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

The Salamanca Corpus: The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842)
[xxvi]
period engaged in active warfare, every village furnished its quota of soldiers and sailors,
and every cottage could tell of some relative who had stood “i’ the imminent deadly
breach:” thus we find that “The Soldier’s Return” was a real incident which happened in
the Highlands; it is entitled in Mrs Brown’s copy “The old Chelsea Pensioner s Return,”
but I have retained the title which the authoress herself has given it in a MS. written in her
own hand. Then, in “Old Harry’s Return,” as Mrs Brown informs us, this was one Harry
Macdowal, evidently a Scottish subject too: she also tells us that that exquisite ballad “The
Nabob” was also founded on fact; and although it is not so stated, yet we cannot help
thinking that, from the imagery and sentiment which pervade it, it must have been
composed on some Scottish incident also. Among Mrs Brown’s MSS. in the handwriting of
her sister, I found a poem on the ruins of the Priory of Inch-mahome, situate on the largest
of the islands in the Lake of Menteath, in Stirlingshire. There is considerable interest
attached to this spot, as having been the residence of Mary Queen of Scots for about two
years, when only four years of age, previously to her being sent to France. The poem,
consisting of a good number of stanzas, is written upon an old letter, now much decayed;
and is evidently a first draft, so interlined and defaced as to
[xxvii]
defy transcription, else I should have copied it and inserted it among her works;—perhaps
there may yet be a fair and correct copy of it in existence.
Along with her sister and the Colonel Miss Blamire visited London, and was with them in
Ireland. Miss Stubbs mentioned to me that she heard her relate, that when in the latter
place, and sleeping in an old castle, in an apartment which had the reputation of being
haunted, during the middle of the night her courage was put to a considerable trial. She was
roused out of her sleep by feeling her bed evidently upheaved; and hearing heavy steps on
the floor, she started from her couch, and ran to the head of the stair to awaken the family—
there being no bells in the rooms in those days —when a large Newfoundland dog, that had
been in the habit of taking up its abode here, rushed past her, and thus revealed the cause of
her alarm. This betokened considerable courage in a being so young and so sensitive,
whose ardent imagination was but too apt to people with a double portion of hobgoblins a
domicile which was said to be their favourite rendezvous.
Whether the Mr Graham of Gartmore, author of the song entitled “O tell me how to
woo thee,” was the father of the Colonel, or how they stood related to each other, I have not
been able to ascertain; but we may readily conclude that Miss Blamire was aware that
[xxvii]
it was written by some relative of the family; and we find that the Misses Graham fostered
feer love for poetry, from the circumstance of her having addressed them in rhyme, which
she scarcely would have done had they not been admirers of verse. Whether her
acquaintance with Scottish poetry commenced before her visit to Scotland, cannot now be
ascertained; but we find she was well acquainted with the writings of Ramsay, by the direct