Catharine Gilpin of Scaleby Castle, a member of the family which produced Bernard Gilpin, the apostle of the north. Catharine Gilpin was also a poet. The two ladies lodged together in Carlisle, and wrote poems in common, so that it is difficult in all cases to distinguish the authorship. What little else is known about Susanna Blamire is gathered from her poems. 'Stoklewath, or the Cumbrian Village,' a poem which recalls Goldsmith's 'Deserted Village,' gives a faithful picture of the surroundings of her ordinary life. A poetical 'Epistle to Friends at Gartmore 'describes the homely occupations of her days at Thackwood. In it she speaks of keen suffering from rheumatism, and her poems bear increasing signs that they were written in the intervals of bodily pain. Her ailments gained upon her, and she died in Carlisle on 5 April 1794 in her forty-seventh year.
Susanna Blamire was a true poet, and deserves more recognition than she has yet received. Her sphere is somewhat narrow, but everything that she has written is genuine and truthful. She has caught the peculiar humour of the Cumbrian folk with admirable truth, and depicts it faithfully so far as was consistent with her own refinement. As a song-writer she deserves to rank very high. She preferred to write songs in the Scottish dialect, and three at least of her songs are exquisite, 'What ails this heart o' mine?' 'And ye shall walk in silk attire,' and 'The Travelers Return.' Another beautiful song, 'The Waefu' Heart,' is, with great probability, attributed to her. Susanna Blamire did not write for fame, and fame was slow in coming to her. Her song, 'The Traveller s Return,' or 'The Nabob,' as it was sometimes called, was printed with her name in various collections of Scottish songs. It fell into the hands of a gentleman in India, Mr. Patrick Maxwell, and fascinated him by its appropriateness to his own thoughts. When he returned to England he devoted himself to the discovery of Miss Blamire's writings. In 1829 he found that Robert Anderson, the author of 'Cumberland Ballads,' possessed a few her poems in manuscript and a few materials for a memoir. He continued his search among the members of Susanna Blamire's family and the families of her friends. He filled with like enthusiasm a medical student whom he met in Edinburgh, Dr. Lonsdale, a native of Carlisle. By their combined energy what remained of Susanna Blamire's manuscripts were gathered together, and such records of her life as still survived were collected. The fruit of their labours was at length published: 'The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire, "The Muse of Cumberland," now for the first time collected by Henry Lonsdale, M.D., with a preface, memoir, and notes by Patrick Maxwell,' Edinburgh, 1842. To this collection a few additions have been made in 'The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland,' edited by Sidney Gilpin, London, 1866.
[Authorities cited above.]
BLAMIRE, WILLIAM (1790–1862), tithe commissioner, was the nephew of Susanna Blamire [q. v.], being the only son of her brother William, who, in his early days, was a naval surgeon, but later in life settled down on his ancestral estate, The Oaks, near Dalston, in Cumberland. The vicar of Dalston was the famous William Paley, and by him William Blamire was baptised. In later life he attributed to his early intercourse with Paley, and his consequent knowledge of Paley's ‘Moral and Political Philosophy,’ the origin of those ideas which he was enabled to carry out in practical politics. He received a good education, first at Westminster School, and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1811. To the disappointment of his father he refused to follow any of the learned professions, and preferred to settle on one of his father's farms at Thackwood Nook, about three miles distant from his home. On his mother's side William Blamire was a nephew of John Christian Curwen [q. v.], of Workington Hall, who was the great promoter of agricultural improvements in Cumberland. William Blamire imbibed his uncle's zeal for agricultural science, and made many experiments in the breeding of stock, which cost him dear; but his experience was always at the service of his neighbours. He was well known at agricultural dinners, where his wise advice and his personal geniality made him deservedly popular amongst the sturdy and independent yeomen of his county. When, in 1828, he was nominated high sheriff of Cumberland, the yeomanry of the neighbourhood, to the number of several hundred, mounted their horses and escorted him to Carlisle, as a token of their desire to do him honour.
In politics William Blamire was a strong whig, and had taken an active part in parliamentary elections in behalf of his uncle, John Christian Curwen, who, in 1820, was elected both by the city of Carlisle and by the county of Cumberland. In the excitement about the Reform Bill the whigs in Cumberland resolved to run two candidates for the election of 1831. The personal popularity of William Blamire marked him out as the colleague of Sir James Graham against Lord Lowther, who sat as a conservative. The Cumberland election of 1831 is one of the most exciting in the annals of parliamentary
