ET. 27.] LITERARY EMPLOYMENT-HOPES FROM PATRONS. 31

During the autumn, he continued to work at intervals upon the "Annals;" he wrote papers for the "Philosophical Magazine;" translated foreign correspondence for "The Star; " attended at the office in town; and by a daily journey of ten or twelve miles, going and returning, his strength began to improve, and he looked around for some popular theme on which to make another trial of his powers. Nothing, however, turned up to his satisfaction; neither his own inventive genius, nor the suggestions of his friends, could hit the mark; and for many months he continued in the same " inglorious employment of anonymous writing and compilation." At length, his case having excited particular attention in one or two influential quarters, he was encouraged to hope that he should not be overlooked by a liberal ministry, when supported by the good word of Lord Holland and Lord Minto. In what form their patronage was to be expressed was still uncertain; but "a situation under government, unshackled by conditional service," was that to which he aspired, and to which he was entitled by his talents and character. With these fair and reasonable expectations, which his friends were all anxious to see realised, time flew by; and if it did not find him prosperous, it found him supporting his adversity with a fortitude that commanded respect.

One chief source of income was the continued sale of the quarto edition of his Poems, the management of which in Scotland was confided as usual to Mr. Richardson, to whom, on the 10th of December, he thus writes :-"I am just setting out for the funeral of a little niece of my wife's... I shall be much obliged to you to let me know the state of my affairs, as far as regards my books . . I am closing my account on that score. . The reason of my troubling you is that, in the 'flitting' I have mislaid one of your letters in which you inform me of a remittance;

and I know not how much I have at different times received." This was frequently the case; any minute calculation of money received or disbursed, was an exercise for which he had neither taste nor patience; and of the real state of his finances, his friends, in general, knew much more than himself. "I am always ready to shoot myself," he says, "when I come to the subject of cash accounts; and it will be seen in the course of these letters that he sometimes imagined himself rich when he was poor; and, on one occasion, thought himself penniless, when, in fact, he had a good sum of bank-notes in his pocket. This, however, happened at a time when the aspect of his fortunes had much improved; but a rooted disinclination to balance his expenditure and income drew him into many difficulties, which a very little calculation and forethought might have prevented.

Of the poetical pieces cautiously elaborated in the course of this year, three only were permitted to see the light. These were "Lord Ullin's Daughter," "The Soldier's Dream," and "The Turkish Lady"-all of which had been sketched among the scenes to which they refer the first in the island of Mull, and the two latter in Bavariabut were not revised and finished until he had retired to Sydenham. The next on the anvil was "The Battle of the Baltic;" which was composed at short intervals during the winter, and finished in April, but reduced, before publication, to nearly one half of the original stanzas, as preserved in his letter to Sir Walter Scott. This piece, like the two former, had passed the ordeal of private criticism with great éclat; and as soon as it came before the public, was set to music and sung with applause by the great vocalists of the day.

The announcement of a new poem by Walter Scott had just been received by the public with great delight, and

ET. 27.]

CORRESPONDENCE WITH SCOTT "THE LAY.”

33

the perusal more than realised its expectations. Of the original "Lay," some of the more striking passages had been seen by Campbell in manuscript; and without a moment's hesitation he predicted its unbounded success. The volume forwarded to him from the author was accidentally detained by the way; but he had heard his own opinion reiterated in every coterie; and when the presentation copy reached Sydenham, "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" had been for some weeks a topic of general admiration. To the letter which accompanied it, Campbell thus replies-concluding with a narrative of strange adventures, which had greatly deranged the peace and comfort of his family:

TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ.

MY DEAR SCOTT,

SYDENHAM COMMON, 9th February, 1805.

It will seem incredible to you that your welcome. letter, of date the 2nd of last month, should have reached Sydenham only this morning. It is explained by the affidavit of Mr. Orme, the bookseller, who says he delivered it to the wrong coach-office; and the gentry there, I suppose, from their over-anxiety to find me out, took sufficient time to make the search. Any man might be proud of such a present after reading its contents; and to receive it with a remembrance of your esteem, is a circumstance that makes me both proud and pleased. I shall hand it down to my boy, the heir-apparent of my house, as a very valuable possession-it will teach him to keep good company, since his father did not walk, in his youth, with little men.

On the subject of the Poem-this monument of your genius which will be judged of by ages more impartial than the present-I can say nothing further than that the

joint effect of the whole is such as I expected from the inspired passages with which you delighted me in recitation; and that new passages arise to me on the first reading, of the same exalted stamp. Any minute suggestion respecting peculiar beauties or imperfections, such as they seem in my eyes, I should like to make, in communing with yourself. On the former I should dwell at greater length-not from complaisance, but from necessity and truth. On the latter I could make myself understood in three minutes' conversation; but I am not trained critic enough to write them. I am a novice at the vocabulary of taste. I think I may soon have an opportunity of seeing you, and holding a conversation in which I shall be as impudent as the devil accusing Job. Of Edinburgh, I am glad to hear such agreeable news. God bless your meetings! I am unfortunate not to be among you.

The style and strain of this letter will, I know, appear to have rather an air of lamp-light than day-light writing. It is necessary to confess that I am a little disturbed with some of the nervous affections, to which I am always subject when any accident disturbs either my health or rest. A pair of unlucky accidents have thrown Mrs. rest.-A Campbell into sickness; and by watching her, to relieve the other attendants, I have forfeited a good deal of wholesome sleep. . . My poor little partner has been frightened, in a situation when frights are almost deadly. The first cause of her agitation was the parting with an illustrious prime minister, whom we disbanded from the kitchen. She had been recommended to us as faithful and sober; and although she had more than human ugliness and masculine ferocity, and had been some years on board of a man-of-war with her husband, we trusted to the predictions of her panegyrists that she would turn out well. In five weeks, however, her slang broke out; and

ÆT. 27.] LETTER TO SCOTT-ALARMING ADVENTURES.

35

within the seventh she discovered the whole catalogue of vices which a very ugly woman can be guilty of. One fatal day she fell upon us in a state of insane intoxication, venting cries of rage like a bacchanalian, and tagged to our names all the opprobrious epithets which the English language supplies. An energetic mind in this state of inflammation, and a face, naturally Gorgonian, kindled to the white heat of fury, and venting the dialect of the damned, were objects sufficiently formidable to silence our whole household. The oratrix continued her imprecations till I locked up my wife, child, and nurse, to be out of her reach; and, descending to the kitchen, paid her wages and thrust her forthwith out of my doors-she howled with absolute rage. During the dispute she cursed us for "hell fire children of brimstone-whose religion was the religion of cats and dogs" (we had not been in church at Sydenham): I asked the virago-what was her religion, since her practice was so devout. "Mine," says she, "is the religion of the Royal Navy!"--at the same showing a Prayer Book. During the parley she made the best effort in her power to get hold of a dividing knife. Finally, this "Medea "—wishing no doubt (if she had only possessed the fiery nags and the winged chariot of Medea the elder) to cut all our throats and mount through the clouds to a foreign land-being disappointed in her haughty projects of revenge, contented herself with burning a few muslin articles-greasing the shoe brushes-breaking some earthenware, and with horrible exclamations whacking our poor cat to the very brink of her life. Having done so, and for want of a fiery chariot, she took the road to London on the top of a stage coach.

Yesterday, my wife still continuing delicate in her health, I was taking a walk with her nearly within sight of our own door, which is a solitary part of the Common. An