wiIvSon's e:ari.y ye:ars in scoixand 45 



other at cock-throwing, at one bodle for each 

 shot/'* 



It was under such conditions as these that Scot- 

 land's youth was taught, and about the most that 

 Wilson acquired was the ability to satisfy his nat- 

 ural love for reading, and to write the clear, legible 

 hand that may still be seen on the indenture of his 

 apprenticeship in the Paisley Museum. In Sir Wil- 

 liam Jardine's ''Memoirs of Wilson" we are told 

 that he was also put under a "Mr. Barlass, then a 

 student of divinity," to study theology, but if this 

 was the case it probably lasted for but a short time, 

 for in his thirteenth year he was apprenticed to Wil- 

 liam Duncan, the husband of his sister Mary, to 

 learn the trade of a weaver. There is good reason 

 to credit the report that at an earlier date than this 

 he had served for a short while as a "herd" on a 

 farm, not far distant from Paisley, known as Ba- 

 kerfield. By the terms of his indenture he was to 

 be taught the art of weaving and should receive his 

 "Bed, Board, Washing and Clothing, suitable to his 

 station." The time of this paper is July 31, 1779, 

 and under date of August, 1782, Wilson himself 

 has written on the paper the earliest of his attempts 

 at verse which we have, 



"Be't kent to a' the world in rhime, 

 That wi' right mickle wark and toil, 

 For three long years I've ser't my time, 

 Whiles feasted wi' the hazel oil." 



The "three long years" were ended, but bread must 

 be earned, and in spite of the irksomeness of it to 

 the restless and somewhat fragile boy, he went on 



* "Social I^ife in Scotland in the ijighteenth Century," II, p, 164. 



