Wilson's early years in Scotland 43 



Renfrewshire," there are two Alexander Wilsons 

 entered as subscribers : "Alex. Wilson, weaver, 

 Long-street, Paisley," and "Alex. Wilson, weaver, 

 New-Town, Ralston, Nielston." Whether these 

 were father and son, or which was which, is difficult 

 to say ; or more likely still one of them was another 

 Alex. Wilson of Glanderston in Nielston, whose 

 sister, according to Semple's History, married a 

 local worthy and landed proprietor named Robert 

 Sheddon, somewhere about the year 1755. How- 

 ever this may be, the elder Wilson, after an unsuc- 

 cessful attempt at farming, returned to Paisley in 

 1790 and lived in a house in the Seedhills known 

 as the "Douket." Here he remained until his death 

 three years after that of his son, on the 5th of June, 

 1816. 



There is no reason to suppose that the childhood 

 of Wilson was anything but a happy one. His home 

 faced on the river Cart which was the favorite lo- 

 cality for the youngsters of the town to bathe, and 

 the somewhat barren fields were not too bare to 

 furnish a pleasure ground for an imaginative child, 

 for even then he tells us, 



"When gath'ring clouds the vaults of heaven o'erspread, 

 And opening streams of livid lightning flew ; 

 From some o'erhanging cliff, the uproar dread, 

 Transfix'd in rapt'rous wonder, he would view 

 When the red torrent, big and bigger grew." 



Of his school days we know little. From all the 

 information that we can gather there was but one 

 regular school in Paisley at this date, the "Latin- 

 Grammar-school" which Wilson attended. As late 

 as 1782 Semple mentions but two other schools. 



