success with the sentimental but musically effective Wounded Hussar, commencing:

"Alone to the banks of the dark-rolling Danube

Fair Adelaide hied when the battle was o'er."

At the close of October, 1797, he returned to Edinburgh, whither later on his parents followed him. Here he attempted for a time the study of medicine, but had to abandon this for pupils and literary hack-work.

of Hope.

In the following year he began his Pleasures of Hope, The Pleasures the subject of which appears to have been suggested by a chance phrase in a letter written to him while a tutor at Mull by a Glasgow friend, ending thus: "We have now three 'Pleasures' by first-rate men of genius. Let us cherish the 'Pleasures of Hope,' that we may meet soon in Alma Mater." He himself tells us: "I took long walks about Arthur's Seat, conning over my own (as I thought them) magnificent lines; and as my 'Pleasures of Hope' got on, my pupils fell off." As was his invariable custom, he submitted the rough draft of his poem to many of his literary friends, retouched and rewrote it in accordance with their criticisms, and finally sold the copyright to Mr. Mundell for £50. His publishers, be it said to their credit, gave him of their own accord liberal payments for subsequent editions, when the success of the poem was assured. It appeared on the 27th April, 1799, when the author was exactly twenty-one years and nine months old, and at once obtained an extraordinary success. Campbell became the literary lion of Edinburgh, and his poem was read and quoted all over England, and even in America. It happened exactly to hit the popular taste of the time:

Visit to the
Continent,

in imagery, diction, and poetic form it was moulded on the conventional "Classical" type, to which the public had become habituated; but, in spite of its desultory design and a good deal of didactic tameness of treatment, there was a freshness, a fervour, and an intense vein of patriotic enthusiasm in parts of it which carried its readers away with a like enthusiasm of sympathetic admiration.

In June, 1800, Campbell sailed for Hamburg, intendand return. ing to travel through the Continent, to study German literature, to contribute articles or poems to papers and magazines at home, and finally, after his return, to give a course of literary lectures in London or Dublin. In Hamburg he was received with cordial hospitality by the British residents; and here he met several of the Irish refugees of '98, one of whom, Anthony M'Cann, he afterwards idealized in his Exile of Erin, a poem made up of conventional sentiment, and lacking the note of true pathos.

From Hamburg Campbell went to Ratisbon, as the safest place of sojourn during the political unrest of that time. Here, however, he found himself in the midst of warlike scenes; a victorious French army entered the town three days after his arrival; soon afterwards he witnessed a charge made by the Austrian cavalry upon the French, and became familiar with the horrors of the field after a battle is over. Here, too, he was not sixty miles distant from the terrible carnage of Hohenlinden, which afterwards inspired one of his greatest lyrics. An armistice gave him the opportunity of visiting Munich ; but hostilities broke out afresh, and forced him northwards to Altona, where he remained till the spring.

War was then declared between England and Denmark ; Altona was no longer a safe residence, and Campbell sailed for England in a small trading vessel, which, after an exciting chase by a Danish privateer, landed him safely at Yarmouth. Thence he travelled to London, where he met with a friendly welcome from the literary leaders of society in the capital (April, 1801). During his stay on the Continent two poems of some merit, Lines on Visiting a Scene in Argyleshire and The BeechTree's Petition, had been published, in addition to the Exile of Erin, in the columns of the Morning Chronicle. Shortly afterwards appeared his Ode to Winter and Ye Mariners of England. Hohenlinden, The Soldier's Dream, and The Battle of the Baltic were begun about this time, but not published for some years afterwards.

Lord Minto.

The news of his father's death recalled him to Edin- Residence at Edinburgh burgh, where he lived for a time with his widowed and with mother and three sisters. In the autumn of 1801 he was introduced to Lord Minto, who invited him as a guest to his own seat, and early in the next year took him to his London house to reside with him as private secretary. Campbell's duties were almost nominal, giving him abundant opportunities for social intercourse and literary work. Lochiel's Warning was begun about this time; though, as was the poet's custom, it was allowed a long interval for friendly criticism and revision before its final publication. After spending the autumn of 1802 with his patron at Minto Castle, he left for Edinburgh to revise a new edition of his poems, which proved a financial success; and he was emboldened to venture on the responsibilities of matrimony.

Marriage and literary work; pension.

Gertrude of Wyoming; lectures on Poetry; visit to Paris.

On September 10th, 1803, he married his cousin, Matilda Sinclair, daughter of Robert Sinclair, a merchant, who had been Mayor of Greenock, and was now settled in business in London. The poet and his wife took up their abode in Pimlico; but removed thence after the birth of their first child, and settled for the next seventeen years at Sydenham, which at that time was quite in the country, though within easy distance of the Metropolis. Here he applied himself in a half-hearted and dilatory fashion to literary task-work, compiling historical annals, and contributing to newspapers and magazines. Three poems were published during this period (1804)-Lord Ullin's Daughter, The Soldier's Dream, and The Turkish Lady, the last a ballad of no particular merit. During the ensuing winter Campbell was working at his great war-song, The Battle of the Baltic.

In October, 1805, Fox, who was then Prime Minister, and was a great admirer of Campbell's poems, recommended him to the Crown for a pension of £200 a year, half of which he set aside for the support of his mother and sisters.

It was about two years later that, while reading a German novel, he was struck with an idea which he gradually worked out in his next poem, Gertrude of Wyoming, which made its appearance in April, 1809. In the same volume were published, along with some old poems, three new ones, Ye Mariners of England, Glenara, and O'Connor's Child.

In July, 1810, his second boy, Alison, died of scarlet fever; and in February, 1812, Campbell lost his mother at the age of seventy-six. In the April of that year he lectured successfully on Poetry at the Royal Institution,

thus greatly increasing his social reputation as a literary celebrity; he was also engaged by Mr. Murray, the publisher, to edit Specimens of the British Poets. In the autumn of 1814, after the fall of Napoleon and his retirement to Elba, Campbell paid a visit to Paris, where he met many foreign celebrities, and was presented to the Duke of Wellington himself.

Specimens of

Poets.

In 1815 Campbell's straitened finances received His legacy; unlooked-for and welcome aid. A Highland cousin, the British MacArthur Stewart, struck with the poet's generosity to his relatives, remembered him very favourably in his will; the total amount Campbell received by this lucky windfall amounting to £4500.

In the spring of 1816 the Specimens of the British Poets appeared. Some criticisms contained in this volume led to a lively literary controversy, in which Lord Byron sided with Campbell in a vigorous attack on W. L. Bowles, the editor of Pope's Poems. The question in debate was whether Pope was a poet of the lower rank, because his themes were drawn from Art rather than from Nature. Bowles had depreciated Pope on this ground; Campbell and Byron stoutly defended him. The controversy is chiefly interesting for a fine passage in Campbell's vindication of Pope, in which he describes the majestic grandeur of a wholly artificial event-the launch of a battle-ship.

Monthly

Theodric.

In the spring of 1820 Campbell was asked by Mr. Edits "New Colburn, the publisher, to edit the New Monthly Magazine Magazine"; for three years, at a yearly salary of £500. All the real work was done by a sub-editor; Campbell himself was to publish in the magazine a fresh series of lectures he had lately delivered at the Royal Institution, and was b