Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/372

636 distinction of which he marked his due sense, by the bequest of a sum to the university for an annual prize among its students of divinity, for competition on an few on the following subject:—"The life of our adorable Redeemer, Jesus Christ; his righteousness, atoning death, and that everlasting benefit Brian from these blessings to a lost and sinful world." In addition to his literary title Dr. Wilson was also a Fellow of the Antiquarian Society. His death occurred in South Crescent, Bedford Square, London. By his own expressed wish, his remains were brought to Glasgow, and, after a temporary interment in one of the Egyptian vaults of the Necropolis, were removed to a tomb that had been erected for the purpose, under the superintendence of his trustees. It was an appropriate resting-place, the model having been taken from the sepulchral monuments that formerly contained the ashes and recorded the deeds of the famous of old in Jerusalem, and whose ruins still greet the eye of the traveller in his approach to the Holy City; and the stranger who visits this most picturesque of human resting-places in our fair city of the west, and wonders at the Asiatic appearance of the stately mausoleum which seems to have been wafted thither from a strange land, is satisfied with the fitness of its form, when he reads on it the following inscription:—

Such is but a scanty record of one whose life, long though it was, is rather to be found extended over several volumes of travels, than in any condensed narrative. But such is the usual biography of a modern traveller: he can no longer find a terra incognita of which he may fable as he pleases, or take a tremendous leap "at Rhodes," which he is unable to achieve at his own threshold. Many there are, however, who still remember with affection the enthusiastic yet truthful delineations of other countries with which he was wont to animate their imaginations and enlighten their judgment, and how earnestly his society was sought, especially by the young, who regarded him as their companion, friend, and father, all in one. "In private life," thus one of his relations writes to us, " Dr. Rae Wilson was eminently social. Gifted with a most active mind, and having had his talent for conversation sharpened by much exercise in the course of his travels, he was a most interesting and instructive companion. It was no ordinary treat to listen to his animated descriptions of the remarkable places and persons he had visited; and to the close of his long life he continued to take the greatest pleasure in retracing his steps, particularly over the Holy Land, happy in the idea of communicating some portion of his own knowledge and zeal to his friends. He was ever ready in the best sense to do good, as he had opportunity; and he was not only a distributor of religious tracts, but the writer of some that are highly esteemed." It is enough to add, that not only his conversation, but his whole course of action, evinced his recol-