KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



243 



in rousing the lion, I judged it time to retreat. 

 So, changing my tone, I begged his pardon, 

 and told him he now looked precisely as I 

 wished to represent him. He laughed, and 

 returning to his seat, assumed a bold coun- 

 tenance. 



" And now, Sir, see the picture."* 



* From u Audubon's Ornithological Biography." 



HOW 



MAY" WAS FIRST MADE. 



BY THOMAS MILLER. 



As Spring upon a silver cloud 



Lay looking on the world below, 



Watching the breezes as they bowed 



The buds and blossoms to and fro, — 



She saw the fields with Hawthorns walled ; 



Said Spring, " New buds I will create !" 



She to a Flower-spirit called, 



Who on the month of M ay did wait, 



And bade her fetch a hawthorn spray 



That she might make the buds of May. 



Said Spring, " The grass looks green and bright, 

 The hawthorn hedges too are green, 

 I'll sprinkle them with flowers of light, 

 Such stars as earth has never seen ; 

 And all through England's girded vales, 

 Her steep hill-sides and haunted streams, 

 Where woodlands dip into the dales, 

 Where'er the Hawthorn stands and dreams, 

 Where thick-leaved trees make dark the day, 

 I'll light each nook with flowers of May. 



" Like pearly dewdrops, white and round, 

 The shut-up buds shall first appear, 

 And in them be such fragrance found 

 As breeze before did never bear ; 

 Such as in Eden only dwelt, 

 When angels hovered round its bowers, 

 And long-haired Eve at morning knelt 

 In innocence among the flowers, 

 While the whole air was every way 

 Fill'd with a perfume sweet as May. 



" And oft shall groups of children come, 



Threading their way through shady places, 



From many a peaceful English home, 



The sunshine falling on their faces ; 



Starting with merry voice the thrush, 



As through green lanes they wander singing, 



To gather the sweet Hawthorn-bush, 



Which homeward in the evening bringing, 



With smiling faces, they shall say — 



' There's nothing half so sweet as May !' 



" And many a poet yet unborn 



Shall link its name with some sweet lay, 



And lovers oft at early morn 



Shall gather blossoms of the May, 



With eyes bright as the silver dews 



Which on the rounded May-buds sleep ; 



And lips whose parted smiies diffuse 



A sunshine o'er the watch they keep, 



Shall open all their white array 



Of pearls ranged like the buds of May." " 



Spring shook the cloud on which she by; 

 And silvering o'er the Hawthorn spray, 

 She showered down the buds of May. 



OBITUAEY. 



PROFESSOR WILSON. 



A word or two, en passant, about a man who 

 in his lifetime has delighted so many thou- 

 sands, cannot be out of place in Our Journal. 



Professor Wilson died in Edinburgh on 

 Monday the 3rd ulto. in his 65th year. He 

 was the son of an extensive manufacturer in 

 Paisley, were he was born in 1788. At the 

 age of 13 he commenced his studies at the 

 University of Glasgow, and four years after- 

 wards entered at Magdalen College, Oxford, 

 where the genius of which he was possessed 

 soon manifested itself, and enabled him, 

 among other honors, to carry off the 

 Newdegate prize for an English poem. 



At the end of that period he left Oxford ; 

 and having purchased the estate of Elleray, 

 beautifully situated on Windermere, he cul- 

 tivated the acquaintance of Wordsworth, and 

 became, in latter days, the " Admiral of the 

 Lakes," acting as such when Bolton enter- 

 tained Canning and Scott with a splendid 

 water /<?te on Windermere. In those days, 

 Prof. Wilson played many wild feats. He 

 attended all the fairs, fights, running matches, 

 races, and so forth, in the country. He was 

 a capital boxer, singlestick-man, and wrestler; 

 no great sportsman, except as an angler, and 

 now and then in pursuit of red deer. 



For some time he took up his abode 

 among the gipsies, learned a great deal of 

 their slang, and adopted their costume and 

 habits. Afterwards he partially settled 

 down, and went to study law in Edinburgh. 

 As might be expected, little profit resulted 

 from this experiment ; but he took to litera- 

 ture, and produced several isolated works, 

 such as the " Lights and Shadows of Scottish 

 Life, "which attained great popularity; and the 

 " Trials of Margaret Lindsay," a pathetic 

 Scottish story. In 1818 the professorship of 

 Moral Philosophy in the University became 

 vacant, and " Blackwood's Magazine " was 

 established. John Wilson immediately became 

 a candidate for the one, and a contributor to 

 the other. Sir Walter Scott's patronage 

 mainly contributed to his success in the 

 first, his own abilities won the second. 



It is unnecessary to add, that his connec- 

 tion with "Blackwood" for years after iden- 

 tified him with all the brilliant fancy and 

 exquisite taste with which its pages, and 

 especially the " Xoctes " were adorned. The 

 productions of his eloquent pen were, in 1842, 

 published in a collected form, under the title 

 of " Recreations of Christopher North," and 

 which in many respects manifest that true 

 poetry with which his other works were 

 characterised. The chief of these are the 

 "Isle of Palms, "and the "City of the Plague," 

 the former published in 1812, and the latter 

 in 1816. 



In person Professor Wilson was a stout, 



