323 



THE FISHERS OF STOTFIELD. 



A Tale founded on Facts. 



The 25lh of December, ISO'S, is one of those days which will long 

 be remembered wilh mournful feelings on the Morayshire coast. 

 It was ushered in by one of the most calm and beautiful mornings 

 which ever visited our northern climate. There was indeed a pecu- 

 liar geniality in it. Not a breath of wind made the smallest con- 

 scious undulation in the air. It appeared as if nature had shed a 

 special freshness on all her works. The sky wore that indescribably 

 beautiful appearance which is produced by an admixture of a blue 

 with a lightish gray colour, and which imparts something resembling 

 a golden tinge to the sun's rays when emitted through it. If there 

 be such a science as the physiognomy of nature, the greatest profi- 

 cients in that science would, on perusing the appearance she pre- 

 sented on the morning in question, have laid it down as a settled 

 point that for that day, at least, there was not the least chance of un- 

 propitious weather. 



For some days preceding the 25th of December the weather had 

 been so inclement and boisterous that the fishing boats were pre- 

 vented from putting to sea ; and accordingly the favourable auspices, 

 under which the morning in question dawned upon them, were looked 

 upon by the fishermen as a special boon from heaven — as one of the 

 countless proofs which are daily furnished to mankind, that the gifts 

 of Providence are conferred with a lavish hand on our earth, not- 

 withstanding the ingratitude of man. With the first streaks of the 

 morning's light every fisherman in the village of Stotfield arose 

 from his bed, and against nine o'clock had completed the requisite 

 preparations for going to sea. The number of boats belonging to 

 this village at the time was three, and these three contained twenty- 

 one hands, being all the able-bodied male persons belonging to the 

 place who were thus employed for that day's labours on the face of 

 the great deep. 



Just as the men had taken their respective stations in the boats, 

 and were about to commit themselves to the watery element, Char- 

 lotte Bain, a young girl, of about twenty years of age, and who all 

 her lifetime had been both deaf and dumb, came running from the 

 village to the shore in breathless haste. She instantly jumped into 

 the boat in which her father was, and, seizing him by the breast of 

 his coat, motioned him to return on shore. The unfortunate crea- 

 ture's father, imagining it was some foolish notion she had taken, to 

 have him out of the boat, wished to take no notice of her dumb but 

 expressive entreaties. On perceiving this, she at one time clung to 

 him, her manner displaying a striking union of the piteous with the 

 frantic ; while at another she dragged him with an almost superna- 



