BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF THE LATE ROBERT CAMPBELL, ESQ. CAPTAIN IN THE ROYAL NAVY

Summary

“Why dost thou build the hall, son of the winged days?

Thou lookest from thy towers to day; yet a few years,

And the blast of the desert comes, ———

It howls in thy empty court, and whistles round thy half-worn shield!

But let the blast of the desert come!

We shall be renowned in our day:

And our fame shall survive us.”

———Ossian'sCarthon.

A review of the late wars, in which the character of British prowess has been so eminently exalted, naturally induces an ardent desire to be acquainted with the brave commanders under whom, and by whom, those gallant exertions have been made, to which the honour, and by consequence the interest, of the country owe their support. It is for the gratification of this laudable desire, that we have been so urgent in our solicitations of biographical information; of the gentlemen named in our last instance of request, we have been favored with the following memoir of the late Captain Robert Campbell.

This gentlemen was born about the year 1770, at Pennycuick, in the shire of Edinburgh. His father, the Reverend — Campbell, was minister of that parish, and afterwards of Lillies-Leaf, near the braes of Yarrow, in Selkirk-shire; he was a preacher of considerable reputation, and descended from a collateral branch of the ancient and honorable house of Argyle.