LIFE AT ELLERAY. 77 



" Travel like a summer sun, 

 Itself all glory, and its path all joy;"* 



but this bright change was of brief duration. The curious •would 

 doubtless desire to know something more of why this " love never 

 found its earthly close," while others will rest satisfied with such 

 conclusions as may be drawn from the following expressions, met 

 with in letters addressed to his dear friend, Robert Findlay : " I 

 feel myself in a great measure an alien in my own family, and all 

 this is the consequence of that my most unfortunate attachment." 

 And once more, in allusion to this subject, he says: "I know 

 enough now to know that my mother would die if this happened." 



The following fragment will terminate this story : — 



" I have made up my mind not to visit Torrance at present, in 

 which case I must not come to Glasgow. This resolution, I hope, 

 is right. It has been made after many an hour of (painful) reflec- 

 tion. This I know, that were I to go, I could not bear to look on 

 my mother's face, a feeling which must not be mine. Enclosed is a 

 letter to Margaret. If you could take it yourself, and see how it is 

 received, it would please me much ; yet there may be people there, 

 in which case that would be useless. 



" Thine till death in joy or sorrow. 



"Bowness, December 22." 



We know not how they parted, but this we may imagine, that 

 "they caught up the whole of love, and uttered it," and bade adieu 

 forever. 



CHAPTER V. 



LIFE AT ELLERAY. 



1807-1811. 



In 1807, John Wilson concluded his University career, the bril- 

 liancy of which, for many years, gave his name a prestige worthy 

 of lono- remembrance within the academic walls of Oxford. He 

 loved the beautiful fields of England, and, Avith all the world before 

 him where to choose a place of rest, he turned his steps from his 



* Miscellaneous Poems, 



