilson sometimes finished the bills and feet in full detail and col- 

 oring, leaving much of the plumage blank. One thing is shown 

 very clearly by this set of pictures, and the public does not know it 

 yet. This is the decided superiority of the originals in comparison 



