46 Ai^EXANDER wiIvSOn: poet-naturalist 



with his weaving, now at Paisley, now Lochwin- 

 noch, living sometimes with his father and some- 

 times with his sister's husband in Queensferry. 

 However much he hated the occupation of a weaver 

 — a hate which he gave expression to from time to 

 time throughout his whole life in his poems and let- 

 ters — yet he found solace in long country walks, at 

 the tavern, and in reading his favorite books. In 

 the depths of the Castle-Semple forest he found a 

 retreat where he could enjoy the poems of Young, 

 Goldsmith, Pope and Shakespeare, or Ramsay, Fer- 

 gusson, and Burns, who was then just emerging 

 into fame. 



At last he wearied of his dull life and started with 

 his former master, William Duncan, from Queens- 

 ferry to travel through the eastern portions of Scot- 

 land as a peddler. In April, 1788, he writes to his 

 old friend David Brodie of his travels; he has met 

 and spent a glorious night with three brother poets, 

 James Kennedy, Ebenezer Picken, and "the immor- 

 tal author" of that well-known ballad, "The Battle 

 of Bannockburn," "From the Ocean." etc."* The 

 enthusiasm which Wilson felt was intense. "Blessed 

 meeting," he writes, "never did I spend such a night 

 in all my life. Oh, I was all fire! oh, I was all 

 spirit. * * * J have now a more deep regard 

 for the muse than ever." With a nature like his, 

 little was needed to raise him to the heights of ex- 

 altation or cast him to the "slough of despond." 



Through the years of 1789-90 Wilson kept up 

 his wanderings, a sort of poetical-peddling tour, 



• Was this Burns? Burns gives a much later date to the compo- 

 sition of his "Bannockburn." 



