On the North Bridge

One of the New York City area news stories today involves a man who sawed through cell tower cables to disrupt transmission, and thereby express his dissatisfaction with a newly built cell tower in his neighborhood.  Others in this man's neighborhood complained that the cell tower had sprung up virtually overnight, with no public hearings concerning its construction.   Development issues are nothing new, and Lord Henry Cockburn records in his memoirs that on December 2^nd, 1817, a public hearing was held concerning the erection of the North Bridge Buildings in Edinburgh.  Per Cockburn’s history, public meetings were not common at that point.

‘The new street along the southern side of the Calton Hill disclosed some glorious prospects, or at least exhibited them from new points. One of these was the view westward, over the North Bridge. But we had only begun to perceive its importance, when its interception by what are now called the North Bridge Buildings raised our indignation; and we thought that the magistrates, who allowed them to be set agoing in silence, had betrayed ns. We were therefore very angry, and had recourse to another of these new things called public meetings, which we were beginning to feel the power of. It was held on the 2d of December 1817. Professor Playfair presided; this being, I suppose, the only time in his life on which that unobtrusive and gentle philosopher permitted himself to be placed in such a position. James Stuart of Dunearn explained the matter in a clear and sensible speech. Old Henry Mackenzie made his first appearance at such a meeting, saying that, though no speaker, it was impossible to submit in silence to the destruction of the town, and that “facit indignatio versum." Resolutions were passed, a subscription opened, and we went to law, where we got an ornate speech from Cranstoun, who recited " my own romantic town" to the Court. But this was all we got. For while the judges were looking rather favourable, our funds ebbed, and of course our ardour cooled. Then persons of taste began to hint that we were all wrong, and that the position of the buildings was beautiful; and at last another meeting was held in May 1818, when we struck our colours. So we lost about £1000; the magistrates got a fright; and the buildings stand. But much good was done by the clamour. Attention was called nearly for the first time, to the duty of maintaining the beauty of Edinburgh. A respectable and organized resistance of municipal power was new here, and the example was not lost, though the immediate object of the battle was.’

North Bridge was, of course, a familiar site to Walter Scott.  J.G. Lockhart mentions in his “Memoirs of the life of Sir Walter Scott” an instance of Scott mulling over poetry while on the bridge:

‘…Not long before this piece began to be handed about in Edinburgh, Thomas Campbell had made his appearance there, and at once seized a high place in the literary world by his 'Pleasures of Hope.' Among the most eager to welcome him had been Scott; and I find the brotherbard thus expressing himself concerning the MS. of Cadyow :—

'' The verses of Cadyow Castle are perpetually ringing in my imagination—

'Where mightiest of the beasts of chase

That roam in woody Caledon,
Crashing the forest in his race,
The mountain bull comes thundering on—'

and the arrival of Hamilton, when

'Reeking from the recent deed,

He dashed his carbine on the ground.'

I have repeated these lines so often on the North Bridge that the -whole fraternity of coachmen know me by tongue as I pass. To be sure, to a mind in sober, serious street-walking humour, it must bear an appearance of lunacy when one stamps with the hurried pace and fervent shake of the head, which strong, pithy poetry excites."

John Leyden

June 29 (1826).—I walked out for an hour last night, and made one or two calls—the evening was delightful—



"Day its sultry fires had wasted,
Calm and cool the moonbeam rose;
Even a captive's bosom tasted
Half oblivion of his woes."


I wonder often how Tom Campbell, with so much real genius, has not maintained a greater figure in the public eye than he has done of late. The Magazine seems to have paralysed him. The author, not only of the Pleasures of Hope, but of Hohenlinden, Lochiel, etc., should have been at the very top of the tree. Somehow he wants audacity, fears the public, and, what is worse, fears the shadow of his own reputation. He is a great corrector too, which succeeds as ill in composition as in education. Many a clever boy is flogged into a dunce, and many an original composition corrected into mediocrity. Yet Tom Campbell ought to have done a great deal more. His youthful promise was great. John Leyden introduced me to him. They afterwards quarrelled. When I repeated Hohenlinden to Leyden, he said, "Dash it, man, tell the fellow that I hate him, but, dash him, he has written the finest verses that have been published these fifty years." I did mine errand as faithfully as one of Homer's messengers, and had for answer, "Tell Leyden that I detest him, but I know the value of his critical approbation." This feud was therefore in the way of being taken up. "When Leyden comes back from India," said Tom Campbell, "what cannibals he will have eaten and what tigers he will have torn to pieces!"...
 
The selection above from Scott's Journal shows Scott musing about Thomas Campbell, whose death was covered earlier.  John Leyden, who introduced Scott and Campbell, was known as an orientalist.  He was born in 1775, and died of fever on an expedition to Java in 1811. 
 
Leyden worked with Scott collecting ballads for Scott's "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border", so the two became well known to each other.  Among Leyden's own works was "Discoveries and Settlements of Europeans in Northern and Western Africa", which was inspired by the adventures of Mungo Park.

Thomas Campbell

Another of Scott's literary connections, the Glasgow poet Thomas Campbell died on June 15, 1844.  Campbell's first strongly popular work was "The Pleasures of Hope", which was published in 1799, six months after Coleridge and Wordsworth published Lyrical Ballads.  In 1803, Campbell married his cousin Matilda Sinclair, settling in London, which was to become and important location for the rest of his life. 

One of Campbell's projects was "Specimens of British Poets" which was published in 1819, but started many years early.  This project led him to communicate with Walter Scott, as on June 28, 1805 (from http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/CommentRecord.php?&action=GET&cmmtid=4388):

Sydenham, June 28th, 1805.



DEAR SCOTT,


In the belief that we should be able to accommodate easily between ourselves, any difference of opinion we might have about the plan of the British Poets, I took the liberty of acting as your representative in submitting proposals to the trade. I proposed the work to be edited in volumes similar to Dr. Anderson's, (only) in size — the number of volumes about fifteen, plus or minus; Johnson's Poets, with their lives, to be the centre of the work: your ancient Poets, antecedent to Cowley, to be the right wing; and my department, the moderns since Johnson, with Ramsay, whom Johnson omitted, to be the left flank of the whole. I thought the Poets before Cowley could not be fewer than fifteen; nor do I think any rational Christian critic can diminish the number; and, to be responsible for giving a body of English Poetry since the period at which Johnson leaves off, I would not wish to be stinted to a much smaller calculation. It is true there is not the tenth part of Poets — real and spirit-proof-Poets, in the few years of this period that may be found in yours; but we are bound with the moderns, as with near relations, to take notice of smaller recommendations than would carry weight from remoter consanguinity. I must have Ramsay, who is one of my chief favourites — Burns, Cowper, Mason, Goldsmith, Darwin, Smollett, Falconer, Churchill, Armstrong, Logan, Green, T. Warton, Chatterton, and I suppose Michael Bruce, and surely Beattie. Besides, with what propriety, even if some of these worthies were unnicked, could I pretend to be the editor of Modern Poetry, and omit Langhorne, Wilkie, Mickle, Glover, Penrose, and Johnson himself? Penrose is author of one of the very finest poems in the English language — "The Field of Battle." How far below fifteen could you reduce the list? I submitted my proposal of a lumping thousand to the proprietors of the Johnson edition. Some of the more liberal booksellers stood the shock very well, but among the herd of the lower tribe, the proposal fell like a bombshell, and made them disperse in great alarm. I proposed to divide our labour and profits. Cadell and Davies were sorry for the vote being against me, and I believe would give the sum; but the general opinion was, that I should be exhorted to devise a plan with you, comprehending fewer poets and of less cost.

The time also alarmed them; for I demanded not to be bound to finish my part under eighteen months. Books, I think, are not to be promised by the calendar; so I am recommended to concert a new plan... . But how can I propose to you to stint your plan to the narrowed limits they require, after drawing off your attention from a great design of your own? How many below the mark of fifteen, is it possible or probable that you will reduce the number of poets in the prodigious space of time between Chaucer and Cowley? or how much, below the sum of £500 a-piece, is it fair for us to reduce remuneration? For my own part, I know the pestering trouble of picking up anecdotes about the moderns will occupy my time for a year.... It will certainly cost me journeys to Oxford, Scotland, and elsewhere. Now, I have a still higher idea of the importance of your taste. As a joint concern, your reputation is at stake....

I mean to be quite obstinate on this subject. I will not abate a farthing in my demand. I wish to have your sanction, in rejection of their proposal to put the great plan of our national poetry and poetical biography on a dirty little scale. The upshot will probably be breaking off on the difference of terms; and then your old arrangement with Constable will probably discourage competition. I shall in that case embark in a scheme on which I have for some time cogitated — a Collection of genuine Irish Music, and translations from the Irish, adapted as words, to which I can obtain access. Do you think it will do? I will transcribe a little song, which I mean to belong to the collection, though the subject is Gaelic.


Pray can you direct me where to find some good notes for Lochiel's Warning? I shall be much obliged to you to mention this when you write.

Believe me, with great sincerity, your affectionate friend,



T. CAMPBELL

Washington Irving

Author Washington Irving passed on November 28, 1859. Irving was the son of William Irving, originally from Orkney, who arrived in Manhattan with his English wife Sarah Sanders about 1763. Washington was born in April of 1783, just as the Revolutionary War was ending. Irving is named for American hero General George Washington. Irving's last contribution as a writer was his five volume "Life of George Washington" (1855-1859).

Irving is probably best known for his stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". These stories appeared in his "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (the Sketch Book)". This work was published in London, and became enormously popular with Europeans. Publication was facilitated by Sir Walter Scott.

Irving met Scott in 1817 through an introduction by author Thomas Campbell. Scott wrote to Campbell afterwards to thank him for one of the best and pleasantest acquaintances he had met in many a day. When Irving couldn't find a publisher for his "Sketch Book", Scott introduced him to his publisher John Murray, who gave Irving L200 for the copyright, later doubling that figure.