LTTEKART AND DOMESTIC LIFT:. 415 



pretty pastoral farm " look gay," we find him in the full energy of 

 his ardent nature, awakening the sympathies of all around him on 

 a subject that moved the whole Scottish nation as with one heart, 

 and ultimately brought a stream of sympathetic souls together to 

 the banks of Doon, till it seemed as if all Scotland had poured its 

 life there to do honor to the memory of Burns. 



The Burns Festival was an occasion fitted to call forth the zeal 

 of Wilson's nature, and he worked heart and soul in the cause, with 

 vigor little less than that which impelled him, in " his bright and 

 shining youth," to walk seventy miles to be present at a Burns meet- 

 ing, which he " electrified with a new and peculiar fervor of elo- 

 quence, such as had never been heard before."* We have three 

 letters relative to this great gathering ; one is addressed to his son- 

 in-law, Mr. Gordon, before it took place, with a view to arranging 

 the toasts : — 



"My dear Sheriff : — The toasts now stand well, and we shall 

 not try to improve the arrangement. What you say about the poor 

 dear Shepherd is, I fear, true, though his fame will endure. Nei- 

 ther will his memory have to come in till after Scott and Campbell ; 

 and we all know, that even on a generally popular theme, it is very 

 difficult to secure attention and interest far on in the ' Course of 

 Time.' Perhaps the memory of the Shepherd cannot be given at 

 all, for if some prosing driveller, without name or influence, were 

 to give it, it would not do at all. If so, I shall speak of him during 

 what I say of Burns. Will that do ? I desire to have your opinion 

 of this ; for if you think it would not do, I shall look about for a 

 proper person to give his memory after Alison has spoken. William 

 Aytoun ? What should follow ? ' The Peasantry,' etc. That toast 

 I recommended to Mr. Ballantine, and we leave it in his hands, or 

 any one he may select to do it for him. If the Justice-General or 

 Lord Advocate were to give ' Lord Eglinton' in a few sentences, it 



* Of the Professor's walking feats I have not been able to gather many authentic anecdotes. 

 Mr. Aird mentioned the fact quoted here in his speech at the Burns Festival, and my brother 

 writes me on the subject : — " I have often heard him mention the following. He once walked 

 forty miles in eight hours, but when or where he did it I cannot recollect. On another occasion 

 he walked from Liverpool to Elleray, within the four and twenty hours. I do not know what 

 the distance is. but think it must be somewhere about eighty miles. You are correct about his 

 walking from Kelso to Edinburgh — forty miles, to attend a public dinner. It was in 1822, when 

 the King was there. Once, when disappointed in getting a place in the mail from Penrith to 

 Kendal, he gave his coat to the driver, set off on foot, reached Kendal some time before the 

 coach, and then trudged on to Elleray." 



