GLASGOW COLLEGE. 21 



of you.'' Then, as you advanced in your academic career, came 

 Jamie Smith, Wee Willy Cumin', Alick Blair, sounding out, ' Ohon 

 a ree ! ohon a ree /' Your grandmother ready dressed at her wheel 

 in the parlor, your aunts at their work, Blair announced in the din- 

 ing-room, and me the only one who would join him. On entering, 

 I rind him groping in the press and hoicking out a book, part of 

 which was read with his peculiar burr."* 



Many a charmed spot is mentioned in this diary. The name of 

 Hallside, Professor Jardine's residence, is specially associated with 

 reminiscences of pleasant society and light-hearted diversions, which 

 show how well philosophy and geniality agreed together under that 

 hospitable roof. The following is a specimen : — 



" 23d March, — Ran for a wager three times round the garden; 

 accomplished it in nine minutes and a quarter. Won 5s." 



Hallside is a modern house, somewhat in the style of a Scottish 

 manse. The grounds were about seventy acres in extent, gradually 

 sloping to the east, and bounded in part by the river Calder. On 

 the opposite banks stood the pretty cottage ornee of Mrs. Jardine's 

 brother, Mr. Lyndsay, whose wife was the niece of the celebrated 

 Dr. Reid, the metaphysician. Their only child was a beautiful 

 girl, whom Professor Wilson took in after years as model for the 

 heroine of his Trials of Margaret Lyndsay. The charms of this 

 agreeable neighborhood were heightened by the beauty of the situa- 

 tion. Calder Bank, Mr. Lyndsay's residence, commanded a fine 

 view of Bothwell woods and castle, the gray towers of which con- 

 trasted well with the dark spreading trees that faced the ruins of 

 Blantyre Priory, beautifying the banks of the Clyde. 



Often did John Wilson and his companions from college visit 

 those enticing scenes, and pleasant it is to find, after a lapse of sixty- 

 one years, a memory fresh and distinct of these happy days. The 

 "Margaret Lyndsay" of that time, now Mrs. Palmes, says: — "My 

 knowledge of your talented father was almost confined to the period 

 of childhood ; but I well remember my own delight when the fair- 

 haired, animated boy was my companion by the Calder, in races on 



* The writer of this letter, Miss Catharine Sym, long known in Glasgow as one of its most 

 original characters, was the only unmarried daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sym. She was perhaps one 

 of the wittiest women of her time, in that dry way so peculiar to Scottish nature. Before she 

 died, not many years ago, at eighty years of age, she returned to her nephew a correspondence, 

 and many juvenile manuscripts that had passed between them in the days of liis boyhood. Not 

 long before his death he destroyed those papers, which, had they been extant, might have supplied 

 some interesting materials for this part of the Memoir, 



