a poet, but also with that of a naturalist. His favorite
pastime was ornithology, and he made fine collections of specimens in
this line.

He was a great sportsman, and a story is told by his daughter, Mrs.
Gordon, of his travelling seventy miles in one day, to fish in a certain
favorite loch among the braes of Glenarchy, called Loch Toila. He was
also a good shot, and very enthusiastic in sport even to old age.
Boating was another favorite pastime; and engaged in one or another of
these out-of-door pursuits, he passed a very large portion of his whole
life. When he did write, he did it with great rapidity, composing one of
the "Noctes" at a sitting. His love for the animal creation was very
deep, and he would never submit to seeing any creature abused. He one
day saw a man cruelly beating his horse, which was overloaded with
coals, and could not move. He remonstrated with the driver, who,
exasperated at the interference, took up the whip in a threatening way,
as if with intent to strike the professor. In one instant the
well-nerved hand of Wilson, not new to these encounters, twisted the
whip from the coarse fist of the driver, and walking up to the cart, he
unfastened the _trams_ and hurled the whole weight of the coals into the
street. He then took the horse and led it away, depositing it in the
hands of the authorities, with injunctions to see that the beast was
better treated in future.

He made great pets of game-birds, the aristocracy of the species, with
their delicate heads and exquisite plumage, and kept at one time no less
than sixty-two in the back yard of his house. The noise was simply
unendurable to all but Wilson, who was never annoyed by it in the least.
He kept one lame sparrow for eleven years, caring for it with the
tenderest solicitude.

He was always well known in the houses of the poor, and he never gave up
one of his humble friends. He was tender and gentle always to these, as
to the members of his own household, where it was said the very strength
of his hand was softened, that he might caress the infant, or play with
the little ones at his feet. With all children he was a prime favorite,
and in his declining years his grandchildren were his daily playmates.
Noah's ark, trumpets, drums, pencils, puzzles, dolls, were all supposed
by them to possess interest in his eyes equal to their own.

He was thrown much upon these children for his pleasures near the close
of his life. That frame of giga