The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842) - Gredos ...

The Salamanca Corpus: The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842)
mother’s heart? Can there anywhere be found such a total abnegation of self, or that
perpetual welling of affection, save in a mother’s breast? In her angriest voice we discover
no asperity; we even rush to those arms which threaten us with chastisement: and how
delicious is her approbation! the proudest realizations of after-life afford no charm equal to
the bland smile we perceive irradiating a mother’s honest face. O! narrow must that heart
be which has not a corner for the memory of a mother, however dear the ties he may have
formed in future years. 1
1 A friend of mine, now no more, was once relating to his mother and myself the pleasure he felt whilst on a
small island in the West Indies, where he and some of his brother officers were allowed to wander for a few
hours, till the ship took in a supply of water. He expatiated on the rich luxuriance which met his eye—the
teeming abundance of a tropical climate—the gorgeous plumage of the birds—the verdure which carpeted the
earth—the cloudless serenity of the sky. He wandered on spellbound, till at length he arrived at a hut situate in
the solitude, so peaceful and so calm, surrounded with trees in every variety of blossom, the air being actually
laden with their perfume, all which so captivated his fancy, that he declared he could have
[xx]
Miss Blamire however was singularly fortunate in finding one to watch over her infancy;
for, after the death of her mother, she was removed to the care of; her aunt Mrs Simpson,
the wife of her mother’s brother; whose maiden name was Stevenson, of Kettleside,
Cumberland; a lady possessed of considerable property. She was born in 1702, and died in
April, 1785; her husband had died in 1745. Having no family, she besought Mr Blamire, on
his second marriage, to allow her to take the charge of his children—for there is ever a
distrust of stepmothers—and they were accordingly removed from the Oaks to
Thackwood. She was a woman of a very active mind, and, like many of those notable
housewives—a bygone race—neither disdained, nor deemed it unbecoming her station in
life, to take the entire management of her household. The excellent arrangement of her
domestic affairs increased her means of usefulness, ample as her fortune was, for her
economy was not parsimony; and she knew well that that prudence which prevents waste
adds to our power of doing good. It is not unreasonable to conclude, that
Spent his life there in happiness. I shall never forget his mother’s reply; it was uttered calmly, but without
premeditation: “Dear Willie, all this seems to have been very fine which you have told us, but believe me you
will find no breeze to blow upon you with the softness of a mother’s breath.”
[xxi]
it was from the exhibition of such activity and discipline her niece obtained the touching
and forcible sentiment conveyed in the following verse:
“The saddest sight the pitying eyes receive,
Is to see wretchedness with nought to give.”