XXVI 
MEMOin OF 
description, that he usually paid no attention to them ; hut 
that, as Wilson was evidently no ordinary man, and also 
a true poet, he would, in that instance, depart from the 
rule ; and he then entered into a vindication of himself 
and his poems. Shortly afterwards, Wilson went from 
Paisley to Ayrshire to visit Bums. On his return he 
described his interview with Burns in the most rapturous 
terms.” * 
The poem of “ Watty and Meg,” his most successful 
effort, was written early in 1792. Being published 
anonymously, it was universally attributed to Burns. 
Wilson felt this as at once a high compliment, and an 
unconscious acknowledgment of his merit, on the part of 
a public, which had shewn him so little countenance in 
his avowed productions ; and, for a time, he allowed the 
opinion to spread uncontradieted. “ The originals of 
Watty and Meg,” says the same gentleman who commu- 
nicated the preceding anecdote, “ were a worthy couple 
of Wilson’s acquaintance. When the good dame, repre- 
sented as Mer/, read the poem, she exclaimed to her 
husband, ‘ U’yo ken what Sandy Wilson has done? — he 
has poem’d us ! ’ ” 
The perception of the ludicrous gcnendly accompanies 
the perception of the sublime. In like manner, a satirical 
tendency is not unfrcquently found conjoined with great 
generosity and tenderness. Of this spirit Wilson partook 
to a certain extent; and in hours of thoughtless smd 
exuberant glee, occasionally indulged it for the amusement 
of his friends. Some, however, of darker spirit, as is 
generally believed, instigated Wilson, in an evil hour, to 
write a piece of severe personal satire against a respectable 
individual in Paisley, at whose instance he was prosecuted 
* Cromek gives a dilForptit Torsion of this iiicuieiit, and attribute^ 
the tenninatiou of aU iiitorcourse bi'tween the tivo poets to WiLsou*^ 
<‘nvy of Burns. This hoing she\\7i to Wilson, by one of his American 
friends, he rebutted the injurious imputation in the most decided 
terras. 
