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Campbell
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Campbell

retained the position nearly so long as he did. As it was, he resigned in 1830, having notably proved, as Mr. S. C. Hall says (‘Retrospect,’ i. 314), that ‘though a great man he was utterly unfit to be an editor.’ His own contributions to the ‘New Monthly Magazine’ during his editorship, besides the rewritten ‘Lectures on Poetry,’ included some minor poems of merit, such as the ‘Rainbow,’ ‘The Brave Roland,’ ‘The Last Man’ (a weird and impressive fancy well sustained), ‘Reullura,’ ‘Ritter Bann,’ ‘Navarino,’ the ‘Heligoland Death-Boat,’ &c. There were also papers on the proposed London University, letters to the Glasgow students, very suggestive remarks on Shakespeare's sonnets, and a review of Moore's ‘Life of Byron’ with a chivalrous defence of Lady Byron.

In 1831–2 Campbell edited the ‘Metropolitan Magazine,’ which was a failure. It was in 1832 that he founded the Polish Association, designed to keep the British mind alive to Polish interests. In 1834 he revisited Paris, and with love of travel strongly on him passed to Algiers, whence he sent to the ‘New Monthly Magazine’ his ‘Letters from the South,’ issued in two volumes by Colburn in 1837. Campbell returned to London in 1835, and for several years did work that did not add to his reputation. Between 1834 and 1842 he wrote his ‘Life of Mrs. Siddons,’ which lacks symmetry, though containing some acute and judicious remarks on several of Shakespeare's plays; the ‘Life of Petrarch,’ devoid of research and freshness; and a slender life of Shakespeare prefixed to an edition of the works published by Moxon. In 1840 Campbell took the house 8 Victoria Square, Pimlico, where he meant to spend the remainder of his days with his niece, Miss Mary Campbell, for companion. In 1842 he published the ‘Pilgrim of Glencoe,’ together with some minor pieces, notably the ‘Child and Hind,’ ‘Song of the Colonists,’ and ‘Moonlight.’ The latter were favourably received, but the cold reception of the ‘Pilgrim’ disappointed and vexed the poet. A work on Frederick the Great, in four volumes, published about this time, is ostensibly edited by Campbell, whose name is also associated with an anonymous ‘History of our own Times’ (1843). His health was rapidly failing, and in June 1843 he gave a farewell party to his friends in town, having resolved to go to Boulogne for change. He paid a short visit to London in the autumn to look after his affairs, and then, returning to Boulogne, passed a weary and painful time till he died, 15 June 1844. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, near the tombs of Addison, Goldsmith, and Sheridan, and a Polish noble in the funeral cortège scattered upon his coffin a handful of earth from the grave of Kosciusko.

[Beattie's Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell; Redding's Literary Reminiscences and Memoirs of Thomas Campbell, and Fifty Years' Recollections, ii. iv–viii, iii. i–vi; Rev. W. A. Hill's Campbell's Poetical Works with Biographical Sketch; Chambers's Eminent Scotsmen (supplementary volume); Lockhart's Life of Scott, i. 341, ii. 45, 307, 352, iii. 396, iv. 87, 93, vi. 325, 396; Moore's Life and Works of Byron, ii. 293, iii. 9, 109, iv. 311, v. 69, vii. 271, xv. 87, xvi. 123; Bates's Maclise Portrait Gallery, p. 4; Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, 8 and 15 Feb. 1845; Leigh Hunt's Autobiography; Hazlitt's Spirit of the Age.]

T. B.


CAMPBELL, THOMAS (1790–1858), sculptor, was born in Edinburgh on 1 May 1790. His parents were in humble circumstances, and he had no education; but on being apprenticed to a marble-cutter he displayed intelligence and skill, and was enabled to come to London to study at the Royal Academy. In 1818 he received assistance which enabled him to visit Rome, and there he devoted himself to sculpture, associating chiefly with Italian and German artists. One of his first productions was a seated statue of the Princess Pauline Borghese (now at Chatsworth). In 1827 he sent from Rome his first work for exhibition in the Royal Academy—a bust of a lady; and in 1828, a group representing ‘Cupid instructed by Venus to assume the form of Ascanius.’ In 1830 he returned to England, having large commissions to execute there, but he still frequently visited Rome, where he retained his studio. During the last twenty-five years of his life he resided in London, and exhibited various works at the Academy (among others, a marble statue of Psyche) up to 1857, though his exhibitions were less frequent during the latter part of this period. He died in London on 4 Feb. 1858, having gained a considerable reputation and acquired a large property by his labours. Campbell was a painstaking and careful sculptor. He worked both in bronze and marble, devoting himself chiefly to busts (some of which were colossal) and to portrait statues, though he also executed imaginative statues and groups. In addition to his works already referred to may be mentioned: (1) A marble bust of Lord George Bentinck, preserved in the National Portrait Gallery at South Kensington; (2) the monument to the Duchess of Buccleuch at Boughton; (3) a statue of Queen Victoria, at Windsor Castle;