In Alison Square Thomas Campbell lived while composing his _Pleasures
of Hope_. The place where any deathless composition took its shape
from the author’s brain is worthy of a place in the chart. A lady, the
early friend of Campbell and his family, indicates their residence at
that time as being the second door in the stair, entered from the east
side, on the north side of the arch, the windows looking partly into
Nicolson Square and partly to the Potterrow. The same authority states
that much of the poem was written in the middle of the night, and from
a sad cause. The poet’s mother, it seems, was of a temper so extremely
irritable that her family had no rest till she retired for the night.
It was only at that season that the young poet could command repose of
mind for his task.