376 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. IX. 



can give, for he well knew that each was at the risk of his life. 

 Looking forward to one of them he says : " The thought of these 

 travellings makes so unlocomotive a person as I startle a little. 

 But it is a plain piece of duty, and I commend myself to Him 

 who is equally near at all times." The danger arose from the 

 state of his lungs, in which disease had been steadily spreading 

 from the time of their first affection in 1843, and the liability to 

 inflammation, while exposed to the changes of a traveller's life. 

 A visit to London, Hampshire, and Cambridge, in 1845, afforded 

 pleasant glimpses of rural spots, where a Scotchman sees much 

 at variance with preconceived ideas. The religious destitution 

 visible in many of the places visited, left a saddening impression 

 on him. " To do something to lessen this great evil," he says, 

 " must be my aim in all ways that present themselves. I shall 

 return, I trust, more earnest than I was in desire and resolution 

 to be Christ's, and His alone." Travellers always see and hear 

 wonderful things. It was one part of his good fortune to be 

 shown, in Salisbury Cathedral, a "gigantic old black marble 

 baptismal font, lined with lead," which the old verger informed 

 him had once been lined with silver, having been made " before 

 lead was invented." 



Many of his holiday seasons were spent in favourite retreats 

 at Morningside, Dirleton, Melrose, Innerleithen, or Bridge of 

 Allan, all at convenient distances, whither he could drive in his 

 carnage, enjoy sitting in a garden, and have many quiet pleasures. 

 A hymn or poem was often born at such times ; as, for example, 

 in 1848, he says, " I get on with my verses. Last night, out at 

 Morningside, where Jessie and I are keeping house, the gas 

 would not light. Two dipped candles, stuck into bottles, proved 

 too dim to make reading pleasant. So I fell to and chanted a 

 lyric, which Jessie wrote down, and when it is finished 111 send it 

 to you. It is purely a physical science rhyme, and will, I think, 

 please you." These verses were probably those on " The Skerry - 

 vore Lighthouse," which were prompted by a perusal of Mr. 

 Alan Stevenson's interesting narrative of its erection. He sent 

 them to Mr. Stevenson, saying, " I have long entertained the 

 project of writing a series of pieces on subjects connected with 

 the physical sciences, and have already completed several." He 



