Jessie Saxby

Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby (née Edmondston, 30 June 1842 – 27 December 1940) was a Scottish poet, novelist, journalist, short story writer, folklorist, and biographer of Joseph Bell. She was a regular correspondent for The Shetland Times and supported liberalism, temperance, and women's suffrage.

Quotes

• I hear you're such a lazy bird,
      You cannot build a nest;
  Perhaps you could, if you would try—
      We ought to do our best.
  
  The little bird that told me this
      Suspected something worse,—
  That you neglect your little ones,
      And put them out to nurse.
  
  Oh, Cuckoo! if this story's true,
      I think you're much to blame.
  Then talk no more about yourself;
      Go, hide yourself, for shame!
  • "Verses IV to VI of The Cuckoo". Aunt Effie's Rhymes for Little Children. London: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge. 1860. p. 29.  (64 pages with 24 illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne)

• Winds are raging fierce and high,
  Lurid lightnings wreathe the sky,
  Thunders roll and night is nigh,
  Ships 'mid storm-toss'd breakers lie
                    At the ocean's will.
  Little ones there are who weep,
  Wives who weary vigils keep,
  When all else have gone to sleep.
  Father! to yon angry deep
                    "Say Thou, Peace, be still."
  • "1st ten lines of The Sea Storm". Lichens from the Old Rock: Poems. Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo. 1868. p. 20.  text at archive.org

• We had been dressing the wee lassie one day is a graceful fairy-like costume of Aunt Ellen's devising, and maternal pride gave utterance to some (foolish) remarks about the child's appearance. Very sweetly came the rebuke from childhood's wisdom. "Yes, but it was very good of God to make me pretty."
  • The One Wee Lassie. 175. Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot. 1875. p. 15.  (This book contains a portrayal of the death of Jessie Saxby’s daughter Laura, nicknamed “Lalla”.)

• ... The Corbie (or Raven) is sacred to the All-Father. The Katyogle (or Owl) is consecrated to the goddess of wisdom. ...
  I have too much respect for the Corbie and Katyogle to dwell in detail upon their natural history. I care not for their "order," according to the scientist. The genus and species to which they belong influence me not one whit. Why—when I know on the authority of a Shetland witch, that the Corbie can assume any form he pleases, and that the Katyogle is the inhabitant of another world in disguise–why should I trouble my spirit with assigning to either a place in the Darwinian circle?
  • Birds of Omen in Shetland: (Inaugural Address to the Viking Club, London, October 13, 1892). Privately printed. 1893. p. 5.  (32 pages; with Notes on the Folk-lore of the Raven and the Owl by W. A. Clouston)

• An incantation against nightmare was once used over me by old Mam-Kirsty famed for her witchcraft.
  • Shetland Traditional Lore. Grant & Murray. 1932. p. 60.  (208 pages)

External links

• Author: Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby. victorianresearch.org.
• Wildie and Lalla —The story of Shetland author Jessie M.E Saxby and her daughter Lalla, is to be told in a new short film written and sound tracked by Newcastle University's Catriona MacDonald. Newcastle University (19 April 2021).
• Saxby, Jessie Margaret Edmondston (1913). Joseph Bell; an appreciation by an old friend. Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier.