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Kay's Originals Vol. 1

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 235 of Edinburgh, aged about seventy years. held the incumbency for full forty years. Scots songs, and that certainly was his forte." In the profession of a precentor he He excelled in singing old humorous No. XCVII. MAJOR CAMPBELL, OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT. THE Print of this gallant but eccentric son of Mars was etched by Kay when the 35th Regiment was stationed in Edinburgh Castle in 1789, at which period ColoneI Lennox (afterwards Duke of Richmond) joined the cbrps, having exchanged from the Coldstream Guards. CAHPBELLw as a native of the "East Neuk of Fife," where his father possessed an estate which yielded, some eighty years ago, a comfortable income of nearly &500 per annum; but the wholesale hospitality maintained by the laird, and an extravagant indulgence in the luxury of foreign wines,' which were then landed without molestation at all the little bays on the east coast of Scotland, at last brought the " mailing " to the hammer. Mr. Campbell entered the army, and shared in all the harassing campaigns of the first American war, in which he had been frequently and severely wounded. While on service there, it is said he received an injury which totally altered the original form of the most prominent feature in his countenance, having received a blow in the face with a musket from a soldier of his own regiment, whom he had been reprimanding. According to Kay's MS., the man was immediately tried by a court-martial, and condemned to be shot ; but the Major staid the execution of the sentence, and subsequently applied for and obtained a free pardon for the offender. Although this'anecdote is by no means inconsistent with the amiable character of Major Campbell, it is rendered somewhat apocryphal by the fact that he was too much beloved by the soldiers of his company, who rejoiced in his eccentricities, to be injured by any of them. His speech, like the Baron of Bradwardine's, was usually interhrded with scraps of Latin. He had studied at St. Andrews,--a circumstance which he delighted to refer to. A very slight and casual allusion instantly furnished him with an opportunity for introducing his favourite remark-" at the College of St. Andrews, where I was taught languages, sciences, and various soyts of payticulars, my dear." My dear he used indiscriminately in addressing persons of whatever rank-whether General OHara, the stern governor, or a drum-boy. Major Campbell was a gentleman of very peculiar manner. Claret could then be had for 615 a hhd.
Volume 8 Page 331
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