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

The Salamanca Corpus: The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842)
The force of her character procured her respect from every one who knew her, and
her warm-hearted benevolence secured it. Her charities were constant and liberal; and the
following anecdote is related how she relieved the more important and urgent cases of
distress which solicited her attention. She kept her ready money—chiefly gold-—in a basin
which stood on a table in her parlour; and whoever came to ask her assistance received an
ample supply to relieve their wants, so long as the basin contained any of its precious store.
Of course, we must suppose that this liberality was always exerted with due discrimination.
Under the eye of this vigilant and kind-hearted relative did Susanna, accompanied
with her sister and her brothers, attend the village school of Raughton-Head, distant about a
mile from Thackwood. Here boys and girls were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic;
and if the amount of information obtained was small, it was obtained at as small a charge;
for Dr Lonsdale was informed by one of her schoolfellows, that the quarter’s wages did not
exceed a shilling. There is every reason
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herself greatly on these occasions; marking with a keen eye the various shades of character
around her, and the whole proceedings with intense interest. Before the hilarity of the
evening had melted the restraint usual at the commencement of such parties, I have been
told she would relish the bashful approaches of the young villager as he, with much
hesitation, made his homely bow, and begged she would honour him with her presence at
the dance; that she would start up with hearty good-will, spring round the room, and thus
dispel those timid fears which at first somewhat marred the free expression of delight, or
the loud laugh of enjoyment. How much she was the cynosure of those parties, as will be
afterwards shown she was equally so in those of a higher grade, may be gathered from the
following anecdote, which was told me by the late Miss Thompson of Carlisle. A worthy
farmer, who almost worshipped the Poetess, about two weeks after her death came to Miss
Rowlands, a relation of Miss Blamire, for the sole purpose of having some conversation
concerning Miss Sukey, as she was fondly and familiarly called by her neighbours and the
people in the district, and for mutually bemoaning their loss. Miss Rowlands excused
herself on the plea that the affliction was so recent, she could not summon fortitude
sufficient to converse on the subject, and entreated him to call on
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her grief, should she survive her: “Whenever this awful event shall take place, I humbly
trust in the mercies of Almighty God, that I shall be received into everlasting happiness;
and that my dear sister Graeme will not suffer her grief to become excessive for the loss of
one whose every hour she was the means of rendering easy, happy, and delightful.”
Susanna, at the time of her sister’s marriage, was in her twentieth year. She had a
graceful form, somewhat above the middle size, and a countenance—though slightly
marked with the smallpox—beaming with good nature; her dark eyes sparkled with
animation, and won every heart at the first introduction. She was called by her affectionate
countrymen “a bonny and varra lish young lass,” which may be interpreted as meaning a
beautiful and very lively young girl. Her affability and total freedom from affectation, put