150 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. ('HAP. III. 



quest by any statement that the button was theirs, that it had 

 accidentally been tossed up there, that I would find it on the 

 sill, etc. etc., but evincing the most perfect confidence in my 

 universal knowledge, they at once asked for it. I thought such 

 confidence deserved similar treatment, so I, without any unne- 

 cessary remarks, said, ' O yes ;' walked to the window and got 

 them their button. 



" What a delightful walk it is round Arthur Seat ! When the 

 evening is dull, I walk through the valley and the Hunter's 

 Bog ; when anyway clear, I journey round the Radical Eoad, 

 for the sake of the extraordinary view, never two nights alike, 

 and yet always so beautiful. I wonder some of the painters 

 don't build themselves a painting-box, as the sportsmen do a 

 shooting-box, beside the Cat-nick : the whole line of buildings, 

 the alternation of land and sea, are so fitted to show every 

 charm which varied atmospherical effects can produce on a 

 scene. If I had a son who showed any capacity for landscape 

 painting, I would stick him up, I think, on Salisbury Crags, and 

 disinherit him if he did not beat Turner. The scene is altogether 

 so wondrous, so changeful in all its bearings, and so soothing to 

 a mind busied with turning over a thousand subtle subjects, that 

 I shall never weary of it, and probably as long as I go out to 

 Eichmond Court, I shall come home that way. 



" I lately gathered some forget-me-nots, from the spot where 

 you used to pluck them at the foot of the rocks below St An- 

 thony's Chapel ; but I was more fortunate than you, for a little 

 boy brought me down a drink of St. Anthony's water, which, 

 though not dry, I readily drank, to show him I appreciated his 

 kindness. I lately had a visit from your pupil, M'Donald ; he 

 seems very diligent and very enthusiastic ; and is a curious enter- 

 prising promising fellow, though extremely simple in his views. 

 When he chances to be sent to any house, to look after painting 

 its walls, or the like, he gets the servants to find out for him 

 who painted the pictures on the walls, which he takes care to 

 study. 



" He tells me there are two unknown or scarcely known pic- 

 tures of Sir Joshua Reynolds in a house in Edinburgh, repre- 

 senting George in. as introduced to his Queen, and his marriage. 



