16 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. < HAP. I. 



of arms, which was duly coloured and put up prominently in 

 the museum. The blazonry I have forgot, but the motto was 

 this bit of juvenile Latinity : ' Iniens cetas est tempus' A weekly 

 journal was also established, of which I was constituted editor ; 

 and in it were not only recorded selections from the weekly 

 papers on Natural History, etc., but also choice extracts and 

 pen-and-ink illustrations. I have not seen it for more than 

 twenty years ; but I believe it is still in existence. It was 

 written in double columns on a folded half- sheet of foolscap, 

 and I think I could recognise still certain fossils drawn in its 

 pages ; and also some amusingly crude discussions on palaeo- 

 graphy, with illustrations, executed in China ink, the materials 

 for which were chiefly derived from the old folios and dumpy 

 quartos already referred to in our uncle's library ; for there was 

 a good deal of antiquarianism mingled with our natural history, 

 mechanics, astronomy, etc., and John Alexander Smith and my 

 self, who have each since filled the office of Secretary to the 

 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, were already embryo numis- 

 matists, and knew a Eoman denarius from a bodle as well as 

 Edie Ochiltree himself. Our museum accordingly had its little 

 collection of coins, penny-tokens, Chinese cash, a shilling of 

 Edward I., and two or three dearly-prized Eoman brass." 



Dr. Philip Maclagan has kindly supplied the following re- 

 miniscences of his friendship with George Wilson in boyhood, 

 in a letter addressed to his sister : 



" We entered Mr. Mackay's class together, and speedily be- 

 came very intimate, from the similarity of our tastes in the 

 matter of amusements ; and I was one of the original members 

 of the* Juvenile Society for the Advancement of Knowledge' 

 which met in your house, and of which your brothers were tin- 

 founders. The Society met on Friday evening, papers were 

 read by the members in rotation, and questions previously 

 started were debated. I remember some of them Whether 

 the whale or the herring afforded the more useful and profitable 

 employment to mankind? Whether the camel was more useful 

 to the Arab, or the reindeer to the Laplander? and similar 

 puzzles for youthful ingenuity. We had a museum, too, kept 



