Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/428

 4>2 CRITICAL STUDIES with my parents at Ettrick House, and the next day again set out on my journey." However, he had to turn back with a heavy heart ; the terrible snowstorm was brewing which burst between one and two the next morning, and whose effects he so vividly de- scribes — the snowstorm in which seventeen shepherds perished and upwards of thirty others were carried home insensible, while the number of sheep lost far outwent any possibility of calculation. On the Beds of Esk alone, and the adjacent shores of the Solway Firth, there were found, when the flood after the storm subsided, 1840 sheep, 9 black cattle, 3 horses, 2 men, i woman, 45 dogs, and 180 hares, besides a number of meaner animals ; and whole flocks were buried deep in the snow, which lay a week. " The storm was universally regarded as a judgment sent by God for some heinous sin : " but whose, and what ? Despite the weather, the meeting was held at Enter- trony, and this shieling was in the very vortex of the storm, the very centre of the devastation ; and soon the rumour spread through the country-side that these poor young fellows of the mutual improvement society had been engaged in unholy rites, " had raised the deil among them like a great rough dog at the very time the tempest began, and were glad to draw cuts, and gie him ana o' their number to get quit o' him again. How every hair of my head, and inch of my frame, crept at hearing this! for I had a dearly beloved brother who was of the number, several full cousins and intimate acquaintances ; indeed, I looked upon the whole fraternity as my brethren, and considered myself involved in all their transactions. I could say no more in defence of the society's proceedings ; for,