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LIFE AND LETTERS

OF

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE OF THE CAMPBELLS OF KIRNAN.
GENEALOGICAL HISTORY.*

THE paternal ancestors of Thomas Campbell appear to have been long settled in that part of the Argyll frontier, which lies between Lochawe and Lochfyne, bordered by the ducal territory of Inverary. The Poet himself had little or no taste for genealogy; but his uncle, Robert Campbell of Kirnan, who wrote the "Life of John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich," was deeply read in the ancient history of his clan, and traced the origin of his own branch of the family to Iver of Kirnan. The descent may be

* On the genealogical history, to which the first Chapter is devoted, it may seem that I have dwelt too long; but, in explanation, it may be stated that, since Mr. Campbell's death, circumstances have occurred to render it very desirable that, in his biography, the subject should be treated with some degree of minuteness. Many errors and mis-statements, respecting the Poet and his family, have already gone abroad; and to rectify these effectually, the only course left was to investigate the family papers. This was duly accomplished; and the facts resulting from the investigation, form the ground-work of the introductory Chapter. The accuracy of the details has been confirmed by the testimony of surviving branches of the Poet's family; and the particulars now brought out for the first time, will sufficiently contradict the mis-statements to which I have referred.

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stated in a few words. Archibald, lord and knight of Lochawe, was grandson of Sir Neil, chief of the clan, and a celebrated contemporary of king Robert Bruce. This Archibald died A.D. 1360, leaving issue three sons,-Colin, who succeeded to the family honours; Tavis, ancestor of Dunardrie; and Iver, from whom sprang the Campbells of Kirnanthe distinctive name of Iver's descendants, who, during the lapse of many generations, became identified with the place, as lairds and heritors of Kirnan.

The vale of Glassary, in which the old family estate was situated, runs transversely through the parish of that name. Like all the surrounding country, it is of a pastoral character; watered by a rapid brook called the Ad, bounded on either side by picturesque and partly wooded acclivities, and ornamented by Lochan Leamhan, a small lake near its centre. The whole parish, which is of great extent, presents the appearance of a vast congeries of hills, steep and rugged in many places, though not lofty; abounding in excellent pasture, but possessing little that can be applied successfully to the higher purposes of agriculture. The uplands are diversified by numerous small lakes; the height of the valley above the level of the sea varies from two hundred to six hundred feet; the soil is fertile, in many places well cultivated, but much exposed after heavy rains to inundations from the river.*

In the parish of Glassary, which forms part of the southern frontier of the West Highlands, Campbell of Achnabreck and Campbell of Ederline, two powerful families of the olden time, had long their fixed residence; but, like that of the poet's ancestors, the house, that once knew them so familiarly, knows them no more. The number of landed proprietors in the parish is now reduced to four, the chief of whom is Sir John Powlett Orde, of Kilmory, Bart. * Rev. Colin Smith. Stat. Acc. of Glassary.' 1844.

Among the oldest heritors of the parish, as already stated, were the Campbells of Kirnan, who appear by the records of the presbytery of Inverary to have been from one generation after another, supporters of the Reformation and Elders in the Church. Their valued rental in those primitive times, was thirty-seven pounds one shilling sterling, or, nearly one-nineteenth of the whole parish.

From this honourable stock-the Campbells of Kirnan, who could trace their origin to Gilespic-le-Camile, first Norman lord of Lochawe-the poet is lineally descended. To the fortuitous circumstances of birth or family connexion he rarely alluded, and never attached any importance; but he has feelingly adverted to the old feudal tradition, and to his own personal fortunes in the following lines, "On receiving a Seal with the Campbell Crest ":

"So speed my song, marked with the crest
That erst the adventurous Norman wore,

Who won the Lady of the West,
The Daughter of Macaillan Mor.

Crest of my Sires! whose blood it sealed
With glory, in the strife of swords
Ne'er may the scroll that bears it yield
Degenerate thoughts, or faithless words!

Yet, little might I prize the stone

If it but typed the Feudal-tree
From whence, a scattered leaf, I'm blown
In Fortune's mutability!"

In reference to this subject, and the remote connexion. between the Poet and the great "Macallumore," I find the following lines addressed to him by a lady, distinguished by her high birth and cultivated mind-the Lady Charlotte Campbell, daughter of John, Duke of Argyll :

"Bard of my country-clansman of my race!
How proudly do I call thee one of mine!

Perchance thou wilt not deem it a disgrace

That with my verse thy name I should entwine.

It is not writ in borrowed wreath to shine

Or catch reflected ray from light of fame;

But a strong feeling, I may not define,

Of honest pride, in friendship's sacred flame,

Within my bosom glows while writing CAMPBELL's name!

In the vale of Glassary, and about a mile and a half from the old manse of Kilmichael, stand the house and garden of Kirnan, long ruinous and deserted, but on which the genius of the Poet has conferred a classic immortality. It was after a melancholy survey of this ancestral mansion, and in a room of the manse, or parsonage-house, where he spent the following night, that the Poet gave utterance to his feelings in these well-known "Lines on visiting a Scene in Argyllshire":

"At the silence of Twilight's contemplative hour

I have mused, in a sorrowful mood,

On the wind-shaken weeds that embosom the bower
Where the home of my forefathers stood!
All ruined and wild is their roofless abode ;
And lonely the dark raven's sheltering tree;
And travelled by few is the grass-covered road,
Where the hunter of deer and the warrior trode
To his hills, that encircle the sea.

"Yet wandering, I found on my ruinous walk,
By the dial-stone aged and green,

One rose of the wilderness left on its stalk,

To mark where a garden had been.

Like a brotherless hermit, the last of its race,

All wild, in the silence of Nature, it drew

From each wandering sunbeam a lonely embrace;

For the night-weed and thorn over-shadowed the place
Where the rose of my forefathers grew."

The last of his race, who resided on the family estate of Kirnan, was Archibald Campbell, the Poet's grandfather.

He was brought up to the law, and exemplified in his character much public spirit and private worth. At an advanced period of life he married Margaret Stuart, daughter of Stuart of Ascog in the island of Bute. She was widow of John MacArthur of Milton, and lived near his own estate of Kirnan. By this marriage he had three sons-Robert, Archibald, and Alexander. At the death of their father, which took place in the Canongate of Edinburgh, Robert, the eldest, appears to have taken possession of the hereditary house and lands of Kirnan. But owing to mismanagement or misfortune, the exact nature of which has not been explained, the property was annexed to the estate of Milton, the proprietor of which was John MacArthur, his half-brother, son of Mrs. Campbell by her first marriage, to whom it was probably sold to discharge the debts which Robert, it is said, had incurred by living too freely among the more wealthy retainers, who then frequented the Ducal court at Inverary. He was not bred to any profession, save that which was indispensable to every Highland gentleman-the profession of arms; but having received a liberal education, and possessing much natural talent, quickened by a spirit of enterprise, he sought a wider field of exertion.

With the hope, therefore, of repairing his ruined fortunes, he left the Highlands, and following in the train of his feudal Chief, settled in London. Here he commenced his laborious career as a political writer, under the auspices of the Walpole administration; and, although eclipsed for a time by more experienced rivals, he succeeded at last in establishing his reputation with the government, as one of the most able and zealous of its literary partisans. His principal work was a "Life of the most illustrious Prince John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich." As a genealogical

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