230 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



was not right to believe every thing ; and that they would judge for 

 themselves when they saw him. " Quite right, lads ; quite right ; 

 but I assure you I know something of the fellow myself, and I think 

 he is a queer devil ; only this very forenoon at Hawick he got into a 

 row with a great lubberly fellow for some unknown cause of offence, 

 and gave him such a taste of his fist as won't soon be forgotten ; the 

 whole place was ringing with the story ; I wonder you did not hear 

 of it." " Well," rejoined the lads, " we did hear something of the 

 sort, but it seemed so incredible that a Professor of Moral Philoso- 

 phy should mix himself up with disreputable quarrels at a fair, we 

 did not believe it." Wilson looked very grave, agreed that it was 

 certainly a most unbecoming position for a Professor ; yet he was 

 sorry to say that having heard the whole story from an eye-witness, 

 it was but too true. Dexterously turning the subject, he very soon 

 banished all further discussion about the " Professor," and held the 

 delighted lads enchained in the interest of his conversation until they 

 reached the end of the journey. On getting out of the coach, they 

 politely asked him, as he seemed to know Edinburgh well, if he 

 would direct them to a hotel. " With pleasure, my young friends ; 

 we shall all go to a hotel together ; no doubt you are hungry and 

 ready for dinner, and you shall dine with me." A coach was called ; 

 Wilson ordered the luggage to be placed outside, and gave direc- 

 tions to the driver, who in a short time pulled up at a very nice- 

 looking house, with a small garden in front. The situation was 

 rural, and there was so little of the aspect of a hotel about the place, 

 that on alighting, the lads asked once or twice, if they had come to 

 the right place ? " All right, gentlemen ; walk in ; leave your trunks 

 in the lobby. I have settled with the driver, and now I shall order 

 dinner." No time was lost, and very soon the two youths were 

 conversing freely with their unknown friend, and enjoying them- 

 selves extremely in the satisfactory position of having thus acciden- 

 tally fallen into such good company and good quarters. The de- 

 ception, however, could not be kept up much longer ; and, in the 

 course of the evening, Wilson let them know where they were, tell- 

 ing them that they could now judge for themselves what sort of a 

 fellow " the Professor" was. 



Another anecdote of holiday-time relates to a later period, when 

 maturer years had invested the Professor with a more patriarchal 

 dignity and sedateness. True to his love for spring, he had selected 



