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

The Salamanca Corpus: The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842)
[Page]
MEMOIR
OF
MISS SUSANNA BLAMIRE.
THE Life of Miss Blamire, I feel assured, would have formed an instructive and interesting
portion of biography, had it been possible to procure its details with that fulness and
accuracy which are indispensable to the purposes of truth, and those minuter lights and
shades which enter into the composition of every human character. Much of this however
will be supplied by her writings; for she wrote not for the world, but because it gave her
pleasure, and to amuse a friend; and sometimes, it would appear, to give utterance to
feelings that could not otherwise be controlled. The few compositions known to be hers,
and some others now for the first time claimed in her name, have stood the test of public
opinion for upwards of fifty years; have been taught us in our infancy; and have taken root
in our memories like the holier scenes and attachments of our
[xvi]
juvenile days. They spoke to our young hearts in the language of truth and of nature, and
aided in implanting better feelings there; and it cannot be wondered at that they gained our
early regard, nor, that they now in maturer age, to use her own beautiful phraseology,
“moan in our ears” like voices long since heard, and which can never be forgotten. Of a
being so amiable, and with such powers, who would not be desirous of possessing the
fullest information! yet I grieve, to say that I have but a few scanty facts, obtained by Dr
Lonsdale from the family, and collected by myself in various quarters, to gratify so
laudable a curiosity.
Miss Susanna Blamire was the youngest child, by his first marriage, of William
Blamire, Esquire, of the Oaks, and Isabella Simpson, daughter of George Simpson, Esquire,
of Thackwood, and Miss Richmond of High Head Castle, in the county of Cumberland. She
was born at Cardew Hall, about two miles west of the I Oaks, and six from Carlisle,
between the hours of eleven and twelve in the morning of the 12th of January, 1747.
The Poetess’s father was a fine specimen of the open-hearted English yeoman of his
period, who lived on his estate, and freely enjoyed the hospitalities which a handsome
independence placed within his reach. He died on the 7th of June, 1758, in the fifty-sixth
year of