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He was the fourth son of John Cunningham and Elizabeth Harley, and was born on the 7th December 1784, at Blackwood, in Nithsdale. His father was gardener to a neighbouring gentleman, and afterwards became land-steward to Mr Miller of Dalswinton.

No better representative of the genu- | went to London on the invitation of ine Scot, pure and undefiled, could be Cromek, with whom he stayed till pointed out than Allan Cunningham; he saw what may be called his first and Scott's epithet of "honest Allan " work through the press. Cromek died is the most natural reflection suggested shortly after the issue of Remains of by his whole character. If he were a Nithsdale and Galloway Song, which great genius, we could not regard him was mostly written by Cunningham, as a type of the cautious common-sense though palmed upon Cromek as reScot, ambitious to get on, but deter- covered antiques. After Cromek's mined to work his way up. death, he wrought at his trade, and also tried to maintain himself by writing for the press; but in 1814, he was engaged by Sir Francis Chantrey, the sculptor, as superintendent or clerk of works, and in this situation he remained for the rest of his life. His after-writings were the recreations of his leisure hours. In 1822, he published Sir Marmaduke Maxwell, and from that time till 1824, Traditional Tales appeared as magazine contributions, and were after wards published in two vols. In 1825, appeared his collection of The Songs of Scotland: Ancient and Modern, and from 1826 to 1832, the novels Paul Jones, Sir Michael Scott, and Sir Roldan. After this he wrote The Maid of Elvar, a rustic epic, and published Burns's Life and Works in eight volumes. The Lives of Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects next appeared. His last work was The Life of Sir David Wilkie, in three volumes. It was only completed two days before his death, which took place suddenly on October 29th, 1842. Allan's writings are not of the highest

He received an ordinary education, and in his eleventh year was apprenticed to his elder brother as a mason. He displayed an early love for reading, and in his sixth year heard Burns read | "Tam o'Shanter" in his father's house.

He early became acquainted with the Ettrick Shepherd, who was for some time a tenant in Dumfriesshire, and his emulation was roused by the literary atmosphere into which his love of reading and his youthful ambition led him. When Marmion was published, he came all the way to Edinburgh for the purpose of getting a look at its author.

His first appearance in literature was in the Scots Magazine. In 1810, he

touches a deeper chord in man's moral nature than Pope ever attempted, or knew how to reach.

to Mundell & Co. for £60, but was presented with £50 for some time on the publication of every edition of two thousand copies, besides being permitted to publish a subscription copy in 1803, by which he realized £1000. He visited the continent in 1800, and witnessed the battle which placed Ratisbon in possession of the French, and was received with distinction by General Moreau. While on the continent, the wrote his "Exile of Erin" and some other of his minor poems, which were published in the Morning Chronicle. The Exile of Erin" excited the apprehensions of the Government, and on his return to Edin

when the discovery of "The Mariners of England," and the absence of anycompromising papers placed his loyalty beyond suspicion. In 1802, he wrote "The Battle of Hohenlinden" and "Lochiel's Warning," besides Annals of Great Britain, for which he received £300.

Campbell was born in Glasgow, in the High Street, on July 27th, 1777, and was the youngest of a family of eleven. He was descended from the Campbells of Kirnan, in Argyleshire, a branch of the ducal stock; but his father had been in reduced circumstances through having failed as a trader with Virginia. Thomas, as their youngest child, was his parents' favourite, and received his rudimentary education from his eldest sister, after which he was sent to the grammar-school. His mother was a woman of a superior order, whose ex-burgh, Campbell's papers were searched, ample impressed the young poet with noble sentiments. He was early sent to Glasgow University, and his poetic precocity attracted the attention of the Greek professor, who pronounced his translation from the Clouds of Aristophanes, the best ever given in by any student. In his seventeenth year he became tutor to a Highland family in the island of Mull, but returned to college in 1795, and maintained himself by private teaching. Next year he again went to the Highlands as a tutor, and on his return went to Edinburgh with the view of preparing for the bar. He soon, however, gave up all thought of the law as a profession, and maintained himself by teaching and literary work. In Edinburgh, he soon made the acquaintance of Jeffrey, Brougham, and other literary notabilities of the time. In 1799, in his twenty-second year, he published the “Pleasures of Hope," which | was written two years earlier in a lodging An effort made by Scott in 1816 to in Alison Square. He sold the copyright | obtain him a professorship in Edin

In 1803, Campbell removed to London, with the view of following literature as a profession; and married his cousin, Matilda Sinclair. In 1806, he obtained a pension of £200 a-year from the civil list, and in 1809 he published Gertrude of Wyoming, with some minor pieces. He now attained a high literary position, and was admitted into the highest society of the metropolis. In 1811, he delivered five lectures on poetry at the Royal Institution, and in 1814 visited Paris, where he met Madame de Staël, Humboldt, and Schlegel.

burgh University, was not successful; so, after visiting Germany, he returned to London, and in 1819 produced Specimens of the British Poets. In 1820, he became editor of the New Monthly Magazine, which he conducted till 1830. In 1824, besides issuing "Theoderic and other Poems," he, along with Lord Brougham, took a leading part in the establishment of the London University. In 1827, and the two following years, he was elected Rector of the Glasgow University. His last literary works were lives of Mrs Siddons, and Petrarch, the Italian poet. In 1834, he made a voyage to Algiers, and returned by France, when he was presented to Louis Philippe. His health gave way soon after, and he settled at Bologne, for the benefit of its milder atmosphere. Here he died, on the 15th June 1844, in his 67th year. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. A monument to his memory is presently (1877) being erected in his native city.

LINES

WRITTEN ON VISITING A SCENE IN
ARGYLESHIRE.

At the silence of twilight's contemplative hour,

I have mused in a sorrowful mood, On the wind-shaken weeds that embosom

the bower,

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Sweet bud of the wilderness! emblem of all

That remains in this desolate heart! The fabric of bliss to its centre may fall,

But patience shall never depart ! Though the wilds of enchantment, all vernal and bright,

In the days of delusion by fancy combined

With the vanishing phantoms of love and delight,

Abandon my soul, like a dream of the night,

And leave but a desert behind. Be hush'd, my dark spirit! for wisdom condemns

When the faint and the feeble deplore; Be strong as the rock of the ocean that

stems

A thousand wild waves on the shore!

Where the home of my forefathers Through the perils of chance, and the stood.

All ruin'd and wild is their roofless abode,

And lonely the dark raven's sheltering

tree:

And travell'd by few is the grass-cover'd road,

Where the hunter of deer and the warrior trode

scowl of disdain,

May thy front be unalter'd, thy courage elate !

Yea! even the name I have worshipp'd

in vain

Shall awake not the sigh of remembrance again :

To bear is to conquer our fate.

WILLIAM TENNANT.

1784-1848.

career.

THE antiquated little town of An- which ended William's struther, in Fife, has within one generation been the birth-place of three eminent men-Thomas Chalmers, William Tennant, and John Goodsir.

William Tennant, the second of the group, was born on the 15th of May 1784. He was the second son of Alexander Tennant, a small merchant and farmer in Anstruther. Physically he was never robust, and though born without any defect, he lost the use of his limbs so early that he may be said never to have had it. In due time he was sent to the burgh school, where diligent application, and a special gift of acquiring languages, placed him at the head of his classes. At the age of fifteen, he was sent to St Andrew's University, where he made rapid progress in Greek and Latin; but at the end of his second session, it was found that his father's means were insufficient to enable him to complete his curriculum. After remaining some time at home, in 1803 he was sent to Glasgow, to act as clerk to his elder brother, then in business there as a corn-factor. The business, not a very prosperous one, was transferred to Anstruther in 1805, when both brothers returned to their native place, William still acting as clerk, and living at his father's house. He continued in this capacity till 1811 when a crisis occurred in his brother's affairs,

commercial

During those eight years of uncongenial trafficking, he did not abandon his studies, but by unwearied application, during his leisure hours, read such poets as Ariosto, Wieland, and Camoens, in the original, and he also mastered the Hebrew Bible. Nor did he altogether forsake the Muses, with whom he first dallied at St Andrews; for we find him, before his twentieth year, attempting to sing his enjoyment of the classics.

His first attempt in the humorous vein was "Anster Concert," a purely local poem, of twenty-three stanzas, no way above the average of such effusions. Anster Fair was completed in 1811, and was published anonymously, the preface being dated Edinburgh, 5th May 1812. It soon came under the notice of Lord Woodhouselee, who was so struck with the genius it displayed, that he took immediate steps to find out the author's name; and in August 1812, he wrote Mr Cockburn, Anstruther, its publisher, in terms that must have filled Tennant's heart with joy and gratitude.

In the autumn of 1813, Tennant was appointed to the office of schoolmaster of Dunino, and though the salary did not exceed forty pounds a-year, it was more than equal to his wants. The

office, too, was congenial, and gave him access to the University library at St Andrew's. Here he added Arabic, Syriac, and Persian to the list of his linguistic acquirements. In 1814, he published a second edition of Anster Fair, on the publication of which Jeffrey reviewed it in The Edinburgh in very flattering terms. In 1816 he was promoted, chiefly through the influence of George Thomson, the friend and correspondent of Burns, to be parish teacher of Lasswade. In 1819, he was elected by the trustees of Dollar Academy, teacher of Classical and Oriental languages in that institution.

Here settled in a highly agreeable and interesting locality, and in a position suited to his tastes, it was expected | that the promise of Anster Fair would be redeemed by something worthy of his literary and scholastic reputation. Accordingly, much interest was excited when, in 1822, his second poem, "The Thane of Fife," appeared. The public expectation was disappointed, for the poem was a manifest falling off, and if | not an entire failure, so much so, that its second part never was published. Of his next three poems it will be enough to give the names, seeing none of them added to his reputation. They were issued in the following order: "Papistry Stormed, or the Dingin' Down o' the Cathedral;" "Cardinal Bethune, a Drama in 5 acts;" "John Baliol, an Historical Drama."

In 1834, a vacancy occurred in the chair of Oriental languages in St Mary's College, St Andrew's, and he was at once appointed to the professorship by his friend Jeffrey, then Lord Advocate.

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His last publication, "Hebrew Dramas," founded on incidents of Bible history, was published in 1845. Of this work Lord Jeffrey expressed a high opinion. It served to cover his retreat from the poetic arena with dignity, though it can hardly be said to have increased his fame. His death took place at Dollar, in 1848; and at his own request he was buried at Anstruther, where his friends and admirers have placed a monument over his remains.

The works already noticed are all that he published in a collected form; yet, besides a number of small poems and ballads, he contributed prose translations from Greek and German to the Edinburgh Literary Journal, in 1830, and in the same periodical, carried on a correspondence with the "Ettrick Shepherd," anent a new metrical translation of the Psalms, which was published separately. In 1836-37, he contributed a series of five "Hebrew Idylls" to the Scottish Christian Herald, which, with a project for an edition of the Scottish poets, for which he wrote a life of Allan Ramsay, and a Synopsis of Syriac Grammar, published in 1840, form all his literary labours which appear to have been published. The fame of his linguistic acquirements conveys the impression that his power of mastering languages was something wonderful. In character he was humble unassuming, and unaffectedly pious simple in his tastes, and fond of nature and innocent enjoyment, had a quick sense of the ludicrous in all things; and was an acute observer of men and manners.

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