On leaving the Trustees' Academy in 1804, with the good wishes of all, Wilkie returned to Cults.

John Graham, the master of the Academy, at the same time wrote to his father, bestowing on him the high and prophetic praise, that "the more delicacy was required in the execution of a subject, the more successful would he be." Still this was a critical period for the great painter's fortunes, and the danger of his undoubted ability proving an immense misfortune was by no means small. How he was to get into the world of art was a question of the most serious kind, and one that dismayed and perplexed his anxious father, whose imagination, in all probability, very much magnified the difficulty, as often happens in similar circumstances.

However, it was soon solved by a perseverance not to be conquered, and a love of art which to the last was Willde's solace in all trials. He had already made some progress in portrait-painting. Touched by the eminence to which it had exalted his country-man Raeburn, his imagination conjured up visions of its achieving an equal success for him; and he turned his attention earnestly to the subject. He speedily exhausted the sitters of Cults and Cupar, then went to St. Andrews, also in his native county, and afterwards to Aberdeen, in search of occupation for his easel, but without meeting with any such en-couragement as to tempt farther rovings. Conscious, however, of great talents, and prompted by an en-thusiastic but definite ambition, he could make circumstances conform to the end he desired to attain, and soon gave proofs of his true genius in the original picture of the "Village Politicians," now so universally and favourably known. He also executed a small painting from his favourite author, Allan Ramsay, and another from the tragedy of "Douglas," both of which were sold for considerable sums. After these came, among other productions, "Piltessie Fair," into which he introduced about a hundred and forty figures, mostly likenesses of the parish notables, which he had taken at church during service. The latter fact connected with the matter was deemed hardly decorous, and raised loud complaints. The painting was purchased by a gentleman of the country, and far surpassed in merit any picture of the kind that had, up to that period, been produced in Scotland. The people of Fifeshire began to. have some faint notion that their county contained a youth capable of winning renown and adding fresh laurels to its fame. Greyheaded men sagely and mysteriously observed, that there was something remarkable about the minister's son of Cults; and aged women predicted, that as Poetry had possessed her Sir David Lindsay, so Painting should ere long have her Sir David Wilkie.

But he who was attracting an attention that might have turned the head of many at his age, remained calm, modest, and imperturbable. In fact, he considered it time to carry his talents where they might be more profitably and advantageously exercised; and, after weighing the matter, determined to set off to London, for the purpose of entering himself as a student at the Royal Academy. Having collected his sketches, drawings, and pictures, and made due preparation, he sailed from Leith on the 20th of May, 1805, when nineteen years and six months old.

On arrival in London, his first care was to find a suitable place for exhibiting his paintings. Having had two or three of them put in a window at Charing Cross, they soon attracted gazers, and the "Village Recruit" was quickly disposed of. At the Royal Academy he made the acquaintance of his fellow-students, Haydon and Jackson. The latter introduced him to Lord Mulgrave, as well as to Sir George Beaumont, in whom he found a true and constant friend.

The fame of the tall, light-haired Scot, began to creep abroad; his works excited great and deserved attention, and called forth high praise. And when, in 1806, his picture of the "Village Politicians" was exhibited at the Royal Academy, it was hailed with an enthusiastic burst of applause. His native county, justly proud of his success, caught up and echoed the metropolitan praise; and he himself, though wisely silent in regard to its acknowledged merits amid the praises that were heaped upon it by the press and by the people, who daily crowded to view the performance, could not help writing to his father in accents indicative of high emprise. "My ambi-tion," he said, "has got beyond all bounds, and I have the vanity to hope that Scotland will one day be proud to boast of David Wilkie." Assuredly he indulged in no vain or delusive expectation; nor was it long ere he gave a further proof of his great and uncommon powers. In the very next year the "Blind Fiddler" sustained and established the reputation of "this extraordinary young artist," as he was now called by the critics. Commissions flowed upon him, his success was beyond all question; and when only in his twenty-sixth year, he was, to the delight of all true lovers of art, elected a Royal Academician.

In 1826 he left England for Italy, and passed some time in studying the old masters. In Spain he caught the idea of his "Defence of Saragossa," the style of which was strikingly different from his former productions, but it was, nevertheless, one of his finest efforts. The surprise and doubt which it at first raised changed into well-merited admiration as the great fact became evident, that in attempting a new style the mighty painter had achieved great and signal success.

Having been Limner to the King for Scotland, he was, on the death of Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1830, selected by George the Fourth as Painter in Ordinary to His Majesty; an office of whose dignity he had a high opinion, and in which he was continued by William the Fourth. The latter, in 1836, was graciously pleased to confer upon him the honour of knighthood; a distinction with which he was gratified, but by no means unduly elated.

Wilkie had for a long time been threatened with had health, and in the end became its victim. In vain had he betaken himself to foreign lands and sunny climes. In vain did he go forth to draw inspiration from the old ruined glories of the East. In returning home he expired at sea, without a struggle, on the 1st of June, 1841, in the fifty-sixth year of his life.

On the evening of that day the engines of the "Oriental" steam-ship were stopped, and the huge vessel stayed upon her course. The sky was clear and the ocean calm; the sublime service enjoined by the Church was read; and, in the midst of it, his mortal remains were committed to the waters of the deep.

When the sad news of his death reached England, that grief fell upon the public which might well be caused by the loss of one to whom it had owed so much and such real gratification; whom an "ex-quisite feeling of nature" had enabled to touch the hearts of all ranks; whom early training and a fine perception of character had fitted, above all others, to be the painter of the people; and who, when he was in possession of well-earned fame and honours, when some of his most cherished dreams were splendidly realised, continued the same modest, unassuming individual, as he had been when his pencil traced grotesque figures on the walls of some Fifeshire manse, or his Scotch accent and eyes bright with intelligence amused and charmed the students at the Royal Academy.