Caroline Eliza Scott, better known as Mrs G. G. Richardson, the daughter
of a gentleman of considerable property in the south of Scotland, was
born at Forge, her father's family residence, in the parish of Canonbie,
on the 24th of November 1777, and spent her childhood and early youth
amidst Border scenes, Border traditions, and Border minstrelsy. It is
probable that these influences fostered the poetic temperament, while
they fed the imaginative element of her mind, as she very early gave
expression to her thoughts and feelings in romance and poetry. Born to a
condition of favourable circumstances, and associating with parents
themselves educated and intellectual, the young poetess enjoyed
advantages of development rarely owned by the sons and daughters of
genius. The flow of her mind was allowed to take its natural course; and
some of her early anonymous writings are quite as remarkable as any of
her acknowledged productions. Her conversational powers were lively and
entertaining, but never oppressive. She was ever ready to discern and do
homage to the merits of her contemporaries, while she never failed to
fan the faintest flame of latent poesy in the aspirations of the timid
or unknown. Affectionate and cheerful in her dispositions, she was a
loving and dutiful daughter, and shewed the tenderest attachment to a
numerous family of brothers and sisters. She was married to her cousin,
Gilbert Geddes Richardson, on the 29th of April 1799, at Fort George,
Madras; where she was then living with her uncle, General, afterwards
Lord Harris; and the connexion proved, in all respects, a suitable and
happy one. Her husband, at that time captain of an Indiaman, was one of
a number of brothers, natives of the south of Scotland, who all sought
their fortunes in India, and one of whom, Lieutenant-Colonel Richardson,
became known in literature as an able translator of Sanscrit poetry, and
contributor to the "Asiatic Researches." He was lost at sea, with his
wife and six children, on their homeward voyage; and this distressing
event, accompanied as it was by protracted suspense and anxiety, was
long and deeply deplored by his gifted sister-in-law.
Young, beautiful, and doubly attractive from the warmth of her heart,
and the fascination of her manners, Mrs Richardson was not only loved
and appreciated by her husband, and his family, but greatly admired in a
refined circle of Anglo-Indian society; and the few years of her married
life were marked by almost uninterrupted felicity. But death struck down
the husband and father in the very prime of manhood; and the widow
returned with her five children (all of whom survived her), to seek from
the scenes and friends of her early days such consolation as they might
minister to a grief which only those who have experienced it can
measure. She never brought her own peculiar sorrows before the public;
but there is a tone of gentle mournfulness pervading many of her poems,
that may be traced to this cause; and there are touching allusions to
"one of rare endowments," that no one who remembered her husband's
character could fail to recognise. Her intense love of nature happily
remained unchanged; and the green hills, the flowing river, and the
tangled wildwood, could still soothe a soul that, but for its
susceptibility to these beneficent charms, might have said in its
sadness of everything earthly, "miserable comforters are ye all."
Continuing to reside at Forge while her children were young, she devoted
herself to the direction of their education, the cultivation of her own
pure tastes, and the peaceful enjoyments of a country life; and when she
afterwards removed to London, and reappeared in brilliant and
distinguished society, she often reverted, with regret, to the bright
skies and cottage homes of Canonbie. In 1821, Mrs Richardson again
returned to Scotland, and took up her abode at Dumfries, partly from the
desire of being near her connexions, and partly for the sake of the
beautiful scenery surrounding that pretty county town. In 1828 she
published, by subscription, her first volume of miscellaneous poems,
which was well received by the public, favourably noticed by the leading
journals, and received a circulation even beyond the range of 1700
subscribers. A second edition, in a larger form, soon followed; and, in
1834, after finally settling in her native parish, she published a
second volume, dedicated to the Duchess of Buccleuch, and which was also
remarkably successful. From this time she employed her talents in the
composition of prose; she published "Adonia," a novel, in three volumes;
and various tales, essays, and fugitive pieces, forming contributions to
popular serials. Her later poems remain in manuscript. She maintained an
extensive correspondence with her literary friends, and spent much of
her time in reading and study, and in the practice of sincere and
unostentatious piety. Her faculties were vigorous and unimpared, until
the seizure of her last illness, which quickly terminated in death, on
the 9th October 1853, when she had nearly completed her seventy-sixth
year. She died at Forge, and was laid to rest in the church-yard of her
own beloved Canonbie.
[112] The memoir of Mrs G. G. Richardson has been kindly supplied by her
accomplished relative, Mrs Macarthur, Hillhead, near Glasgow.