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

The Salamanca Corpus: The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842)
her sister’s poetry by Mrs Brown, who, I had no doubt in my mind, was perfectly aware of
its being her sister’s before she inserted it among her writings;—that was one reason, for
Mrs
[xliv]
Brown must have had her knowledge from personal facts, and her sister was too highminded
a lady to appropriate the labours of another:—on the same principle I have inserted
“Auld Robin Forbes,” which has been by some ascribed to Miss Gilpin. Another reason
why I thought it, and still think it, Miss Blamire’s is, in the version ascribed to Miss Parken
(she is called Parker in the Gentleman’s Magazine), the last stanza is wholly omitted,
which, in my mind, is not a little conclusive of the matter; for we cannot well conceive a
poet writing on the subject and omitting the very striking and obvious contrast of the
Christian and the infidel. Moreover, in the poem printed in the text, there is much more
closeness of composition, a clearer arrangement of thought, and a closer sequence of
circumstances; which strongly induce me to conclude it is the production of Miss Blamire.
The difficulty is also much lessened concerning who was the author, now that we have the
writings of Miss Blamire before us; and I feel no hesitation in saying that the poem in
question bears a very striking resemblance to the general spirit of her poetry; nay, that the
frequent allusion to to-morrow in her works, showing how much it entered into the usual
current of her thoughts, is of itself almost conclusive of the matter. The Rev. Mr Lowthian,
Rector of Kellington, Yorkshire, first published the poem in the
[xlv]
“Gentleman’s Magazine” for 1820, in which volume the authorship is disputed, on the
authority of Dr Styles, who, in a biography which he had written of Miss Parken’s brother,
made mention of the poem as being hers. In the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for December
1823, Mr Lowthian (I should have said, under the signature of OMICRON in both instances)
again adverted to the authorship of “To-morrow;” and, it would appear, had invited Dr
Styles in a former communication to give up the sources of his information that the poem in
question was Miss Parken’s; but it seems that gentleman had not complied with the
invitation. That it is Miss Blamire’s I am firmly persuaded, and for the reasons already
produced. Miss Stubbs had the kindness to favour me with a copy of the poem, which she
extracted from her mother’s commonplace-book, verbatim as that printed by the Rev. Mr
Lowthian, with the exception of the last line in the last stanza, which ending in “tomorrow”
ought to have been “to-day :”— the same mistake appears in Mrs Brown’s copy.
It is possible that Miss Parken might have seen the poem, and have taken a copy of it, as
being soothing to her feelings, and suited to her infirm health; for Mr Montgomery informs
us that she died young in 1811, and thus the mistake of her being the author of it might
have originated.
[xlvi]
The second dispute is with the song “O dinna think, my bonnie lass,” at page 246. It
so happens that Hector Macneill, the ingenious author of “Will and Jean,” and of numerous