MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



CHAPTER I. 



BOYHOOD. 



The epithets " pretty" and " pleasant," more than once applied 

 in the writings of Professor "Wilson to the place of his birth, are 

 not those which the passing traveller would now think most appro- 

 priate to the town of Paisley, where the smoke and steam of count- 

 less factories incessantly roll over the inky waters of once fair-flow- 

 ing Cart. And yet it was not the mere partiality of filial affection 

 that made it seem both pretty and pleasant to his eyes, for such it 

 truly was in the days when he first knew it. And has it not still 

 its pleasant walks and pretty gardens, and its grand old Abbey ? 

 Do not green Gleniffer and Stanley Shaw still flourish near enough 

 to be enjoyed? Is it not pleasant still to look beyond fields and 

 trees to the sacred spot called Elderslie ? And though gauze and 

 cotton be even more than ever the chief concern of Paisley, has it 

 not still its poets and musicians and men of taste, to make it a 

 " pleasant" habitation, in spite of smoke and steam and sluggish 

 waters ? No native of that respectable old town need be ashamed 

 of his birthplace, and justly is it proud of him who stands foremost 

 anion sr all its sons. 



A somewhat gloomy-looking house in a dingy court at the head 

 of the High Street, now used as a lecture-hall for the artisans of 

 Paisley, is preserved as classic ground, under the name of " "Wil- 

 son's Hall." In that house the poet was born, on the 18th of May, 

 1785. At no great distance stands the family residence, to which, 

 after the birth of John, their first son but fourth child, Mr. and 

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