and classical erudition, as well as his poetical talents. John, who lately died in the West Indies, was a young man of great activity in his profession, and possessed of much mercantile knowledge. His only surviving child is his daughter Violet, the wife of Mr. Robert Wilson, shipmaster, Greenock; a lady to whose intelligence and candour I am indebted for the greater part of the materials of this Memoir.
The short intervals of vacation which Mr. Wilson enjoyed, were generally occupied in visiting his literary friends in the country. No man had a higher relish for social intercourse, and few persons were qualified for supporting a more conspicuous part in it. His disposition was gay and good -humoured; his manner was animated and jocular; and his conversation had a peculiar zest from its originality. He possessed an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes and stories characteristic of life and manners; these he introduced as they originated spontaneously from the subject of conversation, and related with a high degree of humour and comic effect. The Scotish nation is generally reckoned deficient in comic humour by their southern neighbours; but this is a part of national character, concerning which a stranger is seldom qualified to form a correct judgment. The quality of humour can scarcely be defined; but it evidently depends so much on the nice
