ET. 28.]

KEDDIE-OLD FRIENDSHIP REVIVED.

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I assure you, the lapse of years has not made me attach a less pleasant or lively feeling of esteem. It is but due to our friendship that any person who brings a letter from you, should meet the welcomest reception I can give him in my house; and, instead of waiting till chance introduce me to the gentleman by whom you wrote me, I have sent to see if he will favour me with a visit; and I am sure, if any attention I can show may be acceptable to him, his claim is well established by your name being the cement of our acquaintance. I was sincerely gratified to hear of your delightful domestic circle being well, and remembering me so kindly. I was cheered with the remembrance of old times; I was flattered with the kindness of addressing me at so long a distance; and I repeat -what I assure you I should wish to say to few besides yourself that if our lots be still cast in distant places, the friend who comes from you to me, with either letter or message, shall be already entitled to my best reception, as coming from a man whom I have long loved and esteemed. You were right, my dear sir, not to suppose that it was possible I should look back on an early friendship with slight feelings. The estimable qualities of a right manly and social heart, united with a kindness of character, which for me, indeed, was both in social and sober hours peculiarly exerted, were very endearing to me when we lived together and how could I cease to esteem them in absence! ..

I have had some eventful scenes in my life since we parted. Although no express hopes are held out by this change of administration, yet in time, I trust in God, some of the powerful will remember me. In the mean time, my situation is, by the recovery of my health, by no means discouraging. I have two very fine boys, not beauties, but buxom and health-like. The eldest espe

cially, my namesake, is a little Hercules, and leaps manfully at the sound of music. The amiable lady, on whom you have the goodness to congratulate me, sends you her best compliments. She is a very comfortable Mater. But there is a something about me, you know, my friend, that lacks strength in brushing against the world, and battling out the evil day. Matilda has, luckily for me, a soul of uncommon fire and force of character; every inch of her spirit is mettle and pride—yet honest pride, God knows. I am sure you would soon get well acquainted with her, and like her much. Chance-I should say, good luck-may, perhaps, bring you to London; if so, ask for me, at No. 1, Carey-street, at Mr. Tulloch's. How happy should I be to shake hands with you! Please remember me kindly to your worthy mother and my fair musical friend,* and all your amiable circle, and believe me, unfeignedly yours, THOS. CAMPBELL.

In a letter, apologising to Mrs. Mayow, who took a cordial interest in his fame and fortune, for unintentional delay in forwarding to her a prospectus of the forthcoming edition, Campbell relates an awkward mistake which he had just committed, the consequences of which were almost fatal to his constitution :-" March 24. . . . The day I was favoured with your kind invitation, I had a very slight indisposition, so slight that I thought I should that evening have had the pleasure of announcing my intention to be with you. on Thursday. The serious accident, however, of swallowing by mistake a draught of laudanum, for a medicine of the same colour, had nearly sent me to the shades before night. I am not painfully ill, but so shattered and exhausted, that I should think it unsafe to venture town

*Miss Mary Keddie, to whom Campbell addressed some complimentary verses in Edinburgh. See notice of the family, Vol. I. pages 230-264.

ET. 28.] PLEASING INCIDENTS-DINES AT HOLLAND HOUSE. 83

At whatever time it

wards till I am restored. may please the great patron of verse-making valetudinarian-Don Phoebus Apollo-to allow me the muchwished-for pleasure of spending an evening at your house, I am afraid it must necessarily be without my better part. We cannot contrive a plan of being in town without the children; and a removal of them, even for one day, is not a journey, but an expedition-nurse-maids and all! T. C."

One of the most agreeable incidents in Campbell's private history at this time, was the expected arrival and settlement in town of his friend Mr. Richardson and another, which bears the whitest mark in the Poet's calendar, was a day at Holland House, which he has thus recorded:

66

"... Lord Holland asked me to dine at Holland House, in company with his illustrious uncle-and now I am come to a passage of my life that ought to give inspiring recollections... What a proud day for me to shake hands with the Demosthenes of his time! to converse familiarly with the great man, whose sagacity I revered as unequalled; whose benevolence was no less apparent in his simple manners-and to walk arm-in-arm round the room with him. But I must own that, when the great man treated me with this condescension, I hardly knew-you will excuse the phrase-whether I was standing on my head or my feet. Luckily for me, however, Fox drew me into a subject on which I was competent to converse. It was the Eneid of Virgil. It is disgustingly common for shallow critics to talk about the monotony of Virgil's heroic characters-unfairly quoting the single line

Fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cleanthum

for Virgil's characters are really varied and richly picturesque. In this critical belief I found that the great

man, with whom I was conversing, agreed with me; and I delivered myself so well on the subject, that he said at parting Mr. Campbell, you must come and see me at St. Anne's Hill, and there we shall talk more about these matters.'

"Lord Holland also told me afterwards that Fox said to him aside, 'I like Campbell; he is so right about Virgil!'

"What particularly struck me about Charles Fox was, the electric quickness and wideness of his attention in conversation. At a table of eighteen persons, nothing that was said escaped him; and the pattest animadversion on everything that was said, came down smack upon us; so that his conversation was anything but passively indolent or unformidable. My hope of seeing Charles Fox at St. Anne's Hill was frustrated, alas! by the national misfortune of his death"—*

It was generally remarked, I believe, by those who could best appreciate his acquirements, that, in company with men of refined taste and education, Campbell was often singularly happy in rich classical allusions, which gave unexpected point and brilliancy to the conversation. What a vast field," said Sydney Smith one day, after listening to some of these sparkling sallies-" What a vast field of literature that young man's mind has rolled over!" His mind was stored with the strength and quintessence of ancient poetry; and to hear him dilate on the dramatic history of Greece, was to perceive its beauties under a new and stronger light, and return to the originals with increased relish.

His short interview with Fox, and the happy coincidence of opinion which united him to that great scholar

* The MS. ends abruptly at the word "death;" and this portion of his autobiography Campbell had never afterwards courage to resume.

ÆT. 28.] FOX AND VIRGIL-DRESSED IN BORROWED PLUMES. 85

and statesman, seemed to heighten his partiality for the Eneid; and formed in his mind a pleasing association between the Prince of Latin Poets and the Liberal Whig Premier.

This event was duly chronicled among his "proudest reminiscences;" and two days after his visit to Lord Holland, he writes a humorous letter to Mr. Richardson from Sydenham, in which he acknowledges having dined with the Peer and Premier in a lawyer's suit :

". . . I have sent off this morning by the carrier one shirt and one neckcloth of yours which are here. If there are any more of yours in my aught, they must be at Pimlico, where, when you send there, I dare say they will be forthcoming. At all events, there is a vesta yellow vest-of yours there, which I stole on going to Holland House last, and appeared like the daw in borrowed plumes.*"

Turning to the subject of his "Annals," he adds"Finding, on perusal of Lacretelle,+ that his account of the Revolution was totally different from that in the Annual Register,' I must, of course, alter all that I have taken from the latter and insert the former more recent and accurate statement of facts-so important in any detail of the present times. . . . T. C."

His time and attention were now cheerfully occupied in procuring for his eldest sister a suitable and permanent

* To those who knew Campbell intimately, it is superfluous to say, that on dining abroad he occasionally, from absence of mind, forgot to change some article of his morning dress, until, perhaps, he was at the very door of his host; and then taking advantage, as he now appears to have done, of "some near and dear friend," would furnish himself with a temporary accommodation from his wardrobe.

+ Pierre Louis Lacretelle-one of the editors of the Mercure de France, &c,