Campbell Thomas

Campbell, Thomas, poet, was born in 1777 at Glasgow. Educated at the university there, he in 1797 went to Edinburgh to study law. In 1799, however, appeared the Pleasures of Hope, which attained immediate popularity. After a visit to the Continent he wrote some of the finest lyrics known to English literature, among them Hohenlinden, Ye Mariners of England, and The Exile of Erin. In 1803, settling in London, he devoted himself to literary work, and in 1806, through the influence chiefly of Fox, he obtained a government pension of £200. In 1809 appeared Gertrude of Wyoming, Lord Ullin's Daughter, and The Battle of the Baltic. In 1819 appeared his Specimens of the British Poets, and in the following year he became editor of the New Monthly Magazine. He thereafter took an active part in promoting the establishment of London University, and in 1827 was elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University, being subsequently twice re-elected. Among his prose productions were The Annals of Great Britain, from George II. to the Peace of Amiens, Letters from the South, Life of Mrs. Siddons, and Life of Petrarch. He died in 1844 at Boulogne, and was buried in Westminster Abbey near the tombs of Addison and Goldsmith.