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MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



power the old man taught by the very manner of his work. How 

 he set about it, d propos of his study, may claim a few words of 

 description. 



His habit of composition, or rather I should say the execution of 

 it, was not always ordered best for his comfort. The amazing ra- 

 pidity with which he wrote, caused him too often to delay his work 

 to the very last moment, so that he almost always wrote under 

 compulsion, and every second of time was of consequence. Under 

 such a mode of labor there was no hour left for relaxation. Wheu 

 regularly in for an article for Blackwood, his whole strength was 

 put forth, and it may be said he struck into life what he had to do 

 at a blow. He at these times began to write immediately after 

 breakfast, that meal being dispatched with a swiftness commensu- 

 rate with the necessity of the case before him. He then shut him- 

 self into his study, with an express command that no one was to 

 disturb him, and he never stirred from his writing-table until per- 

 haps the greater part of a " Noctes" was written, or some paper of 

 equal brilliancy and interest completed. The idea of breaking his 

 labor by taking a constitutional walk never entered his thoughts for 

 a moment. Whatever he had to write, even though a day or two 

 were to keep him close at work, he never interrupted his pen, saving 

 to take his night's rest, and a late dinner served to him in his study. 

 The hour for that meal Avas on these occasions nine o'clock ; his 

 dinner then consisted invariably of a boiled fowl, potatoes, and a 

 glass of water — he allowed himself no wine. After dinner he re- 

 sumed his pen till midnight, when he retired to bed, not unfrequent- 

 ly to be disturbed by an early printer's boy ; although sometimes, 

 these familiars did not come often enough or early enough for their 

 master's work,* as may be seen from the following note to Mr. 

 Ballantyne : — 



* That these familiars were not always so dilatory, the following humorous description will tes- 

 tify : — " O these printers' devils 1 Like urchins on an ice-slide keejnng the pie warm, from cock- 

 crow till owl-hoot do they continue in unintermitting succession to pour from the far-off office 

 down upon Moray Place or Buchanan Lodge, one imp almost on the very shoulders of another, 

 without a minute devil-free, crying, 'Copy 1 copy! 1 in every variety of intonation possible in gruff 

 or shrill; and should I chance to drop asleep over an article, worn down by protracted sufferings 

 to mere skin and bone, as you see, till the wick of my candle — one to the pound — hangs drooping 

 down by the side of the melting mutton, the two sunk stories are swarming with them all a-J 

 hum ! Many, doubtless, die during the year, but from such immense numbers they are never 

 missed any more than the midges you massacre on a sultry summer eve. Then the face and 

 figure of one devil are so like another's — the people who have time to pay particular atten- 

 tion to their personal appearance, which I have not, say they are as different as sheep. That 

 tipsy Thamniuz is to me all one with Bowzy Beelzebub," &c. — Nodes. 



