clxxxiv 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
his judgement received an accession of strength; and he displays 
a fancy which we look for in vain in his juvenile essays. But we 
must be understood as comparing him only with himself, at differ- 
ent periods of his life. Whether or not he ever attained to posi- 
tive excellence in poetry may be a subject of dispute. 
In his “ Solitary Tutor” we are presented with a picture of 
himself, while occupied in teaching a country school. The descrip- 
tion of his place of residence, his schoolhouse, the adjoining forest, 
where many of his leisure hours were passed, and where he first 
commenced studying the manners of those birds which he subse- 
quently immortalized in his splendid work, is animated and graphi- 
cal. The fabric of these verses reminds us of the Minstrel, and 
that he had this delightful poem in his eye, we are convinced by 
some of the descriptions and sentiments. The stanza beginning 
“ In these green solitudes, one favourite spot,” 
is accurately descriptive of a place, in Bartram’s woods, whither 
he used to retire for the purposes of reading and contemplation, 
and where he planned his Ornithology. Of the faults of this little 
poem I will merely remark, that the initial quatrain is prosaic; and 
that the last line betrays an unaccountable deficiency of taste. 
The lovers of rural scenery will learn with regret that this 
fine piece of forest, consecrated to the Muses of poetry and natural 
history by Wilson, is fast disappearing beneath the axe of the hus- 
bandman. Already is the brook, which was “ o’erhung with alders 
and mantling vines,” exposed to the glare of day; the favourite 
haunts of the Wood Thrush are invaded ; and, ere long, like his 
lamented historian, his place will be known there no more. 
His poetical description of the Blue-bird, which originally 
appeared in the first volume of the Ornithology, has been copied 
into many publications, and still maintains its popularity. It 
contains some ill-constructed lines, and some rhymes so grossly 
