72 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



Stirling. I shall be there on Saturday, the 9th, by five o'clock, 

 and whoever arrives first can order dinner for the others. You 

 can let me know of the inn we had best go to. It would be a 

 foolish waste of time for you and Dunlop to come to Edinburgh, 

 except in the case of going to St. Andrews, which I strongly give 

 my vote against. " I am thine ever, 



" John Wilson." 



There are no more letters dated from Oxford or elsewhere for 

 some months. The next to which we come is, however, of deep 

 interest. It is from Blair to Findlay, of date March 19, 1807, 

 giving an account of Wilson's examination for his Bachelor 

 Degree : — 



" My dear Robert : — About a fortnight ago, Wilson wrote to 

 me to desire I would go to him immediately, and he would tell me 

 what had happened with regard to her. I went, of course, and 

 found him very much distressed, with a degree of anxiety that I 

 could not have conceived, about his examination, which was to 

 come on in a few days. If his mind had had its former strength, 

 this, he said, would not have affected him, but after what had hap- 

 pened to him, he had no strength left. The terror of this exam- 

 ination preyed so on his mind, that for ten days before I saw him 

 he had scarcely slept any night more than an hour or two. I wish 

 to know from you what it is that has happened in Scotland, that 

 has shaken his mind to this degree, for he has not spoken a word 

 on the subject to me ; and I could not begin to speak of it, after 

 having seen, as I have seen, the state into which it threw him, to 

 give Avay to his feelings. I could not begin a conversation that was 

 to terminate in such bursts of anguish as I have witnessed. 



" Write to me as soon as you can to tell me this, though you 

 should have time to write nothing more. When he walked from this 

 college to the schools, he went along in full conviction that he 

 was to be plucked. His examination was, as might naturally be 

 expected, the most illustrious within the memory of man. Sotheby 

 was there, and declared it was worth coming from London to hear 

 him translate a Greek chorus. I was exceedingly pleased with 

 Shepherd, his examiner, who seemed highly delighted at having 

 got hold of him, and took much pains to show him off Indeed he 

 is given to show people off; and those who know little are said 



