ALEXANDER WILSON. xix 
what warmth of enthusiasm he informed me that, in one of 
his journeys, he went considerably out of his way to visit 
the village of Athelstaneford, at one time the residence of 
Blair, author of The Grave , and afterwards of Home, 
author of Douglas .” This proves his veneration for the 
sons of song and their consecrated haunts. And his admi- 
ration of natural scenery cannot be better shewn than by 
quoting the strongly contemptuous expressions he applied 
to those who are not susceptible of the pleasures arising 
from contemplating the beauties of nature : — “ Pleasures,” 
says he, “ which the grovelling sons of interest, and the 
grubs of this world, know as little of, and are as incapable 
of enjoying, as those miserable spirits, who are doomed to 
perpetual darkness, can the glorious regions and eternal 
delights of paradise ! ” 
During these years of comparative idleness, his poetical 
talent, as might have been expected, was not permitted to 
remain uncultivated. Many of his published poems, by 
their dates and incidents, furnish evidence that they were 
the composition of that period: and at length, in 1789, 
he began to prepare materials for a volume of poems. 
After submitting his manuscript to the private criticism 
of some friends, (to whose, suggestions, however, like 
most young poets, he was far from being inclined to yield 
implicit deference — whose approbation, in short, not 
their opinion, it was that he wanted,) he contracted with 
Mr John Neilson, printer in Paisley, for the expenses 
of the press ; and set out afresh with his pack and a 
prospectus, in order to procure subscribers. On the 17th 
September, 1789, he proceeded from Edinburgh, along the 
east coast of Scotland, to sell his muslins and solicit sub- 
scriptions, making the one the means and the other the end. 
His hopes and purposes cannot be better shewn than by 
transcribing a portion from a journal which he kept during 
this excursion ; and which commences as follows, in a 
mingled strain between jest and earnest: — 
