author
Christian Carstairs
1763–1786
A little-known Scottish poet of the late 18th century, she published anonymously as “a Lady” and left behind a small body of work that hints at a life shaped by friendship, loss, and the practical realities of earning a living. Her surviving poems and satire offer a rare, personal glimpse of a writer who is still partly hidden by history.
1 Audiobook
The Hubble-Shue
by Christian Carstairs
About the author
Active between 1763 and 1786, Christian Carstairs was a Scottish poet whose life is only faintly documented. Wikipedia notes that she was the daughter of James Bruce Carstairs of Kinross, Fife, and that much of what can be inferred about her comes from her own writing rather than from outside records.
Her poems refer to places in Scotland and to family sorrow, including the death of a brother in military service in Bengal. She is thought to have worked as a governess, and may also have tried to open a school for milliners. In 1786 she published Original Poems; by a Lady in Edinburgh, and she is also associated with The Hubble-Shue, a satirical piece first issued in 1780.
What makes Carstairs interesting now is not just how little is known about her, but how much feeling survives in the work itself. Her writing preserves the voice of a woman author publishing anonymously in 18th-century Scotland, making her a small but memorable figure in the history of Scottish poetry.