Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/84

 National Gallery of Scotland. He also painted much in both oil and watercolours, and his work, some of the finest of which never came to this country, was in great request by artistic visitors to Italy. His pictures are delicate in handling, refined in colour, pleasant in composition, and serene in effect. He is represented in the Scottish National Gallery by two Italian landscapes and a ‘View of Burntisland’ in oils, and by three watercolours in the watercolour collection at South Kensington. In 1847, leaving his family in Italy, he revisited Scotland, but, on the eve of returning, he died in Edinburgh on 27 Nov. 1848.

In 1808 he married Rachel Ker, daughter of William Ker, descendant of the Inglis of Manner, and had a family of four sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Charles Heath Wilson, is separately noticed.

 WILSON, ANDREW (1831–1881), traveller and author, born in 1831, was the eldest son of the learned missionary (1804–1875) [q. v.] He was educated at the universities of Edinburgh and Tübingen, and afterwards lived some time in Italy. He then went to India, where he began his career as a journalist by taking charge of the ‘Bombay Times’ in the absence of [q. v.], and as an oriental traveller by a tour in Baluchistan. After his return to England he contributed to ‘Blackwood's Magazine’ some verses entitled ‘Wayside Songs,’ and in 1857 attracted some attention by a paper ‘Infante Perduto,’ published in ‘Edinburgh Essays.’ He maintained his connection with ‘Blackwood’ throughout his life. Returning in 1860 to the east, he edited for three years the ‘China Mail,’ accompanied the expedition to Tientsin, and visited Japan. In 1860 he issued at Hongkong a pamphlet entitled ‘England's Policy in China,’ in which he advocated that change of policy which was afterwards carried out by Sir Frederick [q. v.] at Pekin, by Mr. (now Sir Robert) Hart at Shanghai, and by General Gordon in the field. He travelled much in southern China, and sent descriptive contributions to the ‘Daily News’ and ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ on eastern questions, as well as to ‘Blackwood.’ At the beginning of the civil war he paid a visit to the United States, and afterwards passed some years in England, during which he wrote for papers and magazines. Returning to India about 1873, he edited for a time the ‘Times of India’ and the ‘Bombay Gazette.’ Ill-health delayed the publication till 1878 of his book ‘The Ever-Victorious Army: a History of the Chinese Campaigns under Lieutenant-colonel C. G. Gordon, C.B., R.E., and of the Suppression of the Tai-Ping Rebellion,’ which is still the best account of the suppression of the movement of 1863–4. Wilson's chief source of information was Gordon's ‘Private Journal,’ then unpublished. The clear and animated style in which the work is written gives it an additional value. In 1875 Wilson published an account of a very adventurous journey under the title ‘The Abode of Snow: Observations on a Journey from Chinese Tibet to the Indian Caucasus through the Upper Valleys of the Himalaya.’ The book is based on articles in ‘Blackwood's Magazine.’ A second edition was issued next year. ‘The Abode of Snow’ is not only a vivid record of very arduous travel, it contains also valuable ethnological observations, and displays intense feeling for natural beauty expressed in excellent prose. Before his final departure from India Wilson made an excursion into the wild state of Kathiawar. His last contribution to ‘Blackwood’, written in the spring of 1877, was a retrospect of African travel (‘Twenty Years of African Travel’). The last years of his life were passed in England in the Lake district. He died at Howton on Ullswater on 9 June 1881.

 WILSON, ANTHONY (fl. 1793), better known by his pseudonym ‘Henry Bromley,’ author of the ‘Catalogue of Engraved Portraits,’ was born at Wigan in 1750. He was perhaps connected with the Wilson family of Kendal, which intermarried with that of Bromley. Wilson belonged to a mercantile firm in the city of London, and was a regular attendant at Hutchins's auction-rooms, where he was detected on one occasion abstracting prints. He also frequented the sale-room of Nathaniel Smith, father of the antiquary, (1766–1833) [q. v.]

In 1793, stimulated by the increased demand for prints consequent on the publication of James Granger's ‘Biographical His-