HOW WILKIE BECAME A PAINTER.
Sir John Sinclair, happening once to dine in company with Wilkie, asked, in the course of conversation, if any particular circumstance had led him to adopt his profession. Sir John inquired, “Had your father, mother, or any of your relations a turn for painting? or what led you to follow that art?” To which Wilkie replied, “The truth is, Sir John, that you made me a painter.”—“How, I?” exclaimed the Baronet; “I never had the pleasure of meeting you before.” Wilkie then gave the following explanation:—“When you were drawing up the Statistical Account of Scotland, my father, who was a clergyman in Fife, had much correspondence with you respecting his parish, in the course of which you sent him a coloured drawing of a soldier, in the uniform of your Highland Fencible Regiment. I was so delighted with the sight, that I was constantly drawing copies of it; and thus, insensibly, I was transformed into a painter.”