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Kay's Originals Vol. 2

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BI 0 GRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 93 but the Italian exhibited a degree of considerate partiality for the musical brothers, by affording them instructions at half-price. By degrees Mr. Campbell acquired some celebrity as an amateur vocalist, and having become favourably known to the Rev. Robert Walker (the colleague of Blair), he was recommended by that gentleman to the Rev. Dr. Macfarlan of the Canongate Church, who procured for him, in 1775, the situation of precentor. While studying under Tenducci, the aptitude and obliging disposition of the scholar had been such as to gain the respect and esteem of his tutor. To the friendship of that foreigner-displayed in a novel and characteristic manner- Mr. Campbell attributed his first start, as well as his future success, as a teacher of music. When about to leave Edinburgh he hrevailed on the latter to sit to Allan for a portrait ; but for what purpose he did not explain. This he had engraved on a small scale, with the initials “C-p-11, P-n-r, C-g-e C-11 ” beneath, copies of which he inclosed in circulars to all his employers in high life, among whom were the witty Duchess of Gordon, the volatile Lady Wallace, the Earl of Hopetoun, Sir John Halket, and other equally distinguished persons. Tenducci having left the city without giving the smallest hint of what he had done, Campbell was astonished to find letters dropping into him every other day from the families of the nobility, requesting his professional services’; and some time elapsed ere he became aware of the obligation under which he lay to his benefactor. Thus encouraged, in conjunction with his brother Alexander, he devoted himself exclusively to teaching, and rapidly attained professional reputation and respectability. Having fairly overcome his early difficulties, Mr. Campbell married in 1776 Margaret, daughter of Alexander Ogilvie, glover in Edinburgh. Not many years after this his prosperity received a severe check by the flight of a brotherin- law, for whom, along with another individual, he had become security to the amount of a thousand pounds. From the creditors, however, he experienced such sympathy as rendered the settlement comparatively easy. Early skeled against misfortunes, Mr. Campbell possessed a happy equanimity of mind, with philosophy enough, in as far as possible, to render the various occurrences of life subservient to his own and the happiness of all within his circle. The poet Burns, while starring among the “Embro Gentles,” was a frequent and welcome guest at the table of He was of a kind and social disposition. Tenducci in Dublin, in AT~UCinB ‘ Artaxerxes,’ which I had seen in London on its first coming out in 1762. His singing Water Parted ’ was the great attraction, as were the airs he sung as the first spirit in Comus, The frolicsome Dublin boys used to sing about the streets, to the old tune of ‘Over the Hills and far away,’ At his benefits there, he had thirty, forty, and fifty guinea8 for a single ticket. (‘ ‘ Tenducci was 8 piper’s son, And he waa in love when he was young ; And all the tuna that he could play, Was (( Water parted from the Say I’ ” In 1784, Thew Tenducci in London, when he set to music Captain Jephson’s ‘ Campaign.’ ” Father of Dr. Patrick Macfarlan of Greenock.
Volume 9 Page 125
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