XV111 
LIFE OF 
him as of a very thoughtful turn of mind, constantly thinking aloud, 
and giving vent to poetical effusions, which his keen imaginative 
mind applied to the leading incidents of the day, or to the beauties 
of his last country ramble. He would often indulge in abstraction, 
or reverie, and delighted in dreaming ; and such was his pleasure 
in following his fancies while asleep, that he would frequently go 
to bed during the day, or at an early hour in the evening, with 
the hope of following up the impression left on his mind by a dream 
which he imperfectly recollected in the morning. His solitary musing 
walks were still continued, and often extended to Auchinbathie 
Tower, in visits to his father and family, to Lochwinnoch, and his 
favourite Calder. As the game laws were not so strict, or the 
individual preservation so much attended to, as they^are at present, 
a gun was his frequent companion, and his deeds in this way were 
often extolled by his fellow-workers. To these poaching expedi- 
tions may, perhaps, be assigned his first lessons in discriminating 
the various game that occurred, and which shewed him at once, 
when in a new country, the difference of its birds from those to 
which he had been accustomed. 
Wilson now left Paisley to visit his brother-in-law, William 
Duncan, at Queensferry on the banks of the Forth, where he 
remained for a few months assisting his relative at his employment, 
and afterwards accompanied him on a mercantile travelling excur- 
sion over the eastern districts of Scotland. This was the greatest 
distance he had yet been from his birth-place, and the new scenes 
and variety of incidents which he encountered, induced him to think 
that the occupation of a travelling merchant would be far preferable 
to the sedentary, and, to him, irksome, employment of a weaver. 
He resolved, therefore, to attempt “ the establishment of his good 
fortune in the world,”* and, being able, by the kindness of his 
friends, to provide the requisites for a small pack, and having 
“ fitted up,” as he tells us,-]' “ a proper budget, consisting of silks, 
muslins, prints, &c. &c. for the accommodation of those good people 
who may prove his customers,” he commenced a new- and more 
varied life, with a light heart, and sanguine expectations of success, 
* Journal, Poems, 1st Edit. 
f Ibid. 
