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

The Salamanca Corpus: The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842)
allusion she makes in one of her songs to a passage in “The Gentle Shepherd:” if she had
perused Ramsay and other Scottish writers before her visit to Gartmore, it is natural to
suppose she would have her admiration of them increased by her residence in Scotland. We
have a clear proof, however, that she was conversant, even at this period of her life, with
the writings of Milton, Collins, Gray, and Prior, and doubtless with many others of the
English classics; but it is curious to remark, we do not find one solitary allusion to the
works of Burns, which she unquestionably would have relished much and appreciated
highly. How far the Poetess’s passion for literature was encouraged by Mrs Graham I have
not discovered, but am disposed to think, from the love they bore each other, that she would
indulge her in every thing that tended to promote her happiness and give her pleasure. From
her aunt, and her brother the surgeon, she obtained no counte-
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nance; her aunt, though an excellent being in every point of view, was too much a matter of
fact woman to see any virtue in stringing verses together, and used to admonish her niece
against the unprofitable occupation of writing poetry; and her brother, from having been
brought up in the active duties of the royal navy, and leading even a laborious life by the
benevolent exercise of his profession among the poor around him, could also see no
enjoyment in the indulgence of the pleasures of imagination. Yet, had she met with any
encouragement from her family to follow her favourite pursuit, we may readily conceive
what a stimulus such would have given her mind, and how beneficially it would have
operated upon it; so kind a heart and so lively a fancy could never be indifferent either to
praise or blame;—she even has said with infantine simplicity,
“For me, I own, that hope of praise can charm
This little heart, and all its feelings warm.”
Between her twentieth and thirtieth year, before her bodily infirmities pressed hard
upon her, and somewhat f damped the ardour of her spirits, I could fancy her to have been
like one of those radiant beings whose joyousness of heart—whose amiable and innocent
gayety— was more akin to heaven than to earth. Wherever she went she diffused joy and
happiness around her; the
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old loved her as their own, and the young joined to their admiration a feeling of a more
tender sentiment. We have seen how much she was the delight of the humbler classes, how
keenly and cordially she entered into the spirit of their social parties; but she was not the
less beloved by those who moved in the world of fashion. When on a visit to her aunt Mrs
Fell, whose husband was curate of Chillingham, the noble family of Tankerville was
residing at Chillingham Castle, and Miss Blamire soon became acquainted with the Earl
and his family. They quickly discovered her superiority of mind, and loved as much as they
admired her; and, to please the Earl, who was much amused with the Cumberland dialect,
she wrote at his request that clever dialogue commencing “Wey, Ned, man! thou luiks sae
down-hearted.” The lady Francis Isabella felt such a regard for her, that she petitioned aunt