bed
to a fever. Two additional vols. appeared posthumously. The work, both
from a literary and artistic point of view, is of high merit. He also
_pub._ in America another poem, _The Foresters_.

WILSON, SIR DANIEL (1816-1892).--Archaeologist and miscellaneous writer,
_b._ and _ed._ in Edin., and after acting as sec. of the Society of
Antiquaries there, went to Toronto as Prof. of History and English
Literature. He was the author of _Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden
Time_, _The Archeology and Pre-historic Annals of Scotland_ (1851),
_Civilisation in the Old and the New World_, a study on "Chatterton," and
_Caliban, the Missing Link_, etc.

WILSON, JOHN ("CHRISTOPHER NORTH") (1785-1854).--Poet, essayist, and
miscellaneous writer, _s._ of a wealthy manufacturer in Paisley, where he
was _b._, was _ed._ at Glas. and Oxf. At the latter he not only displayed
great intellectual endowments, but distinguished himself as an athlete.
Having succeeded to a fortune of L50,000 he purchased the small estate of
Elleray in the Lake District, where he enjoyed the friendship of
Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, and De Quincey. In 1812 he _pub._ _The
Isle of Palms_, followed four years later by _The City of the Plague_,
which gained for him a recognised place in literature, though they did
not show his most characteristic gifts, and are now almost unread. About
this time he lost a large portion of his fortune, had to give up
continuous residence at Elleray, came to Edinburgh, and was called to the
Scottish Bar, but never practised. The starting of _Blackwood's Magazine_
brought him his opportunity, and to the end of his life his connection
with it gave him his main employment and chief fame. In 1820 he became
Prof. of Moral Philosophy in the Univ. of Edin. where, though not much of
a philosopher in the technical sense, he exercised a highly stimulating
influence upon his students by his eloquence and the general vigour of
his intellect. The peculiar powers of W., his wealth of ideas, felicity
of expression, humour, and animal spirits, found their full development
in the famous _Noctes Ambrosianae_, a medley of criticism on literature,
politics, philosophy, topics of the day and what not. _Lights and Shadows
of Scottish Life_ and _The Trials of Margaret Lyndsay_ are contributions
to fiction in which there is an occasional tendency to run pathos into
rather mawkish sentimentality. In 1851 W. received a Government pension
of L300. The fo