Christian Milne

Christian Milne (born 15 May 1773) was a Scottish poetess of the Romantic Era.

Life
Milne was born Christian Ross in Inverness, Scotland. Her parents were poor but the little schooling she had, she used to good account. She began rhyming before her teens. At the age of 14 she was sent into service in Aberdeen.

Shortly after her marriage to a shipcarpenter, her poetry was shown to a man of influence in Aberdeen and together with other gentlemen this enabled her to get a subscription list of 500 and sales of 600 on her book, which was published in 1805. The profits of £100 were invested in a vessel in which her husband was made master.

She had eight children and although she apparently still wrote poetry she had no further work published.

Writing
The Monthly Magazine (1806): "Mrs. Milne's Simple Poems on Simple Subjects deserve particular encouragement; not so much, perhaps, for the extraordinary merit of her poetry, as on account of the singular circumstances under which it appears to have been written. The Muse is rarely auspicious to a life of manual labour."

Publications

 * Simple Poems on Simple Subjects. Aberdeen: Printed for the author by J. Chalmers & Co., 1805.