Author: Gray, Christian
Biography:
GRAY, Christian (1772-1830: SWPRP)
She was born at Mundie, in the parish of Aberdalgie, Perthshire, to George Gray, a farmer, and Janet (McDonald) Gray. She became blind in early childhood, possibly as a result of smallpox, and one of her 1808 poems was “composed on a proposal being made for her admittance into the Asylum for the Blind in Edinburgh.” Her family suffered during the 1816-26 drought in Scotland, but by 1827 she was living in a cottage built for her by the Earl of Kinnoul (on whose land her family had farmed). She remained there until her death on 22 Jan. 1830. Although she likely had limited education, her poems reflect her wide knowledge of poetry and are written in both standard English and Scots dialect. She composed orally and others would transcribe her verses as she recited them. (SWPRP; P.R. Drummond, Perthshire in Bygone Days [1879] 404-09; Kinnoul Parish Registers [information from AA])