It was not until her children were reared that Blaikie entered into public work, for 21 years, conducting a weekly prayer meeting for mothers.

But although I have been in favour of temperance all my life, it was not until about twenty years ago that Dr. Blaikie and I came publicly forward as total abstainers.

Influenced by MacPherson's emigration work, Blaikie decided to start something of a similar character on her return to Edinburgh.

[3] Her interest in church work and in the temperance question in particular led to her selection as president of the Scottish Christian Union, one of the affiliated societies of the British Women's Temperance Association, on the formation of that body in 1877, and she continued to hold that position until the infirmities of age compelled her resignation in 1906.

[2] She married William Garden Blaikie in 1845,[2] at the time when he was minister of the Free Church of Scotland at Pilrig, a suburb of Edinburgh.