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SIR THOMAS URQUHART
OF CROMARTIE
[Illustration: SIR THOMAS URQUHART.]
[Illustration]
SIR THOMAS
URQUHART
OF CROMARTIE
KNIGHT.
BY
JOHN WILLCOCK
M.A.B.D.
LERWICK.
1899
EDINBURGH & LONDON
OLIPHANT
ANDERSON & FERRIER
[Illustration: SIGNATURE OF SIR THOMAS URQUHART, SLIGHTLY ENLARGED.]
[_All Rights Reserved_]
PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
TO
A. B. W.
WHOSE PRAISE, SO FREELY GIVEN,
IS THE AUTHOR'S MOST COVETED
REWARD.
PREFACE
Few persons who take an interest in general literature are wholly
unacquainted with the name of Sir Thomas Urquhart, as that of the
translator of a great French classic. Only the more erudite can tell how
the name of another literary man, Pierre Antoine Motteux, comes to be
associated with his in connexion with the translation in question, and
are aware that the Scottish knight is the author of original
compositions in such diverse departments as poetry, trigonometry,
genealogy, and biography, and that he played a prominent part in the
public life of his time.
It has been my object to bring together in the following volume all the
materials which are available for giving a vivid picture of the
personality of Sir Thomas Urquhart, and of the circumstances in which
his life was passed, as I think it would be a pity if his romantic,
fantastical figure were to pass into oblivion. The materials for his
life are fairly abundant, though they have to be sought for in many
out-of-the-way corners. The slight but fairly accurate sketch prefixed
to his _Works_ in the Maitland Club edition, and the carefully written
articles in Dr Irving's _Scottish Writers_, and the _Dictionary of
National Biography_, contain the only previous attempts which have been
made to give his history. The limits within which the authors of these
notices had to work, have, however, prevented their giving more than a
bare outline of his career. I have attempted, with what success it is
for my readers to say, to clothe the skeleton with sinews and flesh, and
to impart to the figure some measure of animation.
As I have had to do my work at a great distance from public libraries, I
have been obliged to enlist the services of friends, more fortunately
situated, in the task of looking up multitudinous references and
allusions, which bore upon the history of the person in whom I was
interested, or of the time in which he lived. Miss Kemp, James Walter,
Esq., and Alexander Middlemass, Esq., Edinburgh, have been extremely
serviceable to me in this way.
A variety of details of historical and biographical interest has been
furnished me by Dr. Milne, King-Edward; Garden A. Duff, Esq., Hatton
Castle, Turriff; Capt. Douglas Wimberley, Inverness; J. L. Anderson,
Esq., Edinburgh; and P. J. Anderson, Esq., of Aberdeen University
Library.
Professors Crum Brown, Saintsbury, Butcher, and Eggeling of my own _Alma
Mater_ have been very willing to give the information I have sought from
them; and through Professor Grierson of Aberdeen I have had the loan of
many books containing material of value for my purpose. Sheriff
Mackenzie, Wick, and Sheriff Shennan, Lerwick, have aided me in
questions of literary taste and of legal information; and from W. F.
Smith, Esq., Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, I have received
valuable help in writing the chapter on the translation of Rabelais.
From the latter's scholarly volumes upon the great Frenchman I have
borrowed some notes, which appear with his initials attached to them. To
Professor Ferguson of Glasgow I am indebted for the photograph of
Urquhart's handwriting.
In the work of correcting proofs--a somewhat laborious task in the
present case--I have had kindly assistance from Dr Milne, above
mentioned, and also from A. J. Tedder, Esq., London, Rev. T. Mathewson,
Rev. D. Houston, M.A. and J. M. Goudie, Esq., Lerwick.
If I have omitted the name of any helper, or if by frivolous comment I
have done wrong to the shade of Sir Thomas, I would adopt the language
of Mr Collins in _Pride and Prejudice_. "We are all liable to err," he
says. "I have certainly meant well through the whole affair; ... and if
my manner has been at all reprehensible, I here beg leave to apologize."
JOHN WILLCOCK.
UNITED PRES. MANSE, LERWICK,
SHETLAND.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE xi
CHAPTER I
The Urquharts and their Predecessors in Cromartie--Sir
Thomas Urquhart, senior--Birth of our Author--School
and University Days--Pecuniary and other Troubles at
Home--The Castle of Cromartie--Our Author's Studious
Bent--Foreign Travel--The Englishman Abroad--The Scot
Abroad 1