SUSANNA

BLAMIRE (1747-1794)  , English poet, daughter of a Cumberland yeoman, was born at Cardew Hall, near Daiston, in January 1747 . Her mother died while she was a child, and she was brought up by her aunt, a Mrs Simpson of Thackwood, who sent her niece to the village school at Raughton Head . Susanna Blamire's earliest poem is " Written in a Churchyard, on seeing a number of cattle grazing," in imitation of Gray . She lived an uneventful life among the farmers of the neighbourhood, and her gaiety and good-humour made her a favourite in rustic society . In 1767 her elder sister Sarah married Colonel Graham of Gartmore . " An Epistle to her friends at Gartmore " gives a playful description of the monotonous simplicity of her life . To her Perthshire visits her songs in the Scottish vernacular are no doubt partly due . Her chief friend was Catharine Gilpin of Scaleby Castle . The two ladies spent the winters together in Carlisle, and wrote poems in common . Susanna Blamire died in Carlisle on the 5th of April 1794 . The poems which were not collected during her lifetime, were first published in 1842 by Henry Lonsdale as The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire, " the Muse of Cumberland," with a memoir by Mr Patrick Maxwell . Some of her songs rank among the very best of north-country lyrics .

" And ye shall walk in

silk attire " and " What ails this heart o' mine," are well known, and were included in Johnson's Scots' Musical Museum .