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.