in the pages of _Blackwood's
Magazine_. In his fifteenth year he became a student in the University
of Glasgow. Under the instructions of Professor Young, of the Greek
Chair, he made distinguished progress in classical learning; but it was
to the clear and masculine intellect of Jardine, the distinguished
Professor of Logic, that he was, in common with Jeffrey, chiefly
indebted for a decided impulse in the path of mental cultivation. In
1804 he proceeded to Oxford, where he entered in Magdalen College as a
gentleman-commoner. A leader in every species of recreation, foremost in
every sport and merry-making, and famous for his feats of agility and
strength, he assiduously continued the prosecution of his classical
studies. Of poetical genius he afforded the first public indication by
producing the best English poem of fifty lines, which was rewarded by
the Newdigate prize of forty guineas. On attaining his majority he
became master of a fortune of about L30,000, which accrued to him from
his father's estate; and, having concluded a course of four years at
Oxford, he purchased, in 1808, the small but beautiful property of
Elleray, on the banks of the lake Windermere, in Westmoreland. During
the intervals of college terms, he had become noted for his eccentric
adventures and humorous escapades; and his native enthusiasm remained
unsubdued on his early settlement at Elleray. He was the hero of
singular and stirring adventures: at one time he joined a party of
strolling-players, and on another occasion followed a band of gipsies;
he practised cock-fighting and bull-hunting, and loved to startle his
companions by his reckless daring. His juvenile excesses received a
wholesome check by his espousing, in 1811, Miss Jane Penny, the daughter
of a wealthy Liverpool merchant, and a lady of great personal beauty and
amiable dispositions, to whom he continued most devotedly attached. He
had already enjoyed the intimate society of Wordsworth, and now sought
more assiduously the intercourse of the other lake-poets. In the autumn
of 1811, on the death of his friend James Grahame, author of "The
Sabbath," he composed an elegy to his memory, which attracted the notice
of Sir Walter Scott; in the year following he produced "The Isle of
Palms," a poem in four cantos.

Hitherto Wilson had followed the career of a man of fortune; and his
original patrimony had been handsomely augmented by his wife's dowry.
But his guardian (a maternal uncle)