T was, no doubt, duly recorded in the title deeds of the world that the year of grace 1777 should leave behind it a legacy, in the form of a weak, complaining child's voice, which was destined, however, to become clear and strong in earth's choir of singers; otherwise (and there is a certain speculative charm about the thought) the poet Campbell might be regarded as having been snatched out of the chaos of the impersonal, with no time to spare in the snatching! His mother had already borne ten children, and four and a-quarter years elapsed before Thomas, her youngest, was born on the 27th of July. Curiously enough, his father was then in his sixty-seventh year-the very age at which the poet died. At the time of the poet's birth the family lived in the High Street, Glasgow, whither they had gone after various commercial misfortunes had overtaken the head of the house, who had once been successful (rich enough to lose about £20,000, at all events) as a merchant, first in the United States of America, and afterwards in Glasgow. Although no lover of genealogical inquiry, Campbell seems to have had a certain quiet pride in remembering that (by his father's side) he was a descendant of the lairds of Kirnan or Kiernan, in the beautiful vale of Glassary, Argyllshire. The musical lines, beginning— "At the silence of Twilight's contemplative hour," are due to this reflection. The poet's mother (also a Campbell, although no blood relative) would seem to have been a woman of some refinement and force of character; a true help-meet to her partner in life; during his reverses, brave and hopeful, and faithfully attached to her children. She is described as having been very musical, singing with taste and effect, fond of books, and— when she could get it-literary society. Campbell was born to sing, if ever man was, for "it was his nature to blossom into song, as 'tis a tree's to leaf itself in April." He literally "lisped in numbers." Out of mere choice, his exercises at school and college were written in English heroics, after the manner of Pope. He was singularly |