Grampian Club > Monuments and monumental inscriptions in Scotland > Volume 1

134 EDINDURGHSIIIKE.
Advocate, and established bis residence at Edinburgli. " The Isle
of Palms," a poem in four cantos, appeared from his pen in 1812;
he published in 1816 "The City of the Plague," a dramatic poem,
which was followed by tales and sketches. On the establisliment
of Blackwood's Magazine in 1817 he became one of the principal
contributors ; his celebrated Nodes Amhrosiancv, a series of dia-
logues on the literature and manners of the times, appeared in
that periodical from 1822 till 1835. In 1820 he was elected to
the chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, an
o'Kce which he subsequently adorned. In 1850 he was chosen first
President of the Edinbvirgh Philosophical Institution; in the year
following he obtained a Civil List pension. He died at Edin-
b irgh, on the 3rd of April, 1854 ; his remains were honoured with
a public funeral. As a poet, Professor Wilson is chiefly to be
remarked for serenity and pathos ; as a periodical writer he will
find admirers while the English language is understood. By
public subscription his statue in bronze has been erected in Princes
Street Gardens. It has been described (see ante).
A brother and a son-in-law of Professor Wilson, both men
of eminence, have been interred in the Dean Cemetery. His
brother, James Wilson, styled of Woodville, was born at Paisley,
in November, 1795. At the age of eigliteen he began to study
law at the University of Edinburgh, which, however, he speedily
relinquished. From 1816 to 1821 he travelled on the Continent,
employing a portion of his time in the atudy of Natural History.
In 1824 he settled at Woodville, near Edinburgh, and there re-
sided till his death, which took place on the 18th May, 1856. His
works on Ornithology and Entomology are much valued ; his style
is clear, precise, and elegant. On subjects of Natural History he
contributed to the Quarterly Review, the North British Review, and
Blackwood] s Magazine. To the seventh edition of i\\Q Encyclopcedict
Britannica he furnished numerous articles on Natural History, and
revised others in this department. His Memoir was published in
1859 by the late Dr. James Hamilton, of London.
Professor Wilson's son-in-law, whose remains rest in this ceme-