Campbell, THOMAS, poet, was born in Glasgow, 27th July 1777, the youngest of the eleven children of an unfortunate merchant. From the grammar-school of his native city he passed in 1791 to the university, where he remained off and on till 1796, winning several prizes, and being specially distinguished for his knowledge of Greek literature. In 1795 he went as a tutor to the island of Mull. The scenery of the West Highlands made a deep impression on his mind, and to his abode in those grand and desolate regions his verses owed much of their finest touches of sublimity. In 1797 he repaired to Edinburgh, intending to study law; but he could not shake off his recollections. In his eyes the mists were folded on the hills of Morven, the roar of Corrievrekin was in his ears, and instead of poring over musty law-books, he wrote The Pleasures of Hope. It was published in 1799, and ran through four editions in a twelvemonth. During a ten-months' tour on the Continent (1800-1) Campbell visited the battlefield of Hohenlinden, at Hamburg fell in with the prototype of his Exile of Erin, and sailed past the batteries of Copenhagen. In 1803 he married and settled in London, having refused the offer of a chair at Wilna, and resolved to adopt a literary career. He contributed articles to The Edinburgh Encyclopædia, and compiled The Annals of Great Britain from George II. to the Peace of Amiens. In 1806, through Fox's influence, he received a pension of £200 per annum from government. In 1809 appeared Gertrude of Wyoming, which bears the same relation to The Pleasures of Hope that The Castle of Indolence bears to The Seasons—a less brilliant and striking, but more mature and finished performance. In 1818 Campbell was again in Germany, and on his return he published his Specimens of the British Poets. In 1820 he delivered a course of lectures on poetry at the Surrey Institution; and from this date to 1830 he edited The New Monthly Magazine, contributing thereto several poems, one of which, The Last Man, is in some respects the loftiest of all his performances. In 1827 he was elected Lord Rector of the university of Glasgow, and received the unusual honour of re-election the two following years. His later publications did not add to his fame. He died at Boulogne, 15th June 1844, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, a Polish nobleman scattering dust on his coffin from the grave of Kosciusko.
Campbell is an established English classic. With the young The Pleasures of Hope should ever be a favourite; while readers of maturer years will linger with delight over the silvan scenery and tender domestic scenes of Gertrude. It is in his lyrics, however, that Campbell has soared highest into the heaven of song—Hohenlinden, Ye Mariners of England, and The Battle of the Baltic, cannot be matched in the language. Than these lyrics nothing can be more simple, more spirited. Once read, they cannot be forgotten. They will fan the patriotism of many generations. See his Life and Letters by W. Beattie (3 vols. 1849), and other works by Cyrus Redding (1860) and Haddon (1900).