Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2)Howitt, William
General
Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Howitt, William
Literary landmarks -- Great Britain; Poets, English -- Homes and haunts
Campbell resided at Sydenham eighteen years. His house was on
Peak-hill, and had a quiet and sweet view toward Forest-hill. The
house is one of two tenements under the same roof, consisting of only
one room in width, which, London fashion, being divided by folding
doors, formed, as was needed, two. The front looked out upon the
prospect already mentioned. To the left was a fine mass of trees, amid
which showed itself a large house, which, during part of the time, was
occupied by Lady Charlotte Campbell. The back looked out upon a small
neat garden, inclosed from the field by pales; and beyond it, on a
mass of fine wood, at the foot of which ran a canal, and now along its
bed, the atmospheric railway from London to Croydon. The house is, as
appears, small, and very modest; but its situation is very pleasant
indeed, standing on a green and quiet swell, at a distance from the
wood, and catching pleasant glimpses of the houses in Sydenham, and of
the country round. In the little back parlor he used to sit and write;
and to prevent the passage of sound, he had the door which opened into
the hall covered with green baize, which still remains. This at once
defended him from the noise of the passing, and operations of the
housemaid, as the door was near the stairs, and also from any one so
plainly hearing him, when, in poet-fashion, he sounded out sonorously
his verses as he made them.
The next door to Campbell lived his landlord, a Mr. Onis, and who is
still living there, an old man of ninety, having every one of his
windows in front filled with strong jealousies, painted green, which
give a singular and dismal air to the house, as the dwelling of one
who wishes to shut out the sight of the living world, and the sun at
the same time. To prevent too familiar inspection from his neighbor's
premises, Campbell ran up a sort of buttress between the houses at the
back, and planted trees there, so that no one could get a sight of him
as he sat in his little parlor writing. In the village is still living
Miss Mayhew, a lady afterward alluded to, and now of course, very
aged. Here Campbell lost a son, of about eleven or twelve years of
age, who is buried at Lewisham. His wife was ill at the time he left
in 1821, and he had much trouble about that time. He went to reside in
London in 1821, on account of his literary engagements. Here he wrote
Gertrude of Wyoming. The country, which then was so fresh and retired,
is now cut up with railroads, and new buildings are seen rising like
crowding apparitions on every side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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