ALEXANDER WILSON. 
21 
The sallies of his youthful wit and ridicule 
among his companions, soon acquired for him su- 
periority ; while such a power shortly afterwards 
turned out a most dangerous faculty in hands such 
as his. 
During his residence at Lochwinnoch he enjoyed 
the reputation of a sober good workman : still, the 
thought that he had been disappointed in his am- 
bition to fill a higher sphere, — his utter distaste 
for the trade to which he had been destined,— 
together with the feelings which his slight literary 
education had awakened, greatly interfered with 
the regular performance of his tedious tasks. Added 
to these, the proximity of the romantic banks of 
the river Calder,* and the recesses of the woods 
of Castle-Semple, often allured him from the loom, 
and confirmed that pensiveness and diffidence in 
his temperament which never afterwards left him. 
It was during these rambles that he brooded over 
what he imagined his hard fate, and laid many airy 
schemes for his future course in the world ; it was 
here also he first was affected with the admiration 
of Nature her green woodlands and clear run- 
ning streams, her brawling brooks, with the fleecy 
clouds of a Scottish sky — as seen in this beautiful 
district — ho afterwards happily contrasted, in his 
poetical effusions, with the glowing lights and ma- 
* The banks of the Calder furnished the incidents for the 
tale of “ The Disconsolate Wren,” which is marked with great 
feeling and simplicity, and evinces accurate observation of the 
nature and manners of the birds introduced. 
