This report is taken from PN Review 185, Volume 35 Number 3, January - February 2009.
The Wrong Scottish Poet?Since 'Hohenlinden' is undoubtedly one of the finest poems that Thomas Campbell (1777 Glasgow-1844 Boulogne) ever wrote (alas, there are so few of them!), since I was researching Campbell, and since I found myself in Munich, very close to the site of the Battle of Hohenlinden, there came a day when we decided that we really ought to make our way out there.
Firstly, twenty-six stops on the S-Bahn train, to Ebersberg, one of the easterly termini. A good-looking little town, from what I saw of it (even if this included a minor collision between a cyclist and a car). Some fairly formidable central buildings, most of them educational or ecclesiastical, or both. We fluked our way into the main square - and chanced upon a bus-stop graced by a service that allegedly called at Hohenlinden every three hours or so. The project could have fallen apart right there - but, by sheer good luck, one of these magical conveyances was due along in twenty minutes. Suspiciously little, however, seemed to be going on around us - cafés were defiantly unthronged, public buildings were playing dead - and the emergence of so convenient a rescue vehicle seemed more unlikely with every passing moment. Yet, bang on time, a superb new high-tech coach did indeed pull up beside us and in we climbed - along with a bemused-looking old gent who, somewhat worryingly, had silently joined us just after our own arrival at the stop. (Surely he wasn't ...
The page you have requested is restricted to subscribers only. Please enter your username and password and click on 'Continue'.
If you have forgotten your username and password, please enter the email address you used when you joined. Your login details will then be emailed to the address specified.
If you are not a subscriber and would like to enjoy the 286 issues containing over 11,500 poems, articles, reports, interviews and reviews, why not subscribe to the website today?
If you have forgotten your username and password, please enter the email address you used when you joined. Your login details will then be emailed to the address specified.
If you are not a subscriber and would like to enjoy the 286 issues containing over 11,500 poems, articles, reports, interviews and reviews, why not subscribe to the website today?