336 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



(|Ext. from the Glasgow Courier.] 

 " To the Editor. 

 <« Sir— The letters from Caith- 

 ness respecting the Mermaid, which 

 have lately appeared in the public 

 prints, having excited considerable 

 attention, the Glasgow Philosophi- 

 cal Society, by their secretary, 

 wrote to the Rev. Mr. Mackay, 

 minister of Reay, to ascertain the 

 authenticity of these documents. 

 The following polite answer was, 

 in due course, received by the So- 

 ciety.— I am, &c. 



" James Watt, Pres. 

 «' Society's Hall, Oct. 16, 1809." 



" Sir— In terms of your and the 

 Philosophical Society's request, I 

 have to inform you, that my 

 daughter wrote a letter to Miss 

 Innes Dowager of Sandside, con- 

 cerning the strange phenomenon 

 seen near this place merely for pri- 

 vate information, without the small- 

 est suspicion of any other use to be 

 made of it. But having excited 

 Sir John Sinclair's curiosity, he ob- 

 tained a copy of this letter, and it 

 seems that by one of his friends it 

 found its way to the English news- 

 papers. Though I never saw the 

 letter, either originally or in the 

 papers, I have good reason to sup- 

 pose that it is a genuine document. 

 " With regard to the animal's 

 timidity, I have only to say, that 

 two servant maids and a boy being 

 at the time down among the rocks, 

 it was the cries of the boy that 

 made it first disappear. It soon 

 re-appeared farther out in the sea, 

 and ultimately disappeared, after 

 having taken its course a consider- 

 able way along the shore, the spec- 

 tators following, and walked on un- 

 til they lost hope of its coming up 

 again. The schoolmaster of Thur- 

 so's letter is also genuine ; and he 



is a gentleman whose veracity is not 

 called in question. 



" I am respectfully. Sir, 

 " Your most obedient humble 

 Servant, 



" David Mackay, Reay, 

 Oct. 3, 1809. 

 '* James Boag, Esq. Sec. Phil. So. 

 High-street, Gtasgoui." 

 The strange accounts of Mer- 

 maids having been seen on the 

 coast of Scotland, have induced 

 some of the collectors of " Tales of 

 Wonder" to bring forward the fol- 

 lowing still more extravagant and 

 improbable story respecting an ani- 

 mal of the same kind, pretended to 

 have been found in Holland :— ^ 



" In a History of the Nether- 

 lands it is stated, that in the year 

 HOS, the dikes were broken near 

 Campear by an inundation; and 

 when the inundation had returned, 

 a Merwoman was left in the Der- 

 met Mere; and the milk-maids, 

 who used to cross that Mere in 

 boats, when they went to milk, saw 

 a human head above water, but 

 believed their eyes deceived them, 

 till the repeated sight confirmed 

 their assurance ; whereupon they 

 resolved one night to watch her, 

 and saw that she repaired to a sedgy 

 or flaggy place, where it was ebb, 

 and near the side ; whereupon, 

 early in the morning, they got a 

 great many boats together, and en- 

 vironed the place in the form of a 

 half moon, and disturbed her ; but 

 she attempting to get under the 

 boats, and finding her way stopped 

 up by staves and other things on 

 purpose fastened, began to flounce, 

 and make a hideous deafening 

 noise, and with her hands and tail 

 sunk a boat or two, but at last was 

 tired out and taken ; the maids 

 used her kindly, and cleaned the 



sea-moss 



