Hence it came about that the laird of Kirnan set up house in an old mansion in the Trunkmaker's Row, off the Canongate of Edinburgh, where the poet's father, the youngest of three sons, was born in 1710. Beyond the interesting fact that he was educated under the care of Robert Wodrow, the celebrated his-torian and preacher, from whose teaching he drew the strict religious principles which regulated his life, we hear nothing of the earlier years of Alexander Camp- bell. He went to America, and was in business for some time at Falmouth, in Virginia. There he met with the son of a Glasgow merchant, another Campbell, to whom he was quite unrelated, and together the two returned to Scotland to start in Glasgow as Virginia traders. The new firm at first prospered in a high degree, for Glasgow about the middle of the eighteenth century was just touching the culminating point of her commerce with the American colonies. Even as early as 1735 the Glasgow merchants had fifteen large vessels engaged in the tobacco trade alone. But the outbreak of the American War in 1775 put a speedy end to the city's success in this direction. * Some of the Virginia lords,' says Dr Strang, 'ere long retired from the trade, and others of them were ultimately ruined. Business for a time was in fact paralysed, and a universal cry of distress was heard throughout the town.' Of course the Campbell firm suffered with the rest. Beattie, who had access to the books, declares that Alexander Campbell's personal loss could not have been less than twenty thousand pounds. Whatever the sum was, it represented practically the whole of Campbell's savings. This was a serious blow to a man of sixty- five, with ten surviving children and an eleventh child expected. He set himself to retrieve his fortunes as best he could, but he never recovered his position ; and we are told that his family henceforward had to be brought up on an income — partly derived from boarders — that barely sufficed to purchase the common necessaries of life. It was, however, in these days of declining for- tunes that the family was destined to receive its most notable member.
have a suit in the Court of Chancery which has lasted thirty years, and I think it will never wear out.' The worthy man lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-one, dying in Edinburgh — whither he had retired with his household three years before — in 1801. In his last days 'my son Thomas' was the main theme of his conversation.
Some years before the revolution he immigrated to America and was a merchant in Falmouth, Virginia On the breaking out of the war he adhered to the cause of the crown, lost his property, and returned to Scotland in 1776, in a very impoverished condition. He settled in Glasgow, and there his son Thomas, the distinguished poet, was born in 1777. Archibald Campbell, brother of Alexander, an Episcopal minister and a Whig, remained in the country and had Washington and Lee among his parishioners. An elder brother of the poet married a daughter of Patrick Henry.
CAMPBELL, THOMAS, a distinguished poet, the most perfect lyrical writer of his time, was born at Glasgow on the 27rh of July, 1777. Alexander Campbell, the father of the poet, was the youngest of the three sons of the laird of Kirnan, and was born in 1710. He was educated for the mercantile profession, and early in life went to America, where he entered into business, and resided many years at Falmouth, in Virginia. There he had the pleasure of receiving his brother Archibald, on his first quitting Jamaica to settle in the United States, and there also, about ten years afterwards, he formed an intimate acquaintance with Daniel Campbell, a clansman, but no relation, with whom he returned to Glasgow, and there entered into partnership with him as Virginian traders, under the firm of Alexander and Daniel Campbell. For some years their business prospered, and both partners were highly esteemed as men of probity and experience. Daniel, the junior partner, had a sister named Margaret, whom Alexander took to be his wife, and she became the mother of the poet. They were married in the cathedral church of Glasgow on the 12th of January 1756. At this time Mrs. Campbell was about twenty, while her husband had reached the mature age of forty-five. They had eight sons and three daughters, and the poet, who was the youngest of the family, was born when his father had reached his 67th year, the age at which he himself died.
The outbreak of the war with America in 1775, two years before the poet's birth, ruined the Virginia trade, and many of the Glasgow merchants suffered severely in their business and fortunes. Amongst others, the old and respectable firm of Alexander and Daniel Campbell sustained losses from which they never recovered, and saw very nearly the whole amount of forty years' successful industry swept away at once, frm the failure of other houses with which they were connected. The poet's father is stated by his biographer to have lost at this disastrous time a sum of not less than twenty thousand pounds, while his uncle, Daniel Campbell, always estimated his own individual loss at eleven or twelve thousand pounds.
The poet's father died at the age of 91, in the spring of 1801, and his death is recorded in the ‘Edinburgh Magazine,' with high encomiums on his moral and religious character. He is mentioned as a gentleman of unblemished integrity and amiable manners, who united the scholar and the man of business, and amidst the corroding cares of trade, cherished a liberal and enthusiastic love of literature. His mother was a person of much taste and refinement, and well educated for the age and the sphere in which she moved. She is described as being passionately fond of music, particularly sacred music, and she sang many of the popular melodies of Scotland with taste and effect. She knew many of the traditional songs of the Highlands, especially those of Argyleshire, and from her it seems probable that the love of song was early imbibed and cultivated by her children.
The poet was born in his father's house in the High street of Glasgow, which stood nearly opposite the university, but has long since been taken down. He was baptized by Dr. Thomas Reid, professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow, who preached in the college-hall on Sabbaths, and after whom he was named. He received the rudiments of his education at the grammar school, now called the high school, of his native city. At the age of seven he commenced the study of the Latin language under the Rev. David Alison, a teacher of much reputation. At this time he possessed a vivacity of imagination and a vigour of mind surprising in a boy so young. A strong inclination for poetry was already discernible in him, and at an early age he began to write verses. At the grammar school he became an enthusiastic admirer of Greek; and a passion for the Greek poets and orators distinguished him during life. In October 1791, when in this thirteenth year, he entered Glasgow university. At this period he is described as having, with uncommon personal beauty, possessed a winning gentleness and modesty of manners, a cheerful and happy disposition, and a generous sensibility of heart, which made him the object of universal favour and admiration.
we may be con- tent to begin with the poet's grandfather, Archibald Campbell. He was the last to reside on the family estate of Kirnan. Late in life he had taken a second wife, a daughter of Stewart, the laird of Ascog. Be- fore her marriage the lady had lived much in the Low- lands, and now she said she could not live in the Highlands : the solitude preyed upon her health and spirits. Hence it came about that the laird of Kirnan set up house in an old mansion in the Trunkmaker's Row, off the Canongate of Edinburgh, where the poet's father, the youngest of three sons, was born in 1 7 l0.
Beyond the interesting fact that he was educated under the care of Robert Wodrow, the celebrated historian and preacher, from whose teaching he drew the strict religious principles which regulated his life, we hear nothing of the earlier years of Alexander Camp- bell. He went to America, and was in business for some time at Falmouth, in Virginia. There he met with the son of a Glasgow merchant, another Campbell, to whom he was quite unrelated, and together the two returned to Scotland to start in Glasgow as Virginia traders. The new firm at first prospered in a high degree, for Glasgow about the middle of the eighteenth century was just touching the culminating point of her commerce with the American colonies. Even as early as 1735 the Glasgow merchants had fifteen large vessels engaged in the tobacco trade alone. But the outbreak of the American War in 1775 put a speedy end to the city's success in this direction. * Some of the Virginia lords,' says Dr Strang, 'ere long retired from the trade, and others of them were ultimately ruined. Business for a time was in fact paralysed, and a universal cry of distress was heard throughout the town.'
Of course the Campbell firm suffered with the rest. Beattie, who had access to the books, declares that Alexander Campbell's personal loss could not have been less than twenty thousand pounds. Whatever the sum was, it represented practically the whole of Campbell's savings. This was a serious blow to a man of sixty- five, with ten surviving children and an eleventh child expected. He set himself to retrieve his fortunes as best he could, but he never recovered his position ; and we are told that his family henceforward had to be brought up on an income — partly derived from boarders — that barely sufficed to purchase the common necessaries of life. It was, however, in these days of declining for- tunes that the family was destined to receive its most notable member. The eleventh and last child, antici- pated perhaps with misgiving, was Thomas Campbell, who was born on the 27th of July 1777, his father
being then sixty-seven, and his mother some twenty-five years less.
It will be well to say here all that needs farther to be said about the poet's parents. Alexander Campbell belonged to a Scottish type now all but extinct — stolid, meditative, somewhat dour, fond of theology and the abstract sciences : leading the family devotions in ex- tempore prayer; regarding the Sunday sermon as essential to salvation, and less concerned about the amount of his income than about his honour and integrity. As his son puts it : Truth, standing on her solid square, from youth He worshipped — stern, uncompromising truth.
That he was a man of character and intelligence is clear from the fact that he numbered among his inti- mates such distinguished men as Adam Smith and Dr Thomas Reid, the successive occupants of the Moral Philosophy Chair at Glasgow. When Reid published his * Inquiry into the Human Mind,' he gave a copy to Alexander Campbell, who read it and said he was edified by it. ' I am glad you are pleased with it,' remarked Reid ; ' there are now at least two men in Glasgow who understand my work — Alexander Camp- bell and myself.' He had the saving grace of humour, too, this old Virginia trader, though, from a specimen given, it was apparently not of a very brilliant kind. Some of the boys were discussing the best colours for a new suit of clothes. ' Lads,' said the father, whose propensity for punning not even chagrin at the law's delays could suppress, ' lads, if you wish to get a lasting suit, get one like mine. I have a suit in the Court of Chancery which has lasted thirty years, and I think it will never wear out.' The worthy man lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-one, dying in Edinburgh — whither he had retired with his household three years before — in 1801. In his last days 'my son Thomas' was the main theme of his conversation.
Alexander Campbell had not married until he reached his forty-sixth year, and then he chose the young sister of his partner, an energetic girl of twenty-one. It must have been from her that the son drew his poetic strain. She is spoken of as 'an admirable manager and a clever woman,' and, what is of more interest, ' a person of much taste and refinement.' She brought to the home the poetry in counterpoise to her husband's philosophy. Like Leigh Hunt's mother, she was ' fond of music, and a gentle singer in her way ' : her poet son, as we shall find, was also fond of music, sang a little, and was, in his earlier years at least, devoted to the flute. To her children she was certainly not over- indulgent ; indeed she is said to have been ' unneces- sarily severe or even harsh ' ; but the mother of so large a family, with ordinary cares enhanced by the necessity for practising petty economies, would have been an angel if she had always been sweet and gracious. Be- tween her and her youngest boy there seems to have been a particular affection, and when he began to make some stir in the world, no one was more elated with pardonable pride than she. There is a story told of her having asked a shopman to address a parcel to ' Mrs Campbell, mother of the author of " The Plea- sures of Hope.'" She survived her husband for eleven years, and died in Edinburgh in 181 2, at the age of seventy-six. The house in which Campbell and his family resided at the time of the poet's birth, was a little to the west of High Street near the foot of Balmanno Brae, and in the line of the present George Street. Beattie, writing in 1849, speaks of it as having long since disappeared under the march of civic improvement, and as a matter of fact it was demolished in 1794 when George Street was opened up. The Glasgow of 1777 was of course a very different place from what it is to-day — very different from what it was when Defoe could describe it as 'one of the cleanest, most beautiful, and best-built cities of Great Britain'; when Smollett, himself a Glasgow youth, saw in it 'one of the prettiest towns in Europe.' In 1777 Glasgow was only laying the foundations of her commercial prosperity. She had, it is true, established her tobacco trade with the American plantations, and her sugar trade with the West Indies, but her character as the seat of an ancient Church and University had not been materially altered thereby.
It may be convenient to set down in a note a list of Campbell's brothers and sisters, with dates of birth and death. The details are from the family Bible : Mary, 1757-1843 ; Isabella, 1758-1837 ; Archibald, 1760-1830; Alexander, 176 1- 1826 ; John, 1763-1806; Elizabeth, 1765-1829; Daniel, 1767-1767 ; Robert, 1768-1807; James, 1770-1783 ; Daniel, 1773 ? Archibald and Robert went to Virginia, and John to Demcrara.
Unfortunately, just as he (Thomas) had got into this happy state of mind, he was startled by the news of his father's death. He had heard nothing of the old man's illness, and bitterly reproached himself for hav- ing left him in his last days. It was, however, some comfort to him to learn that Dr Anderson had watched at his bedside, and, when all was over, had seen his remains laid reverently in the cemetery of St John's Chapel. He died as he had lived, pious and placid, full of religious hope as of years. Campbell went home to console his mother and sisters, and to set their affairs in order. His father's annuity from the Glasgow Merchants' Society died with him ; the sisters were good-looking but valetudinarian, and Campbell could only promise that if a new edition of 'The Pleasures of Hope' succeeded he would furnish a house in which they might keep boarders and teach school. Once in the house, he told them, they would have to trust in Providence.
have a suit in the Court of Chancery which has lasted thirty years, and I think it will never wear out.' The worthy man lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-one, dying in Edinburgh — whither he had retired with his household three years before — in 1801. In his last days 'my son Thomas' was the main theme of his conversation.
Some years before the revolution he immigrated to America and was a merchant in Falmouth, Virginia On the breaking out of the war he adhered to the cause of the crown, lost his property, and returned to Scotland in 1776, in a very impoverished condition. He settled in Glasgow, and there his son Thomas, the distinguished poet, was born in 1777. Archibald Campbell, brother of Alexander, an Episcopal minister and a Whig, remained in the country and had Washington and Lee among his parishioners. An elder brother of the poet married a daughter of Patrick Henry.
CAMPBELL, THOMAS, a distinguished poet, the most perfect lyrical writer of his time, was born at Glasgow on the 27rh of July, 1777. Alexander Campbell, the father of the poet, was the youngest of the three sons of the laird of Kirnan, and was born in 1710. He was educated for the mercantile profession, and early in life went to America, where he entered into business, and resided many years at Falmouth, in Virginia. There he had the pleasure of receiving his brother Archibald, on his first quitting Jamaica to settle in the United States, and there also, about ten years afterwards, he formed an intimate acquaintance with Daniel Campbell, a clansman, but no relation, with whom he returned to Glasgow, and there entered into partnership with him as Virginian traders, under the firm of Alexander and Daniel Campbell. For some years their business prospered, and both partners were highly esteemed as men of probity and experience. Daniel, the junior partner, had a sister named Margaret, whom Alexander took to be his wife, and she became the mother of the poet. They were married in the cathedral church of Glasgow on the 12th of January 1756. At this time Mrs. Campbell was about twenty, while her husband had reached the mature age of forty-five. They had eight sons and three daughters, and the poet, who was the youngest of the family, was born when his father had reached his 67th year, the age at which he himself died.
The outbreak of the war with America in 1775, two years before the poet's birth, ruined the Virginia trade, and many of the Glasgow merchants suffered severely in their business and fortunes. Amongst others, the old and respectable firm of Alexander and Daniel Campbell sustained losses from which they never recovered, and saw very nearly the whole amount of forty years' successful industry swept away at once, frm the failure of other houses with which they were connected. The poet's father is stated by his biographer to have lost at this disastrous time a sum of not less than twenty thousand pounds, while his uncle, Daniel Campbell, always estimated his own individual loss at eleven or twelve thousand pounds.
The poet's father died at the age of 91, in the spring of 1801, and his death is recorded in the ‘Edinburgh Magazine,' with high encomiums on his moral and religious character. He is mentioned as a gentleman of unblemished integrity and amiable manners, who united the scholar and the man of business, and amidst the corroding cares of trade, cherished a liberal and enthusiastic love of literature. His mother was a person of much taste and refinement, and well educated for the age and the sphere in which she moved. She is described as being passionately fond of music, particularly sacred music, and she sang many of the popular melodies of Scotland with taste and effect. She knew many of the traditional songs of the Highlands, especially those of Argyleshire, and from her it seems probable that the love of song was early imbibed and cultivated by her children.
The poet was born in his father's house in the High street of Glasgow, which stood nearly opposite the university, but has long since been taken down. He was baptized by Dr. Thomas Reid, professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow, who preached in the college-hall on Sabbaths, and after whom he was named. He received the rudiments of his education at the grammar school, now called the high school, of his native city. At the age of seven he commenced the study of the Latin language under the Rev. David Alison, a teacher of much reputation. At this time he possessed a vivacity of imagination and a vigour of mind surprising in a boy so young. A strong inclination for poetry was already discernible in him, and at an early age he began to write verses. At the grammar school he became an enthusiastic admirer of Greek; and a passion for the Greek poets and orators distinguished him during life. In October 1791, when in this thirteenth year, he entered Glasgow university. At this period he is described as having, with uncommon personal beauty, possessed a winning gentleness and modesty of manners, a cheerful and happy disposition, and a generous sensibility of heart, which made him the object of universal favour and admiration.
we may be con- tent to begin with the poet's grandfather, Archibald Campbell. He was the last to reside on the family estate of Kirnan. Late in life he had taken a second wife, a daughter of Stewart, the laird of Ascog. Be- fore her marriage the lady had lived much in the Low- lands, and now she said she could not live in the Highlands : the solitude preyed upon her health and spirits. Hence it came about that the laird of Kirnan set up house in an old mansion in the Trunkmaker's Row, off the Canongate of Edinburgh, where the poet's father, the youngest of three sons, was born in 1 7 l0.
Beyond the interesting fact that he was educated under the care of Robert Wodrow, the celebrated historian and preacher, from whose teaching he drew the strict religious principles which regulated his life, we hear nothing of the earlier years of Alexander Camp- bell. He went to America, and was in business for some time at Falmouth, in Virginia. There he met with the son of a Glasgow merchant, another Campbell, to whom he was quite unrelated, and together the two returned to Scotland to start in Glasgow as Virginia traders. The new firm at first prospered in a high degree, for Glasgow about the middle of the eighteenth century was just touching the culminating point of her commerce with the American colonies. Even as early as 1735 the Glasgow merchants had fifteen large vessels engaged in the tobacco trade alone. But the outbreak of the American War in 1775 put a speedy end to the city's success in this direction. * Some of the Virginia lords,' says Dr Strang, 'ere long retired from the trade, and others of them were ultimately ruined. Business for a time was in fact paralysed, and a universal cry of distress was heard throughout the town.'
Of course the Campbell firm suffered with the rest. Beattie, who had access to the books, declares that Alexander Campbell's personal loss could not have been less than twenty thousand pounds. Whatever the sum was, it represented practically the whole of Campbell's savings. This was a serious blow to a man of sixty- five, with ten surviving children and an eleventh child expected. He set himself to retrieve his fortunes as best he could, but he never recovered his position ; and we are told that his family henceforward had to be brought up on an income — partly derived from boarders — that barely sufficed to purchase the common necessaries of life. It was, however, in these days of declining for- tunes that the family was destined to receive its most notable member. The eleventh and last child, antici- pated perhaps with misgiving, was Thomas Campbell, who was born on the 27th of July 1777, his father
being then sixty-seven, and his mother some twenty-five years less.
It will be well to say here all that needs farther to be said about the poet's parents. Alexander Campbell belonged to a Scottish type now all but extinct — stolid, meditative, somewhat dour, fond of theology and the abstract sciences : leading the family devotions in ex- tempore prayer; regarding the Sunday sermon as essential to salvation, and less concerned about the amount of his income than about his honour and integrity. As his son puts it : Truth, standing on her solid square, from youth He worshipped — stern, uncompromising truth.
That he was a man of character and intelligence is clear from the fact that he numbered among his inti- mates such distinguished men as Adam Smith and Dr Thomas Reid, the successive occupants of the Moral Philosophy Chair at Glasgow. When Reid published his * Inquiry into the Human Mind,' he gave a copy to Alexander Campbell, who read it and said he was edified by it. ' I am glad you are pleased with it,' remarked Reid ; ' there are now at least two men in Glasgow who understand my work — Alexander Camp- bell and myself.' He had the saving grace of humour, too, this old Virginia trader, though, from a specimen given, it was apparently not of a very brilliant kind. Some of the boys were discussing the best colours for a new suit of clothes. ' Lads,' said the father, whose propensity for punning not even chagrin at the law's delays could suppress, ' lads, if you wish to get a lasting suit, get one like mine. I have a suit in the Court of Chancery which has lasted thirty years, and I think it will never wear out.' The worthy man lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-one, dying in Edinburgh — whither he had retired with his household three years before — in 1801. In his last days 'my son Thomas' was the main theme of his conversation.
Alexander Campbell had not married until he reached his forty-sixth year, and then he chose the young sister of his partner, an energetic girl of twenty-one. It must have been from her that the son drew his poetic strain. She is spoken of as 'an admirable manager and a clever woman,' and, what is of more interest, ' a person of much taste and refinement.' She brought to the home the poetry in counterpoise to her husband's philosophy. Like Leigh Hunt's mother, she was ' fond of music, and a gentle singer in her way ' : her poet son, as we shall find, was also fond of music, sang a little, and was, in his earlier years at least, devoted to the flute. To her children she was certainly not over- indulgent ; indeed she is said to have been ' unneces- sarily severe or even harsh ' ; but the mother of so large a family, with ordinary cares enhanced by the necessity for practising petty economies, would have been an angel if she had always been sweet and gracious. Be- tween her and her youngest boy there seems to have been a particular affection, and when he began to make some stir in the world, no one was more elated with pardonable pride than she. There is a story told of her having asked a shopman to address a parcel to ' Mrs Campbell, mother of the author of " The Plea- sures of Hope.'" She survived her husband for eleven years, and died in Edinburgh in 181 2, at the age of seventy-six. The house in which Campbell and his family resided at the time of the poet's birth, was a little to the west of High Street near the foot of Balmanno Brae, and in the line of the present George Street. Beattie, writing in 1849, speaks of it as having long since disappeared under the march of civic improvement, and as a matter of fact it was demolished in 1794 when George Street was opened up. The Glasgow of 1777 was of course a very different place from what it is to-day — very different from what it was when Defoe could describe it as 'one of the cleanest, most beautiful, and best-built cities of Great Britain'; when Smollett, himself a Glasgow youth, saw in it 'one of the prettiest towns in Europe.' In 1777 Glasgow was only laying the foundations of her commercial prosperity. She had, it is true, established her tobacco trade with the American plantations, and her sugar trade with the West Indies, but her character as the seat of an ancient Church and University had not been materially altered thereby.
It may be convenient to set down in a note a list of Campbell's brothers and sisters, with dates of birth and death. The details are from the family Bible : Mary, 1757-1843 ; Isabella, 1758-1837 ; Archibald, 1760-1830; Alexander, 176 1- 1826 ; John, 1763-1806; Elizabeth, 1765-1829; Daniel, 1767-1767 ; Robert, 1768-1807; James, 1770-1783 ; Daniel, 1773 ? Archibald and Robert went to Virginia, and John to Demcrara.
Unfortunately, just as he (Thomas) had got into this happy state of mind, he was startled by the news of his father's death. He had heard nothing of the old man's illness, and bitterly reproached himself for hav- ing left him in his last days. It was, however, some comfort to him to learn that Dr Anderson had watched at his bedside, and, when all was over, had seen his remains laid reverently in the cemetery of St John's Chapel. He died as he had lived, pious and placid, full of religious hope as of years. Campbell went home to console his mother and sisters, and to set their affairs in order. His father's annuity from the Glasgow Merchants' Society died with him ; the sisters were good-looking but valetudinarian, and Campbell could only promise that if a new edition of 'The Pleasures of Hope' succeeded he would furnish a house in which they might keep boarders and teach school. Once in the house, he told them, they would have to trust in Providence.
Hence it came about that the laird of Kirnan set up house in an old mansion in the Trunkmaker's Row, off the Canongate of Edinburgh, where the poet's father, the youngest of three sons, was born in 1710. Beyond the interesting fact that he was educated under the care of Robert Wodrow, the celebrated his-torian and preacher, from whose teaching he drew the strict religious principles which regulated his life, we hear nothing of the earlier years of Alexander Camp- bell. He went to America, and was in business for some time at Falmouth, in Virginia. There he met with the son of a Glasgow merchant, another Campbell, to whom he was quite unrelated, and together the two returned to Scotland to start in Glasgow as Virginia traders. The new firm at first prospered in a high degree, for Glasgow about the middle of the eighteenth century was just touching the culminating point of her commerce with the American colonies. Even as early as 1735 the Glasgow merchants had fifteen large vessels engaged in the tobacco trade alone. But the outbreak of the American War in 1775 put a speedy end to the city's success in this direction. * Some of the Virginia lords,' says Dr Strang, 'ere long retired from the trade, and others of them were ultimately ruined. Business for a time was in fact paralysed, and a universal cry of distress was heard throughout the town.' Of course the Campbell firm suffered with the rest. Beattie, who had access to the books, declares that Alexander Campbell's personal loss could not have been less than twenty thousand pounds. Whatever the sum was, it represented practically the whole of Campbell's savings. This was a serious blow to a man of sixty- five, with ten surviving children and an eleventh child expected. He set himself to retrieve his fortunes as best he could, but he never recovered his position ; and we are told that his family henceforward had to be brought up on an income — partly derived from boarders — that barely sufficed to purchase the common necessaries of life. It was, however, in these days of declining for- tunes that the family was destined to receive its most notable member.
have a suit in the Court of Chancery which has lasted thirty years, and I think it will never wear out.' The worthy man lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-one, dying in Edinburgh — whither he had retired with his household three years before — in 1801. In his last days 'my son Thomas' was the main theme of his conversation.
Some years before the revolution he immigrated to America and was a merchant in Falmouth, Virginia On the breaking out of the war he adhered to the cause of the crown, lost his property, and returned to Scotland in 1776, in a very impoverished condition. He settled in Glasgow, and there his son Thomas, the distinguished poet, was born in 1777. Archibald Campbell, brother of Alexander, an Episcopal minister and a Whig, remained in the country and had Washington and Lee among his parishioners. An elder brother of the poet married a daughter of Patrick Henry.
CAMPBELL, THOMAS, a distinguished poet, the most perfect lyrical writer of his time, was born at Glasgow on the 27rh of July, 1777. Alexander Campbell, the father of the poet, was the youngest of the three sons of the laird of Kirnan, and was born in 1710. He was educated for the mercantile profession, and early in life went to America, where he entered into business, and resided many years at Falmouth, in Virginia. There he had the pleasure of receiving his brother Archibald, on his first quitting Jamaica to settle in the United States, and there also, about ten years afterwards, he formed an intimate acquaintance with Daniel Campbell, a clansman, but no relation, with whom he returned to Glasgow, and there entered into partnership with him as Virginian traders, under the firm of Alexander and Daniel Campbell. For some years their business prospered, and both partners were highly esteemed as men of probity and experience. Daniel, the junior partner, had a sister named Margaret, whom Alexander took to be his wife, and she became the mother of the poet. They were married in the cathedral church of Glasgow on the 12th of January 1756. At this time Mrs. Campbell was about twenty, while her husband had reached the mature age of forty-five. They had eight sons and three daughters, and the poet, who was the youngest of the family, was born when his father had reached his 67th year, the age at which he himself died.
The outbreak of the war with America in 1775, two years before the poet's birth, ruined the Virginia trade, and many of the Glasgow merchants suffered severely in their business and fortunes. Amongst others, the old and respectable firm of Alexander and Daniel Campbell sustained losses from which they never recovered, and saw very nearly the whole amount of forty years' successful industry swept away at once, frm the failure of other houses with which they were connected. The poet's father is stated by his biographer to have lost at this disastrous time a sum of not less than twenty thousand pounds, while his uncle, Daniel Campbell, always estimated his own individual loss at eleven or twelve thousand pounds.
The poet's father died at the age of 91, in the spring of 1801, and his death is recorded in the ‘Edinburgh Magazine,' with high encomiums on his moral and religious character. He is mentioned as a gentleman of unblemished integrity and amiable manners, who united the scholar and the man of business, and amidst the corroding cares of trade, cherished a liberal and enthusiastic love of literature. His mother was a person of much taste and refinement, and well educated for the age and the sphere in which she moved. She is described as being passionately fond of music, particularly sacred music, and she sang many of the popular melodies of Scotland with taste and effect. She knew many of the traditional songs of the Highlands, especially those of Argyleshire, and from her it seems probable that the love of song was early imbibed and cultivated by her children.
The poet was born in his father's house in the High street of Glasgow, which stood nearly opposite the university, but has long since been taken down. He was baptized by Dr. Thomas Reid, professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow, who preached in the college-hall on Sabbaths, and after whom he was named. He received the rudiments of his education at the grammar school, now called the high school, of his native city. At the age of seven he commenced the study of the Latin language under the Rev. David Alison, a teacher of much reputation. At this time he possessed a vivacity of imagination and a vigour of mind surprising in a boy so young. A strong inclination for poetry was already discernible in him, and at an early age he began to write verses. At the grammar school he became an enthusiastic admirer of Greek; and a passion for the Greek poets and orators distinguished him during life. In October 1791, when in this thirteenth year, he entered Glasgow university. At this period he is described as having, with uncommon personal beauty, possessed a winning gentleness and modesty of manners, a cheerful and happy disposition, and a generous sensibility of heart, which made him the object of universal favour and admiration.
we may be con- tent to begin with the poet's grandfather, Archibald Campbell. He was the last to reside on the family estate of Kirnan. Late in life he had taken a second wife, a daughter of Stewart, the laird of Ascog. Be- fore her marriage the lady had lived much in the Low- lands, and now she said she could not live in the Highlands : the solitude preyed upon her health and spirits. Hence it came about that the laird of Kirnan set up house in an old mansion in the Trunkmaker's Row, off the Canongate of Edinburgh, where the poet's father, the youngest of three sons, was born in 1 7 l0.
Beyond the interesting fact that he was educated under the care of Robert Wodrow, the celebrated historian and preacher, from whose teaching he drew the strict religious principles which regulated his life, we hear nothing of the earlier years of Alexander Camp- bell. He went to America, and was in business for some time at Falmouth, in Virginia. There he met with the son of a Glasgow merchant, another Campbell, to whom he was quite unrelated, and together the two returned to Scotland to start in Glasgow as Virginia traders. The new firm at first prospered in a high degree, for Glasgow about the middle of the eighteenth century was just touching the culminating point of her commerce with the American colonies. Even as early as 1735 the Glasgow merchants had fifteen large vessels engaged in the tobacco trade alone. But the outbreak of the American War in 1775 put a speedy end to the city's success in this direction. * Some of the Virginia lords,' says Dr Strang, 'ere long retired from the trade, and others of them were ultimately ruined. Business for a time was in fact paralysed, and a universal cry of distress was heard throughout the town.'
Of course the Campbell firm suffered with the rest. Beattie, who had access to the books, declares that Alexander Campbell's personal loss could not have been less than twenty thousand pounds. Whatever the sum was, it represented practically the whole of Campbell's savings. This was a serious blow to a man of sixty- five, with ten surviving children and an eleventh child expected. He set himself to retrieve his fortunes as best he could, but he never recovered his position ; and we are told that his family henceforward had to be brought up on an income — partly derived from boarders — that barely sufficed to purchase the common necessaries of life. It was, however, in these days of declining for- tunes that the family was destined to receive its most notable member. The eleventh and last child, antici- pated perhaps with misgiving, was Thomas Campbell, who was born on the 27th of July 1777, his father
being then sixty-seven, and his mother some twenty-five years less.
It will be well to say here all that needs farther to be said about the poet's parents. Alexander Campbell belonged to a Scottish type now all but extinct — stolid, meditative, somewhat dour, fond of theology and the abstract sciences : leading the family devotions in ex- tempore prayer; regarding the Sunday sermon as essential to salvation, and less concerned about the amount of his income than about his honour and integrity. As his son puts it : Truth, standing on her solid square, from youth He worshipped — stern, uncompromising truth.
That he was a man of character and intelligence is clear from the fact that he numbered among his inti- mates such distinguished men as Adam Smith and Dr Thomas Reid, the successive occupants of the Moral Philosophy Chair at Glasgow. When Reid published his * Inquiry into the Human Mind,' he gave a copy to Alexander Campbell, who read it and said he was edified by it. ' I am glad you are pleased with it,' remarked Reid ; ' there are now at least two men in Glasgow who understand my work — Alexander Camp- bell and myself.' He had the saving grace of humour, too, this old Virginia trader, though, from a specimen given, it was apparently not of a very brilliant kind. Some of the boys were discussing the best colours for a new suit of clothes. ' Lads,' said the father, whose propensity for punning not even chagrin at the law's delays could suppress, ' lads, if you wish to get a lasting suit, get one like mine. I have a suit in the Court of Chancery which has lasted thirty years, and I think it will never wear out.' The worthy man lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-one, dying in Edinburgh — whither he had retired with his household three years before — in 1801. In his last days 'my son Thomas' was the main theme of his conversation.
Alexander Campbell had not married until he reached his forty-sixth year, and then he chose the young sister of his partner, an energetic girl of twenty-one. It must have been from her that the son drew his poetic strain. She is spoken of as 'an admirable manager and a clever woman,' and, what is of more interest, ' a person of much taste and refinement.' She brought to the home the poetry in counterpoise to her husband's philosophy. Like Leigh Hunt's mother, she was ' fond of music, and a gentle singer in her way ' : her poet son, as we shall find, was also fond of music, sang a little, and was, in his earlier years at least, devoted to the flute. To her children she was certainly not over- indulgent ; indeed she is said to have been ' unneces- sarily severe or even harsh ' ; but the mother of so large a family, with ordinary cares enhanced by the necessity for practising petty economies, would have been an angel if she had always been sweet and gracious. Be- tween her and her youngest boy there seems to have been a particular affection, and when he began to make some stir in the world, no one was more elated with pardonable pride than she. There is a story told of her having asked a shopman to address a parcel to ' Mrs Campbell, mother of the author of " The Plea- sures of Hope.'" She survived her husband for eleven years, and died in Edinburgh in 181 2, at the age of seventy-six. The house in which Campbell and his family resided at the time of the poet's birth, was a little to the west of High Street near the foot of Balmanno Brae, and in the line of the present George Street. Beattie, writing in 1849, speaks of it as having long since disappeared under the march of civic improvement, and as a matter of fact it was demolished in 1794 when George Street was opened up. The Glasgow of 1777 was of course a very different place from what it is to-day — very different from what it was when Defoe could describe it as 'one of the cleanest, most beautiful, and best-built cities of Great Britain'; when Smollett, himself a Glasgow youth, saw in it 'one of the prettiest towns in Europe.' In 1777 Glasgow was only laying the foundations of her commercial prosperity. She had, it is true, established her tobacco trade with the American plantations, and her sugar trade with the West Indies, but her character as the seat of an ancient Church and University had not been materially altered thereby.
It may be convenient to set down in a note a list of Campbell's brothers and sisters, with dates of birth and death. The details are from the family Bible : Mary, 1757-1843 ; Isabella, 1758-1837 ; Archibald, 1760-1830; Alexander, 176 1- 1826 ; John, 1763-1806; Elizabeth, 1765-1829; Daniel, 1767-1767 ; Robert, 1768-1807; James, 1770-1783 ; Daniel, 1773 ? Archibald and Robert went to Virginia, and John to Demcrara.
Unfortunately, just as he (Thomas) had got into this happy state of mind, he was startled by the news of his father's death. He had heard nothing of the old man's illness, and bitterly reproached himself for hav- ing left him in his last days. It was, however, some comfort to him to learn that Dr Anderson had watched at his bedside, and, when all was over, had seen his remains laid reverently in the cemetery of St John's Chapel. He died as he had lived, pious and placid, full of religious hope as of years. Campbell went home to console his mother and sisters, and to set their affairs in order. His father's annuity from the Glasgow Merchants' Society died with him ; the sisters were good-looking but valetudinarian, and Campbell could only promise that if a new edition of 'The Pleasures of Hope' succeeded he would furnish a house in which they might keep boarders and teach school. Once in the house, he told them, they would have to trust in Providence.
have a suit in the Court of Chancery which has lasted thirty years, and I think it will never wear out.' The worthy man lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-one, dying in Edinburgh — whither he had retired with his household three years before — in 1801. In his last days 'my son Thomas' was the main theme of his conversation.
Some years before the revolution he immigrated to America and was a merchant in Falmouth, Virginia On the breaking out of the war he adhered to the cause of the crown, lost his property, and returned to Scotland in 1776, in a very impoverished condition. He settled in Glasgow, and there his son Thomas, the distinguished poet, was born in 1777. Archibald Campbell, brother of Alexander, an Episcopal minister and a Whig, remained in the country and had Washington and Lee among his parishioners. An elder brother of the poet married a daughter of Patrick Henry.
CAMPBELL, THOMAS, a distinguished poet, the most perfect lyrical writer of his time, was born at Glasgow on the 27rh of July, 1777. Alexander Campbell, the father of the poet, was the youngest of the three sons of the laird of Kirnan, and was born in 1710. He was educated for the mercantile profession, and early in life went to America, where he entered into business, and resided many years at Falmouth, in Virginia. There he had the pleasure of receiving his brother Archibald, on his first quitting Jamaica to settle in the United States, and there also, about ten years afterwards, he formed an intimate acquaintance with Daniel Campbell, a clansman, but no relation, with whom he returned to Glasgow, and there entered into partnership with him as Virginian traders, under the firm of Alexander and Daniel Campbell. For some years their business prospered, and both partners were highly esteemed as men of probity and experience. Daniel, the junior partner, had a sister named Margaret, whom Alexander took to be his wife, and she became the mother of the poet. They were married in the cathedral church of Glasgow on the 12th of January 1756. At this time Mrs. Campbell was about twenty, while her husband had reached the mature age of forty-five. They had eight sons and three daughters, and the poet, who was the youngest of the family, was born when his father had reached his 67th year, the age at which he himself died.
The outbreak of the war with America in 1775, two years before the poet's birth, ruined the Virginia trade, and many of the Glasgow merchants suffered severely in their business and fortunes. Amongst others, the old and respectable firm of Alexander and Daniel Campbell sustained losses from which they never recovered, and saw very nearly the whole amount of forty years' successful industry swept away at once, frm the failure of other houses with which they were connected. The poet's father is stated by his biographer to have lost at this disastrous time a sum of not less than twenty thousand pounds, while his uncle, Daniel Campbell, always estimated his own individual loss at eleven or twelve thousand pounds.
The poet's father died at the age of 91, in the spring of 1801, and his death is recorded in the ‘Edinburgh Magazine,' with high encomiums on his moral and religious character. He is mentioned as a gentleman of unblemished integrity and amiable manners, who united the scholar and the man of business, and amidst the corroding cares of trade, cherished a liberal and enthusiastic love of literature. His mother was a person of much taste and refinement, and well educated for the age and the sphere in which she moved. She is described as being passionately fond of music, particularly sacred music, and she sang many of the popular melodies of Scotland with taste and effect. She knew many of the traditional songs of the Highlands, especially those of Argyleshire, and from her it seems probable that the love of song was early imbibed and cultivated by her children.
The poet was born in his father's house in the High street of Glasgow, which stood nearly opposite the university, but has long since been taken down. He was baptized by Dr. Thomas Reid, professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow, who preached in the college-hall on Sabbaths, and after whom he was named. He received the rudiments of his education at the grammar school, now called the high school, of his native city. At the age of seven he commenced the study of the Latin language under the Rev. David Alison, a teacher of much reputation. At this time he possessed a vivacity of imagination and a vigour of mind surprising in a boy so young. A strong inclination for poetry was already discernible in him, and at an early age he began to write verses. At the grammar school he became an enthusiastic admirer of Greek; and a passion for the Greek poets and orators distinguished him during life. In October 1791, when in this thirteenth year, he entered Glasgow university. At this period he is described as having, with uncommon personal beauty, possessed a winning gentleness and modesty of manners, a cheerful and happy disposition, and a generous sensibility of heart, which made him the object of universal favour and admiration.
we may be con- tent to begin with the poet's grandfather, Archibald Campbell. He was the last to reside on the family estate of Kirnan. Late in life he had taken a second wife, a daughter of Stewart, the laird of Ascog. Be- fore her marriage the lady had lived much in the Low- lands, and now she said she could not live in the Highlands : the solitude preyed upon her health and spirits. Hence it came about that the laird of Kirnan set up house in an old mansion in the Trunkmaker's Row, off the Canongate of Edinburgh, where the poet's father, the youngest of three sons, was born in 1 7 l0.
Beyond the interesting fact that he was educated under the care of Robert Wodrow, the celebrated historian and preacher, from whose teaching he drew the strict religious principles which regulated his life, we hear nothing of the earlier years of Alexander Camp- bell. He went to America, and was in business for some time at Falmouth, in Virginia. There he met with the son of a Glasgow merchant, another Campbell, to whom he was quite unrelated, and together the two returned to Scotland to start in Glasgow as Virginia traders. The new firm at first prospered in a high degree, for Glasgow about the middle of the eighteenth century was just touching the culminating point of her commerce with the American colonies. Even as early as 1735 the Glasgow merchants had fifteen large vessels engaged in the tobacco trade alone. But the outbreak of the American War in 1775 put a speedy end to the city's success in this direction. * Some of the Virginia lords,' says Dr Strang, 'ere long retired from the trade, and others of them were ultimately ruined. Business for a time was in fact paralysed, and a universal cry of distress was heard throughout the town.'
Of course the Campbell firm suffered with the rest. Beattie, who had access to the books, declares that Alexander Campbell's personal loss could not have been less than twenty thousand pounds. Whatever the sum was, it represented practically the whole of Campbell's savings. This was a serious blow to a man of sixty- five, with ten surviving children and an eleventh child expected. He set himself to retrieve his fortunes as best he could, but he never recovered his position ; and we are told that his family henceforward had to be brought up on an income — partly derived from boarders — that barely sufficed to purchase the common necessaries of life. It was, however, in these days of declining for- tunes that the family was destined to receive its most notable member. The eleventh and last child, antici- pated perhaps with misgiving, was Thomas Campbell, who was born on the 27th of July 1777, his father
being then sixty-seven, and his mother some twenty-five years less.
It will be well to say here all that needs farther to be said about the poet's parents. Alexander Campbell belonged to a Scottish type now all but extinct — stolid, meditative, somewhat dour, fond of theology and the abstract sciences : leading the family devotions in ex- tempore prayer; regarding the Sunday sermon as essential to salvation, and less concerned about the amount of his income than about his honour and integrity. As his son puts it : Truth, standing on her solid square, from youth He worshipped — stern, uncompromising truth.
That he was a man of character and intelligence is clear from the fact that he numbered among his inti- mates such distinguished men as Adam Smith and Dr Thomas Reid, the successive occupants of the Moral Philosophy Chair at Glasgow. When Reid published his * Inquiry into the Human Mind,' he gave a copy to Alexander Campbell, who read it and said he was edified by it. ' I am glad you are pleased with it,' remarked Reid ; ' there are now at least two men in Glasgow who understand my work — Alexander Camp- bell and myself.' He had the saving grace of humour, too, this old Virginia trader, though, from a specimen given, it was apparently not of a very brilliant kind. Some of the boys were discussing the best colours for a new suit of clothes. ' Lads,' said the father, whose propensity for punning not even chagrin at the law's delays could suppress, ' lads, if you wish to get a lasting suit, get one like mine. I have a suit in the Court of Chancery which has lasted thirty years, and I think it will never wear out.' The worthy man lived to the patriarchal age of ninety-one, dying in Edinburgh — whither he had retired with his household three years before — in 1801. In his last days 'my son Thomas' was the main theme of his conversation.
Alexander Campbell had not married until he reached his forty-sixth year, and then he chose the young sister of his partner, an energetic girl of twenty-one. It must have been from her that the son drew his poetic strain. She is spoken of as 'an admirable manager and a clever woman,' and, what is of more interest, ' a person of much taste and refinement.' She brought to the home the poetry in counterpoise to her husband's philosophy. Like Leigh Hunt's mother, she was ' fond of music, and a gentle singer in her way ' : her poet son, as we shall find, was also fond of music, sang a little, and was, in his earlier years at least, devoted to the flute. To her children she was certainly not over- indulgent ; indeed she is said to have been ' unneces- sarily severe or even harsh ' ; but the mother of so large a family, with ordinary cares enhanced by the necessity for practising petty economies, would have been an angel if she had always been sweet and gracious. Be- tween her and her youngest boy there seems to have been a particular affection, and when he began to make some stir in the world, no one was more elated with pardonable pride than she. There is a story told of her having asked a shopman to address a parcel to ' Mrs Campbell, mother of the author of " The Plea- sures of Hope.'" She survived her husband for eleven years, and died in Edinburgh in 181 2, at the age of seventy-six. The house in which Campbell and his family resided at the time of the poet's birth, was a little to the west of High Street near the foot of Balmanno Brae, and in the line of the present George Street. Beattie, writing in 1849, speaks of it as having long since disappeared under the march of civic improvement, and as a matter of fact it was demolished in 1794 when George Street was opened up. The Glasgow of 1777 was of course a very different place from what it is to-day — very different from what it was when Defoe could describe it as 'one of the cleanest, most beautiful, and best-built cities of Great Britain'; when Smollett, himself a Glasgow youth, saw in it 'one of the prettiest towns in Europe.' In 1777 Glasgow was only laying the foundations of her commercial prosperity. She had, it is true, established her tobacco trade with the American plantations, and her sugar trade with the West Indies, but her character as the seat of an ancient Church and University had not been materially altered thereby.
It may be convenient to set down in a note a list of Campbell's brothers and sisters, with dates of birth and death. The details are from the family Bible : Mary, 1757-1843 ; Isabella, 1758-1837 ; Archibald, 1760-1830; Alexander, 176 1- 1826 ; John, 1763-1806; Elizabeth, 1765-1829; Daniel, 1767-1767 ; Robert, 1768-1807; James, 1770-1783 ; Daniel, 1773 ? Archibald and Robert went to Virginia, and John to Demcrara.
Unfortunately, just as he (Thomas) had got into this happy state of mind, he was startled by the news of his father's death. He had heard nothing of the old man's illness, and bitterly reproached himself for hav- ing left him in his last days. It was, however, some comfort to him to learn that Dr Anderson had watched at his bedside, and, when all was over, had seen his remains laid reverently in the cemetery of St John's Chapel. He died as he had lived, pious and placid, full of religious hope as of years. Campbell went home to console his mother and sisters, and to set their affairs in order. His father's annuity from the Glasgow Merchants' Society died with him ; the sisters were good-looking but valetudinarian, and Campbell could only promise that if a new edition of 'The Pleasures of Hope' succeeded he would furnish a house in which they might keep boarders and teach school. Once in the house, he told them, they would have to trust in Providence.
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