ilda Sinclair, and
settled in London. He was well received in Whig society, especially at
Holland House. His prospects, however, were slight when in 1805 he
received a government pension of L200. In that year the Campbells
removed to Sydenham. Campbell was at this time regularly employed on the
_Star_ newspaper, for which he translated the foreign news. In 1809 he
published a narrative poem in the Spenserian stanza, "Gertrude of
Wyoming," with which were printed some of his best lyrics. He was slow
and fastidious in composition, and the poem suffered from
over-elaboration. Francis Jeffrey wrote to the author: "Your timidity or
fastidiousness, or some other knavish quality, will not let you give
your conceptions glowing, and bold, and powerful, as they present
themselves; but you must chasten, and refine, and soften them, forsooth,
till half their nature and grandeur is chiselled away from them. Believe
me, the world will never know how truly you are a great and original
poet till you venture to cast before it some of the rough pearls of your
fancy." In 1812 he delivered a series of lectures on poetry in London at
the Royal Institution; and he was urged by Sir Walter Scott to become a
candidate for the chair of literature at Edinburgh University. In 1814
he went to Paris, making there the acquaintance of the elder Schlegel,
of Baron Cuvier and others. His pecuniary anxieties were relieved in
1815 by a legacy of L4000. He continued to occupy himself with his
_Specimens of the British Poets_, the design of which had been projected
years before. The work was published in 1819. It contains on the whole
an admirable selection with short lives of the poets, and prefixed to it
an essay on poetry containing much valuable criticism. In 1820 he
accepted the editorship of the _New Monthly Magazine_, and in the same
year made another tour in Germany. Four years later appeared his
"Theodric", a not very successful poem of domestic life. He took an
active share in the foundation of the university of London, visiting
Berlin to inquire into the German system of education, and making
recommendations which were adopted by Lord Brougham. He was elected lord
rector of Glasgow University three times (1826-1829). In the last
election he had Sir Walter Scott for a rival. Campbell retired from the
editorship of the _New Monthly Magazine_ in 1830, and a year later made
an unsuccessful venture with the _Metropolitan Magazine_. He had
championed th