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diff --git a/38604.txt b/38604.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9918a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/38604.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9283 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, Knight, by +John Willcock + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, Knight + +Author: John Willcock + +Release Date: January 18, 2012 [EBook #38604] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR THOMAS URQUHART OF CROMARTIE *** + + + + +Produced by Charlene Taylor, Hunter Monroe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + 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 + + + CHAPTER II + + Recalled Home--The Covenanting Movement--The Trot of + Turriff--Our Author escapes to England--Is + Knighted--Publishes his _Epigrams_--His Father's + Embarrassments increase--Lesley of Findrassie--Death + of Sir Thomas Urquhart, senior--Our Author struggles + in vain to keep his Creditors at bay--Other Wrongs and + Losses--On bad Terms with the Church 30 + + + CHAPTER III + + Unsuccessful Rising in the North--Sir Thomas makes his + Peace with the Church--Return of Charles II. to + Scotland--Invasion of England--Battle of + Worcester--Sir Thomas a Prisoner in the Tower--Makes + Friends--Is liberated on Parole--Great Literary + Activity--Revisits Scotland--Dies--Later History of + the Urquharts of Cromartie--Characteristics of our + Author--Glover's Portraits of him 69 + + + CHAPTER IV + + EPIGRAMS: DIVINE AND MORAL--THE TRISSOTETRAS 111 + + + CHAPTER V + + PANTOCHRONOCHANON, OR THE PEDIGREE + 128 + + + CHAPTER VI + + EKSKYBALAURON, OR THE JEWEL,--LOGOPANDECTEISION OR THE + UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE 148 + + + CHAPTER VII + + TRANSLATION OF RABELAIS 184 + + + APPENDICES 209 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + 1. PORTRAIT OF SIR THOMAS URQUHART _Frontispiece_ + + 2. SIGNATURE OF SIR THOMAS URQUHART _Page_ vii + + 3. THE POET SURROUNDED BY THE MUSES _Facing page_ 109 + + 4. FAC-SIMILE OF HIS HANDWRITING " 116 + + 5. SCULPTURED STONE AT KINBEAKIE HOUSE " 137 + + + + + SIR THOMAS URQUHART + + 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. + +The right of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie to be included in the +list of famous Scots will scarcely be granted by many of his +fellow-countrymen without some inquiry into the grounds upon which it is +based. He himself, undoubtedly, would not have been backward in +asserting his claim to such honourable distinction, though he would have +entered a protest against the presence of some of those in whose company +he would find himself. In the ecclesiastical and political controversies +of the first half of the seventeenth century, he was, as an Episcopalian +and a Cavalier, connected with the losing side, and, consequently, it +is not to be expected that posterity should be so impartial as to +cherish his name along with those of the victors in the conflict. It is +to his literary, and not to his martial achievements, that he owes his +fame. His translation of Rabelais is probably the most brilliant feat of +the kind ever accomplished, and casts all his own original writings into +the shade. The fantastical character of his own compositions, indeed, +both in regard to their subject-matter and the diction in which they are +clothed, forbids their ever having a large circle of readers. An author +whose phraseology is like a combination of that used by Ancient Pistol +with that of Sir Thomas Browne may have enthusiastic admirers, but they +are almost certain to be few in number. Yet his works contain much +interesting matter, and to them we are indebted for many details of the +life of their author. + +Though it is hard to believe Sir Thomas Urquhart's assertion that the +connexion of the Urquharts with the north-west of Scotland dates as far +back as the year B.C. 554, when an ancestor of his named Beltistos +crossed over from Ireland, and built a castle near Inverness, the family +was of considerable antiquity, and for many generations was one of the +most distinguished in that part of the country. Nisbet, the great +authority on heraldry, says that "they enjoyed not only the honourable +office of hereditary Sheriff-Principal of the Shire of Cromartie, but +the far greater part, if not the whole of the said shire did belong to +them, either in property or superiority, and they possessed a +considerable estate besides in the Shire of Aberdeen."[1] The admiralty +of the seas from Caithness to Inverness also belonged to them. + +The Urquharts were not, however, the earliest to bear rule in the part +of Scotland with which their name is connected. Cromartie was originally +the Crwmbawchty (or Crumbathy) of which Macbeth was reputed thane, +before he became king. Wyntown in his _Cronykil_ relates Macbeth's dream +that he was first Thane of Cromartie, then Thane of Moray, and then King +of Scotland.[2] After the first and second titles had been conferred +upon him, he took steps to secure the third. Probably the mote-hill of +Cromartie was the site of his official residence as thane of the +district when he was at the beginning of his ambitious career. + +In the thirteenth century the family of Mouat (then _de Monte Alto_) +were in possession,[3] but early in the following century the estate had +accrued to King Robert the Bruce, probably because the Mounts had +submitted to the English king, Edward I. King Robert granted Cromartie +to Sir Hugh Ross, eldest son of William, Earl of Ross, in 1315, and by +him it was afterwards, in the reign of King David Bruce (1329-70), given +to an Adam of Urquhart ("de Vrquhartt"),[4] with whose descendants it +remained for many generations. In 1357 he got from the Crown the +hereditary sheriffdom of Cromartie, and eight years later the same Hugh +Ross gave him the estate of Fisherie, in King-Edward, Aberdeenshire. +This Adam is the first of the family to emerge from the darkness of +antiquity into the light of history, and probably his name, as the +founder of the Urquhart fortunes, suggested the still more famous +progenitor to whom our Sir Thomas traced back his pedigree link by link, +as our readers will afterwards hear. + +Our author's father, also a Thomas, and the first of his line who was a +Protestant in religion, was born in 1585. He succeeded to the property +in 1603, and in 1617 was knighted by James VI. in Edinburgh. As he was +left an orphan at an early age, he was brought up under the care of his +grand-uncle, John Urquhart of Craigfintray, who has been commonly called +from this circumstance "the Tutor of Cromartie."[5] His +great-grandnephew, our Sir Thomas, has celebrated his praise in very +high terms. "He was," he says, "over all Britain renowned for his deep +reach of natural wit, and great dexterity in acquiring of many lands and +great possessions, with all men's applause."[6] + +From all accounts, it seems that the "Tutor" was faithful in the +discharge of all the duties belonging to his office,[7] though he did +not succeed in imparting to his pupil the secret of acquiring landed +property, either with or without applause. + +Sir Thomas Urquhart, senior, received his estates, we are informed, +"without any burthen of debt, how little soever, or provision of +brother, sister, or any other of his kindred or allyance wherewith to +affect it."[8] He married Christian, the fourth daughter of Alexander, +fourth Lord Elphinstone (1552-1638), and received with her a dowry of +nine thousand merks Scots (_i.e._ L500 Sterling). The date of our +author's birth is given by Maitland as 1605, but it is now certain that +this is an error, and that the true date is 1611.[9] Sir Thomas was the +eldest of the family, and he tells us that he was born five years after +the marriage of his parents. He also informs us that his mother's +father, Lord Elphinstone, held the office of High Treasurer in Scotland +at the time of the marriage. As that nobleman was High Treasurer only +from just before 19th April, 1599, till 22nd September, 1601, it would +not have been unreasonable to fix the date of the marriage as probably +some time in 1600, if we had no other information on the subject. But it +so happens that the marriage-contract is in existence,[10] and is dated +the 9th of July, 1606, and consequently Sir Thomas's birth would fall in +the year 1611. Our author must therefore have been in error in +describing his grandfather as being High Treasurer at the time of his +daughter's marriage. He had, indeed, occupied this office some years +before. Sir Thomas should have said "had been," instead of "was," but +his lordly disposition of mind would probably make him contemptuous of +such trifles. + +In 1611, James VI. was drawing near to the end of the first period of +his reign, during which he had been under the influence of the +traditions of the days of Elizabeth and Burghley, and had not yet passed +into his own keeping, and the hands of profligate favourites. Bacon was +still in the shade of distrust, from which, however, he was soon to +emerge: he was now, indeed, Solicitor-General, but his ambition was not +satisfied by this post. The heir-apparent to the throne was Prince +Henry, who died in the following year. Charles, his brother, was now +eleven years of age. Shakespeare brought out this year his play of _The +Winter's Tale_, and Ben Jonson his _Catiline_. Sir Walter Raleigh was a +prisoner in the Tower, and was busily engaged in writing his _History of +the World_, which he completed in the following year, though it was not +published until 1614. The Authorised Version of the English Bible +appeared this year. Milton was now a child of scarcely three years old, +and Cromwell a boy of twelve. + +The birthplace of our author is unknown; for though the castle of +Cromartie was the official residence of the sheriffs, Sir Thomas +Urquhart, senior, is known to have had several other manor-houses, one +of which was Fisherie,[11] in the parish of King-Edward, Aberdeenshire, +in which he resided from time to time. It is probable that the future +translator of Rabelais laid the foundation of the erudition by which in +after years he was distinguished, in Banff,[12] which then possessed a +grammar-school, rather than in the more northern town which is +associated with his name. + +Sir Thomas was only eleven years old when, in 1622, he entered the +University of Aberdeen,[13] but there is no reason to believe that the +average age of the "men" of his year would be in excess of his own. +Donne was the same age as Urquhart when he entered Oxford. The famous +Crichton went up to St Andrews at the age of ten, though up to that time +he had not given evidence of any extraordinary precocity. A generation +before, Montaigne had already completed his collegiate course when he +attained his thirteenth year. It seems strange to us that boys of such +tender age should have been found able to pass through a university +curriculum; and we are forced to conclude either that the boys of those +days were intellectually superior to those with whom we are familiar, or +that the studies which occupied them were less deep and severe than +those which are now pursued in seats of learning. The latter is probably +the true explanation of the matter. University education in Scotland +had been remodelled, and adapted to the requirements of the time and of +a Protestant society in the previous generation, and in this work Andrew +Melville had a very notable part. In 1583 a new constitution had been +drawn up for the University of Aberdeen, and the arrangements prescribed +by it may have existed there when our author was a student. The +Principal, according to this constitution, was Professor of Theology, as +well as incumbent of the parish of Old Machar, and was responsible for +the government and discipline of the college.[14] Under him were four +Regents, one of whom was Sub-Principal, and to them was assigned the +duty of training students in various departments of learning. Thus +physiology, geography, astrology, history, and Hebrew were assigned to +the Sub-Principal. Another Regent explained "the principles of reasoning +from the best Greek and Latin authors, with practice in writing and +speaking"; while a third lectured upon Greek, and read the more +elementary Latin and Greek authors. The fourth Regent taught arithmetic +and geometry, and, along with them, a portion of Aristotle's _Organon, +Ethics, and Politics_, and Cicero's _De Officiis_. This attempt to +assign special departments to the various regents respectively, was a +marked improvement upon the older system, under which they were each +responsible for teaching all the subjects included in the curriculum. + +The students paid fees, which varied in amount according to their +social standing. On entering the university they were required to take +an oath of loyalty to the Reformed religion. None were allowed to carry +arms, or to converse in any other tongue than Greek or Latin. Perhaps, +however, this latter rule was merely an attempt to restrain the +measureless tide of human speech. And in order that nothing might +interfere with the progress of the students, the _Nova Fundatio_, or new +constitution of Aberdeen University, abolished all holidays ("omnes +consuetas olim a studiis vacationes aboleri penitus").[15] + +Sir Thomas Urquhart's name does not appear in the list of graduates in +1626, so that there are no means of determining from the records of +King's College how many years he spent there. For the city in which he +had received his education he ever afterwards had a high regard. Thus he +says of it: "For honesty, good fashions, and learning, Aberdeen +surpasseth as far all other cities and towns in Scotland, as London doth +for greatness, wealth, and magnificence, the smallest hamlet or village +in England."[16] + +He gives unmeasured praise to some of those eminent men who were +associated with the fame of Aberdeen University in what has been called +its "Augustan age"--the first four or five decades of the seventeenth +century. Thus, according to him, William Lesley, D.D.,[17] was "one of +the most profound and universal scholars then living"--like Socrates in +having published no works, but, unfortunately, unlike that philosopher +in not having among his disciples a Plato and an Aristotle to receive +their master's knowledge and transmit it to future generations.[18] Of +his successor in the principalship, Dr William Guild, he says: "He +deserveth by himself to be remembered, both for that he hath committed +to the press many good books, tending to the edification of the soul, +and bettering of the minde; and that of all the divines that have lived +in Scotland these hundred yeers, he hath been the most charitable, and +who bestowed most of his own to publike uses."[19] At the time when he +wrote these estimates of the sages at whose feet he had sat as a +student, some of his old friends were under a cloud, and he had to be +careful not to compromise them by his praise. And so he says of "Master +William [?] Seaton," who had been his tutor, "[he was] a very able +preacher truly, and good scholar, and [one] whom I would extoll yet +higher, but that being under the consistorian lash, some critick +Presbyters may do him injury, by pretending his dislike of them, for +being praised by him who idolizeth not their authority."[20] + +At the time of the marriage of Sir Thomas Urquhart, senior, Lord +Elphinstone, who was fully acquainted with the prosperous condition of +his son-in-law's affairs, made him pledge himself to manage his property +so that it might descend to his heir as he had himself received it. +Unfortunately this pledge was not fulfilled. Through mismanagement and +neglect his affairs got into disorder, and the later years of his life +were troubled by pecuniary difficulties.[21] His son says of him: "Of +all men living [he was] the justest, equallest, and most honest in his +dealings, [and] his humour was, rather than to break his word, to lose +all he had, and stand to his most undeliberate promises, what ever they +might cost; which too strict adherence to the austerest principles of +veracity, proved oftentimes dammageable to him in his negotiations with +many cunning sharks, who knew with what profitable odds they could scrue +themselves in upon the windings of so good a nature.... By the +unfaithfulnes, on the one side, of some of his menial servants, in +filching from him much of his personal estate, and falsehood of several +chamberlains and bayliffs to whom he had intrusted the managing of his +rents, in the unconscionable discharge of their receits, by giving up +one account thrice, and of such accounts many; and, on the other part, +by the frequency of disadvantagious bargains, which the slieness of the +subtil merchant did involve him in, his loss came unawares upon him, and +irresistibly, like an armed man; too great trust to the one, and +facility in behalf of the other, occasioning so grievous a misfortune, +which nevertheless did not proceed from want of knowledge or abilitie in +natural parts, for in the business of other men he would have given a +very sound advice, and was surpassing dextrous in arbitrements, upon +any reference submitted to him, but that hee thought it did derogate +from the nobility of his house and reputation of his person, to look to +petty things in matter of his own affairs."[22] + +One of the ways in which the elder Sir Thomas succeeded in impoverishing +himself and his family was in becoming bail for people who absconded; +so, at least, we would infer from an entry in the Court-book of the +Burgh of Banff under date of 21st April, 1629, in which we find that +"Sir Thomas Urquhurt of Cromarty, having become caution for the +appearance of Alexander Forbes, merchant in Balvenye, alleged +forestaller, and the said Alexander not having appeared, Sir Thomas is +decerned to pay L40 Scots (L3, 6s. 8d. Sterling)."[23] + +In 1637 we find that he was obliged to appeal to his sovereign against +the urgency of his creditors, and a Letter of Protection was issued in +his favour. It ran as follows: "Letter of Protection granted by King +Charles the First, under his great seal, to Sir Thomas Urquhart of +Cromarty, from all dilligence at the instance of his creditors, for the +space of one year, thereby giving him a _persona standi in judicio_, +notwithstanding he may be at the horn, and taking him under his royal +protection during the time. Dated at St James's, 20th March, 1637."[24] +A somewhat humorous situation is suggested by this document. The +creditors might "put him to the horn," _i.e._, according to the usual +legal form, order him in the king's name to pay his debts on penalty of +being outlawed as a traitor, while the king himself authorised him to +take no notice of the proceedings. + +In the same year we have intimation of the elder Sir Thomas's pecuniary +misfortunes being aggravated by domestic strife, for we find him +instructing a high legal functionary to raise an action against his +sons, Thomas and Alexander, for their unfilial conduct. The charge was +that of "putting violent hands on the persone of the said Sir Thomas +Urquhart of Cromartie, Knycht, their father, taking him captive and +prissoner, and detening him in sure firmance within ane upper chalmer, +callit the Inner Dortour, within his place of Cromertie, _tanquam in +privato carcere_, fra the Mononday to the Fryday in the efter none +therefter, committit in the moneth of December last, 1636." The case +came up for trial before the Court of Justiciary on the 19th of July, +and was postponed for a week, when it was abandoned. The Lords of +Council had appointed a commission to settle all differences between the +father and sons and on receiving their report the Court dismissed the +case.[25] We have no particulars as to the causes of disagreement which +led to such all unhappy state of affairs, but we are not likely to be +far wrong in assuming that the sons wished to prevent their father's +taking some legal step which they considered would be detrimental to his +and their interests. The affectionate terms in which our author +describes his father's character ten years after his death, in the words +above quoted, make us sure that he sincerely regretted any wrong towards +him of which he may have been guilty at this time. + +The old castle of Cromartie has now long disappeared, the stones of +which it was built having been used for the erection of a modern house +in 1772, after the estate had passed, by purchase, from the family of +Urquhart to Mr George Ross. It was a building of considerable antiquity. +In 1470 a royal grant was made by James III. to William Urquhart of the +Motehill, or Mount of Cromartie, with permission to erect on this a +tower or fortalice. Advantage was taken of this permission to fortify +the family mansion, and it was converted into a castle of considerable +strength.[26] Sir Thomas says of it: "The stance thereof is stately, and +the house it selfe of a notable good fabrick and contrivance."[27] An +interesting description of the building as it was just before its +demolition is given by Hugh Miller. "Directly behind the site of the old +town," he says, "the ground rises abruptly from the level to the height +of nearly a hundred feet, after which it forms a kind of table-land of +considerable extent, and then sweeps gently to the top of the hill. A +deep ravine, with a little stream running through it, intersects the +rising ground at nearly right angles with the front which it presents to +the houses; and on the eastern angle, towering over the ravine on the +one side, and the edge of the bank on the other, stood the old castle of +Cromarty. It was a massy, time-worn building, rising in some places to +the height of six storeys, battlemented at the top, and roofed with grey +stone. One immense turret jutted out from the corner, which occupied the +extreme point of the angle, and looking down from an altitude of at +least one hundred and sixty feet on the little stream, and the +struggling row of trees which sprung up at its edge, commanded both +sides of the declivity and the town below." Of the interior we are told +by the same writer, on the authority of an old woman who, as a child, +had lived in the castle, that "two threshers could have plied their +flails within the huge chimney of the kitchen; and that, in the great +hall, an immense, dark chamber, lined with oak, a party of a hundred men +had exercised at the pike."[28] + +The elder Sir Thomas had also a winter residence in Banff.[29] In the +Court-book of the Burgh of Banff we have the following entry: "1630, +July 21st, Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie gave in ane Act of the +Session of Banff, geiveing licence to him to erect ane desk and loft in +the kirk of Banff (seeing he is both a parochiner and resident within +the said toun) for his accomodatione. The brethren gave their +approbatione with express provision that neither the edifice nor lichtes +of the said kirk suld be deteriorat."[30] + +Beyond the bare fact of his having been a student in the University of +Aberdeen, we have no information concerning the manner in which the +earlier years of our author's life were passed, or the circumstances in +which he acquired the miscellaneous erudition which his writings +display. The only remark he makes about the education he received is to +the effect that his father laid out but a very insignificant portion of +his income upon this item of family expenses. Yet, however little the +expenditure may have been, Urquhart evidently profited fully by the +education which he had received, and attained to something more than a +gentlemanly acquaintance with some of the abstruser departments of +learning. + +The special bent of his mind in early years, and his love for study +rather than sport, are shown in the following reminiscence of his youth, +which he narrates with his characteristic diffuseness. "There +happening," he says, "a gentleman of very good worth to stay awhile at +my house, who, one day amongst many other, was pleased, in the deadst +time of all the winter, with a gun upon his shoulder, to search for a +shot of some wild-fowl; and after he had waded through many waters, +taken excessive pains in quest of his game, and by means thereof had +killed some five or six moor fowls and partridges, which he brought +along with him to my house, he was by some other gentlemen, who chanced +to alight at my gate, as he entered in, very much commended for his love +to sport; and, as the fashion of most of our countrymen is, not to +praise one without dispraising another, I was highly blamed for not +giving my self in that kind to the same exercise, having before my eys +so commendable a pattern to imitate; I answered, though the gentleman +deserved praise for the evident proof he had given that day of his +inclination to thrift and laboriousness, that nevertheless I was not to +blame, seeing whilst he was busied about that sport, I was imployed in a +diversion of another nature, such as optical secrets, mysteries of +natural philosophie, reasons for the variety of colours, the finding out +of the longitude, the squaring of a circle, and wayes to accomplish all +trigonometrical calculations by sines, without tangents, with the same +compendiousness of computation,--which, in the estimation of learned +men, would be accounted worth six hundred thousand partridges, and as +many moor-fowles." + +There can be little doubt that Sir Thomas had the best of the argument. +But he was not satisfied with this: for nothing less would content him +than vanquishing his opponent on his own ground, as well as with the +weapons of logic. With the same lordliness of temper which had led him +to re-capitulate the dignified subjects which had occupied his studious +mind--the squaring of the circle being but one of them--he chose the +breaking-in of a horse as a set-off against his friend's achievements of +the day before. The success of the scientific student and the +discomfiture of the mere sportsman are told in the conclusion of the +story. "In the mean while," he says, "that worthy gentleman, being wet +and weary after travel, was not able to eat of what he had so much +toyled for, whilst my braine recreations so sharpened my appetite, that +I supped to very good purpose. That night past, the next morning I gave +six pence to a footman of mine, to try his fortune with the gun, during +the time I should disport my self in the breaking of a young horse; and +it so fell out, that by [the time] I had given my selfe a good heat by +riding, the boy returned with a dozen of wild fouls, half moor foule, +half partridge, whereat being exceeding well pleased, I alighted, gave +him my horse to care for, and forthwith entred in to see my gentlemen, +the most especiall whereof was unable to rise out of his bed, by reason +of the Gout and Sciatick, wherewith he was seized for his former daye's +toyle."[31] + +In the early years of his manhood, before our author felt himself +qualified to take part in public life, he spent some time in foreign +travel. The kind of figure cut by a young _English_ gentleman of that +period upon the Continent we know from the testimony of Portia, for it +can scarcely be that much change had taken place in the interval of a +generation, between her time and the end of the first quarter of the +seventeenth century. He was generally unversed in the languages of the +countries he visited, and, from his lack of Latin, French, or Italian, +was apt to fail in understanding the natives, or in making himself +understood by them. He might be handsome in figure, but conversation +with him was reduced to the level of a dumb-show. His dress was often +very odd, and his manners eccentric, as though he had bought his doublet +in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his +behaviour--everywhere. A strong contrast to him in the matter of +language was the young Scotchman of the period, if Sir Thomas Urquhart +is to be taken as at all an average specimen of his nation, and if his +account of himself can be relied upon. He says of himself that when he +travelled through France, Spain, and Italy, he spoke the languages to +such perfection that he might easily have passed himself off as a native +of any one of these countries. Some advised him to do so, but his +patriotic feelings were too strong to allow him to follow such a course: +"he plainly told them (without making bones thereof), that truly he +thought he had as much honour by his own country, which did contrevalue +the riches and fertility of those nations, by the valour, learning, and +honesty, wherein it did parallel, if not surpass them."[32] + +It is somewhat difficult for the mind to grasp the idea of a Scotchman +in those days, when so many of the things which we now associate with +the nationality were not in existence--when his Church was Episcopalian +in constitution, the Shorter Catechism not yet written by Englishmen for +his use, Burns unborn, and distilled spirits not extensively used as a +beverage. We could scarcely even know him by his costume. For no +self-respecting representative of that country would assume the Highland +garb which so many Englishmen believe to be generally worn north of the +Tweed, if we are to credit the authoritative statement of Macaulay to +the effect that "before the Union it was considered by nine Scotchmen +out of ten as the dress of a thief."[33] The characteristics by which "a +Scot abroad" in those days was recognised, were, from some accounts, +not shrewdness in making bargains, economical habits, indomitable +perseverance, and unsleeping caution, but the pride and +high-spiritedness which made him keen in detecting and swift in avenging +slights that might be cast upon the country from which he came. So deep +was the impression made by these peculiarities upon foreign nations, +that they became proverbial. "He is a Scot, he has pepper in his +nose!"[34] said they, somewhat familiarly, yet with a touch of fear, +when they noticed the flashing eye, and the hand instinctively seeking +the sword-hilt. "High-spirited as a Scot!"[35] they exclaimed with +admiration, when among themselves some soul was moved to unwonted +courage. Such, at least, is the impression produced upon the mind by +some of those novels in which Scott and his imitators trace the +wanderings of their fellow-countrymen through European lands in those +earlier times. That there is some foundation of truth for the lofty +superstructure is rendered credible by the case of Sir Thomas Urquhart. +"My heart,"[36] he says, "gave me the courage for adventuring in a +forrain climat, thrice to enter the lists against men of three severall +nations, to vindicate my native country[37] from the calumnies wherewith +they had aspersed it; wherein it pleased God so to conduct my fortune, +that, after I had disarmed them, they in such sort acknowledged their +error, and the obligation they did owe me for sparing their lives, which +justly by the law of arms I might have taken, that, in lieu of three +enemies that formerly they were, I acquired three constant friends, both +to my selfe and my compatriots, whereof by severall gallant testimonies +they gave evident proofe, to the improvement of my country's credit in +many occasions."[38] + +The fair critic, whose estimate of the young Englishman has been +referred to, gives her opinion also of his Scottish rival; but, +strangely enough, she observes in him qualities of a kind opposite to +those displayed by Sir Thomas Urquhart. She was struck by his +neighbourly charity, "for he borrowed a box of the ear of the +Englishman, and swore he would pay him back again when he was able."[39] +Can it be that the words put into her mouth are merely the ribald wit of +an envious Southron, or are we to understand that the spirit which +triumphed over so many inferiors was yet wise enough to discern when it +stood in the presence of a mightier than itself? + +How a young man on his travels should occupy his time, had been laid +down in a little volume which had been published just before Urquhart +set out to see the world abroad. In this he might read a list of the +things which should engage his attention, drawn up in sonorous language +by no less a personage than a late Lord Chancellor of England--a man who +was ready to give advice to all his fellow-creatures in all conceivable +circumstances. "The things," says Lord Bacon, "to be seen and observed +are: the courts of princes, especially when they give audience to +ambassadors; the courts of justice, while they sit and hear causes; and +so of consistories ecclesiastic; the churches and monasteries, with the +monuments which are therein extant; the walls and fortifications of +cities and towns, and so the havens and harbours; antiquities and ruins; +libraries, colleges, disputations and lectures, where any are; shipping +and navies; house and gardens of state and pleasure near great cities; +armories, arsenals, magazines, exchanges, burses, warehouses; exercises +of horsemanship, fencing, training of soldiers, and the like; comedies, +such whereunto the better sort of persons do resort; treasuries of +jewels and robes, cabinets and rarities; and, to conclude, whatsoever is +memorable in the places where they go.... As for triumphs, masks, +feasts, weddings, funerals, capital executions, and such shows, men +need not be put in mind of them; yet they are not to be neglected."[40] + +To what extent Urquhart followed a plan of this kind it is impossible to +say; for, though his writings are so discursive that we might expect to +find in them allusions to anything remarkable he had seen or heard, he +has very little to say about his foreign experiences. Dr Johnson spoke +with contempt of an English peer, who had extended his travels as far as +Egypt, but who had brought back only one small contribution to the +general stock of human information--the fact that he had seen "a large +serpent in one of the pyramids of Egypt." Urquhart was not quite so +poverty-stricken as this; for he seems to have observed examples of +mental infirmity, illustrations of which he might doubtless have found +nearer home. + +"I saw at Madrid," he says, "a bald-pated fellow who beleeved he was +Julius Caesar, and therefore went constantly on the streets with a laurel +crown on his head; and another at Toledo, who would not adventure to goe +abroad unlesse it were in a coach, chariot, or sedane, for fear the +heavens should fall down upon him. I likewise saw one in Saragosa, who, +imagining himself to be the lawfull King of Aragon, went no where +without a scepter in his hand; and another in the kingdome of Granada, +who beleeved he was the valiant Cid that conquered the Mores. At +Messina, in Sicilie, I also saw a man that conceived himself to be the +great Alexander of Macedone, and that in a ten years space he should be +master of all the territories which he subdued; but the best is, that +the better to resemble him he always held his neck awry, which naturally +was streight and upright enough; and another at Venice, who imagined he +was Soveraign of the whole Adriatick Sea, and sole owner of all the +ships that came from the Levante. Of men that fancied themselves to be +women, beasts, trees, stones, pitchers, glasse, angels, and of women +whose strained imaginations have falne upon the like extravagancies, +even in the midst of fire and the extremest pains fortune could inflict +upon them, there is such variety of examples, amongst which I have seen +some at Rome, Naples, Florence, Genua, Paris, and other eminent cities, +that to multiply any moe [more] words therein, were to load your ears +with old wives' tales, and the trivial tattle of idly imployed and +shallow braind humorists."[41] + +He also tells, though not in the same connexion, of his having been +witness of the honour and admiration lavished upon one of his +fellow-countrymen, Dr Seaton, by the _elite_ of Parisian society. "I +have seen him," he says, "circled about at the Louvre with a ring of +French lords and gentlemen, who hearkned to his discourse with so great +attention, that none of them, so long as he was pleased to speak, would +offer to interrupt him, to the end that the pearles falling from his +mouth might be the more orderly congested in the several treasures of +their judgements."[42] + +Part of his time abroad was devoted to the fascinating occupation of +book-hunting, and he had great pleasure in the spoils he had won. When +they were set in order on shelves in the library of the castle of +Cromartie, he looked on them with the joy which only book-collectors +know. "They were," he says, "like to a compleat nosegay of flowers, +which, in my travels, I had gathered out of the gardens of above sixteen +several kingdoms."[43] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _System of Heraldry_, ii, 274. + +[2] Wyntown's narrative is as follows (quoted in Sir William Fraser's +_Earls of Cromartie_):-- + + "A nycht he thowcht in hys dreming, + Dat syttand he wes besyd [thorn]e Kyng + At a Sete in hwnting; swa + Intil his Leisch had Grewhundys twa. + He thowcht, quhile he wes swa syttand, + He sawe thre wemen by gangand; + And [thorn]ai wemen [thorn]an thowcht he + Thre werd Systrys mast lyk to be. + De fyrst he hard say gangand by, + 'Lo yhondyr [thorn]e Thayne of Crwmbawchty.' + De toyir woman sayd agayne, + 'Of Morave yhondyre I se [thorn]e Thayne.' + De thryd [thorn]an sayd, 'I se [thorn]e Kyng.' + All [thorn]is he herd in hys dreming." + + Wyntown's _Cronykil_, i. 225. + +Wyntown's date is about A.D. 1395. Macbeth was killed at Lumphanan by +Macduff, 5th December A.D. 1056. + +[3] A charter of lands in Cromartie granted by William de Monte Alto, +between 1252 and 1272, is still in existence. The granter of the +charter, having been owner of Cromartie, was claimed by Sir Thomas +Urquhart as one of his Urquhart ancestors, but with no better authority +than the earlier ancestors who figure in our author's _Pedigree_. See +_Earls of Cromartie_, by Sir William Fraser. + +[4] It would seem from this that Urquhart was originally a place-name, +probably Gaelic. There were two parishes of Urquhart in the old province +of Moray--one with a priory near Elgin, and the other with a castle in +what is now Inverness-shire. + +[5] "Tutor" here simply means "legal guardian"--for boys until fourteen +years of age, and for girls until twelve. After these ages and before +that of twenty-one such wards are in the charge of "Curators." Owing to +our author's having the same Christian name as his father, the mistake +is often made of asserting that John Urquhart was _his_ tutor. + +[6] _Works_, p. 172. In a MS. volume of unpublished poems by Sir Thomas, +which is described on p. 116, there is the following:--"Upon the tutor +of Cromarty, my great-grandfather's younger brother, and my father's +tutor: + + "The present tyme, the preterit, nor futur + T' ourselves, our fathers, nor posteritie, + Do now, have yet, nor will produce a tutor, + For's Pupils weil of more dexteritie, + For he left free th' estate he had in charge: + And by meer industrie did's own enlarge" (iii. 7). + +We are sorry to quote a poem of Sir Thomas's at this early stage, before +the atmosphere has been created which is needed for perceiving and +appreciating its true value. The judicious reader will, however, return +to it with interest when that process has been completed. + +[7] John Urquhart, "the Tutor of Cromartie," died in 1631, at the age of +eighty-four, and was buried in the old church of King-Edward, +Aberdeenshire, where there is a marble monument to his memory. + +[8] _Works_, p. 340. + +[9] Another erroneous date is in the edition of the _Tracts_ of 1774, +where 1613 is given as the year of our author's birth. + +[10] This is now amongst the Gardenston papers, having been formerly in +the possession of Mr. Dunbar. All account of its contents is given in +_Antiquarian Notes_, by C. Fraser Mackintosh, p. 195. An independent +corroboration of the above date of the marriage is by a document now in +the Register House in Edinburgh (_Aberdeen Sasines_), in which Sir +Thomas Urquhart, senior, gives sasine of the barony of Fisherie to Lady +Christian Elphinstone. The "precept," or clause in the marriage-contract, +which directs the notary to give sasine of the estate settled on the +bride, is also dated the 9th of July, 1606, and in it she is described +as being _in sua pura virginitate_. Probably the marriage took place +either on that day or very soon afterwards. The bridegroom was just of +age, while Lady Christian was under sixteen, the date of her birth being +19th December, 1590 (_The Lords Elphinstone_, Fraser, i. 167). + +The issue of this marriage were at least the following sons and +daughters:--(l) THOMAS; (2) Alexander; (3) George; (4) John; (5) [name +unknown]; (6) Henry; and (7) Jane, _m._ Sir Alexander Abercromby of +Birkenbog; (8) Helen, _m._ Sir James Gordon of Lesmoir; (9) Annas, _m._ +Alexander Strachan of Glenkindie; (10) Margaret, _m._ John Irving of +Brucklay; (11) [name unknown], _m._ ---- Campbell of Calder. + +[11] Fisherie is about six miles from Banff. + +[12] It is quite possible, however, that, in the parish school of +King-Edward, our author could have got the rudiments of a classical +education. In 1649 (15th Nov.), Mr James Petrie, who was school-master +there, applied for the school of Banff and, as a test of his power, "was +ordeined to teache the sext satyr of Persius to-morrow in the school of +Banf be nyne hours in presence of the bailyies and others in the toune +who wer scholars." He passed through the test successfully, and was +appointed to the office (_Annals of Banff_, ii. 30, New Spalding Club). + +[13] The entry of his name as a student on the roll is in the following +terms: "In Academiam regiam Aberdonensem recepti sunt adolescentes +quorum nomina sequuntur, praeceptore Alexandro Lunano, Anno 1622. + + . . . + + Thomas Urquhardus de Cromartie. + + . . . + _Fasti Aberdonenses, 1854._" + +[14] _King's College: Officers and Graduates_, by P. J. Anderson, M.A., +pp. 347, 348. + +[15] An "eminent Yorkshire educationist" introduced the same rules into +the establishment under his charge. It is probable, however, that in Mr +Squeers's case the arrangement was the result of independent research +into methods of education, rather than a hint borrowed from Andrew +Melville. "No holidays--none of those ill-judged comings home twice a +year that unsettle children's minds so!" (_Nicholas Nickleby_, chap. +iv.). + +It is only fair to say that there are doubts as to how far the +arrangements under the _Nova Fundatio_, as above described, were in +force in Sir Thomas Urquhart's student days. If the older system were +still in operation, the Alexander Lunan, who is mentioned as his +preceptor, would virtually have taught our author all the subjects +contained in the curriculum through which he passed. As there is no +proof that Alexander Lunan was another Admirable Crichton, the fact of +his doing so would strengthen what we have said above as to the +comparative slightness of the erudition imparted in a university +education in those days. Sir Thomas Urquhart speaks of having "learned +the elements of his philosophy" in the University of Aberdeen under +William Seaton (_Works_, p. 263). It has been suggested that it is an +error for John Seaton, and that it indicates that our author, like many +other students of King's College, took a session or two at Marischal +College (see Anderson's _Fasti Acad. Marisc._ ii. 34, 588). + +[16] _Works_, p. 395. + +[17] Dr Lesley was successively Humanist, Regent, Sub-Principal, and +Principal of King's College. In 1639 he was deprived of his office by +the Covenanting party. + +[18] _Works_, p. 262. + +[19] _Works_, p. 263. The editor of the _Book of Bon Accord_ gives a +lower estimate of Dr Guild's character: he says that his works are of no +literary merit, and that he got fame by his wealth and ostentatious +liberality. He was minister of King-Edward before he went to Aberdeen; +and his widow, Catharine Rolland, founded a bursary at the university +for young men belonging to that parish. + +[20] _Ibid._ p. 263: see p. 11, note. + +[21] Lord Elphinstone died 14th January, 1638. During the four preceding +years his son-in-law had "made ducks and drakes" of his ancestral +possessions. His portrait, which is still preserved at Carberry Tower, +is engraved in Sir William Fraser's work, _The Lords Elphinstone_. It +gives one the impression of a grave, melancholy man. He had fourteen +sons and five daughters. It is to be hoped that none of his sons and no +other of his sons-in-law had the faculty for getting into difficulties +which Sir Thomas Urquhart, senior, displayed. + +[22] _Works_, p. 336. + +[23] The offence of _forestalling_ consisted in buying merchandise, +victuals, etc., before they appeared in a fair or market-place for sale, +or in taking steps to raise the prices of such things, or in dissuading +anyone coming to market from carrying his goods thither. The amount of +fine for a first offence was, as above, L40 Scots (or L3, 6s. 8d. +Sterling); for a second offence, 100 merks (or L5, 11s., 1d. Sterling); +while for a third offence it was forfeiture of movable goods. + +[24] M'Farlane's _Genealogical Collections_, ii. 283. MS. Advocates' +Library. + +[25] Records of the Court of Justiciary. + +[26] It was built in the old turreted style, and defended on the south +by a moat and high wall. When it was taken down, in the surrounding +ground were found human skeletons, and urns containing human remains, +both enclosed in graves made of flags (_Old Stat. Account_). + +[27] _Works_, p. 312. "The situation appears in every view most +delightful" (Pococke's _Tour_, 1760). + +[28] _Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland_, pp. 78, 80. + +[29] This was a fortalice-tower, with gardens, orchards, dovecots, etc., +in the south part of Banff, which afterwards came into the possession of +the Earl of Airlie. The bounds are thus described: "The common vennel at +the north, the loch called the Saltlochs at the east, the lands called +Little Guishauch at the south, and the road to Overak at the west." +Shortly before its demolition it was the headquarters of the Duke of +Cumberland's army on its passage to Culloden. Besides this house and the +castle of Cromartie, the Urquharts occasionally occupied their +mansion-house of Fisherie. This stood a few yards to the south-west of +the present farmhouse of Mains of Fisherie. It was taken down some sixty +years ago. Some old trees still stand near the site of the house and +garden. + +[30] _Annals of Banff_ (New Spalding Club), ii. 28. The old church in +which Sir Thomas had a "desk" or pew, and a "loft" or small gallery, is +now in ruins. Only the south transept is standing. In the parish church +of King-Edward, Aberdeenshire, the handsome silver communion cups bear +an inscription to the effect that they were a joint present from Dr +William Guild, the then incumbent of the parish, Sir Thomas Urquhart, +and his uncle John Urquhart of Craigfintray. That the Sir Thomas +Urquhart here named is not our author but his father, is evident from +the date of the incumbency of his fellow-donor, Dr Guild, who was +minister of King-Edward from 1608 to 1631. The cups bear date of 1619. + +[31] _Works_, p. 331. + +[32] _Works_, p. 272. + +[33] _History of England_, chap. xiii. + +[34] "_Scotus est, piper in naso_," Mediaeval proverb. + +[35] "_Fier comme un Ecossais_," French proverb. + +[36] It may be as well to warn our readers at this point that Sir Thomas +Urquhart's vanity, or what would be called vanity in any other man, was +unbounded. So calm and unconscious is it, that it often seems to betray +a disordered mind. Those who seek in his estimates of himself for +illustrations of the grace of humility will seek in vain. They may, +however, find other things, which, if not so edifying, are far more +amusing. + +[37] The reader who has sufficient curiosity and leisure may compare +with the above the account which his contemporary, Lord Herbert of +Cherbury (1581-1648), gives of his duels in his _Autobiography_. That +nobleman was a kind of Sir Thomas Urquhart in water-colour, and his +single combats are surrounded with a proportionately milder glow of +romance. Indeed, they seem to have been generally undertaken in order to +compel impudent young men to give back pieces of riband to charming +young ladies from whom they had snatched them. + +[38] _Works_, p. 311. + +[39] _Merchant of Venice_, Act I. Scene ii. + +[40] _Essays, Civil and Moral_, xviii. + +[41] _Works_, p. 364. + +[42] _Ibid._ p. 256. + +[43] _Works_, p. 402. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + Recalled Home--The Covenanting Movement--The Trot of Turriff--Our + Author escapes to England--Is Knighted--Publishes his + _Epigrams_--His Father's Embarrassments increase--Lesley of + Findrassie--Death of Sir Thomas Urquhart, senior--Our Author + struggles in vain to keep his Creditors at bay--Other Wrongs and + Losses--On bad Terms with the Church. + +While Urquhart was engaged in foreign travel, the ecclesiastical and +political controversies in Scotland came to such a height, that it was +evident that matters could only be settled by an appeal to the sword, +and, accordingly, he returned home to assist the party to which his +family adhered. He, doubtless, like Milton, considered it disgraceful +that, while his fellow-countrymen were fighting at home for liberty, he +should be travelling abroad for amusement and intellectual culture. His +father, who had been the first of the Urquharts to give up Roman +Catholicism for Protestantism, took the unpopular side in the conflict +that agitated the Church of Scotland. He was a staunch Episcopalian, and +refused to accept the National Covenant, when those who had voluntarily +and enthusiastically entered into it attempted to coerce others into +following their example, and so turned it into an instrument of tyranny. + +The determined efforts of Charles I. and his advisers to make the Church +of Scotland in all respects like the Church of England, were fiercely +opposed, and, for a time, the party which was resolved to make them as +dissimilar as possible prevailed. Episcopacy, liturgy, ancient +ecclesiastical customs and rites, and all that savoured of Prelacy or +Popery, were swept away by the rising flood. Yet, without committing +oneself to the doctrine of passive obedience, it may be doubted whether +the course of policy followed by the Covenanters was either wise or +scriptural. For, notwithstanding the vehement protestations of loyalty +expressed in the National Covenant, armed resistance to the royal +authority was not obscurely hinted at in it. "We," said the subscribers, +"promise and swear by the great name of the Lord our God to continue in +the profession and obedience of the said religion; and that we shall +defend the same, and resist all those contrary errors and corruptions, +according to our vocation, and to the utmost of that power which God +hath put into our hands, all the days of our life." It is quite +possible, it may be hoped, for one to be in sympathy with a certain +political party, and yet to regret that the Church should identify +itself with that party; and it certainly was not in the end a good thing +for the cause of religion that it should have been so closely allied as +it was with party politics in the seventeenth century. "My kingdom is +not of this world," said Christ; "if My kingdom were of this world, then +would My servants fight." "Put up again thy sword into his place," He +said to St Peter, "for all they that take the sword, shall perish with +the sword." It is difficult to see how these clear and emphatic +utterances can be made to harmonise with the resolution not only to use +force in the correction of ecclesiastical abuses and religious errors, +but also to coerce those who were not prepared to follow the same course +of policy.[44] + +The Covenanting party were successful beyond their hopes. The influence +of the Marquis of Argyle secured the allegiance to the cause of the +Highlanders in the west of Scotland; while, in Inverness and the region +north of the Moray Firth, the movement was enthusiastically welcomed. +Only one district in Scotland held aloof--that of which Aberdeen was the +centre. The community there had probably but little sympathy with the +innovations which Laud was bent upon bringing in, but they had still +less with the Covenant. They were attached to the modified form of +Episcopacy which had now existed in Scotland since the Reformation +(with the exception of the years between 1592 and 1610), in which the +bishops were little more than permanent moderators of Presbyteries, and +were subject to the General Assembly, and in which the ritual was of a +very simple character. + +As a University and Cathedral city, and the residence of a large number +of wealthy landed proprietors, Aberdeen occupied a position of great +importance in Scotland, and was by no means under the command of the +capital. The heads of the Covenanting party very speedily found it +necessary to take steps for bringing this corner of the kingdom into +subjection to themselves. They could scarcely hope to succeed in +overcoming the powerful forces at the command of the English Government, +if they were to allow this enemy to remain undisturbed in their rear. + +Accordingly, at a very early stage in the proceedings, they attempted to +gain over to their side the great territorial magnate of the district, +the Marquis of Huntly, who, from his rank and wealth and hereditary +loyalty to the throne, was likely to be the leader of the King's party +in the North. Had they succeeded, they would virtually have had the +whole country at their back, for the community of Aberdeen, and the few +neighbouring lairds, who, like Sir Thomas Urquhart, refused to accept +the Covenant, would not have dared to resist the national policy by +force of arms. In the negotiations between the Covenanting leaders and +the Marquis of Huntly, we have an illustration of the very muddy roads +along which religion is dragged, when it forms an alliance with a +political party. It is certainly with somewhat of a shock that one who +is under the impression that all the Covenanters were saints of a very +spiritually-minded type, learns of the grim option which they offered to +their possible opponent. Colonel Robert Munro, who had seen service in +Germany, was appointed to wait upon the Marquis at Strathbogie, and to +acquaint him with the resolutions to which the Covenanters had come. +"The sum of his commission to Huntly was," we are told, "that the +noblemen Covenanters were desirous that he should join with them in the +common cause; that, if he would do so, and take the Covenant, they would +give him the first place, and make him leader of their forces; and, +further, they would make his state and his fortunes greater than ever +they were; and, moreover, they should pay off and discharge all his +debts, which they knew to be about one hundred thousand pounds sterling; +that their forces and associates were a hundred to one [in comparison] +with the king; and, therefore, it was to no purpose to him to take up +arms against them, for if he refused this offer and declared against +them, they should find means to disable him for to help the king; and, +moreover, they knew how to undo him, and bade him to expect that they +will ruinate his family and estates." The hands were, perhaps, the hands +of Christian, the voice was certainly the voice of Mr Worldly Wiseman! + +The reply of the Marquis was admirable for the spirit of generosity and +chivalry which it breathed. "To this proposition," we are told, "Huntly +gave a short and resolute repartee, that his family had risen and stood +by the kings of Scotland; and for his part, if the event proved the ruin +of this king, he was resolved to lay his life, honours, and estate under +the rubbish of the king's ruins."[45] + +Though Sir Thomas Urquhart, senior, was a staunch Episcopalian and a +devoted Royalist, the circumstances in which he was placed forbade his +aiding the ecclesiastical and political causes which were dear to him +with more than good wishes. He was surrounded by neighbours of the +opposite party,[46] and isolated from those with whom he would gladly +have co-operated. Consequently, it remained for his eldest son, our +author, who apparently was residing at that time at Balquholly Castle, +in Aberdeenshire, where the adherents of the Royalist cause were +numerous, to play a more heroic part. + +Between the date of the signing of the Covenant and that of the meeting +of the General Assembly in Glasgow in 1638, The Tables, for such was the +name by which the executive government established by the revolutionary +party was designated, decided to subdue the city of Aberdeen and the +neighbouring country, and to compel the people there to accept the +Covenant. Before resorting to force, however, an attempt was made to +persuade. A committee of three eminent clergymen, Henderson, Dickson, +and Cant, with the Earl of Montrose as president, was sent north to deal +with the somewhat unimpressible Aberdonians. The hospitable corporation +of the northern city invited the visitors to a banquet of wine, but +their invitation was scornfully declined. The deputation "would drink +with none till first the Covenant was subscribed." Such incivility was +new in the history of the city, and a very satisfactory rebuke was given +to it by the materials for the proposed banquet being distributed among +the poor. It can be easily imagined that after this unsatisfactory +beginning the sermons delivered by the clerical deputation fell upon +unsympathetic ears, and made but few converts. "The commissioners had +one powerful ally in the town, in the person of Earl Marischal, the son +of the founder of the College, who had died in 1623; and, when they were +refused licence to preach in the city churches, they adjourned to his +residence at the north end of what is now Marischal Street. The mansion +consisted of several buildings with galleries surrounding a courtyard, +and from these galleries the three Covenanting ministers held forth from +eight o'clock in the morning till four in the afternoon, trying to +convince the people of the truth of the Covenant. The children of +granite, however, proved absolutely impervious to the 'apostles,' whom +they scornfully pelted with mud."[47] + +A paper-war, which attracted considerable notice, sprang up between the +commissioners and six of the Aberdeen clergy--popularly designated in +contemporary literature as "the Aberdeen Doctors."[48] In this warfare +the representatives of the Covenanting party came off rather badly. "The +position taken by the Doctors," says John Hill Burton, "is the +unassailable one of the dry sarcastic negative. Whatever the Covenant +might be--good or bad--and whatever right its approvers had to bind +themselves to it, how were they entitled to force it on those who +desired it not? And when their adversaries became eloquent on its +conformity to Scripture and the privileges of the Christian Church, the +Doctors ever went back to the same negative position--even if it were +so, which we do not admit, yet why force it upon us?"[49] + +Early in the following year, 1639, The Tables resolved to suppress the +northern Malignants, as they were called, before preparing to enter on a +campaign against their enemy in the south, and thus save themselves +from the dangers involved in having an enemy in their rear. The Earl of +Montrose went north at the head of a considerable body of troops, and +took possession of Aberdeen. The opponents of the Covenant fled from the +city, and Huntly, the leader of the Royalists, felt unable to offer +effective resistance. In spite of a safe-conduct granted him by Montrose +on his coming in to a conference, he was taken prisoner to Edinburgh and +lodged in the Castle. + +This kidnapping of the Royalist chief caused great irritation; and upon +a rumour of the fleet's coming to the Firth of Forth, and of the Royal +army's approach to the Scottish border, the northern Royalists, of whom +our Sir Thomas Urquhart was one, resolved to take arms on the King's +side. The first mention of our author in history is in connexion with +this rising; and the annalist Spalding relates two exciting incidents +that occurred in one week, in both of which he took part. + +The first, which happened on Friday, the 10th of May, was an attempt +made by him and some of the other Royalist lairds or "barons," as they +are called,[50] to take the castle of Towie-Barclay,[51] in +Aberdeenshire. It seems that the lairds of Delgatie and Towie-Barclay +had plundered the house of Balquholly,[52] which was occupied by our +author, and carried off a large supply of "muskets, guns, and +carabines." Sir Thomas was not a man to submit quietly to such an +outrage as this; and, doubtless, to his desire for vengeance was added a +strong wish to get possession of the firearms, now that there was a good +cause to be defended and brave men to use the weapons. They had intended +to surprise the castle, but when they came to it they found the gates +shut, and the place strongly guarded. Lord Fraser and the eldest son of +Lord Forbes had already known that an attempt was to be made to recover +the weapons, and had manned the castle so effectually that the idea of +storming it was out of the question. A few shots were exchanged, and +then the attacking party rode away. The only casualty was the death of a +David Prott, who was a servant of the laird of Gight,[53] one of +Urquhart's friends. "This," the historian remarks, "was the first time +that blood was drawn here since the beginning of the Covenant."[54] + +Four days after, a more serious encounter took place between the two +forces. The Covenanters of the north had decided to assemble in force, +and fixed upon Turriff, in Aberdeenshire, as their headquarters. The +Royalists drew to a head at Strathbogie, some eleven miles off, and +resolved to disperse their opponents. The Covenanting party was about +twelve hundred strong, and the Royalists about eight hundred, but the +latter had four brass cannon, which very materially strengthened them as +an attacking force. They were under the leadership of skilful officers, +among whom Arthur Forbes of Blacktown [in King-Edward] is specially +mentioned. Sir Thomas himself informs us that, "having obtained, though +with a great deal of pain, a fifteen hundreth [hundred] subscriptions to +a bond conceived and drawn up in opposition of the vulgar [popular] +Covenant, he selected from amongst them so many as he thought fittest +for holding hand to [taking in hand] the dissolving of their committees +and unlawful meetings."[55] + +About ten o'clock on the night of Monday, the 13th of May, they started +for Turriff, marching in a "very quiet and sober manner," and by +daybreak managed to steal upon the village by an unguarded path. The +sound of trumpets and of drums aroused the unsuspecting Covenanters to +the fact that they had been fairly surprised. "Some were sleeping, +others drinking, and smoaking tobacco, others walking up and down." A +few volleys of musketry, and a few shots discharged from the cannon, +served to disperse them, and the village was taken possession of by the +attacking force. It was but a slight skirmish,[56] in which three men +were killed, two of the Covenanters, and one of the Royalists; but it +was the first of the battles in the great Civil War, which raged for so +many years, and deluged with blood so many fruitful plains in each of +the three kingdoms. On this account "the Trot of Turriff," as it was +called, should not be forgotten. + +After this victory, the Royalists being masters of the village, the +common soldiers, who were hungry after their night's march, plundered +the houses of those they thought were Covenanters, and supplied +themselves with meat and drink. The greatest loss fell upon the +minister, Mr Mitchell, who, however, received very liberal compensation +from Parliament in the following year. They next gathered as many of the +inhabitants of Turriff together as they could find, and made them accept +and subscribe the King's Covenant.[57] This device for securing +adherents was, however, ineffectual, for, a few weeks later, those who +had sworn to the King's Covenant, on a declaration that they had acted +under compulsion, were solemnly absolved by their minister from all +obligation to keep it. + +The Royalist leaders now began to think of further projects, as the +number of their followers increased after the victory at Turriff. They +lost no time in marching upon Aberdeen, and in quartering themselves +upon its inhabitants, especially upon those who were known to belong to +the Covenanting party. In a few days, however, they found their position +untenable. A considerable number of their Highland forces disbanded, and +marched away to their homes, plundering as they went--"a thing," the +historian remarks, "verye usuall with them." The others retreated from +Aberdeen, when the Covenanting army under the Earl Marischal entered the +city, on the 23rd of May, 1639. + +A small number of prominent Royalists,[58] of whom our Sir Thomas was +one, now resolved to leave Scotland, where the cause to which they were +devoted was at such a low ebb. A ship, belonging to one Andrew Findlay, +had been kept in readiness for an emergency like this, and on it they +embarked hastily, and sailed away to England, to offer their services to +Charles I. "Urquhart," says Dr Irving, "who professes to have launched +forth in the view of six hundred of his enemies, was, within two days, +landed at Berwick, where he found the Marquis of Hamilton, and delivered +to him a letter from the leaders of the northern Royalists. He had +likewise undertaken to be the bearer of despatches to the King, +containing the signatures of the same chieftains; and, having proceeded +to the royal quarters, he obtained an audience of His Majesty, and +explained to him their past exertions and future plans for his service. +He appears to have been satisfied with his own reception, and the +written answer 'gave great contentment to all the gentlemen of the north +that stood for the king.'"[59] + +In one of our author's tracts, published in 1652, we have a pedigree of +the family of Urquhart. Under his own name he states that "he was +knighted by King Charles, in Whitehall Gallery, in the yeer 1641, the 7 +of April." In the same year he first made his appearance as an author in +the publication of his three books of _Epigrams, Moral and Divine_, of +which a fuller notice will be found in a later chapter. Let us now for a +little leave Sir Thomas, happy in his sovereign's favour, his head +encircled with the ivy-wreath that clothes the brows of learned poets, +and his eye fixed upon a prominent crag of Mount Parnassus as henceforth +specially his own, and turn to his father, whose golden dreams have long +since fled away, and left him but the dreariest and shabbiest prose. + +For thirty-six years the elder Sir Thomas had been in possession of the +ample estates of the house of Urquhart, and during nearly the whole of +this time the country had been at peace, so that he had no one but +himself to blame for the impoverished condition in which they were when +his son received them. The latter described the state of matters in the +following terms: "All he bequeathed unto me, his eldest Son, in matter +of worldly means, was twelve or thirteen thousand pounds sterling of +debt, five brethren all men, and two sisters almost mariageable, to +provide for, and lesse to defray all this burden with by six hundred +pounds sterling a year, although [_i.e._ even if] the warres had not +prejudiced me in a farthing, then [than] what for the maintaining of +himself alone in a peaceable age he inherited for nothing."[60] + +So exasperated was the old man by the importunity of his creditors, that +at last, we are told, the sound of one of their voices was in his ears +as "the hissing of a basilisk." The great Civil war itself, which +brought calamity and grief to so many homes, was almost welcomed by him +for the relief it brought him from the "hornings" and "apprisings," and +other legal processes, which threatened him in times of peace. "The +disorderly troubles of the land," says his son of him, "being then far +advanced, though otherways he disliked them, were a kind of refreshment +to him, and intermitting relaxation from a more stinging disquietnesse. +For that our intestin troubles and distempers, by silencing the laws +for a while, gave some repose to those that longed for a breathing time, +and by hudling up the terms of Whitsuntide and Martimass, which in +Scotland are the destinated times for payment of debts, promiscuously +with the other seasons of the year, were as an oxymel julip wherewith to +indormiat them in a bitter sweet security."[61] + +The most importunate of all the creditors, or, as Urquhart describes +them, "the usurious cormorants," who harassed the unhappy proprietor of +Cromartie, was a certain Robert Lesley of Findrassie. He held a mortgage +upon the estate, and though he was indebted to its owner for many acts +of kindness, he had been the first to foreclose upon the property, and +had persuaded other creditors to join with him in taking this step. The +annoyance and mortification caused by these proceedings hastened Sir +Thomas's death. Two days before that event, animated by regret for the +wrong he had done his heir by the impoverishment of the family property, +he assembled his younger children, and bound them, "under pain of his +everlasting curse and execration," to do all in their power to help +their elder brother. The terms of this extraordinary bond, his son tells +us, were these: "to assist, concur with, follow, and serve me, to the +utmost of their power, industry, and means, and to spare neither charge +nor travel, though it should cost them all they had, to release me from +the undeserved bondage of the domineering creditor, and extricate my +lands from the impestrements wherein they were involved; yea, to bestow +nothing of their owne upon no other use, till that should be done; and +all this under their own handwriting, secured with the clause of +registration to make the opprobrie the more notorious in case of +failing, as the paper itself, which I have _in retentis_, together with +another signed to the same sense, by my mother, and also my brothers and +sisters, Dunbugur [Dunlugas][62] only excepted, will more evidently +testifie."[63] Sir Thomas Urquhart, the elder, died in April [?], 1642, +after a long and lingering illness.[64] + +Our author now returned home to enter on possession of his estates, and +to attempt to reduce to something like order the chaos in which the +family affairs were. He resolved to commit the management of his +property to trustees, who, after paying his mother's jointure, were to +devote the whole of the rest of the rents to the reduction of debt. He +himself went to live on the Continent, in the hope that in a few years +he would be able to return home and enjoy his inheritance unencumbered +by debt. These proceedings, with the disappointing results that followed +them, are related in a passage of his _Logopandecteision_, which is +worth quoting. "Immediately after my father's decease," he says, "for my +better expedition in the discharge of those burthens, having repaired +homewards, I did sequestrate the whole rent (my mother's joynture +excepted) to that use only, and, as I had done many times before, betook +myself to my hazards abroad, that by vertue of the industry and +diligence of those whom, by the advise and deliberation of my nearest +friends, I was induced to intrust with my affairs, the debt might be the +sooner defrayed, and the ancient house releeved out of the thraldome it +was so unluckily faln into. But it fell out so far otherwayes, that +after some few years residence abroad, without any considerable expence +from home, when I thought, because of my having mortified and set apart +all the rent to no other end then [than] the cutting off and defalking +of my father's debt, that accordingly a great part of my father's debt +had been discharged, I was so far disappointed of my expectation therin, +that whilst, conform to the confidence reposed in him whom I had +intrusted with my affairs, I hoped to have been exonered and relieved of +many creditors, the debt was only past over and transferred from one in +favours of another, or rather of many in the favours of one, who, though +he formerly had gained much at my father's hands, was notwithstanding at +the time of his decease none of his creditors, nor at any time mine; my +Egyptian bondage by such means remaining still the same, under task +masters different only in name, and the rents neverthelesse taken up to +the full, to my no small detriment and prejudice of the house standing +in my person. The aime of some of those I concredited [committed] my +weightiest adoes [affairs] unto, being, as is most conspicuously +apparent, that I should never reap the fruition nor enjoyment of any +portion, parcell, or pendicle of the estate of my predecessors, unlesse +by my fortune and endeavours in forrain countries, I should be able to +acquire as much as might suffice to buy it, as we say, out of the +ground. And verily," he concludes, "though not in relation to these +ignoble and unworthy by-ends, it was my purpose and resolution to have +done so, which assuredly, had not the turbulent divisions of the time +been such as to have crossed and thwarted the atchievements of more +faisible projects, I would have accomplished two or three severall ways +ere now."[65] + +One is inclined to wonder what the two or three lucrative undertakings +were, which this Highland gentleman had in view when he spoke in this +way of the practicability of making enough money to purchase back his +estates. "What song the syrens sang," says Sir Thomas Browne, "or what +name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling +questions are not beyond all conjecture." But even as wise a man as Sir +Thomas Browne might well pause before venturing on a conjecture in +connection with this matter. + +In one of the official records of the time,[66] there is an entry which +shows that Urquhart was resident in London in 1644. On the 9th May of +that year he is assessed for a forced loan at L1000; and, on the 16th of +the same month, there is an order for him to be brought up in custody to +pay his assessment; while, on the 21st, it is noted that his assessment +is "respited till he shall speak with the Scottish committee and take +further orders, be engaging to appear whenever required." He no doubt +proved to the committee that he had no property in London, but was only +a sojourner there, and was accordingly virtually discharged. His place +of residence in London at this time was Clare Street,[67] then newly +erected upon St Clement's Inn Fields, on the east side of Drury Lane, +and called after John Holles,[68] second Earl of Clare, whose town-house +was near by. + +Sir Thomas Urquhart now resolved to take the management of his own +affairs, and, if possible, so to conduct matters as to secure +subsistence for himself, as well as satisfaction for his father's +creditors; and, in the year 1645, he went to live in the ancestral home +at Cromartie. His rental still amounted to L1000 Sterling a year, which +represents about L7000 in our time, but a debt of twelve or thirteen +years' income was a very serious burden upon such an estate. + +There can be little doubt that the entanglement in which the financial +affairs of the house of Urquhart were involved became none the less +confused and confusing when the gallant knight applied himself to +unravel it. That was scarcely a task for which he was fitted. Much more +appropriate would it have been for him to draw the sword, like +Alexander, and cut the Gordian knot. Perhaps his failure, as in another +well-known case,[69] is partly to be attributed to his not having had a +legal adviser, familiar with the intricacies of the law, and able to +prevent his creditors getting more than their pound of flesh, if not to +save even that from them. Charles I. once said that he knew as much law +as a gentleman ought to know. Sir Thomas Urquhart seems to have had a +somewhat similar acquaintance with the same subject, and this, like that +of the person mentioned in the footnote on the preceding page, was +probably acquired "as a defendant on civil process." There can be no +doubt that he "made an effort" more than once. In vain did he have +recourse to "pecunial charms, and holy water out of Plutus' cellar."[70] +The charms were indeed potent, but they were not applied long enough; +the holy water was composed of the right ingredients, but there was too +little of it in the cellars at Cromartie. He could not, with all his +struggles, succeed in curing what the Limousin scholar in Rabelais calls +"the penury of pecune in the marsupie" [_i.e._ the want of money in the +purse]--that complaint which is so mortifying to the pride of any +gentleman, but which is specially exasperating to a Highland gentleman. +His cares and distresses, or, as he calls them, his "solicitudinary and +luctiferous discouragements," were enough "to appall the most undaunted +spirits, and kill a very Paphlagonian partridge, that is said to have +two hearts."[71] + +Probably Sir Thomas Urquhart was harshly dealt with by his father's +creditors, though, of course, it is possible that in the story as told +by them they would appear in a more favourable light. They had to do +with a man who was unpractical and fantastical in the highest degree, +and morbidly sensitive in all matters that seemed to lower his dignity +or to cast a slur upon his honour. His brains seethed with plans for the +improvement of agriculture, trade, and education, but none of these did +the importunity of his creditors permit him to carry into effect. "Truly +I may say," he complains, "that above ten thousand severall times I have +by these flagitators been interrupted for money, which never came to my +use, directly or indirectly one way or other, at home or abroad, any one +time whereof I was busied about speculations of greater consequence then +[than] all that they were worth in the world; from which, had I not been +violently pluck'd away by their importunity, I would have emitted to +publick view above five hundred several treatises on inventions never +hitherto thought upon by any."[72] Before his imagination there floated +the dream of what he might have been, and his mind alternated between +passionate remonstrances against his unfortunate circumstances and +delusive hopes and anticipations. + +The editor of the Maitland Club edition of Urquhart's works truly +remarks that there is a melancholy earnestness, almost approaching +insanity, in his wild speculations on what he might have done for +himself and his country but for the weight of worldly incumbrances. +"Even so," he says, "may it be said of myself, that when I was most +seriously imbusied about the raising of my own and countrie's reputation +to the supremest reach of my endeavours, then did my father's creditors, +like so many millstones hanging at my heels, pull down the vigour of my +fancie, and violently hold that under, what [which] other wayes would +have ascended above the sublimest regions of vulgar conception."[73] + +So convinced was he that the schemes and inventions with which his +thoughts were occupied were of immense value, that he declared that he +ought to have the benefit of that Act of James III. (36th statute of his +fifth Parliament) which provides that the debtor's movable goods be +first "valued and discussed before his lands be apprised." He claimed +this as a right from the State; "and if," he says, "conform to the +aforesaid Act, this be granted, I doe promise shortly to display before +the world, ware of greater value then [than] ever from the East Indias +was brought in ships to Europe."[74] But unfortunately the Philistines +were too strong for him. + +To these pecuniary difficulties were added annoyances and wrongs, which +the meekest of mankind, among whom Sir Thomas is not to be reckoned, +would have found it hard to bear. + +Mention has already been made of Robert Lesley of Findrassie, the most +relentless of all the creditors, who, according to Sir Thomas +Urquhart's account of matters, made life bitter for him, and defeated +his many schemes for the benefit of the human race. The injurious +proceedings of this man form a subject which our author can never leave +for any length of time, and to which it is necessary for his biographer +to revert occasionally. His unfortunate debtor found a certain grim +satisfaction, as well as an opportunity for gratifying his taste for +genealogical research, in tracing Robert's descent from a celebrated +murderer--that Norman Lesley whose hands were dipped in the blood of +Cardinal Beaton. It is certain, however, that there was no real +foundation for this opinion.[75] + +Unless Robert Lesley is a much-maligned man, his conduct towards the son +of his patron was both rapacious and ungrateful. On one occasion at +least he acted in a very high-handed manner. "With all the horse and +foot he was able to command," says Sir Thomas, "he came in a hostile +manner to take possession of a farm of mine called Ardoch; unto which +... he had no more just title then [than] to the town of Jericho +mentioned in the Scriptures; and at the offer of such an indignity to +our house, some of the hot-spirited gentlemen of our name would even +then have taken him, with his three sons, bound them hand and foot, and +thrown them within the flood-mark, into a place called the Yares of +Udol, there to expect the coming of the sea in a full tide, to carry him +along to be seized in a soil of a greater depth, and abler to restrain +the insatiableness of his immense desires, then [than] any of my lands +within the shire of Cromartie." Sir Thomas, according to his own +account, hindered the perpetration of this violence, and gave his enemy +and those who accompanied him "a pass and safe-conduct to their own +houses."[76] + +Yet so far was the caitiff creditor from being touched by this proof of +magnanimity on the part of his debtor, that he applied himself with +renewed vigour to the concoction of schemes for his total destruction. +So at least Sir Thomas would have us believe. On one occasion Lesley +tried to inveigle him to Inverness, with the intention of having him +arrested at the suit of an accomplice--James Sutherland, "Tutor of +Duffus"--and kept in durance until he had satisfied all his enemy's +demands. On another occasion Lesley managed to get a troop of horse +quartered upon the tenants of Cromartie, till, says our author, "I +should transact for a sum, of money to be paid to his son-in-law; which +verily was the greater part of his portion."[77] In addition to this, a +garrison was stationed for nearly a year in the castle of Cromartie, +where they conducted themselves in a way calculated to wound and +humiliate the proud spirit of its proprietor. Among other wrongs and +losses inflicted upon him was the sequestration of his library, which he +had collected with such pains. Sir Thomas says that he sought eagerly +to be allowed to purchase back the precious volumes, but was hindered by +the spitefulness and indifference of those to whom he made application, +and was ultimately able to secure only a few of them, which had been +stolen from the collection and dispersed through the country.[78] + +In an amusing passage in the _Logopandecteision_, our author gives us a +specimen of the peculiarities of speech which distinguished his +arch-enemy, Lesley of Findrassie. As we read it we seem to hear the very +tones in which he enunciated or defended his "felonious little plans." +"Several gentlemen of good account," he says, "and others of his +familiar acquaintance, having many times very seriously expostulated +with him why he did so implacably demean himself towards me, and with +such irreconciliability of rancor, that nothing could seem to please him +that was consistent with my weal, his answers most readily were these: +'I have (see ye?) many daughters (see ye?) to provide portions for, (see +ye?), and that (see ye now?) cannot be done, (see ye?) without money; +the interest (see ye?) of what I lent, (see ye?), had it been termely +[regularly] payed, (see ye?), would have afforded me (see ye now?) +several stocks for new interests; I have (see ye?) apprized[79] lands +(see ye?) for these summes (see ye?) borrowed from me, (see ye now?), +and (see ye?) the legal [time] being expired, (see ye now?), is it not +just (see ye?) and equitable (see ye?) that I have possession (see ye?) +of these my lands, (see ye?), according to my undoubted right, (see ye +now?)?' With these over-words of 'see ye' and 'see ye now,' as if they +had been no less material then [than] the Psalmist's _Selah_, and +_Higgaion Selah_, did he usually nauseate the ears of his hearers when +his tongue was in the career of uttering anything concerning me; who +alwayes thought that he had very good reason to make use of such like +expressions, 'do you see' and 'do you see now,' because there being but +little candour in his meaning, whatever he did or spoke was under some +colour."[80] + +It must have been very hard for the proud-hearted chieftain to see his +farms devastated, his tenants maltreated, his library thrown to the +winds, a garrison placed in his house, and troops of horse quartered +upon his lands without any allowance, in addition to all the misery and +impoverishment which his father's wastefulness and neglect had brought +down upon his head. + +In 1647 an event occurred which seriously affected the interests of our +author, and placed him in a still more humiliating position. Sir Robert +Farquhar[81] of Mounie had "apprised" the estate and sheriffship of +Cromartie, and was now confirmed in the possession of them. He proceeded +to sell his rights to (Sir) John Urquhart of Craigfintray, the +great-grandson of the Tutor of Cromartie. Immediately upon this (Sir) +John purchased a commission from Charles I. to become hereditary Sheriff +of Cromartie. In this way the ancestral domains and jurisdiction of +which Sir Thomas Urquhart was so proud virtually passed out of his +hands. It was not, however, till after the Restoration apparently that +the new proprietor entered into possession. He evidently allowed his +claims to lie dormant until the death of his cousin, Sir Thomas, and +then put them in force. Even if our author had no other troubles to +contend with, the knowledge that this Damoclean sword was suspended +above his head would have been enough to destroy his peace. + +No doubt Sir Thomas sometimes thought that he was the most unlucky +chieftain the Urquhart race had yet known,--that such a multitude of +misfortunes had never come upon one who bore his name since that day +when, on a sunny plain in Achaia, wild armed men first raised Esormon +"aloft on the buckler-throne, and with clanging armour and hearts" +hailed him as "fortunate and well-beloved."[82] Sir Theodore Martin, +indeed, says that Urquhart's statements with regard to his misfortunes +should not be construed to the letter, any more than should the +announcements of his wonderful inventions and designs. They were both, +he considers, in a great degree pet objects on which he had permitted +his imagination to rest, till they had been transfigured into a +magnitude to which the reality probably bore but a faint +resemblance.[83] There is, however, ample evidence in what we have +already quoted, to show that certain of the grievances he complained of +were by no means imaginary. It is beyond dispute that he suffered +heavily in his property in consequence of his adherence to the Royalist +cause. In 1663 his brother, Sir Alexander, presented a petition asking +compensation for the losses suffered in the time of his father and +brother. The Commissioners appointed to examine into these claims +reported that, before 1650, the damage inflicted upon the Urquhart +property amounted to L20,303 Scots, and during 1651-52 to L39,203 +Scots--in all L59,506 Scots, which is almost L5000 Sterling.[84] + +The relations of Sir Thomas Urquhart with the ministers of the churches +of which he was patron were unfortunately of a painful character. The +grounds of misunderstanding and dispute were numerous. In addition to +political and ecclesiastical differences of opinion between the +ministers of the three parishes[85] (of which Sir Thomas was the sole +heritor) and himself, there were disputes about augmentation of +stipends,[86] which they thought inadequate but with which he had no +fault to find, the abolition of his heritable right to the patronage of +these churches, the legal proceedings taken by the incumbents to compel +him to agree to arrangements decided upon by the Presbytery with regard +to stipends and the upkeep of buildings, and there were also personal +quarrels with the ministers themselves. In the following passage he +tells his side of the story, and gives us a vivid, though not an +edifying glimpse of the parochial politics of that far-off time and +remote corner of Scotland. It is to be noticed that Sir Thomas writes +of himself in the third person. "I think," says the supposed anonymous +writer of him, "there be hardly any in Scotland that proportionably hath +suffered more prejudice by the Kirk then [than] himself; his own +ministers (to wit, those that preach in the churches whereof himself is +patron, Master Gilbert Anderson, Master Robert Williamson, and Master +Charles Pape by name, serving the cures of Cromartie, Kirkmichel, and +Cullicudden), having done what lay in them for the furtherance of their +owne covetous ends, to his utter undoing; for the first of those three, +for no other cause but that the said Sir Thomas would not authorize the +standing of a certain pew (in that country called a desk), in the church +of Cromarty, put in without his consent by a professed enemy to his +House, who had plotted the ruine thereof, and one that had no land in +the parish, did so rail against him and his family in the pulpit at +several times, both before his face and in his absence, and with such +opprobrious termes, more like a scolding tripe-seller's wife then [than] +good minister, squirting the poyson of detraction and abominable +falshood (unfit for the chaire of verity) in the cares of his tenandry, +who were the onely auditors, did most ingrately and despightfully so +calumniate and revile their master, his own patron and benefactor, that +the scandalous and reproachful words striving which of them should first +discharge against him its steel-pointed dart, did oftentimes, like +clusters of hemlock or wormewood dipt in vinegar, stick in his throat; +he being almost ready to choak with the aconital bitterness and venom +thereof, till the razor of extream passion, by cutting them into +articulate sounds, and very rage it self, in the highest degree, by +procuring a vomit, had made him spue them out of his mouth into rude, +indigested lumps, like so many toads and vipers that had burst their +gall.[87] + +"As for the other two, notwithstanding that they had been borne, and +their fathers before them, vassals to his house, and the predecessor of +one of them had shelter in that land, by reason of slaughter committed +by him, when there was no refuge for him anywhere else in Scotland; and +that the other had never been admitted to any church had it not been for +the favour of his foresaid patron, who, contrary to the will of his owne +friends and great reluctancy of the ministry it self, was both the +nominater and chuser of him to that function; and that before his +admission he did faithfully protest he should all the days of his life +remain contented with that competency of portion the late incumbent in +that charge did enjoy before him; they nevertheless behaved themselves +so peevishly and unthankfully towards their forenamed patron and master, +that, by vertue of an unjust decree, both procured and purchased from a +promiscuous knot of men like themselves,[88] they used all their utmost +endeavours, in absence of their above recited patron, to whom and unto +whose house they had been so much beholding, to outlaw him,[89] and +declare him rebel, by open proclamation at the market-cross of the head +town of his owne shire, in case he did not condescend [consent] to the +grant of that augmentation of stipend which they demanded, conforme to +the tenour of the above-mentioned decree; the injustice whereof will +appeare when examined by any rational judge. + +"Now the best is, when by some moderate gentlemen it was expostulated, +why against their master, patron, and benefactor, they should have dealt +with such severity and rigour, contrary to all reason and equity; their +answer was, They were inforced and necessitated so to do by the synodal +and presbyterial conventions of the Kirk, under paine of deprivation, +and expulsion from their benefices: I will not say, kakou korakost +kakon oon [an evil egg of an evil crow], but may safely think that a +well-sanctified mother will not have a so ill-instructed brat, and that +_injuria humana_ cannot be the lawfull daughter of a _jure divino_ +parent."[90] + +Sir Thomas Urquhart is not to be taken as infallible in the opinions +which he formed and expressed concerning the quality of the sermons +which were delivered from the Presbyterian pulpits of his time. But +there can be no doubt that he hits upon one great fault by which many of +them were marred--that of being rather political harangues than +exhortations to godliness after the Pauline fashion. Indeed, he goes so +far as to say that, as a rule, the preachers of his time seldom gave +such exhortations, as they were "enjoyned by their ecclesiastical +authority [authorities?] to preach to the times,[91] that is, to rail +against malignants and sectaries, or those whom they suppose to be their +enemies."[92] Preaching "to the times" Sir Thomas found meant in his +neighbourhood preaching against _him_; and one may be allowed, it is to +be hoped, without unduly wounding the feelings of those who admire the +Covenanters, to think sympathetically of his sufferings. Sydney Smith +once spoke of a form of capital punishment in which the victim was to be +"preached to death by wild curates." If the above description of Mr +Gilbert Anderson's sermons be true, he certainly was eminently qualified +to officiate as one of the executioners in carrying out such a death +sentence.[93] + +But though Sir Thomas Urquhart was a Royalist in politics, and an +Episcopalian in religion, he was certainly no bigot in his devotion to +the King or the Church. In a passage in _The Jewel_, he plainly declares +his belief "that there is no government, whether ecclesiastical or +civil, upon earth that is _jure divino_, if that divine right be taken +in a sense secluding all other forms of government, save it alone, from +the privilege of that title."[94] Indeed, he treats such an idea as +merely a pious fraud, by which despotism is established and maintained +at a very cheap rate over tender consciences by threatening them with +the vengeance of Heaven in case of disobedience. Such a man was not +likely to be a blind partisan of any cause. Differences in religious +beliefs and practices he attributed to differences of temperament among +individuals, and to climatic and national peculiarities; and in no +obscure terms he hints that he was of the opinion of Tamerlane, "who +believed that God was best pleased with diversity of religions, variety +of worship, dissentaneousness of faith, and multiformity of +devotion."[95] However powerfully such opinions may appeal to a certain +class of minds, it is hard to conceive of their being associated with +deep religious feeling; and accordingly we can scarcely be wrong in +concluding that one of the reasons why Sir Thomas Urquhart held aloof +from the Covenanting movement was that he was at the antipodes to the +majority of his fellow-countrymen in the matter of religious belief. A +certain measure of aversion, suspicion, and horror is still manifested +by many towards those whose creed is supposed to be of too limited and +negative a character; and we can easily believe that in the middle of +the seventeenth century this attitude was taken up even more openly and +emphatically. On a later occasion, when, as we shall relate, Sir Thomas +Urquhart applied to the Commission of the General Assembly to pardon his +having taken part in the capture of Inverness, his case was referred to +the minister of that town, Mr John Annand, "that he might confer with +him [Sir Thomas] concerning some dangerous opinions, which, as is +informed, he hes sometimes vented."[96] In the view of the Commission of +Assembly the guilt of cherishing "dangerous opinions" was as great as +that of rekindling the flames of civil war, if, indeed, it did not +surpass it. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] The utter chaos which resulted from the fusion of religion and +politics may be estimated from the fact that, in the October of 1650, +there were in the narrow bounds of Scotland four different armies, at +enmity with each other, and each prepared to maintain with the sword a +different cause, namely, the Scottish (Presbyterian) army under General +Lesley, for King and Covenant combined; the English (Independent) army, +under Cromwell, which was against both; the Highland army, under General +Middleton, which was for the King without the Covenant; and the +Westland, or ultra-Covenanting army, which was for the Covenant without +the King. + +[45] Gordon's _Scots Affairs_, i. 49, 50. James Gordon (? 1615-1686) was +minister of Rothiemay in Banffshire. His _History of Scots Affairs from +1637 to 1641_ is one of the principal authorities for this period. It +has no pretensions to style, but is correct and impartial. It was first +published in 1841 by the Spalding Club. + +[46] Early in the year 1638 some account was given to King Charles of +the chief persons in the north of Scotland whom he might regard as +faithful to his cause. "In Rosse," it was said, "Sir Thomas Urqhward, +Sheriff of Cromerty, with his following, but they [are] environed with +Covenanters, ther neighbours" (_ibid._ i. 61). + +[47] _A History of the University of Aberdeen, 1495-1895_, by J. M. +Bulloch, p. 110. + +[48] These courageous worthies were the bishop's son, Dr John Forbes, +Professor of Divinity in King's College; Dr Robert Baron, Professor of +Divinity, and minister in Aberdeen; Dr Alexander Scrogie, minister of +Old Aberdeen; Dr William Leslie, Principal of King's College; and Drs +James Sibbald and Alexander Ross, both ministers in Aberdeen. + +[49] _History of Scotland_, vi. 235. + +[50] See note on p. 123. + +[51] Towie-Barclay is the name of an estate in the south-east corner of +Turriff parish, Aberdeenshire, near Auchterless Station, and four and a +half miles south-east of Turriff. The castle is supposed to have been +built in 1593. It remained pretty perfect till 1792, was re-roofed in +1874, and retains a fine baronial hall with vaulted ceiling. From at +least the beginning of the fourteenth century till 1733, the estate +belonged to the Barclays, one of whose line was the celebrated Russian +general, Prince Michael Barclay de Tolly (1759-1818). In 1792 it was +sold to the governors of Gordon's Hospital, Aberdeen, for L21,000. Towie +is a corruption of Tolly. See Billing's _Baronial Antiquities_, vol. iv. + +[52] Balquholly, now Hatton Castle: a Square, castellated mansion of +1814, with finely wooded grounds, in Turriff parish, three and a quarter +miles south-east of Turriff. It comprises a considerable fragment of the +ancient baronial castle of Balquholly (Gael. _bailecoille_, "town in the +wood"), the seat of the Mowats from the thirteenth century till 1729, +when the estate was sold to Alexander Duff, Esq. Sir Thomas Urquhart +must either have rented the house from the Mowats, or have obtained +leave to keep arms there. The cellars in which the arms were probably +kept are exactly as they were in 1638, except that the old loop-holes +are partly filled up. The name of the mansion was changed to Hatton +Lodge in 1745, and to Hatton Castle in 1814, when the modern part was +built--Hatton being the name of the property in Auchterless, which +previously belonged to the Duff family. The present proprietor is Garden +Alexander Duff, Esq., who succeeded to the estates in 1866. There is +behind Hatton Castle a small croft called Cromartie (see Ordnance Map), +probably from our author's occupancy of Balquholly or connexion with it. + +[53] An ancestor of Lord Byron. + +[54] Spalding's _Memorials_, i. 185. Until within living memory the +exact site of Prott's [or Pratt's] grave was pointed out; but it is now +quite obliterated by being ploughed over repeatedly. + +[55] MS. _Epigrams_: The Animadversion. + +[56] "Ther fell only two gentlemen upon the Covenanters syde: one Mr +James Stacker, a servant to the Lord Mucholles; and one Alexander +Forbesse, servante to Forbesse of Tolqhwone: upon the Gordons syde, one +common foote souldiour killed, (by the unskilfullnesse of his owne +comerades fyring ther musketts, as was thoughte), whom the Gordons +caused burye solemnly, that day, out of ane idle vante, in the buriall +place of Walter Barcley of Towey, within the church of Turreffe; not +without great terror to the minister of the place, Mr Thomas Michell, +who all the whyle, with his sonne, disgwysd in a womans habite, had gott +upp and was lurkinge above the syling of the churche, whilst the +souldiours wer discharging volleyes of shotte within the churche, and +peircing the syling with ther bulletts in severall places" (Gordon's +_Scots Affairs_, ii. 258). The reader will keep in mind that Gordon was +the family name of the Marquis of Huntly. + +[57] This was originally the King's Confession, and was drawn up in 1580 +by John Craig, minister of Holyrood House, and subscribed by James VI. +and his household on 28th January, 1580-81. It is printed at length in +Row's _Historie of the Kirk of Scotland_. It reaffirms the Confession of +Faith of 1560, but contains also a solemn renunciation in great detail +of the errors of Popery. It was approved by the General Assembly in +April, 1581. A "General Band [Bond] for Maintenance of the true +Religion" was added in 1588. The National Covenant of 1637 was an +amplification of the previous Confessions, containing in addition an +abjuration of Episcopal Church-government, as the King's Confession did +of Popery. In September, 1638, Charles I. issued a proclamation for the +Scottish people to subscribe this King's Confession and General Band, +but the Covenanters regarded this as a subtle plot to divide them, and +destroy the National Covenant, and, therefore, protested against the +proclamation. The Confession and Band so subscribed, for it was +subscribed by some, got the name of the "King's Covenant." It did not, +of course, contain the abjuration of Episcopal Church-government. Those +who adhered to it were called Malignants; while the name Covenanters was +applied to those who subscribed the National Covenant. + +[58] Among those who made their escape from Aberdeen along with Urquhart +were Adam Bellenden, the bishop of the diocese; Alexander Innes, +minister of Rothiemay; Alexander Scrogie, a Regent of King's College; +together with the bishop's son, nephew, and servant (Spalding's +_Memorials_). + +[59] _Lives of the Scottish Writers_, vol. i.; Urquhart's MS. +_Epigrams_: The Animadversion. + +[60] _Works_, p. 340. + +[61] _Works_, p. 346. + +[62] Dunlugas is in the parish of Alvah, close by the river Deveron, on +the east side. + +[63] _Works_, p. 341. + +[64] "He was alive last Whitsuntide! said the coachman.... +Whitsuntide!--alas! cried Trim.... What is Whitsuntide, Jonathan, or +Shrovetide, or any tide or time past, to this!" (_Tristram Shandy_, vol. +v. chap. vii.). + +Our author states (_Works_, p. 341) that "his father's death occurred in +August in the year 1642, some four yeares after the hatching of the +Covenant." He is, however, very careless in details of fact, and is in +error concerning this date. Sir Thomas Urquhart, senior, is termed +"_umqll_" (_i.e. "the late"_) in the Burgess Roll of Banff, on 14th +June, 1642 (_Annals of Banff_, ii. 418). Perhaps the date was April +instead of August. The Covenant was signed 1st March, 1638. + +[65] _Works_, pp. 346, 347. + +[66] _Calendar of Proceedings of Committee for Advances of +Moneys-Taxes_, i. 381. + +[67] The neighbourhood is now a cluster of narrow, dirty streets and +passages, lined chiefly with butchers' and grocers' shops, which +overflow into the adjacent streets, and are supplemented by fishmongers +and miscellaneous stalls and barrows--a crowded, noisy, and unsavoury +place on Saturday nights. In 1640, Charles I. granted his licence to +Thomas York, his executors, etc., to erect as many buildings as they +thought proper upon St Clement's Inn Fields, the inheritance of the Earl +of Clare. He issued another licence in 1642, permitting Gervase Holles, +Esq., to make several streets of the width of thirty, thirty-four, and +forty feet. These streets still retain the names and titles of their +founders--Clare Street, Denzil Street, and Holles Street. Clare Street +is somewhat rich in interesting associations. There is a letter of +Steele's to his wife, dated from the Bull Head Tavern in this street, +24th August, 1710. It seems likely that he was hiding there. Mrs +Bracegirdle, a celebrated actress of that time, "was in the habit of +going into that neighbourhood, and giving money to the poor +basket-women, insomuch that she could not pass without having thankful +acclamations from people of all degrees." It was to Clare Street and +Clare Market that Jack Sheppard went, after his escape from Newgate: he +there bought a butcher's frock and woollen apron, which he was wearing +when captured at Finchley. Here was Johnson's Hotel, celebrated for +upwards of seventy years for its _a la mode_ beef. Isaac Bickerstaffe, +too, lived in this street. + +[68] John Holles, created Baron Houghton of Houghton, in the county of +Nottingham, in 1616, and Earl of Clare in 1624. + +[69] "If I had known that young man [Uriah Heep]," said Mr Micawber, "at +the period when my difficulties came to a crisis, all I can say is, that +I believe my creditors would have been better managed than they were" +(_David Copperfield_, chap. xvii.). + +[70] _Works_, p. 347. + +[71] _Ibid._ p. 346. For the authority on which this interesting +ornithological statement is made the reader will overhaul his Pliny (_H. +N._ xi. chap. 3). + +[72] _Works_, p. 326. + +[73] _Works_, p. 328. + +[74] _Ibid._ p. 325. + +[75] Norman Lesley, Master of Rothes, eldest son of George, fifth Earl +of Rothes, died without issue in 1554. This disposes of Sir Thomas +Urquhart's statement. The Lesleys of Findrassie themselves claimed to be +descended from Robert, the fourth son of Earl George. See _Scotch +Peerage Law_, by J. Riddell, p. 190. + +[76] _Works_, p. 379. + +[77] _Ibid._ p. 380. + +[78] One of these volumes containing the signature of our author is +still in existence. It is a copy of Arthur Johnston's Latin poems, +printed at Aberdeen by Raban, 1632, and is in the possession of the Rev. +J. B. Craven, Kirkwall. It is a very fragile volume. The signature in +this volume, and two others, attached to legal documents, are all that +are known to be extant. We give a fac-simile of one of the latter on p. +iv. + +[79] "_Apprizing_" is a legal process to which Sir Thomas several times +refers with great horror, and it may be as well to explain to our +readers what it was, for fortunately it is now a thing of the past. It +was for long the only method of attaching a debtor's heritable property. +By the Act, 1469, c. 36, when payment of a debt could not be obtained +out of the debtor's movables (including rent), "the King's letters might +be obtained, under which a debtor's land might be sold by the Sheriff to +the amount of his debts, and the creditor paid out of the proceeds. If +within six months no purchaser could be found, a portion of the land +equal to the debt was to be apprised by thirteen men chosen by the +sheriff, and the portion apprised by them was to be made over to the +creditor." The debtor could redeem within seven years. This procedure at +first took place in the head burgh of the shire, where the jury probably +knew enough to make a fair valuation of the land. But after a time the +proceedings often took place in Edinburgh, where the jury had no special +knowledge, and might be packed by the creditor. So that large estates +were sometimes carried off in payment of trifling debts. The appriser at +once entered into possession, and was not obliged to account for the +rents (until 1631, c. 6). It was thus a powerful engine of oppression. +If A. wished B.'s land, and B. owned land and nothing else, it was +possible for A., if he could only get B. as his debtor even in a small +sum, so to work matters that for the debt he might apprise all B's land. +Being then in right of B.'s rents, he had B. completely in his power, +and B. had no resources for gathering together the amount of the debt +which he must pay in order to redeem his lands within the seven years +allowed. The law was much relaxed by the Act, 1621, c. 6, but the above +will enable us to understand how an unscrupulous creditor might get an +easy-going, thriftless man into his clutches, and impoverish him and his +family. + +[80] _Works_, p. 382. The evident meaning of the last sentence is that +Lesley's ways were so dark that it was highly necessary for him often to +ask, "See ye?" Yet one cannot help feeling that this relentless creditor +may not have been solely animated by malignant hatred of his debtor. +Even in the above speech there seem to be claims which cannot be lightly +brushed aside. One is again reminded of Mr Micawber, and of the sudden +and unexpected glimpse of a better nature in his most truculent +creditor, which was vouchsafed him when he got his discharge in +bankruptcy. "Even the revengeful bootmaker," we are told, "declared in +open court that he bore him [Mr M.] no malice, but that when money was +owing to him he liked to be paid. He said he thought it was human +nature" (_David Copperfield_, chap. xii.). An eminent American +philosopher has said that there is a great deal of human nature in man. +There seems at any rate to have been a great deal in Mr Lesley of +Findrassie. + +[81] In one of his queer _Epigrams_, after comparing the insatiable +demands of his creditors to those of the grave and of the sea, he closes +with the following alliterative litany: + + "Free me from Farcher, Fraser, Fendrasie." + +[82] "His subjects and familiars surnamed him [Esormon] ourochartost, +that is [to] say, 'fortunate and well-beloved'" (_Works_, p. 156). + +[83] Rabelais, p. xv. + +[84] _Acts of the Parliament of Scotland_, vol. vii. 479, _a_, _b_. + +[85] The parish of Cromartie consists of the north-east portion of the +peninsula called the Black Isle, terminating eastward in the precipice +called the Southern Sutor, and stretches for about four miles along the +shore of the Moray Firth on the east, and about six along that of the +Firth of Cromartie on the north and west. To the west of the parish of +Cromartie were situated the joint parishes of Kirkmichael and +Cullicudden, on the southern shore of the Cromartie Firth. In Sir Thomas +Urquhart's time these were separate parishes, but they were united in +1662, and a new church was built at Resolis, in Kirkmichael, near the +border of Cullicudden. The newly constituted parish bore and still bears +the name of Resolis. + +[86] In his _Logopandecteision_ he speaks of the "stipauctionarie tide" +which began to overflow the land. He thought "with sufficient bulwarks +of good argument to have stayed the inundation thereof from two of his +churches"; but, he says, "I was violently driven like a feather before a +whirlewind, notwithstanding all my defences, to the sanctuary of an +inforced patience" (_Works_, p. 352). He does not, however, appear to +have stayed long in this sanctuary, or else the shelter it afforded was +but imperfect. His "_stipauctionarie_" (_i.e._ stipend-increasing) +reminds us of Mr Micawber's calling his salary his "_stipendiary +emoluments_." + +[87] The attention of the reader is specially directed to the marvellous +felicity and vigour of the above description. Sir Thomas himself has +never written anything better in its way. + +[88] We fear that this is meant as a description of a presbytery. + +[89] The reference is to the process of "horning" described on p. 16. + +[90] _Works_, p. 280-282. + +[91] That Sir Thomas Urquhart is not exaggerating matters in speaking of +such injunctions being given by ecclesiastical authorities, is proved by +the following well-known passage in the memoir prefixed to the _Works_ +of Archbishop Leighton:--"It was a Question asked at [of] the Brethren, +both in the classical and provincial Meetings of Ministers, twice in the +Year, If they preached the Duties of the Times? And when it was found +that _Mr Leighton_ did not, he was quarrelled [_sic_] for this Omission, +but said, _If all the Brethern have preached to the_ TIMES, _may not one +poor Brother be suffered to preach on_ ETERNITY?" + +[92] _Works_, p. 280. + +[93] The notice given us by Sir Thomas of Mr Anderson's preaching makes +us desirous of knowing more about him; but, unfortunately, only a very +few facts concerning him are known. He was born in 1597; he graduated at +Aberdeen in 1618; was settled at Cawdor, near Nairn, some time before +30th October, 1627; was transferred to Cromartie between 5th October, +1641, and 11th January, 1642; died in November, 1655, and was succeeded +in the benefice by his son Hugh (Scott's _Fasti_). + +[94] _Works_, p. 276. + +[95] _Ibid._ p. 261. + +[96] See p. 83. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + Unsuccessful Rising in the North--Sir Thomas makes his Peace with the + Church--Return of Charles II. to Scotland--Invasion of + England--Battle of Worcester--Sir Thomas a Prisoner in the + Tower--Makes Friends--Is liberated on Parole--Great Literary + Activity--Revisits Scotland--Dies--Later History of the Urquharts + of Cromartie--Characteristics of our Author--Glover's Portraits of + him. + +Shortly after the news of the execution of Charles I. reached Scotland, +a rising on the part of some of the leading Cavaliers in the north took +place, with the view of restoring the Royal Family. The most prominent +person in this attempt was Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardine, a younger +brother of George, the second Earl of Seaforth, who for nearly ten years +past had managed the affairs of the family, and was looked up to, both +on account of his ability and also on account of the great territorial +influence he represented. He had seen a good deal of service abroad, and +was at one time governor of Stralsund.[97] Along with him, and only +second to him, was our Sir Thomas Urquhart, to whom even civil war was +scarcely more fraught with anxiety and danger than was the life he had +been forced to lead for some time past. Together with them were +associated eight other Royalists of good standing,--among whom Colonel +Hugh Fraser of Belladrum and John Munro of Lemlair had a certain +pre-eminence,--and these ten formed a kind of revolutionary committee +for the control of the movement they had set on foot, and the government +of the district that might become subject to them. + +Montrose had determined, on hearing of the execution of the King, to +renew the war in Scotland, but Pluscardine and his associates did not +wait for his arrival. Charles was beheaded on Tuesday, the 30th of +January, 1649, and, by the 22nd of the next month, the Scottish +gentlemen in the north had already taken the field, and captured +Inverness. Four days after, on Monday, 26th February, a meeting of the +Committee of War was held in that town, the minutes of which are still +in existence,[98] and contain the name of our author next in order to +that of Pluscardine himself. + +The Committee passed certain enactments, by which they took into their +own hands the customs and excise of the six northern counties--Inverness, +Sutherland, Cromartie, Caithness, Nairn, and Elgin. An inventory of all +the ammunition of the garrison was ordered to be taken. It was also +decided that Sir Thomas's house at Cromartie should be put in a state of +defence, and that the work should be carried out by the tenants of Sir +James Fraser, a bitter Parliamentarian, and opponent of the Stuarts in +the north, and by those of our knight's old enemy, Lesley of +Findrassie.[99] It is easy for unregenerate human nature to understand +the pleasure with which the members of the Committee of War would give +this last order. By another enactment, the Committee declare that they +consider it expedient for their safety that the works and forts of +Inverness be demolished and levelled with the ground, and they ordain +that each person appointed to this work should complete his proportion +of it before eight days have passed, "under pain of being quartered upon +and until the said task be performed." + +On the 2nd of March, Mackenzie of Pluscardine, Sir Thomas Urquhart, and +their associates, were proclaimed as rebels and traitors by the Estates +of Parliament,[100]--as "wicked and malignant persouns intending so far +as in thaine lyes, for their own base ends to lay the foundation of a +new bloodie and unnaturall warre within the bowells of this their native +country," etc. etc. + +On the 1st of March the Commissioners of the General Assembly had +written to Pluscardine and his associates expressing their wonder and +grief at such a rising in the interests of "the Popish, Prelaticall and +Malignant party," and threatening the penalty of excommunication within +ten days if they would not "desist from and repent of that horrid +insurrection."[101] The reply to this letter came in due time, and was +signed by the principal leader in the insurrection, and by some other +members of the Clan Mackenzie, and is, it must be confessed, a +distinctly prevaricating and hypocritical document. For one sentence at +least in it our author was responsible, though he neither signs the +letter nor is named in it. His pedantic phraseology reveals his hand in +the construction of the reply to the Commissioners' remonstrances and +threats. + +The letter is addressed "to the Honourable and Right Reverend," and +begins as follows:--"Wee have lately received yours of the first of +Merch, 1649, for the which and your wisdomes Christian care of ws, and +your fatherly admonition to ws, we humbly and heartily rander yow all +possible thanks." This lamb-like tone is maintained with admirable +gravity all through the epistle, and is combined with a canting +phraseology which was meant to be impressive, but which must have +entertained any members of the Commission of the General Assembly who +originally possessed and still retained a sense of humour. "And quheras +[whereas]," so it goes on, "your wisdomes taks it a matter of no lesse +wonder then [than] greife that we, being vnder the oath of God and tye +of our Nationall Covenant, would make insurrection and take armes +against the Lords people, certainly, if it were so, we acknowledge your +wisdomes had reason to wonder and to be grieved. And it is no lesse +winder and griefe to ws, being wnder the said oath and tye of Covenant, +furthering the same with all our power and meanes, and at all occasions +desireing nothing els then [than] the enjoying of the liberty of the +subject, and proprietie of our goods, intended and promised in and by +our Covenant." No one who has read any of Sir Thomas Urquhart's original +works can doubt that the next sentence was either composed or revised by +him. The two phrases which we have taken the liberty of putting into +italics could scarcely have occurred to any other member of the +Committee of War. "Yet we find, that evill willers and envyous +vnderminers, _in a singular and proetextuous way_ aiming at our ruine, +doe spend _the quintessence of their witts_ to find out means whereby, +under specious pretences of the publick [good?] to extermine ws with +povertie, and by inventing fresh occasions to make ws odious, and bring +ws vpon fresh stages [_sic_] vnder the base name of Malignancy." It is +unnecessary to quote the whole of the letter, but a couple of sentences, +which describe what the insurgents had done at Inverness, deserve +notice. "But the whole countrey of all degrees, being sensible of the +oppression and insolency of the vnnecessary and vnprofitable garison of +Innernes to Church or State, did heartily and vnanimously contribute to +the demolishing thereof, which being done, all disbanded peaceablie, and +the people retired peaceablie to their owne homes, without offence to +any nighbour of any degree or condition.... And now, when the said +garison is dismantled, we shall be found not only disposed to live +peaceablie, bot also ready to obey all publick ordours for the good of +the Kingdome." The writers ask that "the taxes and impositions," which +pressed with special severity on the class to which they belonged, +should be remitted, and liberty given them to lead that religious, +peaceful life, to which both by nature and by deliberate choice, they +seem to say, they were strongly inclined. The sting of the letter is in +its closing words. If these "evill willers" succeed in persuading the +Commissioners of Assembly to go on with the sentence of excommunication, +as fully deserved, they (the writers) formally appeal against such a +decision from the Commission to the next General Assembly.[102] + +The ecclesiastical court to which the above letter was sent _may_ have +contained a goodly sprinkling of fanatics, but it is certain that in it +there were but few, if any, imbeciles; so that the communication from +the Committee of War did not succeed in imposing upon those to whom its +contents were read. They did not condescend to answer it, but at once +issued a pamphlet, entitled _A Declaration and Warning to all Members of +this Kirk_, "to recover, if possible, the disturbers of the peace of +God's people out of the snare of Sathan, and to prevent others from +falling therein." The document displays very genuine indignation and +dismay at the possibility of the negotiations which were being carried +on for restoring Charles II. as a "covenanted king" to the throne of his +ancestors, being defeated, and of his coming back as an arbitrary ruler +and oppressor of the Church. Those who have any doubt about the +deterioration of both religion and politics when they are fused +together, should read this and other State Papers of the period, and +their eyes would be opened. The calm assumption by the writers that +political opponents are the enemies of God, the claim to knowledge of +the Divine purposes and counsels, the free use of the most sacred words +of Scripture, the dark fanaticism which inspires so many of the +utterances, and the intense passion which makes so many of them sound +like mere raving--all combine to make these documents very painful +reading. A circular letter of warning and exhortation was sent to +Presbyteries, attempts were made to persuade individuals to disconnect +themselves from the insurrectionary movement, and a message of +encouragement was sent to Lieutenant-General David Lesley to strengthen +his hands in the work of putting it down by fire and sword.[103] + +The insurgents, after demolishing the fortifications of Inverness, +retired before the troops sent to suppress them, and took refuge among +the mountains of Ross-shire. Lesley advanced to Fortrose and garrisoned +the castle there, and then proceeded to endeavour to make terms with the +leaders of the insurrection. The only one who would listen to no +accommodation was Mackenzie of Pluscardine. Immediately on Lesley's +return south, he descended from the mountains, and attacked and took the +castle of Chanonry. Our Sir Thomas Urquhart was now safely out of the +conflict, but our readers may wish to know what became of the +insurrectionary movement which he had such a large share in setting on +foot, and from which he found it prudent to retire at an early stage. + +Mackenzie's force was brought up to eight or nine hundred men by the +accession of his nephew, Lord Reay, with three hundred followers. Soon +afterwards he was joined by General Middleton and Lord Ogilvie, and +advanced into Badenoch, with the view of raising the people in that and +the neighbouring districts. In what is called the Wardlaw MS. a very +vivid picture is given of the behaviour of the Highlanders from the Reay +country, when they poured into Inverness on the morning of Sunday, the +2nd of May, 1649. "They crossed the bridge of Ness," says the Royalist +minister of Kirkhill, "on the Lord's Day in time of divine service, and +alarmed the people of Inverness, impeding God's worship in the town. For +instead of bells to ring in to service I saw and heard no other than +the noise of pipes, drums, pots, pans, kettles, and spits in the streets +to provide them victuals in every house. And in their quarters the rude +rascality would eat no meat at their tables until the landlord laid down +a shilling Scots upon each trencher,[104] calling this '_airgiod +cagainn_' (chewing-money), which every soldier got, so insolent were +they." + +The campaign was a very brief one. The Royalists, joined by the Marquis +of Huntly, attacked and took the castle of Ruthven, but, soon after, +being hardly pressed by Lesley, they turned southwards and took up their +quarters in Balvenie Castle. General Middleton and Mackenzie were +despatched to treat with Lesley, but before they reached their +destination, the troops from Fortrose, after a rapid march, surprised +the Royalist forces at Balvenie. A fierce engagement took place, in +which both sides suffered severely.[105] Eighty of the insurgents fell +in defence of the castle. The Highlanders were dismissed to their homes +on swearing never again to take up arms against the Parliament; while +their leaders were sent as prisoners to Edinburgh, where most of them +were set free soon after, on payment of fines, and on giving security +that they would keep the peace. By sharp and vigorous action the +remaining sparks of insurrection in the north were stamped out, and +fresh bodies of troops were stationed in the principal strongholds of +that part of the country. Thus ended a rising which would probably have +had a very different result, if it had been postponed until the arrival +of Montrose. + +The same writer[106] who gave an account of the riotous and insolent +demeanour of the Highland soldiers in Inverness, furnishes us with a +companion-picture--that of them on their way back to their homes after +their defeat at Balvenie. It is as follows:--"Next twenty horse, and +three companies of foot, were ordered to convey the captives back over +the Spey, and through Moray to Inverness, where I saw them pass through; +and those men who, in their former march, would hardly eat their meat +without money, are now begging food, and, like dogs, lap the water which +was brought them in tubs and other vessels in the open streets. Thence +they were conducted over the bridge of Ness, and dismissed everyone +armless and harmless to his own house. This is a matter of fact which I +saw and heard." + +The profound feelings of anxiety which this abortive attempt at +insurrection had excited in the minds of the ecclesiastical rulers of +Scotland are very clearly indicated by the exuberance of joy with which +the tidings of the victory at Balvenie were received by the Commission +of Assembly.[107] They instantly decided to appoint a solemn Day of +Thanksgiving, on the 25th of May, for "the Lord's mercifull defeat of +the enemies of the peace of this land."[108] They tacked on a postscript +to the above-mentioned _Declaration and Warning_, containing a +statement of the causes of the Thanksgiving, and ordered both to be read +from all the pulpits in Scotland. Letters of congratulation were +despatched to the victorious officers, and to others who had been +faithful in the recent crisis, and full particulars of what had taken +place were sent to the Commissioners of Scotland at the Hague, who were +engaged in the negotiations with "the young man, Charles Stuart." In the +last-mentioned document there is a flicker of grim humour, as the +writers send intelligence of the destruction of the hopes which news of +the rebellion might have excited in the minds of Charles and his +friends. The last sentence in the letter can scarcely have been written +or read without a smile. "We have appointed," they say, "the twenty-fift +day of Maij for a solemn thanksgiving for this and other late mercies, +wherewith we thought good to acquaint yow, that yow manage this to the +best advantage of the work in your hands, according as yow shall thinke +fitt."[109] It was once said of a good man that he would have been +better if he had had a little more of the devil in him; and one is +inclined to think more highly of these good men for the touch of malice, +which relieves the sombre character of their communication.[110] + +The threatened bolt of excommunication was not launched, but our author +found it necessary to apply to the Commission of General Assembly in +order to make his peace with the ecclesiastical power. Accordingly, on +the 22nd of June, 1650, he appeared in Edinburgh before this body, and +presented his "supplicatioun" for pardon for the guilt of taking part in +the Northern insurrection, and of assaulting and razing the walls of +Inverness. + +The Commission met, doubtless, in that "little roome of [off] the East +Church" of St Giles, which Baillie describes as having been "verie +handsomelie dressed for our Assemblies in all time coming,"[111] and +from which, three years later, the English officers, under Cromwell's +order, ejected the members of the General Assembly. The Commission on +that day, when our author appeared before them, consisted of twenty-four +members--the most distinguished divines and politicians in Scotland of +the Covenanting party. The moderator, or chairman, was Robert +Douglas,[112] "a great State preacher," who had been chaplain to the +Scots troops in the service of Gustavus Adolphus, and had won the esteem +of that monarch, and who in little more than six months' time would +officiate at the coronation of Charles II., for whom Sir Thomas Urquhart +had prematurely drawn the sword. Beside him was Samuel Rutherford, the +Principal of St Andrews, whose fervid piety has found no lack of +admirers in every generation since his time. Robert Baillie, the writer +of the _Letters_ which contain so many vivid pictures of events in that +stirring period; David Dickson, Professor of Divinity in Glasgow, whose +name we have heard as one of the deputation to persuade the people of +Aberdeen to take the Covenant; and James Guthrie, who died as a martyr, +the year after the Restoration, were present there that day. The +contrast between these grave, dignified, saintly Covenanting leaders, +and the brilliant Cavalier, Sir Thomas Urquhart, is one which, by its +picturesqueness, strongly impresses the imagination. + +The Commission, after hearing the petitioner's statements, did not, +apparently; treat the matter as of very serious moment. The dangerous +crisis was over, and they could afford to be merciful. They seem to have +condoned the political offence, but referred Sir Thomas to Mr John +Annand, minister of Inverness, one of their number, "that he might +confer with him concerning some dangerous opinions which, as was +informed, he had sometimes vented." If these could be explained away, +and no further complicity in disloyal schemes were brought home to him, +Mr Annand was empowered, acting at all times under the advice of the +Presbytery of Inverness, to receive his public "satisfaction" in the +church of that city. How the matter ended we do not know. But there is +very little doubt that Sir Thomas's nebulous heterodoxy proved no bar to +his being freed from ecclesiastical censure, and that, in due course, +according to the custom of that time, he stood, as a penitent, before +the congregation of the Parish Church, in that city the walls of which +he had assisted to assault and overthrow. + +A fortnight after Sir Thomas Urquhart's appearance before the Commission +of the General Assembly, Charles II. landed in Scotland, and was +accepted, though at first not without deep misgivings, as "covenanted +King." The party to which our author belonged was for a time excluded +from all share in public life; and even the army, which was to defend +the sovereign against the English sectaries, was carefully sifted, to +remove those whose presence might bring a curse upon it. So that, though +the land resounded with war and the rumour of war, Sir Thomas remained +in an enforced quietude in his castle at Cromartie. The effect of the +battle of Dunbar (3rd September) was to depress the faction which had +excluded the Royalist partisans from the army, and kept the King himself +in something very like bondage. Charles II., indeed, is said to have +given thanks to God for the victory of Cromwell over the Covenanting +forces at this battle, and the only difficulty in the way of believing +this statement lies in the fact that he so seldom gave thanks for +anything. + +The Royalist party now began to rally about their sovereign. Charles II. +was crowned at Scone on the 1st January, 1651, and in due time an army, +which included many of the so-called Malignants, was ready for trying +conclusions once again with the terrible English General. And now for +the third time our author took up arms on behalf of the Stuarts. After +some months of endless marchings and counter-marchings, in which +Cromwell evidently endeavoured to provoke his enemies into a repetition +of the blunder by which they had lost the battle of Dunbar, the Scottish +forces found an opportunity of marching into England. + +The latter, under David Lesley, had taken up a strong position on the +height of the Tor Wood, between Stirling and Falkirk, from which they +refused to be drawn out to battle; and Cromwell resolved to take up his +post on the other side of the Royalist army. Accordingly, he crossed the +Forth at Queensferry, and, after defeating an attempt to intercept him +at Inverkeithing, reached and occupied Perth. The way to England was now +open, and the Scottish army swiftly and silently entered upon it, +resolved to stake everything upon a great battle. + +Sir Thomas Urquhart left his castle of Cromartie, and took part in this +expedition, though apparently he held no position of command in the +army, and was very much out of sympathy with many of those who journeyed +with him. Indeed, his unfortunate prejudices against the Presbyterian +and Covenanting party come out in the statement he makes, that many of +those who started out to smite "the Midianites and Philistines," when it +came to the push, managed to make their way home, "being loth to hazard +their precious persons, lest they should seem to trust to the arm of +flesh."[113] The mass of those, however, who formed the Scottish army +were of very different mettle, and the battle in which they staked and +lost everything was one of the fiercest in the whole of the great Civil +War. + +The course of their journey southward was through Biggar and Carlisle, +and then through Lancashire. To their disappointment, they received no +great accession of Royalists, nor of any others who were inclined to +join them in the attempt to overthrow the Commonwealth. "They marched," +says the historian, "under rigorous discipline, weary and uncheered, +south through Lancashire; had to dispute ... the Bridge of Warrington +with Lambert and Harrison, who attended them with horse-troops on the +left; Cromwell with the main army steadily advancing behind. They +carried the Bridge at Warrington; they summoned various Towns, but none +yielded; proclaimed their King, with all force of lungs and heraldry, +but none cried, God bless him. Summoning Shrewsbury, with the usual +negative response, they quitted the London road; bent southward towards +Worcester, a City of slight Garrison and loyal Mayor; there to entrench +themselves, and repose a little."[114] Yet but slight opportunity for +this was given them. The course taken by Cromwell was through York, +Nottingham, Coventry, and Stratford-on-Avon, and when he arrived at +Worcester with his army from Scotland, and with the county militias, who +had risen at his summons, his forces numbered over thirty thousand men +as against the enemy's sixteen thousand. + +Meantime Sir Thomas Urquhart had taken up his quarters in Worcester, in +the house of a Mr Spilsbury, "a very honest sort of man, who had an +exceeding good woman to his wife." His luggage, which was stored in an +attic, consisted, besides "scarlet cloaks, buff suits, and arms of all +sorts," of seven large "portmantles," three of which were filled with +unpublished works in manuscript, and other valuable documents--the +amount of which he gives us in quires and quinternions, but which need +not be repeated here. "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than +war," sang Milton in his sonnet to the Lord General Cromwell; and +perhaps Sir Thomas Urquhart hoped, after achieving victory in war, to +win a second set of laurels by means of the contents of the three +"portmantles." + +On the evening of the 3rd September, the anniversary of the battle of +Dunbar, and afterwards to be the date of Cromwell's own death, the +battle of Worcester was fought, and the Royalist cause utterly +shattered. "The fighting of the Scots," says Carlyle, "was fierce and +desperate. 'My Lord General did exceedingly hazard himself, riding up +and down in the midst of the fire; riding, himself in person, to the +Enemy's foot to offer them quarter, whereto they returned no answer but +shot.' The small Scotch Army, begirdled with overpowering force, and cut +off from help or reasonable hope, storms forth in fiery pulses, horse +and foot; charges now on this side of the River, now on that;--can on no +side prevail. Cromwell recoils a little, but only to rally and return +irresistible. The small Scotch Army is, on every side, driven in again. +Its fiery pulsings are but the struggles of death: agonies as of a lion +coiled in the folds of a boa. 'As stiff a contest,' says Cromwell, 'for +four or five hours as ever I have seen.'"[115] + +The conquered lost six thousand men, and all their baggage and +artillery; and Charles only with difficulty, and after many romantic +adventures, succeeded in escaping to the Continent when the fight was +over. Ten thousand prisoners, including eleven of the Scottish nobility, +were taken. The sufferings of many of these brave men were severe in the +extreme. Some perished from want of food and from gaol diseases, and +large numbers of the survivors were shipped for the plantations, and +sold as slaves. + +Sir Thomas Urquhart, and, apparently, more than one of his brothers, +were among the prisoners, but appeared to have fared better than many of +their companions in arms. The greatest of the misfortunes that fell upon +him was, in his estimation, the sad fate that overtook his precious +manuscripts. The whole story, related in his own inimitable style, may +be read in Chapter VI. It is enough to say here that a party of +marauders broke into his quarters in search of valuables, that they +forced open the "portmantles" and turned their contents out upon the +floor, and afterwards carried off the papers to use them for wrapping up +articles of plunder, and for lighting their pipes. Fortunately some +bundles of these papers were afterwards picked up in the streets and +brought back to him, and in due time found their way to the printer's. + +After the battle of Worcester, Sir Thomas Urquhart and some of the other +Scottish gentlemen who had been taken prisoners there were confined in +the Tower of London. He seems to have speedily gained the favour of his +captors, and to have been treated with remarkable leniency. Indeed, he +speaks in terms of affectionate respect of various officers of the +Parliamentary army from whom he had received kindness, and acknowledges +courtesies extended towards him by the Lord General himself. Thus he +places on record his indebtedness to a "most generous gentleman, Captain +Gladmon," for speaking in his favour to the Protector. And of another, +whom he calls the Marshal-General, in whose charge he had been placed, +he has set down the praise in the following elaborate sentence:--"The +kindly usage of the Marshal-General, Captain Alsop, whilst I was in his +custody, I am bound in duty so to acknowledge, that I may without +dissimulation avouch, for courtesies conferred on such as were within +the verge of his authority, and fidelity to those by whom he was +intrusted with their tuition [oversight of them] in that restraint, that +never any could by his faithfulness to the one and loving carriage to +the other bespeak himself more a gentleman, nor in the discharge of that +military place acquit himself with a more universally-deserved applause +and commendation."[116] + +The severity of his imprisonment was soon abated; and he was removed +from the Tower to Windsor Castle,[117] and not long after, by the orders +of Cromwell, was paroled _de die in diem_.[118] The comparative liberty +he now enjoyed enabled him to repair the loss of his manuscripts after +the battle of Worcester, and he set himself to make the best of the +fragments he had recovered, and to prepare them for publication, as well +as to compose new material. A paragraph in the Epilogue of one of his +works, in which he describes his warm appreciation of the measure of +freedom he now enjoyed, is worth quoting. "That I, whilst a prisoner," +he says, "was able to digest and write this Treatise, is an effect +meerly proceeding from the courtesie of my Lord General Cromwel, by +whose recommendation to the Councel of State my parole being taken for +my true imprisonment, I was by their favour enlarged to the extent of +the lines of London's communication; for had I continued as before, +coopt up within walls, or yet been attended still by a guard, as for a +while I was, should the house of my confinement have never been so +pleasant, or my keepers a very paragon of discretion, and that the +conversation of the best wits in the world, with affluence of all manner +of books, should have been allowed me for the diversion of my minde, yet +such all antipathie I have to any kinde of restraint wherein myself is +not entrusted, that notwithstanding these advantages, which to some +spirits would make a jayl seem more delicious then [than] freedom +without them, it could not in that eclipse of liberty lie in my power to +frame myself to the couching of one sillable, or contriving of a fancie +worthy the labour of putting pen to paper, no more then [than] a +nightingale can warble it in a cage, or linet in a dungeon."[119] + +Another friend whom Sir Thomas Urquhart found in the time of need was +the celebrated Roger Williams, the apostle of civil and religious +liberty, and the founder of the settlement of Providence, Rhode Island, +and missionary to the Indians. In the Epilogue to the _Logopandecteision_ +he thus acknowledges his obligations to him: "[I cannot] forget my +thankfulness to that reverend preacher Mr Roger Williams of Providence, +in New England, for the manifold favours wherein I stood obliged to him +above a whole month before either of us had so much as seen other, and +that by his frequent and earnest solicitation in my behalf of the most +especial members both of the Parliament and Councel of State; in doing +whereof he appeared so truely generous, that when it was told him how I, +having got notice of his so undeserved respect towards me, was desirous +to embrace some sudden opportunity whereby to testifie the affection I +did owe him, he purposely delayed the occasion of meeting with me till +he had, as he said, performed some acceptable office worthy of my +acquaintance; in all which, both before and after we had conversed with +one another, and by those many worthy books set forth by him, to the +advancement of piety and good order, with some whereof he was pleased to +present me, he did prove himself a man of such discretion and +inimitably-sanctified parts, that an Archangel from heaven could not +have shown more goodness with less ostentation."[120] + +The years 1652 and 1653 form a period of astonishing literary activity +on the part of our author, for no fewer than five separate works were +then published by him, two of which were of very considerable bulk. The +motive that had led him to bring out his two former works--the +_Epigrams_ and _The Trissotetras_--had been a desire to benefit mankind +and to advance the glory of his native land. But now he had to consider +his own interests, and to exert himself to promote them. Accordingly, +his present aim was to convince his captors of his extraordinary merits +and gifts, and of the incomparable glory of that family which he had the +honour of representing. + +In 1652 he issued his PANTOCHRONOCHANON; _or, a Peculiar Promptuary +of Time_, of which a detailed description is given in Chapter V. The +object of this treatise is to show the Protector and the English +Parliament that the family of the Urquharts could be traced back, link +by link, to the red earth out of which Adam was made, and to suggest how +lamentable it would be, if the ruling power extinguished a race which +had successfully resisted the scythe of Time, and was capable of +rendering great services to the State. + +This small treatise was closely followed by a more important production, +upon which Sir Thomas's fame as an author largely rests--his +EKSKYBALAURON; _or, The Discovery of a most Exquisite Jewel_. The +title of this work is intended to be an abbreviation of a Greek +phrase--"_Gold from a dunghill_"--and contains an allusion to the fact +that the first half of it was, in its manuscript form, one of the +bundles of paper which the soldiers treated with such disrespect after +the battle of Worcester, and which, indeed, was found next day in a +kennel of one of the streets of that city. This book, a fuller account +of which we give later on, consists of an introduction to a work on a +Universal Language, to which is added a rhapsodical panegyric on the +Scottish nation, and an account of his fellow-countrymen who had been +famous as scholars or soldiers during the previous fifty years. + +In the course of the early part of 1652 Urquhart had in some way excited +the suspicions of the Government, and in the month of May his papers +were seized by the authorities. Nothing treasonable, however, was found +among them, and probably the harmless character of his pursuits, which +was thus brought to light, made a favourable impression upon the Council +of State. For, a few weeks later, he was allowed, in answer to a +petition which he presented to the Council, and which was referred to +Cromwell, to return to Scotland to arrange his private affairs, and to +be absent for five months.[121] The only condition imposed upon him was +that during this time he should do nothing to the prejudice of the +Commonwealth. + +Sir Thomas Urquhart's creditors had been told that he had been killed +at the battle of Worcester, and, as he says in his own characteristic +way, "for gladness of the tidings [they] had madified [moistened] their +nolls to some purpose with the liquor of the grape,"[122] and had +possessed themselves of all his property. When they were assured by +letters from himself that he was still alive, they claimed payment for +debts which had been long discharged, under the impression that the +receipts had perished along with other papers after the battle. They +even plotted, we are assured, to arrest our author in London, after he +had been liberated upon parole. By the thoughtful discretion of a +Captain Goodwin, of Colonel Pride's regiment, the receipts in question +had been saved out of the spoil of Worcester, and Sir Thomas Urquhart +was able to display them to the unjust creditors. "And when," he says, +"they saw that those their acquittances ... were produced before them, +they then, looking as if their noses had been ableeding, could not any +longer for shame retard my cancelling of the aforesaid bonds."[123] + +In the midst of so many complaints of the iniquity of creditors, it is +gratifying to find Sir Thomas acknowledging that there was one of that +class who treated him with forbearance and even with kindness. His +thankfulness at discovering this green oasis in the arid desert in which +so much of his life had been passed, is expressed in his own +characteristic way. "But may," he says, "William Robertson of Kindeasse, +or rather _Kindnesse_ (for so they call this worthy man), for his going +contrary to that stream of wickedness which carryeth head-long his +fellow-creditors to the black sea of un-christian-like dealing, enjoy a +long life in this world, attended with health, wealth, a hopeful +posterity, and all the happiness conducible to eternal salvation; and +may his children after him, as heires both of his vertues and means, +derive [transmit] his lands and riches to their sons, to continue +successively in that line from generation to generation, so long as +there is a hill in Scotland, or that the sea doth ebbe and flow. This +hearty wish of mine, as chief of my kinred [kindred], I bequeath to all +that do and are to carry the name of Urquhart, and adjure them, by the +respect they owe to the stock whence they are descended, for my father's +love and mine to this man, to do all manner of good offices to each one +that bears the name of Robertson."[124] + +His old enemy, Lesley of Findrassie, endeavoured in vain to persuade the +officers of the English garrison, then stationed in Urquhart's house at +Cromartie, to arrest him as a prisoner of war, and keep him in +confinement "till he [Lesley] were contented in all his demands."[125] +An attempt was also made to apprehend him at Elgin; but he escaped all +these machinations, and, after travelling in safety through many of the +principal towns of Scotland, returned to London within the specified +time, and gave himself up to the Council of State. + +In the course of the year 1653 Sir Thomas Urquhart published the last of +his original works--his _Logopandecteision_, and the translation of the +first two books of Rabelais, in connection with which his name is best +known. The object of the former of these was to suggest a wonderful +scheme for a universal language, with the idea of being restored by the +Government to the full possession of his liberty, and of being +reinstated in the position of power and wealth, which he maintained was +his by hereditary right, in order to carry out the scheme. His hopes and +anticipations of success in this appeal to the English Government were +not daunted by the fact that to do what he required would need several +legislative changes, a reversal of proceedings in Scottish courts of +law, and a substantial grant from the Treasury. This, after all, he +considered, was a very small price to pay for the benefits he would +thereby confer upon the world. That the appeal was not successful needs +scarcely be told. Probably in no country in the world, and at no period +in history, could any be found more likely to turn a deaf ear to such +requests, than such men as Cromwell, Fleetwood, and Overton. Men like +these were too practical, and of too hard a nature, to be impressed by +any such visionary schemes as those which their prisoner delighted in +constructing. + +A veil of obscurity hangs over the closing years of our author's life. +His last appearance before the public was in the issuing of the books +above mentioned. The only further record of him is in the continuation +of the Pedigree of the Urquharts, which is contained in the Edinburgh +edition of his Tracts. In this we read that "he was confined for several +years in the Tower of London; from whence he made his escape, and went +beyond seas, where he died suddenly in a fit of excessive laughter, on +being informed by his servant that the King was restored."[126] If this +account of matters be true, it would seem that Sir Thomas had forfeited +some of those privileges which he had won so soon after he had become a +State prisoner. It is quite possible that this was in consequence of +having joined in some Royalist plot against the Commonwealth and for the +restoration of Charles II. + +In the preface to the second book of Rabelais, Sir Thomas promises very +speedily to translate the three remaining books of that author, so that +the whole "Pentateuch of Rabelais," as he calls it, might be in the +hands of English readers. But this design was never completed. The +translation of the third book was found among his papers, and was +published in 1693 by Pierre Antoine Motteux, but it is probable that the +editor himself had some share in the work as issued to the public. + +Sir Theodore Martin considers that there is a strong presumption against +the truth of the above account of Sir Thomas's death, in his entire +silence during the long period which elapsed between the publication of +his last work and 1660, the date of the Restoration of Charles II. +"Men," he says, "so deeply smitten with the _cacoethes scribendi_ as +Urquhart was, do not thus readily cast the pen aside; nor was the lack +of a publisher likely to have stood in the way of his literary career. +His writings, if for no other cause but the number of his friends, must +always have been a safe speculation for a printer, at a time when +printing was cheap and readers numerous. But the imperfect state of his +translation of Rabelais is perhaps the best evidence of the inaccuracy +of the current belief.... Motteux says that Urquhart's version 'was too +kindly received not to encourage him to English the three remaining +books, or at least the third, the fourth and fifth being in a manner +distinct, as being Pantagruel's voyage. Accordingly he translated the +third book, and would have finished the whole, had not death prevented +him.' This bears hard against the supposition of that event having +occurred upwards of six years after the two first books had been given +to the world. It is probable that he died much sooner, a victim in all +likelihood to that fiery restlessness of spirit, + + 'Which o'er-informs its tenement of clay, + And frets the pigmy body to decay.'"[127] + +This conjecture is, however, improbable. A petition from our author's +brother, Sir Alexander Urquhart, is still in existence, in which he asks +for a new commission of hereditary Sheriffship of Cromartie to be made +out for him, on the ground of his being the eldest surviving son of the +Sir Thomas Urquhart who died in 1642.[128] Though this document is +undated, it is assigned by the editor of the volume of State Papers in +which it is to be found, to August of 1660. If this date be +trustworthy, we may be almost sure that the traditional statement as to +the year of our author's death is correct. + +The cause of his giving up his literary labours, and of omitting to +carry through the work of translation on which he had entered, is, of +course, unknown to us. His health, physical or mental, may have become +seriously impaired, or his spirits may have been too much depressed by +the misfortunes that crowded upon him, to allow him to engage in +literary work. Indeed, the alleged cause of death from violent agitation +of feeling caused by hearing of the Restoration of Charles II., argues +in itself a previous condition of great physical weakness. + +There seems at first, a certain grotesqueness in such a fatal exuberance +of joy in connexion with such an event as Charles II. regaining the +crown which his father had lost, and of which in another generation all +of his blood were to be deprived. But we have to keep in mind that Sir +Thomas was not alone in his folly, if folly it were; for a great wave of +exultation swept over the three kingdoms at that time. Our author had, +like many of his fellow-Royalists, staked and lost everything he +possessed in the defence of the House of Stuart, and one can have little +difficulty in understanding how the announcement of the triumph of the +cause, which was so dear to him, should have agitated him +profoundly.[129] + +Sir Alexander Urquhart failed to recover possession of either the barony +or the Sheriffship of Cromartie, and a year after the supposed date of +his petition, he is said to have ratified his cousin's rights,[130] and +in 1663 he formally "disponed" the estate (_i.e._ his title to it) to +Sir John.[131] The new possessors were, however, as unfortunate as +their immediate predecessors, for in no very long time they were +overwhelmed by distresses like those which had burdened and embittered +the lives of our author and his father. In 1682 the celebrated Sir +George Mackenzie, whose name, like that of Queen Mary of England, is +usually associated with an unenviable epithet, as that of a cruel +persecutor,[132] "apprized" the estate from Sir John's[133] son, +Jonathan.[134] + +No one who knows what this means[135] will be surprised to hear that it +soon afterwards passed into his possession. On his elevation to the +peerage (1685) as Viscount Tarbat, first Earl of Cromartie, he put his +third-born son, Sir Kenneth, into possession of the estate, with the +view of establishing a branch of his family to be known as the +Mackenzies of Cromartie. This plan was doomed to be defeated, for Sir +Kenneth's son George had no family, and sold the estate to Captain +William Urquhart of Meldrum in 1741.[136] The lands were again sold to +Patrick, Lord Elibank,[137] in 1763, and by him to George Ross of +Pitkerrie, nine years afterwards. Mr Ross had amassed a large fortune in +England as an army agent,[138] and part of this he expended in the +purchase of the estate, and in the extensive improvements which he +effected in it. One wishes he had not thought it desirable to pull down +the picturesque old castle, which had stood on the mote-hill of +Cromartie for three hundred years, and which had sheltered so many +generations of the Urquhart family. Let us now, however, return to our +author. + +In telling the story of Sir Thomas Urquhart's life, some of his most +striking peculiarities have been displayed and illustrated, so that no +one who has read the foregoing pages is altogether dependent upon what +may now be said for forming an estimate of his character. His vanity is +perhaps the most striking trait in it; but only a very hard-hearted +moralist would call it a vice in his case, for it is as artless as it is +boundless, and is combined with so much kindness of heart and generosity +of feeling, that we are more entertained by it than indignant at it. No +one who looks into his works can doubt the intensity of his patriotism. +Indeed, his passionate longing after personal fame is in all cases +combined with the wish to confer additional glory upon the land of his +birth. His devotion to the Royalist cause[139] is of the purest and most +heroic type, and the general tone of his character, as revealed to us in +his books, is elevated and noble. At the same time there is an element +of the grotesque in it, so that in his disinterested and chivalrous +disposition he reminds us of Don Quixote,[140] while in his frequent +allusions to struggles with pecuniary difficulties, as well as in his +use of magniloquent language, he distinctly recalls Wilkins Micawber. A +lively fancy, a strain of genuine erudition beneath his pedantry, and +some sparks of insanity, are other elements in his fantastical +character. Only a mind like his own could trace the maze of its windings +and turnings, and fathom the depths of its eccentricity. In his thoughts +"truth is constantly becoming interfused with fiction, possibility with +certainty, and the hyperbolical extravagance of his style only keeps +even pace with the prolific shootings of his imagination."[141] + +It is perhaps expected that one should, in a measure, apologize for the +eccentricities of Urquhart's character and literary style, by explaining +that he was a humourist. But, unfortunately, humour is a quality in +which Urquhart was lacking, unless we understand by the word mere +fantastical quaintness of thought and speech. In one passage of his +works he speaks with contempt of "shallow-brained humourists,"[142] and +we should wrong his ghost by putting him among those whom he abhorred. +Not a single trace of that subtle, graceful play of fancy and of feeling +which enters into our conception of humour is to be found in his +works.[143] His readers may smile as they turn over his pages, but he +is always in deadly earnest. The quality of wit he occasionally +manifests in the form of keen sarcasm, when he gives full vent to his +feelings of scorn and contempt; as when, for example, he describes those +who went out to fight, "but did not hazard their precious persons, lest +they should seem to trust to the arm of flesh."[144] + +He can never give a simple statement of matters of fact. Thus in his +account of the Admirable Crichton, instead of saying that the rector of +the university addressed a few complimentary sentences to Crichton, and +that the latter replied in the same vein, he says: "In complements after +this manner, _ultro citroque habitis_, tossed to and again, retorted, +contrerisposted, backreverted, and now and then graced with a quip or a +clinch for the better relish of the ear, being unwilling in this kind of +straining curtesie to yeeld to other, they spent a full half-hour and +more."[145] Everything must be dressed up "with divers quaint and +pertinent similes" before it is fit to be introduced to the reader's +notice. To quote again from the most accomplished literary critic who +has written upon him: "History, philosophy, science, literature are +ransacked for illustrations of the commonest subject. His fancy is ever +on the alert, and you are constantly surprised by some incongruous +image, begotten in its wanton dalliance with knowledge the most +heterogeneous. He has always an eye to effect. His own learning must be +brought into play, rhetorical tropes must flourish through his periods, +'suggesting to our minds two several things at once,' and, of course, as +diverse as possible, that 'the spirits of such as are studious in +learning may be filled with a most wonderful delight.'"[146] His style +reacts upon and controls his thoughts, and often carries him, as +Ariosto's Hippogriff carried Astolfo, up into the skies, whither those +are unable to follow him who are mounted on humbler animals, or have no +other means than those with which they were born for plodding along the +dusty roads of earth. + +If we can trust the two engraved portraits of Sir Thomas Urquhart which +have come down to us, he was a man of handsome presence, and accustomed +to deck himself in all the splendour of costume to which so many of his +brother-cavaliers were addicted. George Glover, the famous engraver, +drew both the portraits of him which are extant. One of these appears as +a frontispiece to the _Epigrams_ and to the _Trissotetras_. It is a +small whole-length, and represents Sir Thomas in rich dress,[147] +holding out his hand to receive from some allegorical personage a +laurel wreath "for Armes and Artes."[148] On a table beside him are his +hat and embroidered cloak. In the vacant spaces on each side of the +upper part of the figure are his name and titles: "S^r Thomas Urchard, +Knight, of Bray and Udol, etc., Baron of Ficherie and Clohorby, etc., +Laird Baron of Cromartie and Heritable Sheriff thereof, etc." The +portrait is described as taken from the life, and engraved in 1641;[149] +and beneath it is a couplet by W. S., as follows: + + "Of him whose shape this Picture hath design'd, + Vertue and learning represent the Mind." + +Who W. S. was we do not know. The date forbids our identifying him with +the Bard of Avon. He was probably one of those mysterious personages, +who were always at hand to write epistles of commendation to works by +Sir Thomas, and to testify on their "book-oath" to his gifts and graces. + +The second engraved portrait is of great rarity, and only one impression +of it is known to be in existence. It was probably meant to be a +frontispiece to the unpublished volume of Epigrams described on p. 116, +the title of which was to have been _Apollo and the Muses_, but which +never found its way into print. In this engraving Sir Thomas is depicted +as seated with great complacency upon Mount Parnassus, in the midst of +the Muses, seven of whom are pressing upon his attention wreaths of +laurel of which he is worthy, "for Judgment, Learning, witt, Invention, +sweetness, stile." At his feet is the sacred fountain of Castalia or +Hippocrene, into the waters of which the other two Muses are sportively +dipping "sprinklers" or asperges. One of them seems inclined to give Sir +Thomas a sprinkling, but refrains, either because it was unnecessary or +for fear of spoiling his nice clothes. In the background, the winged +horse Pegasus is flying sufficiently low down to allow a woman to pluck +a couple of feathers from his wings.[150] These are no doubt intended +to provide pens for Sir Thomas's next literary undertaking. In the +further distance are several feathered creatures, which are probably +meant for poetical swans, but which bear a painful likeness to prosaic +geese. At the foot of the picture in one corner we have Apollo, playing +on his lyre; and on the ground in front are a half-starved dragon and a +snake, writhing in impotent rage, as they witness the triumph of Sir +Thomas. We can hardly be mistaken in concluding that these last are +symbolical representations of envious and carping critics. + +[Illustration: The Poet surrounded by the Muses.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[97] _Antiquarian Notes_, by C. Fraser-Mackintosh, p. 156. + +[98] _Antiquarian Notes_, pp. 155-158; _History of the Clan Mackenzie_, +by Alex. Mackenzie. + +[99] The enactment in question runs as follows:--"It being thought +expedient by the said Committee that the house of Cromartie be put in a +posture of defence, and that for the doing thereof it is requisite some +faill [turf] be cast and led, the said Committee ordains all Sir James +Fraser's tenants within the parochins [parishes] of Cromartie and +Cullicudden, together with those of the Laird of Findrassie, within the +parochin of Rosemarkie, to afford from six hours in the morning to six +hours at night, one horse out of every oxengait [= about 13 Scotch +acres] daily for the space of four days to lead the same faill to the +house of Cromartie." Of this enemy, Sir James Fraser, our author +remarked at a later time with regrettable bitterness, that he knew only +one good thing about him, and that was that he was dead. + +[100] _Acts of the Parliament of Scotland_, vi. 392. + +[101] _General Assembly Commission Records_, 1648-49, p. 220. + +[102] _General Assembly Commission Records_, 1648-49, pp. 249, 250. + +[103] _General Assembly Commission Records_, 1648-49, pp. 252-262. + +[104] Strangely enough, in Hope's _Anastasius_, a Tatar messenger +travelling through Asia Minor to Constantinople is described as acting +in the same insolent manner. "He would not," says Anastasius, "even +after the daintiest meal in the world, forego the douceur he expected +for what he used to call the wear and tear of his teeth" (ii. 320). + +[105] An account of the battle is given in a letter addressed by the +victorious generals, Ker, Halket, and Strachan, to the Moderator of the +Commission of Assembly, dated 9th May, 1649. In it they say: "We were in +Innernes vpon Sunday at night, when we received intelligence that the +enemie were come from Torespay to Balvine, presently to discusse ws +(_sic_). We could not hear from the Livetennent-Generall [Lesley], and +the enemy was making himselfe strong in many severall quarters in [the] +countrie. We conceived it better to suppresse nor [than] to be +suppressed. We in our weak maner beged the Lords direction, that His +blissing might wait His owne and our labours, and, with great freedome +concluded to march with all expedition to Torispay, intelligence having +come certaine that they were lyeing in Balveine at a wood, where we +engaged with them; and there the Lord delivered them vnto our hands. We +were not abone six score fighting horsemen and tuelfe muskiteires. We +had some more, but they were wearied. We have at this tyme about 800 +prisoners, betuixt 3 or 4 scoir killed, and tuo or thrie hundred fled. +My Lord Rae and all the officers are, according to the capitulatioun, +prisoners; the rest are to be conveyed to their countrey, after we +receive order from the publick; and therefore we shall expect such +further directions from you as you shall thinke fit, for securing and +obliging, by oath, such as shall returne to their countrey" (_General +Assembly Commission Records_, 1618-49, p. 263). There is a genuine +Cromwellian ring about the phrases "beged the Lord's direction," and +"the Lord delivered them vnto our hands," which we cannot help admiring; +and there is a beauty of its own in the phrase "with great freedome" in +the connection in which it stands. + +[106] Wardlaw MS. + +[107] The Commission of the General Assembly is each year nominated by +that body, and is responsible to it, and is empowered to dispose of all +items of business remitted to it, and to act in the interests of the +Church during the months between the meeting of the Assembly which +nominated them, and that to which they report their proceedings. They +are authorised to meet on certain specific days, and oftener, when and +where they think fit. The next General Assembly may reverse their +sentences, if they have exceeded their powers, or have acted in any way +which is considered prejudicial to the interests of the Church. + +[108] _General Assembly Records_, 1648-49, p. 264. + +[109] _General Assembly Records_, 1648-49, p. 270. The instructions +given to the Commissioners suggest the process known to us in modern +times as "rubbing it in" (the phrase is a technical one). + +[110] In March of the following year, 1650, occurred the descent of +Montrose on the north of Scotland, which ended so disastrously for him. +After spending a few weeks in the Orkneys, where he collected a few +recruits, he landed in Caithness, and proceeded into Sutherland, where +he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Strachan and Halket, the +generals who had successfully suppressed the insurrection in the north +in the previous year. Montrose was taken prisoner, and was executed in +Edinburgh, on Tuesday, 21st May, 1650. + +[111] Baillie's _Letters_ (Edinburgh, 1841), ii. 84. + +[112] Robert Douglas (1594-1674) had been chaplain to a brigade of +Scottish auxiliaries, sent with the connivance of Charles I. to the aid +of Gustavus Adolphus, in the Thirty Years' War. He was minister of the +second charge of the High Church, Edinburgh, and then of the Tolbooth +Church, and was five times Moderator of the General Assembly (1642, +1645, 1647, 1649, and 1651). Wodrow says, "He was a great man for both +great wit, and grace, and more than ordinary boldness and authority and +awful majesty appearing in his very carriage and countenance." Burnet +affirms that he had "much wisdom and thoughtfulness, but was very silent +and of vast pride" (_Dictionary of Nat. Biog._ xv. 347). + +[113] _Works_, p. 279. + +[114] Carlyle's _Oliver Cromwell_, iii. 148. + +[115] Carlyle's _Oliver Cromwell_, iii. 154. + +[116] _Works_, p. 408. + +[117] _Cal. State Papers, Dom._ + +[118] _Ibid._ + +[119] _Works_, p. 408. + +[120] _Works_, p. 419. Roger Williams (c. 1600-c. 1684) was himself a +remarkable man. He was a native of Wales, was educated at Oxford, and +entered into holy orders; but his aversion to the government and +discipline of the Church of England led him to seek for greater freedom +in America. He was a strenuous asserter of religious toleration at a +time when it was little understood and less practised anywhere. His +liberty of thinking and speaking led to his being banished from +Massachusetts; and, thereupon, he purchased a tract of land from the +Indians, and founded a settlement, which he named Providence. At the +time when he generously interceded in favour of Sir Thomas Urquhart, he +was residing in London as the agent of the new settlement, of which he +was afterwards chosen president. He was on intimate terms with Cromwell, +Milton, and other leading Puritans, and consequently would be in a +position to render great service to his friend Urquhart. + +[121] The leave granted was for five months from the 14th of July, 1652. +Before the expiration of this time, Sir Thomas asked for liberty to stay +for six weeks longer in Scotland, and this was granted (_Acts of +Parliament_, vol. vi. pt. 2, p. 748_b_). + +[122] _Works_, p. 377. + +[123] _Ibid._ p. 378. + +[124] _Works_, p. 384. + +[125] _Ibid._ p. 380. + +[126] P. 37. + +[127] _Rabelais_, p. xiv. + +[128] _Cal. State Papers, Domestic_, 1660-61, p. 237. + +[129] In the preface to a new translation of Rabelais by W. F. Smith, +Esq., Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, some doubt is cast upon +the above narrative of Sir Thomas's death. Mr Smith remarks, "This looks +something like an imitation of Rabelais in his account of the death of +Philemon." The reference is to the following passages in Rabelais, who +alludes to the story no fewer than three times. In Book i. 10, we read: +"Just so the heart with excessive joy is inwardly dilated, and suffereth +a manifest resolution of the vital spirits, which may go so farre on, +that it may thereby be deprived of its nourishment, and by consequence +of life itself, by this Pericharie or extremity of gladnesse, as Galen +saith ... and as it hath come to passe in former times ... to Philemon +and others, who died with joy." In chap. xx. some more particulars are +given of the case: "As Philemon, who, for seeing an asse eate those +figs, which were provided for his own dinner, died with force of +laughing." But in Book iv. 17, we are told the whole story: "[Neither +ought you to wonder at] the death of Philomenes, whose servant, having +got him some new figs for the first course of his dinner, whilst he went +to fetch wine, a straggling ... ass got into the house, and, seeing the +figs on the table, without further invitation, soberly fell to. +Philomenes coming into the room, and nicely observing with what gravity +the ass eat its dinner, said to his man, who was come back, 'Since thou +hast set figs here for this reverend guest of ours to eat, methinks it +is but reason thou also give him some of this wine to drink.' He had no +sooner said this, but he was so excessively pleased, and fell into so +exorbitant a fit of laughter, that the use of his spleen took that of +his breath utterly away, and he immediately died." The story is taken +from Lucian (makrobiui, c. 25) or from Valerius Maximus (ix. 12), in +which in the Paris folio edition (1517) the name is given as Philomenes. +There is undoubtedly a resemblance between the account of Philemon's +death and that of our author, but we think it can only be accidental. +The editor of the Edinburgh edition of the Tracts is, as I have said, +our only authority for the story of Urquhart's death; but there is no +adequate reason for doubting it. He seems to have been well versed in +the history of the Urquhart family, which he brings up to date, and must +have derived his information from some members of it. It would be +strange if in little more than a century after our author's death, an +utterly mythical account of it should have sprung up and found a place +among the details of family history. According to Lowndes's +_Bibliographer's Manual_, the editor of the volume was David Herd, the +well-known antiquary. If this statement be correct, we have all the more +reason to rely upon the supplementary information the volume contains, +as Herd's acquaintance with Scottish history and biography was very +extensive and accurate. In one of the _Notes Ambrosianae_ (_Blackwood's +Magazine_, September, 1832), a highly extravagant version is given of +Urquhart's death. It is intended to be humorous, but is merely flat and +silly. Only those can smile at it who have been trained up to believe +that the _Notes_ contain exquisite humour, and who have, therefore, been +accustomed to welcome passages from it as mirth-inspiring. The statement +made in this mention of Urquhart, that his death was caused by excessive +alcoholic celebration of the happy event of the Restoration, is utterly +baseless and offensive; and it is a pity that in Allibone's _Dictionary_ +and in the _Dictionary of National Biography_ this article in +_Blackwood's Magazine_ should be referred to as one of the sources of +information concerning Urquhart. The author of it had not access to any +other account of Sir Thomas's death than that given in the +above-mentioned edition of the Tracts. + +[130] _Acts of Parliament_, vii. 70. + +[131] _Inverness Sasines._ The date when Sir Alexander Urquhart received +knighthood seems to be approximately fixed by the fact that in a grant +under the Privy Seal of 5th March, 1661, he is called Alexander, and in +a notice of him of the 29th of the same month and year he appears as Sir +Alexander (_Acts of Parliament_, vii. 93). From the fact that in this +year the succession to the estates and hereditary Sheriffship of +Cromartie were entered upon by his cousin Sir John Urquhart of +Craigfintray, it was taken for granted by the editor of the Tracts +(Edinburgh, 1774) that Sir Alexander had died. This error is repeated by +Hugh Miller, and by most of those who have made any reference to him. He +was still alive in 1667, for during that year he sold his salmon +fishings in Over-rak and the King's Water to John Gordon (see also _Acts +of Parliament_, vii. 537). He is spoken of as _quondam_ in a charter of +certain lands which had belonged to him, 19th June, 1668. His cousin, +Sir John Urquhart, received knighthood about the same time; at least he +appears in Parliament as Sir John, 1st January, 1661 (_Acts of +Parliament_, vii. 4). + +[132] "There was the Bluidy Advocate Mackenyie, who, for his worldly wit +and wisdom, had been to the rest as a god" ("Wandering Willie's Tale" +_Redgauntlet_, chap. xi.). + +[133] There is said to have been some tragedy in connection with the +death of this Sir John Urquhart. According to Wodrow, as quoted by Hugh +Miller, after having posed as an ultra-Presbyterian, he became the +friend and counsellor of the Earl of Middleton, Charles II.'s +Commissioner for Scotland, under whom Presbyterianism was overturned and +Episcopacy set up in its place (1661). Tradition says that "about eleven +years after the passing of the Act, he fell into a deep melancholy, and +destroyed himself with his own sword in one of the apartments of the old +castle. The sword, it is said, was flung into a neighbouring draw-well +by one of the domestics, and the stain left by his blood on the walls +and floor of the apartment was distinctly visible at the time the +building was pulled down" (_Scenes and Legends of the North of +Scotland_, p. 111). Tradition is wrong, however, in saying eleven years +after 1661; for on August 7th, 1677, Sir John, along with others, +received a commission "for putting the laws against conventicles and +other disorders into execution" (_Wodrow_, ii. p. 366). + +[134] On the death of Jonathan's son, Colonel James Urquhart, in 1741, +the shadowy honour of the headship of the family passed to the Urquharts +of Meldrum, who were descended from the Tutor of Cromartie by a third +marriage with Elizabeth Seton, only daughter of Alexander Seton of +Meldrum, and ultimately heiress of that estate. The last male +representative of this line was Major Beauchamp Colclough Urquhart, who +closed a promising career by a heroic death at the battle of Atbara, in +the Sudan, on 8th April, 1898. His sister, Isabel Annie, is wife of +Garden Alexander Duff, Esq., Hatton Castle, Turriff. + +[135] See p. 58. + +[136] Pococke, in his _Tour through Scotland_ (1761), says of the castle +of Cromartie: "It has fallen into the hands of one Mr Urquhart, who had +commanded a Spanish Gally, and died a Convert to Popery; which slip his +son, now eighteen years old, has in some degree recovered, by conforming +to the Church of England" (p. 176; _Scottish History Society_). + +[137] In the old Statistical Account of Cromartie, and in the preface to +the Maitland Club edition of Urquhart's Works, the estate is said to +have passed into the hands of Sir William Pulteney. + +[138] Mr Ross is mentioned in the _Letters_ of Junius (see those of 29th +November and 12th December, 1769). He was succeeded by his nephew, from +whom the present proprietor of Cromartie, Major Walter Charteris Ross, +is descended. + +[139] Our Sir Thomas's memory should be cherished by defenders of the +name and fame of Mary Queen of Scots, for he goes so far as to say that +"ignorance, together with hypocrisie, usury, oppression, and iniquity, +took root in these parts [Scotland], when uprightness, plain-dealing, +and charity, with Astroea, took their flight with Queen Mary of Scotland +into England." Probably few of her admirers would be so daring as to +assert this, though many of them doubtless would be glad to hear the +assertion made. + +[140] We take the liberty of extracting those few sentences from the +letter of a friend, who has taken great interest in the execution of +this work;--"Sir Thomas would have been an original character in almost +any surroundings--a kind of literary Quixote, with what may be called a +'parenthetical' genius, branching off at every comma into the fresh +images furnished by a teeming imagination. He was more than a translator +of Rabelais--he seems to have been a kind of Rabelais himself." + +[141] Sir Theodore Martin, _Rabelais_, p. xix. + +[142] See p. 28. + +[143] A different opinion is expressed in the preface to W. Harrison +Ainsworth's capital novel of _Crichton_. "Sir Thomas," he says, "is a +joyous spirit--a right Pantagruelist; and if he occasionally + + 'Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba,' + +he has an exuberance of wit and playfulness of fancy that amply redeem +his tendency to fanfaronade." Our readers have abundance of material +before them for coming to a decision upon this question. + +[144] See p. 85. + +[145] _Works_, p. 226. + +[146] Sir Theodore Martin, _Rabelais_, p. xx. + +[147] In Granger's _Biographical Dictionary_ (1779), this portrait is +described erroneously, as Sir Thomas Urquhart is said in it to be +dressed in armour. Probably the description was given from memory. In +the second volume of Bohn's edition of _Rabelais_, the frontispiece is a +half-length portrait of the translator, evidently reproduced from the +above. The effect, however, is highly disagreeable, and the likeness +must have produced an unfavourable opinion of our author in the minds of +most of those who have looked upon it. + +[148] In this engraving, which is our frontispiece, the Greek +inscription runs thus: toist se pempsasiu kai prostatasiu eicharisto, and +means, "_I thank those who sent you and gave the order_." These words +are, of course, addressed to the messenger who has been commissioned by +the Muses to convey the wreath to Sir Thomas. Above the wreath itself is +an obscure phrase--Mousary[m] stolost--which is evidently a mixture of +Latin and Greek, musarum stolost (=apostolost?), "_messenger of the +muses_." It may, however, be that stolost is to be taken as "_equipment_" +or "_decoration_," as referring to the wreath. The courage with which +Greek and LaMousary[m] stolosttin forms are mixed up, and an old word +despatched on its way with a new meaning, of which this brief phrase +gives evidence, is highly characteristic of Cromartian Greek. For +further illustration of the peculiarities of this local variety or +Hellenic speech, see p. 149. + +[149] Sir Thomas, therefore, claims by anticipation the titles of Baron +and Sheriff, which were afterwards to be his. + +[150] This use of the quills is referred to in the following passage in +Sir Thomas Urquhart's _Epigrams_ (MS.):-- + + "The Invocation to Clio. + Book 2. + + Wench wholly martial, to whose inspiration + The Colophonian Poeet ow'd his skill: + Let my verse merit no Lesse estimation, + Then [than] if the point of a Pegasid quill, + Dip'd in the sacred fontain Caballine, + Character'd the Impression of each Line." + +The "Colophonian Poet" is--"not to put too fine a point upon it"--Homer, +who, according to some, was born at Colophos, in Asia Minor. The phrase +"Pegasid quill" in this passage strengthens our opinion that this second +portrait of Sir Thomas, which we give here, was intended to be a +frontispiece to a second volume of poems. The similarity of diction +between this "Invocation" and the speeches of Ancient Pistol is very +great. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + EPIGRAMS: DIVINE AND MORAL, AND THE + TRISSOTETRAS + +In 1641, Sir Thomas Urquhart published his first work--a volume of +poems, entitled "EPIGRAMS: DIVINE AND MORAL,"[151] and dedicated to the +Marquis of Hamilton. The poems are divided into three books, two of +which contain forty-five epigrams, while the third contains forty-four. +Most of them are in iambic pentameters, and are for the greater part +sextets in form; but though the versification is occasionally smooth, +these compositions do little credit to the Muse who inspired them. They +are, without an exception, pointless; and an epigram without a point is +about as useless and exasperating as a needle without one.[152] It is +somewhat remarkable that in his prose compositions the imagination of +Sir Thomas seems quite unfettered, while in his poems it is under some +such restraining influence as a strait-waistcoat is said to exercise +upon a certain class of patients. + +A wild legend, the origin of which is unknown, but which is utterly +baseless, asserts that Urquhart "was laureated poet at Paris before he +was three and twenty years of age."[153] We could hardly conceive of any +responsible authorities being so far "left to themselves" as to do a +deed like this. The story may be either the misapplication to Urquhart +of some vague tradition of one of the feats of his hero, the Admirable +Crichton, or of what he himself has actually recorded of the poet, +Arthur Johnston.[154] + +A modern critic, who has given Urquhart a full measure of praise, finds +himself unable to say a word in favour of his poems. "This slender +volume," he remarks, "gives not the slightest promise of talent. Its +stanzas are indistinguished and indistinguishable. There is no reason +why anyone should have written them, but, on the other hand, there is no +reason why anyone should not. They express the usual commonplaces: the +inevitableness of death, and the worth of endeavour. A mildly Horatian +sentiment is dressed up in the tattered rags of Shakespearianism, and +the surprise is that the author, whose prose is restrained by no +consideration of sound or sense, should have deemed it worth while to +print so tame a collection of exercises."[155] + +A favourable specimen of the _Epigrams_ is the following from the first +book:-- + + "HOW DIFFICULT A THING IT IS TO TREAD IN THE PATHES + OF VERTUE. + + "The way to vertue's hard, uneasie, bends + Aloft, being full of steep and rugged alleys; + For never one to a higher place ascends, + That always keeps the plaine, and pleasant valleyes: + And reason in each human breast ordaines + That precious things be purchased with paines." + +Or take this from the opposite page:-- + + "WHEN A TRUE FRIEND MAY BE BEST KNOWNE. + + "As the glow-worme shines brightest in the darke + And frankincense smells sweetest in the fire; + So crosse adventures make us best remarke + A sincere friend from a dissembled lyer; + For some, being friends to our prosperity, + And not to us, when it failes, they decay." + +The fault of obscurity, of which the poet Browning has been accused, +could not be laid to the charge of Sir Thomas Urquhart. Nor can it be +said of him that he neglects truths that are obvious, and occupies +himself in discovering and bringing forward those that are recondite. +The sentiments to which he gives utterance seem those which +spontaneously occur to the average mind; on reading the subject of the +poem, as given in the title, and then the poem itself, we think + + "A said whot a owt to 'a said," + +and we come away without any feverish mental agitation or accelerated +movement of pulse.[156] + +The sentiments which, from his own account, had, on more occasions than +one, filled his mind, are expressed in the piece entitled "THE GENEROUS +SPEECH OF A NOBLE CAVALLIER AFTER HE HAD DISARMED HIS ADVERSARY AT THE +SINGLE COMBAT." They are as follows:-- + + "Though with my raper, for the guerdon + Your fault deserveth, I may pierce ye, + Your penitence in craving pardon, + Transpassions my revenge in mercy; + And wills me both to end this present strife, + And give you leave in peace t' enjoy your life." + +Another Epigram, which one critic regards as Urquhart's _chef d'oeuvre_ +in this kind of composition, is the following:-- + + "Take _man_ from _woman_, all that she can show + Of her own proper, is nought else but _wo_."[157] + +In a letter of commendation prefixed to his next work, _The +Trissotetras_, Sir Thomas Urquhart says of himself: "This Mathematicall +tractate doth no lesse bespeak him a good Poet and Orator, then [than] +by his elaboured poems he hath showne himselfe already a good +Philosopher and Mathematician." This self-criticism is all that could be +desired. A work on mathematics that proves an author's possession of +poetical and rhetorical gifts, and a volume of poetry which leads one to +think that the singer is an accomplished mathematician, are gifts with +which the world is but seldom favoured, and as it is likely that their +merits will not instantly be observed, the zeal of the author in calling +our attention to them is by no means unnecessary. But when he goes on to +say, still speaking of himself in the third person, "The Muses never yet +inspired sublimer conceptions in a more refined stile then [than] is to +be found in the accurate strain of his most ingenious Epigrams," we feel +that he is less felicitous. His first shot has hit the blank, but the +second is wide of the target altogether. + +In his dedication of the volume to "the Marquis of Hamilton, Earle of +Arren and Cambridge, etc.," he describes its contents as "but flashes of +wit." A modern reader will probably, however, be inclined to think that +this modest opinion of them is far too flattering. At times there is a +faint suggestion of a possible gleam of brightness, but this is +instantly followed by Egyptian darkness, and one is reminded of a +revolving light that has somehow gone wrong. + +The volume closes with the somewhat liturgical formula, "Here end the +first three Bookes of Sir Thomas Vrchard's Epigrams," and with a +doxology, the latter being almost the only trace of matter in it to +justify the use of "Divine" in the title. The author was evidently +prepared to go on with more "bookes" of the kind, if he got any +encouragement from publishers or public, but, probably, both thought it +about time for him to stop. The fact that, in five years after this +volume of poems had appeared, a second edition should apparently have +been brought out, would seem at first to indicate that there must have +been some little run upon the _Epigrams_. But the truth of the matter +is, that one "William Leake" had evidently got the "remainder," and +issued them in 1646 with a new title-page. + +In the Introductory Notice to Sir Theodore Martin's edition of Rabelais, +some information is given concerning a folio volume of unpublished +Epigrams by Urquhart, which is still in existence.[158] It consists of +ten books, called after Apollo and the Muses, each containing 110 +Epigrams, except the last, which has 113. The MS. is dedicated to the +Marquis of Hamilton; but, in addition to this, each book has a separate +dedication to some one of the author's political associates or friends. +The persons thus honoured are the Marquis of Huntly, the Earl of +Arundel, the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Pembroke, the Earl of +Dorset, the Earl of Holland, the Earl of Newcastle, the Earl of +Stafford, Lord Craven, and Lord Gaurin (Gowran). According to the custom +of that time, the reader finds his progress barred by several prefaces, +respectively named, in this instance, as the "Isagoge," or +"Introduction," the "Premonition," and the "Prolog," and cannot get away +without a "Corollarie," an "Animadversion," several extra leaves of +verses, "A Table for the more easie finding out of such Epigrams as +treat of one subject," an "Index," and a "List of proper names." For one +of these latter he has reason to be grateful to Sir Thomas, for the +"Index" is a glossary of "the harshest and most difficult words +contained in the preceding Epigrams." + +[Illustration: Fac-simile of Sir Thomas Urquhart's handwriting +considerably reduced.] + +The general character of the unpublished Epigrams does not seem to be +higher than that of those which have seen the light of day, and +consequently there is little likelihood of any anxiety being expressed +by the general public for a sight of them. Some of them also are of a +sportive turn, and are more in accordance with the standard of taste and +manners which prevailed in the middle of the seventeenth century than +with that, of our own day. From the "Animadversion" it seems that +Urquhart "contryved, blocked, and digested these eleven hundred epigrams +in a thirteen weeks tyme." This surely breaks the record in the matter +of speed in producing epigrams. Had the results been better, one would +have had more pleasure in supporting Sir Thomas against all-comers. + +The second literary venture made by Sir Thomas Urquhart was the +publication of a scientific work, entitled "THE TRISSOTETRAS"[159]--a +treatise which professed to simplify trigonometry. Yet, notwithstanding +the statement on the title-page that the new method of working problems +in that department of mathematical science would be found invaluable by +soldiers, sailors, architects, astronomers, and others, the volume seems +to have dropped at once into the depths of oblivion, without even having +produced a ripple upon the surface of the waters. No one is known to +have read it or to have been able to read it. Lord Bacon, indeed, says +that things solid and weighty are drowned in the river of time, while +things that are light and blown-up are carried down by its current.[160] +A very comfortable theory would this be for those of us who write books +that are found unreadable and drop at once out of notice, if only some +trustworthy person could be found who would certify to the truth of Lord +Bacon's assertion. + +The editor of the Maitland Club edition of Sir Thomas Urquhart's Works +has some qualms of conscience about reprinting this treatise. With a +touch of humour, which only true Philistines will fully appreciate, he +says that some apology may appear necessary, _even to an Antiquarian +Club_,[161] for reprinting a work apparently so unintelligible and +useless; and accordingly he shelters himself behind the opinion of Mr +Wallace, the Professor of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh at +that time (1834). "I have," says Mr Wallace, who had been asked to +examine the work, "looked at Sir Thomas Urquhart's _Trissotetras_, but I +hardly know what to think of it. The book is not absolute nonsense, but +is written in a most unintelligible way,[162] and so as never book was +written before nor since. On this account it is truly a literary +curiosity. There appears to have been a perverted ingenuity exercised in +writing it, and I imagine that, with some patience, the author's plan +might be understood, but I doubt if any man would take the trouble; for, +after he had overcome the difficulty, there is nothing to reward his +labour. I presume the object of the author was to fix the rules of +Trigonometry in the memory, but no writer since his time has adopted his +invention. Indeed, I do not observe the least mention of his book in the +history of mathematical science. Yet, for his time, he seems not to have +been a bad mathematician. Urquhart speaks in terms of great praise of +Napier, yet not greater than he deserved. I infer from this that he was +well acquainted with the subject as then known. The book in question is +certainly a _curious_, if not a valuable relic of Scottish genius in +the olden time, and it is a good specimen of the pedantry and fantastic +taste of the Author. If, therefore, by reprinting his works, it be +intended to give a true portraiture of him, _The Trissotetras_ should on +that account, and I see no better reason, again pass through the +press."[163] + +The volume is dedicated "To the right honourable and most noble lady, my +dear and loving mother, the Lady Dowager of Cromartie." The "Epistle +Dedicatory" is couched in the high-flown language which others would +have had difficulty in concocting, but which seems to flow with ease +from the lips of Sir Thomas. "Thus, Madam," he says, "unto you doe I +totally belong; but so as that those exteriour parts of mine, which by +birth are from your Ladiship derived, cannot be more fortunate in this +their subjection, notwithstanding the egregious advantages of bloud and +consanguinity thereby to them accruing, then [than] my selfe am happy, +as from my heart I doe acknowledge it, in the just right your Ladiship +hath to the eternall possession of the never-dying powers of my soule." +The following passage from the same "Epistle" reminds one of the +adulatory terms in which Sir Walter Raleigh and Spenser addressed Queen +Elizabeth: "By vertue of your beloved society, your neighbouring +Countesses, and other great dames of your kindred and acquaintance, +become more illustrious in your imitation [_i.e._ in imitation of you]; +amidst whom, as Cynthia amongst the obscurer planets, your Ladiship +shines, and darteth the angelick rayes of your matchlesse example on +the spirits of those who by their good Genius have been brought into +your favourable presence to be enlightened by them." The concluding +passage in his Dedication is still more remarkable: "I will here," he +says, "in all submission, most humbly take my leave of your Ladiship, +and beseech Almighty God that it may please his Divine Majesty so to +blesse your Ladiship with continuance of dayes, that the sonnes or those +whom I have not as yet begot, may attaine to the happinesse of +presenting unto your Ladiship a braine-babe of more sufficiencie and +consequence."[164] + +The ordinary reader who looks into the volume cannot fail to be appalled +by the new and mysterious terms with which its pages are crowded. Words +like "proturgetick," "quadrobiquadraequation," "sindiforall," +"eathetobasall," "loxogonosphericall," and "zetetick," are freely used, +and many others equally hard and thorny. Even the author himself finds +it necessary to append to the work a glossary, containing an explanation +of a number of the words of which he had made use. "Being certainly +perswaded," he says, "that a great many good spirits [_i.e._ worthy +souls] ply Trigonometry that are not versed in the learned tongues, I +thought fit for their encouragement to subjoyne here the explication of +the most important of those Greek and Latin termes, which for the more +efficacy of expression I have made use of in this Treatise."[165] + +In some cases, however, the "explication," instead of dispelling the +darkness, only renders it more visible, as when, _e.g._, we are told +that "_cathetobasall_ is said of the concordances of loxogonosphericall +moods, in the datas of the perpendicular and the base, for finding out +of the maine quaesitum." "_Inversionall_," we are told, "is said of the +concordances of those moods which agree in the manner of their +inversion; that is, in placing the second and fourth termes of the +analogy, together with their indowments, in the roomes of the first and +third, and contrariwise." Probably only those who are able to follow the +statement that "_oppoverticall_ is said of those moods which have a +catheteuretick concordance in their datas of the same cathetopposites +and verticall angles," will be qualified to give an intelligent assent +to the statement that "_sindiforall_ is said of those moods the fourth +terme of whose analogie is onely illatitious to the maine +quaesitum."[166] + +Besides the Epistle of Dedication to the author's mother, there are two +Epistles and some Latin verses addressed to the reader. The former of +these last-mentioned Epistles is signed by Sir Thomas, and consists of a +glowing tribute of respect to Napier, the inventor of logarithms. "To +write of Trigonometry," he says, "and not make mention of the +illustrious Lord Neper[167] of Marchiston, the inventer of Logarithms, +were to be unmindfull of him that is our daily benefactor; these +artificiall numbers by him first excogitated and perfected, being of +such incomparable use,[168] that by them we may operate more in one day, +and with lesse danger of errour, then [than] can be done without them in +the space of a whole week; a secret which would have beene so precious +to antiquity that Pythagoras, all the seven wise men of Greece, +Archimedes, Socrates, Plato, Euclid, and Aristotle, had, if coaevals, +joyntly adored him, and unanimously concurred to the deifying of the +revealer of so great a mystery." He concludes with the splendid sentence +that Napier's "immortall fame, in spite of time, will out-last all ages, +and look eternity in the face."[169] + +The second Epistle to the reader is of a very startling kind. It +professes to be by some one whose initials are J. A., and it is written +in commendation of the book and its author, but there can be no doubt +that it is the production of Sir Thomas himself. He could no more +disguise his style of writing than Sir Piercie Shafton could lay aside +his Euphuistic English. After reading the laudatory sentences bestowed +upon the inventor of logarithms, it is very amusing to find J. A. +remarking of Sir Thomas Urquhart, that "the praise he hath beene pleased +to confer on the learned and honourable Neper, doth, without any +diminution, in every jot as duly belong unto himselfe."[170] As all our +author's eulogies are constructed on a vast scale, it is not surprising +to read that the new method of measuring triangles, as compared with the +old, is like the sea-journey between the Pillars of Hercules ("commonly +called the Straits of Gibraltar"), as compared with the land-journey +from the one to the other. In the one case, we have a short voyage of +not more than six hours' sail; in the other case, a walk of some seven +thousand long miles. The two concluding paragraphs of the Epistle are +so extraordinary and so characteristic of our author, that we must be +allowed to quote them at length. + +"The secret unfolded in the following book," says J. A., "is so +precious, that [the author's] countrey and kindred would not have been +more honoured by him had he purchased [procured] millions of gold, and +severall rich territories of a great and vast extent, then [than] for +this subtile and divine invention, which will out-last the continuance +of any inheritance, and remaine fresh in the understandings of men of +profound literature, when houses and possessions will change their +owners, the wealthy become poor, and the children of the needy enjoy the +treasures of those whose heires are impoverished. Therefore, seeing for +the many-fold uses thereof in divers arts and sciences, in speculation +and practice, peace and war, sport and earnest, with the admirable +furtherances we reape by it in the knowledge of sea and land, and heaven +and earth, it cannot be otherwise then [than] permanent, together with +the Author's fame, so long as any of those endure; I will, God willing, +in the ruines of all these, and when time it selfe is expired, in +testimony of my thankfulnesse in particular for so great a benefit, if +after the resurrection there be any complementall [complimentary] +affability, expresse myselfe then as I doe now, The Author's most +affectionate, and most humbly devoted servant, J.A."[171] + +Why our author should have resorted to this device for recommending +himself and his book, we cannot tell. Perhaps he felt that some strong +affirmations were needed in the case. Probably he agreed with the old +saying that, if you wish work to be thoroughly done, you had better do +it yourself. The moral aspect of the matter we leave in the hands of our +readers for discussion. + +In five Latin elegiac couplets of a very neat and polished kind, +Alexander Ross[172] recommends _The Trissotetras_ to the reader, and +assures the author that Scotia, whom by his writings he was exalting to +the stars, looked down upon him with a benignant smile. Ross himself is +now only known to most of us from the mention made of him in _Hudibras_, +in the well-known passage-- + + "There was an ancient sage philosopher + Who had read Alexander Ross over." + +It is to be feared that Alexander Ross had not performed the same feat +with regard to Sir Thomas Urquhart's treatise; for his verses[173] would +have been equally appropriate if the subject of them had been a +flying-machine or a water-tricycle invented by his friend. + +At the end of the glossary in which the hardest words in _The +Trissotetras_ are explained, the author addresses a word in season to +the persons into whose hands his book may fall. He expects that "learned +and judicious mathematicians" will welcome it, and he promises them more +of the same kind. His dignified attitude towards carping critics is very +impressive. "But as for such," he says, "who, either understanding it +not, or vain-gloriously being accustomed to criticise on the works of +others, will presume to carp therein at what they cannot amend, I pray +God to illuminate their judgments and rectifie their wits, that they may +know more and censure lesse; for so by forbearing detraction, the venom +whereof must needs reflect upon themselves, they will come to approve +better of the endeavours of those that wish them no harme."[174] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[151] "EPIGRAMS: DIVINE AND MORAL. _By Sir Thomas Urchard, Knight._ +London: Printed by Barnard Alsop and Thomas Fawcet, in the Yeare 1641." + +[152] It is only fair, however, to Urquhart to remember that his idea of +an Epigram was probably different from ours. In modern times point or +"bite" is regarded as essential to such kind of compositions. The +original idea of them was that they should contain a single distinct +thought, and be brief enough to serve as inscriptions. + +[153] Granger's _Biographical History_, iii, 160. + +[154] _Works_, p. 263. + +[155] Charles Whibley, _New Review_, July 1897. + +[156] A school-girl once wrote in a copy of _Moral Tales_, which she +used for her Italian lessons, that they were "moral to the last degree." +The same may be said of Sir Thomas Urquhart's _Moral Epigrams_. + +[157] This reminds one of Alice's subtraction sum. "Take a bone from a +dog. What remains?... The dog's temper would remain" (_Through the +Looking-Glass_, chap. ix.). A somewhat different and more sombre turn of +thought than the above was suggested to Southey's Dr Dove by the +resemblance between the words. "_Woman_," he says, "evidently meaning +either _man's woe_--or abbreviated from _woe to man_, because by woman +was woe brought into the world" (_The Doctor_, chap. ccviii.). + +[158] The title is as follows:--"_Ten Books of Epigrams: the Curiositie +whereof, for Conception, stile, instruction, and Other mixtures of show +and substance, being no lesse fruitfull then [than] pleasing to the +diligent Peruser, are entitled_ APOLLO _and the_ MUSES. _Written by the +Right Worshipfull_ SIR THOMAS URCHARD, _Knight_." The volume is now in +the possession of Professor Ferguson, of Glasgow University. From it our +specimen of his handwriting is taken. + +[159] The title-page, according to the custom of the time, gives a +somewhat elaborate account of the contents of the volume. It runs as +follows:--"THE TRISSOTETRAS; Or, _A most Exquisite Table_ for Resolving +all manner of Triangles, whether plain or sphericall, Rectangular or +Obliquangular, with greater facility, then [than] ever hitherto hath +been practised: Most necessary for all such as would attaine to the +exact knowledge of Fortification, Dyaling, Navigation, Surveying, +Architecture, the Art of Shadowing, taking of Heights and Distances, the +use of both the Globes, Perspective, the skill of making Maps, the +Theory of the Planets, the calculating of their motions, and all other +Astronomicall Computations whatsoever. Now lately invented, and +perfected, explained, commented on, and, with all possible brevity and +perspicuity, in the hiddest and most researched mysteries, from the very +first grounds of the Science it selfe, proved, and convincingly +demonstrated. By Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, Knight. Published for +the benefit of those that are mathematically affected. _London_, Printed +by James Young. 1645." + +[160] _Advancement of Learning._ + +[161] The italics are ours. + +[162] Sir Theodore Martin remarks that this conclusion nearly resembles +that of Socrates, upon being asked his opinion of the book of Heraclitus +the Obscure. "Those things," he said, "which I understood were +excellent; I imagine so were those I understood not; but they require a +diver of Delos" (_Rabelais_, p. xviii.). + +[163] _Works_, p. xvi. + +[164] _Works_, pp. 55-57. + +[165] _Ibid._ p. 131. + +[166] The author of the above sentences is one of the very few persons +in history or fiction known to us who would have been qualified to join +in the conversation of the pleasant company in Illyria, when they began +"to speak of Pigrogromitus, and of the Vapians passing the equinoctial +of Queubus" (_Twelfth Night_, Act II. Sc. iii.)--the allusion to which +has caused so many German commentators on Shakespeare to spend sleepless +nights in their libraries. + +[167] John Napier, of Merchiston (1550-1617), who published his +invention in 1614. Our author calls him Lord Napier, but we are to +understand the title as simply equivalent to "_laird_." He calls himself +on one of his title-pages _Baro Merchistonii_, but that phrase is merely +the designation of the superior of a barony, or lord of a manor. In the +old Scottish Parliament men of this rank sat as "_lesser barons_." + +[168] The subject of logarithms is perhaps one of those things which the +ordinary render might safely be presumed to know something about. In +these days of higher education for women, it would be an act of +impertinence to provide information on this point for that class of our +readers. The following explanations are, therefore, intended for those +members of the inferior sex whose education on the mathematical side has +been neglected. The idea of logarithms arose in the mind of Napier from +the wish to simplify the processes of multiplication and division, by +making addition and subtraction take their place. To effect this, +connect together a series of numbers increasing by arithmetical +progression with a series increasing by multiplication or by +mathematical progression. + + Thus: 0. 1. 5. 32. 10. 1024. + 1. 2. 6. 64. 11. 2048. + 2. 4. 7. 128. 12. 4096. + 3. 8. 8. 256. 13. 8192. + 4. 16. 9. 512. 14. 16384. + +To multiply, say, 64 by 256, that is to find the products of the 6th and +8th powers of 2, we must take the (6+8)th or 14th power, which from the +table is 16384. To divide 8192 by 256, or the 13th power of 2 by the +8th, we must take the (13-8)th or 5th power, which from the table is 32. +By means of this principle calculations can by made by persons whose +business it is to do so, and stored up apart for use. The vast saving to +mental labour by this simple and beautiful adjustment of numbers may be +estimated by a glance at any collection of tables of logarithms. In a +science like astronomy, progress would be terribly impeded if +calculations had to be conducted by the ordinary methods. + +[169] _Works_, p. 59. + +[170] _Ibid._ p. 61. + +[171] _Works_, p. 63. + +[172] Alexander Ross (1590-1654) was a believer in centaurs and +griffins, in nations of giants and pygmies, and also, of course, in +witches. In short, a pretty accurate statement of his intellectual creed +might be constructed by turning into the articles of a confession of +faith the list of "Vulgar Errors" controverted by Sir Thomas Browne. It +is interesting to know that he was probably the last person in Scotland +who heard the voice of the water-kelpie. "One day," he says, "travelling +before day with some company near the river Don in Aberdeen, we heard a +great noise and voices calling to us. I was going to answer, but was +forbid by my company, who told me they were spirits, who never are heard +there but before the death of somebody; which fell out too true, for the +next day a gallant gentleman was drowned, with his horse offering to +swim over" (Quoted in _Lives of Eminent Men of Aberdeen_, by J. Bruce). + +[173] They begin-- + + "Si cupis aetherios tuto peragrare meatus, + Et sulcare audes si vada salsa maris," etc. + +A friend, who knows + + "Himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme," + +has given me the following metrical translation of Ross's verses:-- + + "Wouldst thou in safety trace ethereal ways, + Or plough with daring keel the briny deep; + Shouldst thou earth's wide expanses long to span, + Come hither, make this learned book thine own. + By it, without Daedalian wings, canst fly, + And without Neptune, through the depths canst swim; + By it thou canst subdue the Lybian heat, + And bear the cruel cold of Scythian skies. + On, Thomas! Scotia, whom unto the stars + Thy writings raise, will yet rejoice in thee." + +[174] _Works_, p. 146. _N.B._--The attention of professional critics is +respectfully directed to the above passage. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + PANTOCHRONOCHANON, OR THE PEDIGREE + +One of the most characteristic of Sir Thomas Urquhart's works is his +PANTOCHRONOCHANON: or, A Peculiar PROMPTUARY of TIME.[175] This contains a +complete pedigree of the Urquhart family from the creation of the world +down to the year A.D. 1652. Prefixed to it is a letter to the reader by +"a well-wisher," whose initials are G. P., into whose hands the pedigree +had fallen by mere chance, and who had thought himself bound in duty to +the public to see it safely through the press. According to the +statements of this disinterested philanthropist, the work in question +was but one of a large number of papers of very great importance, +forming part of the author's baggage, which he had to abandon after the +battle of Worcester. It is the habit, we know, of impecunious and +importunate wayfarers to carry about with them documents of interest to +which they solicit attention; but why a man in Sir Thomas Urquhart's +position should have gone on a campaign, encumbered by various +unpublished works in manuscript, it is difficult to say. Perhaps the +simplest explanation is that he was different from other people. + +The soldiers of Cromwell, we were told, made but light of this portion +of the enemy's baggage, after "the fatal blowe given to the Royal party +at Worcester"; indeed, but for "a surpassing honest and civil officer of +Colonel Pride's regiment," the pedigree of the Urquharts would have been +used by "a file of musquettiers to afford smoak to their pipes of +tobacco."[176] + +The fame of Sir Thomas as an author and as a soldier moved G. P., as he +tells us, to commit this treatise to the press. With considerable +ingenuity he remarks that, though the author is now in prison as a +Royalist, he understands that his position is by no means "so desperate +as that he thereby will be much endangered." If any doubt up to this +point existed as to who G. P. might be, it is set at rest by the terms +in which he pleads for favourable conditions being granted to the +prisoner. "It is humbly desired," he says, "and, as I believe, from the +hearts of all that are acquainted with him, that the greatest State in +the world stain not their glory by being the Atropos to cut the thred of +that which Saturne's sithe hath not been able to mow in the progress of +all former ages, especially in the person of him whose inward abilities +are like to produce effects conducible to the State of as long +continuance for the future."[177] Only Sir Thomas Urquhart himself had +the secret of what we may call the "spacious" manner of self-eulogy, +which by its very grandeur seems lifted up above all such petty feelings +as pride or vanity. + +The concluding passage in the address to the reader is also worth +quoting, as it illustrates the magnanimous spirit in which the captive +deprecates severity towards himself on the ground of the injury which +would thereby redound to the State. "Considering," it says, "how +formerly he hath been a Maecenas to the scholar, a patron to the +souldier, a favourer of the marchant, a protector of the artificer, and +upholder of the yeoman, it were a thousand pities that by the austerity +of a State, which dependeth in both its _esse_ and _bene esse_ upon the +flourishing of these worthy professions, effects so advantagious +thereto, should, by not conferring deserved courtesies on him, be +extinguished in the very brood."[178] + +In the _True Pedigree and Lineal Descent of the Most Ancient and +Honourable Family of the Urquharts in the House of Cromartie_, we have a +brief but surprisingly complete history of the family from the time of +Adam[179] down to A.D. 1652. The line runs through the Sethite and not +the Cainite branch of the human race, and, among the sons of Noah, it +passes through Japhet. The story is told of a marginal note being found +in the history of some ancient Highland family, to the effect that +"about this time the Flood took place." Something like this is to be +found in the document before us, for, under the date B.C. 2893, Sir +Thomas adds to a mention of his ancestor Noah, a remark to the effect +that "the Universal Deluge occurred in the six hundreth yeer compleat of +his age." + +The good fortune of his ancestors in their inheritances, marriages, and +friendships is very remarkable. To one of them, Japhet, fell the +inheritance of "all the regions of Europe"; Japhet's grandson Penuel was +"a most intimate friend of Nimrod, the mighty hunter and builder of +Babel"; while his great-grandson Tycheros was chosen by "Orpah, the +daughter of Sabatius Saga, Prince of the Armenians, to be her husband, +because of his gallantry and good success in the wars."[180] + +The name Urquhart came into use at the comparatively late period of B.C. +2139, when the family had been in existence for over eighteen hundred +years. It was first borne by Esormon. "He," we are told, "was soveraign +Prince of Achaia. For his fortune in the wars, and affability in +conversation, his subjects and familiars surnamed him ourochartost, that +is [to] say, fortunate well-beloved. After which time, his posterity +ever since hath acknowledged him the father of all that carry the name +of Urquhart.[181] He had for his arms, three banners, three ships, and +three ladies, in a field _d'or_, with a picture of a young lady above +the waste, holding in her right hand a brandished sword, and a branch of +myrtle in the left, for crest; and for supporters, two Javanites, after +the souldier-habit of Achaia, with this motto in the scroll of his +coat-armour, tauta ta tria axiotheata; that is, These three are worthy to +behold. Upon his wife Narfesia, who was soveraign of the Amazons, he +begot Cratynter."[182] + +The habits of the Urquharts to form alliances and friendships with +persons afterwards famous in sacred and secular history is very marked. +Thus, one of them, Phrenedon Urquhart, "was in the house of the +Patriarch Abraham at the time of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha." +At a later period, another, named Hypsegoras Urquhart, married a +daughter of Herculus Lybius; while a descendant of theirs, Pamprosodos +Urquhart, married Termuth, "who was that daughter of Pharaoh Amenophis +which found Moses among the bulrushes, and brought him up as if he had +been her own childe." + +Another ancestor, Molin Urquhart (_c._ B.C. 1534), married Panthea, "the +daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha, of whom Ovid maketh mention in the +first of his Metamorphoses." The genealogist goes on to say that "in +that part of Africk which, after his name, is till this hour called +Molinea, by cunning and valour together he killed in one morning three +lions;[183] the heads whereof, when in a basket, presented to his lady +Panthea, so terrified her, that (being quick with childe) for putting +her right hand to her left side, with this sudden exclamation, O +Hercules, what is this? the impression of three lions' heads was found +upon the left side of the childe as soon as he was born." In consequence +of this incident, the three banners, three ships, and three ladies in +the Urquhart arms were exchanged for three lions' heads. + +A century later, we find that Propetes Urquhart married Hypermnestra, +"the choicest of Danaus' fifty daughters." This must have been some time +after the little affair happened for which forty-nine of her sisters +were condemned to draw water in sieves; for, as every schoolboy knows, +the fifty daughters of Danaus were married to their cousins, the fifty +sons of AEgyptus, and all of them, but one, at the bidding of their +father, murdered their husbands on the evening of the marriage-day. +Hypermnestra, however, had pity upon her cousin and husband, Lynceus, +and spared him.[184] He must have died shortly after, probably from +natural causes, as it is recorded in the work before us that she married +Propetes Urquhart, and became the mother of Euplocamos Urquhart. + +The thought of what the family to which Hypermnestra belonged were +capable when their blood was up, must, one would think, have cast a +slight shadow of apprehension upon the married life of Propetes +Urquhart. A more cheerful tone must have pervaded that of his descendant +Cainotomos Urquhart, for he, we are told, "took to wife Thymelica, the +daughter of Bacchus, in recompense of his having accompanied him in the +conquest of the Indies." Further interesting particulars, which are not +elsewhere recorded, are related of this ancestor of Sir Thomas. On his +return from the expedition in which he assisted Bacchus to conquer +India, he "passed through the territories of Israel, where, being +acquainted with Debora the Judge and Prophetess, he received from her a +very rich jewel, which afterwards by one of his succession was presented +to Pentasilea, that Queen of the Amazons that assisted the Trojans +against Agamemnon." + +Their son Rodrigo Urquhart (_c._ B.C. 1295) was, we are told, invited +over by his kindred the Clanmolinespick,[185] the principal clan in +Ireland, and "bore rule there with much applause and good success"--the +one solitary instance of the kind, we suppose, which is to be found in +the history of that "most distressful country." "From him," it is said, +"is descended the Clanrurie,[186] of which name there were twenty-six +rulers and kings of Ireland before the days of Ferguse the first, King +of Scots in Scotland." + +A slight degree of uncertainty hangs about the identity of the wife of +Mellessen Urquhart (_c._ B.C. 1049). Her name was Nicolia, and before +her marriage she "travelled from the remote Eastern countries to have +experience of the wisdom of Solomon, and by many[187] is supposed to +have been the Queen of Sheba." Her husband, however, must have +considered that, though she loved wisdom, she had not acquired much of +it, or, at any rate, of the kind which is needed for bringing up a young +family; for the historian goes on to say that "Mellessen Urquhart +nevertheless sent some of his children to Ireland and Britain, to be +brought up with the best of his own father and mother's kindred." + +Amongst other celebrated persons who had the honour of being enrolled +amongst the ancestors of Sir Thomas Urquhart are Pothina, a niece of +Lycurgus; AEquanima, the sister of Marcus Coriolanus; Diosa, the daughter +of Alcibiades; and Tortolina, the daughter of King Arthur. It is +observable that for a good many generations immediately preceding the +author's time, the ladies who figure in the genealogy are of +comparatively lowly birth--seldom, indeed, do they reach the rank of +an earl's daughter. Either the supply of princesses was by this time +somewhat exhausted, or the demands of the Urquharts were less +exorbitant. The high-spirited character of the most remarkable scion of +the family who drew up the genealogy forbids us to think that, with the +lapse of time, they had suffered any diminution of courage. It rather +seems as though the world had entered upon a less heroic stage. Perhaps, +like Sir Thomas Browne in a later age, they had concluded that "it was +too late to be ambitious, for the great mutations of the world were +acted." + +[Illustration: SCULPTURED STONE AT KINBEAKIE HOUSE] + +In the time of Vocompos (A.D. 775) a further change took place in the +arms of the Urquharts, which gave them their final form. "Vocompos," we +learn, "was the first in the world that had the bears' heads to his +arms, being induced to exchange, by the instigation of King Solvatius, +his arms of three lions' heads, for the three bears' heads, razed, +because of the great exploit, in presence of the King, done by him and +his two brothers, in killing, one morning, three wild bears, in the +Caledonian forrest: the supporters were also changed into two +greyhounds: the crest and impress remaining still the same as it was +since the days of Astioremon."[188] + +An alleged ancestor of our author, William de Monte Alto (Mouat),[189] +took part in the patriotic resistance of Scotland against English +oppression which is associated with the names of Bruce and Wallace, and +the faint local traditions of that time partly corroborate Urquhart's +statements. "This William," he says, "caried himself so lovingly towards +King Robert, that when almost all Scotland was possest by King Edward's +faction, and his lands at Cromartie altogether overrun by them, and his +house garrisoned and victualed with three yeers provision of all +necessaries for one hundred men, he by a stratagem gained the castle, +and with the matter of fourty men, keept it out against the forces of +Edward for the space of seven yeers and a half, during which time all +his lands there were totally wasted, and his woods burnt; so that, +having nothing then he could properly call his own but the mote-hill +onely of Cromartie, which he fiercely maintained against the enemies, he +was agnamed _Gulielmus de Monte Alto_. At last William Wallace came to +his relief, but, as I conceive, it was the brother's son of the renowned +William, who in a little den [or hollow] within two miles of Cromartie, +till this hour called Wallace Den, killed six hundred of King Edward's +unfortunate forces. Afterwards, raising the siege from about the +mote-hill of Cromartie by the assistance of his namesake the other +William, the shire of Cromarty was totally purged of the enemy."[190] + +Tradition, according to Hugh Miller, is silent respecting the siege, but +relates many details of the battle. The Scottish forces lay in ambuscade +in the ravine or hollow which is still, or was until recently, called by +Wallace's name, and attacked a large body of English troops on their way +to join some of their countrymen, who were encamped on the peninsula of +Easter Ross. The English were surprised and panic-struck, and left six +hundred dead on the field of battle. The survivors were unacquainted +with the country, and were under the impression that there was +continuous land between them and their countrymen on the opposite shore. +"They were only undeceived," we are told, "when, on climbing the +southern Sutor, where it rises behind the town, they saw an arm of the +sea more than a mile in width, and skirted by abrupt and dizzy +precipices, opening before them. The spot is still pointed out where +they made their final stand; and a few shapeless hillocks, that may +still be seen among the trees, are said to have been raised above the +bodies of those who fell; while the fugitives, for they were soon beaten +from this position, were either driven over the neighbouring +precipices, or perished amidst the waves of the Firth."[191] + +Sir Thomas does not let us off easily. After subjecting our credulity to +a severe strain by one kind of statement, he unexpectedly increases the +tension by another. Thus he says that an ancestor in the fifteenth +century, Thomas Urquhart, had by his wife Helen Abernethie, daughter of +Lord Salton, five-and-twenty sons, who grew up to manhood, and eleven +daughters, all of whom found husbands. It would only have been kind of +him to have reduced these numbers a little. But on one point he has +spared us: we are not asked to believe that there were others who died +in infancy. + +In a postscript Sir Thomas Urquhart explains that he has just given his +readers a sketch of the history of his family, but hopes to furnish them +with a complete narrative as soon as he obtains his release from his +parole, and is at liberty to attend to this and to other matters of +greater importance. The thought of the delightful book in store for +mankind is so attractive to him that he cannot help dilating upon it. +"In the great chronicle of the House of Urquhart," he continues, "the +aforesaid Sir Thomas purposeth, by God's assistance, to make mention of +the illustrious families from thence descended, which as yet are in +esteem in the countries of Germany, Bohemia, Italy, France, Spain, +England, Scotland, Ireland, and several other nations of a warmer +climate, adjacent to that famous territory of Greece, the lovely mother +of this most ancient and honourable stem."[192] He also intends not to +omit the name of any family with which at any time the aforesaid house +has contracted alliance. + +The concluding paragraph is very amusing; for in it our author promises +to give proof of the statements he has made, by quoting from the works +of respectable chroniclers of past ages, though the degree of certainty +which the reader may thereby expect to reach falls short of that given +by Holy writ or the works of Euclid. "And finally," he says, "for +confirmation of the truth in deriving of his extraction from the Ionian +race of the Prince of Achaia, and in the deduction of all the +considerable particulars of the whole story, [the author] is resolved to +produce testimonies of Arabick, Greek, Latin, and other writers of such +authentick approbation, that we may boldly from thence infer +consequences of no less infallible verity then [than] any that is not +grounded on faith by means of a Divine illumination, as is the story of +the Bible, or on reason, by vertue of the unavoidable inference of a +necessary concluding demonstration, as that of the Elements of Euclid; +which being the greatest evidence that in any narration of that kinde is +to be expected, the judicious reader is bid farewel, from whom the +Author for the time most humbly takes his leave."[193] + +It is needless to say that the scheme of filling out the sketch of the +history of the Urquhart family was never carried out, if ever it had +been seriously entertained by Sir Thomas; and we are left in ignorance +of the names of the Arabic, Greek, Latin, and other authors on whose +testimony our belief in the authenticity of the narrative was to have +been firmly based. In the absence of this our judgment is left in +suspense, unless, indeed, we conclude that, as the genealogy begins and +ends with the names of actual persons,[194] the intermediate part is not +likely to have been a mere fabrication. If the links are sound in the +places where we can test them, it requires no very great exercise of +credulity to believe that they are the same throughout. + +Matthew Arnold on one occasion laid down the principle, that a book +should either "edify the uninstructed," or "inform the instructed." Sir +Thomas Urquhart's "PANTOCHRONOCHANON" certainly justifies its existence +according to this standard of judging literature; for if it does not +serve to edify the uninstructed, it _does_ inform the instructed, since +the information it contains is not to be found in any other +quarter.[195] + +One's faith in the credibility of his narrative is, however, a little +shaken by finding that in the second book of his favourite author, +Rabelais, the genealogy of the giant Pantagruel is carried up to a +period far beyond the Flood. It may be a mere coincidence, but it is one +of those coincidences that make us very thoughtful.[196] + +At the time when Sir Thomas Urquhart wrote, Scotland was supposed to +have had a dynasty of kings and a connected political history dating +far back before the birth of Christ. The impudent fictions of Hector +Boece, whose history of Scotland was published in 1526, had been +accepted by the public, and were regarded as genuine facts even by such +literary personages as Erasmus and Paulus Jovius. Perhaps Sir Thomas +thought that a credulity which had endured the considerable strain which +Boece had put upon it might be trusted to bear a still greater weight. +Indeed, he interwove the story of his family with that which was current +as the genuine history of his native land. + +According to the mythical history of Scotland, Gathelus, a Grecian +prince, having quarrelled with his father Miol, took refuge in Egypt, +and married Scota, a daughter of the Pharaoh who perished in the Red +Sea. The young people came west and founded Portugal (_i.e._ Port of +Gathelus), and then journeyed north to Scotland, bringing with them, as +part of their baggage, the coronation-stone yet to be seen in +Westminster Abbey. Their descendant Fergus, "the father of a hundred +kings," was the founder of the Scottish monarchy. These shadowy persons +appear again, "with the moonlight streaming through them," and play +their parts in the genealogy of the Urquharts. + +Some have thought that Sir Thomas believed devoutly in the genealogy +himself, and was the dupe of his own imagination. One would be sorry to +form so low an opinion of his mental endowments. If the book in question +were not an elaborate joke, it can only have been intended to impose +upon the English people by convincing them of the extraordinary dignity +and grandeur of their captive. If this were indeed the case, he must +have had an humbler opinion of the intellectual faculties possessed by +the average Englishman than even the majority of his fellow-countrymen +entertain. + +A very amusing reference to this book of Sir Thomas Urquhart's is to be +found in the Decisions of the Court of Session, under date of 23rd to +25th January, 1706.[197] In that year an action was brought by the Earl +of Sutherland against the Earls of Crawford, Errol, and Marischal, to +determine the question of precedency in the rolls of Parliament. The +pursuer asserted that he was lineally descended from an Earl of +Sutherland living in 1275, while his opponents' ancestors were not Earls +till about 1399. The pursuer laid stress upon the fact that, in 1630, a +formal inquiry into this matter had been held at Inverness, and that the +decision had been in his favour. The persons who conducted the inquiry +were, he said, of undoubted credit, and well versed in the particulars +investigated, and "might have had good information from old men and +writs, which in the course of time and through accidents had long +disappeared." The advocate for the defenders replied that the +"Chancellor of the Inquest" had been Sir Thomas Urquhart, who might have +traced the pursuer's descent from Noah, as he had deduced his own +genealogy from Adam, and that the decision arrived at was of no more +value than "his fanciful derivation of his own pedigree. For the members +of the Inquest seemed to have sworn rashly upon matters of greater +antiquity than they could certainly know." "It is true," was the +pursuer's reply, "the defender in his gaiety objects against Sir Thomas +Urquhart as an ill genealogist; and it is owned that his derivation from +Adam and Noah was fantastic enough, and indeed but _lusus ingenii_; but, +after all, the defender's criticism will not hinder him to pass for a +most knowing gentleman." The case was decided in favour of the Earl of +Sutherland, so far as some of his contentions were concerned. But it is +somewhat curious that his advocate overlooked the fact that the Sir +Thomas Urquhart of 1630, who had been the "Chancellor of the Inquest," +was not the author of the book containing the genealogy of the +Urquharts, but that it was written by his son. It is quite possible, +however, that it was a matter of notoriety that the elder Sir Thomas had +been a believer in the long pedigree which his more famous son had, +years after, elaborated and published.[198] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[175] The full title of the work is as follows:--PANTOCHRONOCHANON: or, A +Peculiar PROMPTUARY of TIME; Wherein (not one instant being omitted +since the beginning of motion) is displayed A most exact DIRECTORY for +all particular _Chronologies_ in what Family soever: And that by +deducing the true Pedigree and Lineal descent of the most ancient and +honourable name of the VRQVHARTS, in the house of CROMARTIE, since the +Creation of the world, until this present yeer of God, 1652. London, +Printed for Richard Baddeley, and are to be sold at his shop, within the +Middle-Temple-Gate, 1652. + +[176] _Works_, p. 151. + +[177] _Works_, p. 152. + +[178] _Ibid._ p. 152. + +[179] Poor Sir Thomas thought that he was going back to the beginning +when he traced his descent up to Adam, or, to be more exact, to the red +earth of which the "protoplast" was made. The late Charles Darwin +carried back the pedigree of man a prodigious length, though he lowered +its quality. There can be little doubt that our author would have +disdained to accept what used to be called "the lower animals" as, in +any sense, ancestors of mankind, or, at any rate, of the dignified +family of Urquhart. + +[180] _Works_, p. 156. + +[181] In one respect, at any rate, we have legitimate ground of triumph +over our ancestors--we spell better than they did. Charles Lamb once +lent a volume of the old dramatists to a friend, and asked him his +opinion of it. The reply was that it contained a considerable amount of +bad spelling! The name Urquhart, as thus written, occurs here in Sir +Thomas's "Pedigree," and is, doubtless, the correct form of the name. In +the Latinised shape of Urquhardus it occurs on the register of the +University of Aberdeen, at which our author studied. Yet Urchard seems +to have been + + "The name our valiant Knight + To all his challenges did write." + +The unbridled licence in the matter of spelling prevalent at that period +is still further illustrated by the historian Gordon, who wrote the +_History of Scots Affairs_, and who gives us the name in the form of +Wrqhward! This, one would think, was as far as it was possible to get in +the way of bad spelling, without altogether taking leave of the sounds +to be expressed by alphabetical signs. After it the spelling Wrwhart, as +we find it in an Act of Parliament of 1663, seems rather poor. + +[182] _Works_, p. 156. + +[183] _Works_, p. 159. + +[184] Horace gives us the speech in which she told Lynceus of his +danger, and urged him to make his escape-- + + "'Wake!' to her youthful spouse she cried, + 'Wake! or you yet may sleep too well: + Fly--from the father of your bride, + Her sisters fell: + They, as she-lions bullocks rend, + Tear each her victim: I, less hard, + Than these, will slay you not, poor friend, + Nor hold in ward: + + Me let my sire in fetters lay + For mercy to my husband shown: + Me let him ship from hence away, + To climes unknown. + Go; speed your flight o'er land and wave, + While Night and Venus shield you; go + Be blest: and on my tomb engrave + This tale of woe.'" + + _Odes_, iii. 11 (Conington's Translation). + +Her sad forebodings concerning her own fate, it is satisfactory to know, +were not fully realised. Perhaps she was shipped away to Cromartie, or +Ireland, or Portugal, or Africa, or wherever it was that the head of the +Urquhart family was then reigning. Instead of Lynceus having the +melancholy satisfaction of putting an inscription on her tombstone, it +is probable that she performed that office for him. + +[185] Clanmolinespick is, we believe, more correctly +_clann-maol-an-easbuig_ (the last pronounced _cspick_), and means "the +clan" or "family of the servant of the bishop." They are probably the +Irish ancestors of the Macmillans of Knapdale in Argyleshire. The word +"_maol_," "a tonsured servant," occurs in Malise (_maol-Josa_), "a +servant of Jesus," a family name of the old Earls of Strathearn; and +_easbuig_ in Gillespie or Gillespic, "a servant" or "gillie of the +bishop." + +[186] Clanrurie is "the clan" or "family of Roderick." These are the +Macrories and Fullartons, their eponym having been Rory or Roderick, one +of the two sons of Reginald, whose father in almost prehistoric times +was Somerled, Lord of the Isles. They settled in Bute and Arran, and +about Ardnamurchan and the islands there. + +[187] This phrase--"by many"--is very delightful. + +[188] _Works_, p. 168. A curious stone lintel now at Kinbeakie gives a +representation of the Urquhart coat of arms, such as it was in Sir +Thomas's own time. It was no doubt executed at his orders and under his +direction, for inscribed on it are the names of some of those worthies +who appear in the above genealogical history. The representation which +we give of this stone is from a photograph specially taken for the +illustration of this work. As the porch in the wall of which the slab is +set is very narrow, it was impossible, even with the use of a wide-angle +lens, to get a more satisfactory photograph than that which is here +reproduced. Our readers will therefore kindly excuse the distortion of +shape which is only too apparent, and accept as a measure of +compensation the vividness with which the details of the engraved stone +are brought out. "This singular relic," says Hugh Miller, "which has, +perhaps, more of character impressed upon it than any other piece of +sandstone in the kingdom, is about five feet in length by three in +breadth, and bears date A.M. 5612, A.C. 1651. On the lower and upper +edges it is bordered by a plain moulding, and at the ends by belts of +rich foliage, terminating in a chalice or vase. In the upper corner two +knights in complete armour on horseback, and with their lances couched, +front each other, as if in the tilt-yard. Two Sirens playing on harps +occupy the lower. In the centre are the arms--the charge on the shield +three bears' heads, the supporters two greyhounds leashed and collared, +the crest a naked woman holding a dagger and palm, the helmet that of a +knight, with the beaver partially raised, and so profusely mantled that +the drapery occupies more space than the shield and supporters, and the +motto MEANE WEIL, SPEAK WEIL, AND DO WEIL. Sir Thomas's initials, S. T. +V. C., are placed separately, one letter at the outer side of each +supporter, one in the centre of the crest, and one beneath the label; +while the names of the more celebrated heroes of his genealogy, and the +eras in which they flourished, occupy in the following inscription the +space between the figures:--ANNO ASTIOREMONIS, 2226; ANNO VOCOMPOTIS, +3892; ANNO MOLINI, 3199; ANNO RODRICI, 2958; ANNO CHARI, 2219; ANNO +LUTORCI, 2000; ANNO ESORMONIS, 3804. It is melancholy enough that this +singular exhibition of family pride should have been made in the same +year in which the family received its deathblow--the year of Worcester +battle" (_Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland_, chap. vii.). The +arms of the Urquhart family in their later form, as associated with +those of the Meldrum and Seton families, are given in the 1774 edition +of the PANTOCHRONOCHANON, and are as follows:--"_Arms_, Or, three +Bears-heads, erazed, gules, langued azure. _Crest_, a demy Otter issuing +from the wreath sable, crowned with an antique Crown, or, holding +betwixt his paws a crescent gules. _Motto_ above, _Per mare et Terras_, +and below, _Mean, speak, and do well_. _Supporters_, two grayhounds, +proper collared gules, and leashed." There can be no doubt that the +Urquhart arms should be the three _bears'_ heads, though they are often +described as three _boars'_ heads. The records of 1742 and 1760 in the +Lyon Register make this quite certain. Probably the close resemblance +between the two words is the principal cause of the confusion with +regard to the matter which exists. In the sculptured coat of arms, of +which we give a representation, the heads certainly have a superficial +resemblance at least to those of boars. A correspondent who takes an +interest in this question remarks, however, that "though the heads have +tusks worthy of any boar, they (_i.e._ the heads) are set at right +angles to the necks in a way in which no boar could be represented." On +the other hand, the snouts of the animals have that distinctly +_retrousse_ shape which we associate with pigs, both wild and +domesticated. The question is, therefore, not so simple as at first +sight it appears, and can scarcely be adequately dealt with in a mere +footnote. Accordingly we leave our readers to discuss and settle the +difficulty. + +[189] See p. 4, _supra_. + +[190] _Works_, p. 170. + +[191] _Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland_, Hugh Miller, p. 48. +This battle is supposed to be mentioned by Blind Harry, who has +celebrated the achievements of Wallace in the following uncouth lines:-- + + "Wallace raid throw the northland into playne. + At Crummade feill Inglismen thai slew. + The worthi Scottis till hym thus couth persew. + Raturnd agayne and come till Abirdeyn, + With his blith ost apon the Lammess ewyn" + + (vii. 1084-88). + +[192] _Works_, p. 174. + +[193] _Works_, p. 175. + +[194] The editor of the 1774 edition of the Tracts of Sir Thomas +Urquhart says that he had compared the genealogy with the records kept +by the Lord Lyon of Scotland, which go back as far as the reign of +Alexander II. (A.D. 1214-1249), and had found it strictly correct from +that period. In Appendix I., which contains the lists of names of Sir +Thomas's ancestors, we have taken the liberty of indicating the names on +which reliance can be placed, by printing them in italics (see p. 211). + +[195] Sir Thomas is said to have remarked about "_the Pedigree_," that +by the first generation of readers it would be received with scoffs, +that the second generation would have their doubts about it, but that +the third generation would be heavily inclined to believe it. Time has +moved somewhat more slowly, however, than he anticipated, and probably +but few of us have as yet got past the second stage. + +[196] In the article on Crichton in the _Biographia Britannica_, Dr +Kippis subjects our author to grave censure (see p. 158). With respect +to Urquhart's present work he says: "Of his total disregard to truth +there is incontestible evidence in another work of his, entitled _The +True Pedigree_, etc. In this work it is almost incredible what a number +of falsities he has invented, both with respect to names and facts. +Perhaps a more flagrant instance of imposture and fiction was never +exhibited; and the absurdity of the whole pedigree is beyond the power +of words to express. It can only be felt by those who have perused the +Tract itself." It is to be feared that Dr Kippis was mentally akin to +the Irish bishop who remarked of _Gulliver's Travels_ when it appeared, +that "all was not gospel that was in that book." + +Some one has said that the names of Urquhart's ancestors, at any rate on +the male side, are very likely those of the giants and heathen in the +_Amadis of Gaul_; and certainly Famongomadan, Cartadaque, Madanfabul, +Arcalaus, and Basagante remind one of chiefs and heroes of the Cromartie +line. In the female line the resemblance is much closer; for Asymbleta, +Eromena, and Gonima distinctly recall the Darioleta, Brisena, and +Madasima of the romance. + +[197] Fountainhall, _Decisions_, ii. 265 and 315; Morrison, _Dictionary +of Decisions_, xxvii. 11304. + +[198] In some ways the elder Sir Thomas reminds us of the pedantic and +undignified monarch, James VI., from whom he received knighthood. Both +were the first Protestants of their respective houses, both were +attached to prelacy rather than to Presbyterianism, and both were +wasteful and slovenly in money matters. If the above conjecture be well +founded, they had a further point of resemblance to each other, in their +interest in fabulous genealogies. And it may be said of them both that +they prepared a series of misfortunes for their chivalrous, +high-spirited sons. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + EKSKYBALAURON: or, THE JEWEL, and LOGOPANDECTEISION: or, THE UNIVERSAL + LANGUAGE. + +Sir Thomas Urquhart's previous excursions into literature had been of a +somewhat tentative kind, and calculated to whet the desire of a +judicious reader for him to enter upon more serious undertakings. He had +appeared in the world of letters in several different aspects,--as a man +of science, and as the representative and poet, as historian of a family +which, for long descent and glorious achievements, could not be +rivalled, if his statements concerning it were to be credited,--but no +one could forecast, from what he had already published, the nature of +his next literary exploit. + +The volume which followed the Pedigree of the Urquharts has the strange +name above printed,[199] but most of those who have occasion to mention +it more than once find it more convenient to call it "The Jewel."[200] +Its contents are of such a character that one who had read it carefully +would find it difficult to state off-hand or in a single sentence what +they were. A Scottish Divinity professor of somewhat erratic habits +began, on one occasion, a lecture in which he was to deal with several +miscellaneous items, with the words, "Gentlemen, my subject to-day will +be hotch-potch." This is an exact description of _The Jewel_, and those +to whom nature has given the mental apparatus needed for appreciating +Sir Thomas Urquhart will rejoice and not repine at the fact that the +feeding laid before them is of a confused character. Accordingly no +logical sequence will be allowed to mar the symmetry of this chapter in +which _The Jewel_ is described. + +The main contents of the work are lists of the ancestors, male and +female, of the Urquhart family from the beginning down to the year 1652, +taken from the Pedigree; a narrative of the sad fate that overtook the +author's manuscripts after the battle of Worcester; some pages of one of +them which contained a scheme for a Universal Language; a denunciation +of the "unjust usurpation of the Presbyterian Clergy, and the judaical +practices of some merchants" by which discredit had been cast upon the +Scottish name; an account of Scotsmen famous for martial exploits or for +learning during the previous half-century; a statement of personal +wrongs inflicted upon the author by ministers of his own parishes; +arguments in favour of the union of Scotland and England; and apologies +for the simple and unadorned strain in which the work is written. All +through the volume Sir Thomas is spoken of in the third person, and the +signature of "Christianus Presbyteromastix" is attached to the preface, +or "the Epistle Liminary," as it is called, but there is scarcely any +attempt made to keep up the pretence of anonymity. The object of the +writer is to try to obtain for the prisoner of war restoration to +complete liberty and the enjoyment of his property, and he seeks to +correct the evil impression, which the conduct of certain persons in +Scotland had produced upon the English people, by narrating the martial +and literary achievements of more worthy representatives of his nation. + +The rapidity with which the work had been produced is described by the +writer in the following terms. "Laying aside all other businesses," he +says, "and cooping my self up daily for some hours together, betwixt the +case and the printing press, I usually afforded the setter copy at the +rate of above a whole printed sheet in the day; which, although by +reason of the smallness of a Pica letter, and close couching thereof, it +did amount to three full sheets of my writing; the aforesaid setter, +nevertheless (so nimble a workman he was), would in the space of +twenty-four hours make dispatch of the whole, and be ready for another +sheet. He and I striving thus who should compose fastest, he with his +hand, and I with my brain; and his uncasing of the letters, and placing +them in the composing instrument, standing for my conception; and his +plenishing of the gally, and imposing of the form, encountering with the +supposed equi-value of my writing, we would almost every foot or so jump +together in this joynt expedition, and so neerly overtake other in our +intended course, that I was oftentimes, (to keep him doing), glad to +tear off parcels of ten or twelve lines apeece, and give him them, till +more were ready;[201] unto which he would so suddenly put an order, +that almost still, before the ink of the written letters was dry, their +representatives were, (out of their respective boxes), ranked in the +composing-stick; by means of which great haste, I writing but upon the +loose sheets of cording-quires, which, as I minced and tore them, +looking like pieces of waste paper, troublesome to get rallyed, after +such dispersive scattredness, I had not the leisure to read what I had +written, till it came to a proof, and sometimes to a full revise. So +that by vertue of this unanimous contest, and joint emulation betwixt +the theoretick and practical part, which of us should overhye other in +celerity, we in the space of fourteen working daies compleated this +whole book, (such as it is), from the first notion of the brain to the +last motion of the press; and that without any other help on my side, +either of quick or dead, (for books I had none, nor possibly would I +have made use of any, although I could have commanded them), then [than] +what, (by the favour of God), my own judgment and fancy did suggest unto +me."[202] + +The account which our author gives of the plunder of his manuscripts +after the battle of Worcester, and of the strange series of accidents by +which some of the documents which make up _The Jewel_ were preserved, is +so odd and amusing that it would be a pity to deprive our readers of it, +though it is related by Sir Thomas at great length. "No sooner," he +says, "had the total rout of the regal party at Worcester given way to +the taking of that city, and surrendring up of all the prisoners to the +custody of the marshal-general and his deputies, but the liberty, +customary at such occasions to be connived at in favours of a victorious +army, imboldened some of the new-levied forces of the adjacent counties +to confirm their conquest by the spoil of the captives. For the better +atchievement of which designe, not reckoning those great many others +that in all the other corners of the town were ferreting every room for +plunder, a string or two of exquisite snaps and clean shavers +[snappers-up and plunderers?] (if ever there were any), rushing into +Master Spilsbury's house, (who is a very honest man, and hath an +exceeding good woman to his wife), broke into an upper chamber, where +finding, (besides scarlet cloaks, buff suits, arms of all sorts, and +other such rich chaffer, at such an exigent escheatable to the +prevalent soldier[203]), seven large portmantles ful of precious +commodity; in three whereof, after a most exact search for gold, silver, +apparel, linen, or any whatever adornments of the body, or pocket +implements, as was seized upon in the other four, not hitting on any +things but manuscripts in folio, to the quantity of six score and eight +quires and a half, divided into six hundred fourty and two quinternions +and upwards, the quinternion consisting of five sheets, and the quire of +five and twenty; besides some writings of suits in law, and bonds, in +both worth above three thousand pounds English, they in a trice carried +all whatever els was in the room away save those papers, which they then +threw down on the floor as unfit for their use; yet immediately +thereafter, when upon carts the aforesaid baggage was put to be +transported to the country, and that by the example of many hundreds of +both horse and foot, whom they had loaded with spoil, they were +assaulted with the temptation of a new booty, they apprehending how +useful the paper might be unto them, went back for it, and bore it +straight away; which done, to every one of those their camarads whom +they met with in the streets, they gave as much thereof, for packeting +up of raisins, figs, dates, almonds, caraway, and other such like dry +confections and other ware, as was requisite; who, doing the same +themselves, did together with others kindle pipes of tobacco with a +great part thereof, and threw out all the remainder upon the +streets.... + +"Of those dispersedly-rejected bundles of paper, some were gathered up +by grocers, druggists, chandlers, pie-makers, or such as stood in need +of any cartapaciatory utensil, and put in present service, to the utter +undoing of all the writing thereof, both in its matter and order. One +quinternion, nevertheless, two days after the fight on the Friday +morning, together with two other loose sheets more, by vertue of a +drizelling rain, which had made it stick fast to the ground, where there +was a heap of seven and twenty dead men lying upon one another, was by +the command of one Master Braughton taken up by a servant of his; who, +after he had (in the best manner he could) cleansed it from the mire and +mud of the kennel, did forthwith present it to the perusal of his +master; in whose hands it no sooner came, but instantly perceiving by +the periodical couching of the discourse, marginal figures, and breaks +here and there, according to the variety of the subject, that the whole +purpose was destinated for the press, and by the author put into a garb +befitting either the stationer or printer's acceptance; yet because it +seemed imperfect, and to have relation to subsequent tractates, he made +all the enquiry he could for trial whether there were any more such +quinternions or no; by means whereof he got full information that above +three thousand sheets of the like paper, written after that fashion, and +with the same hand, were utterly lost and imbezzeled, after the manner +aforesaid; and was so fully assured of the misfortune, that to gather up +spilt water, comprehend the windes within his fist, and recover those +papers again, he thought would be a work of one and the same labour and +facility."[204] + +The anonymous personage who gives the above account says that he heard +of Mr Braughton's discovery of these remarkable documents, and also of +"the great moan made for the loss of Sir Thomas Urquhart's manuscripts," +and, putting the two facts together, resolved to ask Sir Thomas if the +papers found at Worcester belonged to him. He examined them, and +identified them as part of the preface to a grammar and lexicon of a +Universal Language, of which he was the inventor. The loss of a work of +such a size and of such great importance did not greatly depress him. He +stated that if he got but encouragement and time, freedom and the +enjoyment of his ancestral estates, he doubted not but that he could +supply the missing sheets--the originals of which had come to such base +uses and disastrous fate at Worcester. The papers, therefore, found by +Mr Braughton are published in order that the readers may see the +reasonableness of giving Sir Thomas what he asked, in view of the +astounding benefits which he would in return confer upon them. This is +put with great clearness and brevity in a couplet prefixed to the above +narrative: + + "He should obtain all his desires, + Who offers more than he requires." + +The fragment of the treatise concerning the Universal Language, which +was picked up out of the gutter of Worcester streets, wiped clean, and +presented to the public in _The Jewel_, was republished with additions +in Sir Thomas Urquhart's next work, so that we may here pass it over +without further notice and allude to some of the other matters treated +of. + +In order to vindicate the honour of his country, Sir Thomas Urquhart +tells at considerable length of the fame won by various compatriots of +his in war in every part of Europe, during the earlier half of the +seventeenth century, and he draws the attention of his readers to the +fact that, at no battle in the period named, were all the Scots that +fought overthrown and totally routed. The explanation of this statement +is that there were always Scots on both sides, so that, if some were +defeated and taken prisoners, others of that nation were victorious and +givers of quarter. This part of the work is of great historical value, +and, as Burton remarks, is not liable to the reproach of Urquhart's +usual wandering profuseness of language--its leading defect, on the +other hand, being its too great resemblance at times to a muster-roll. + +The choicest and most remarkable passage in Sir Thomas Urquhart's +original works is, undoubtedly, the description he gives in _The Jewel_ +of his fellow-countryman "the Admirable Crichton," who belonged to the +latter part of the sixteenth century. In an appendix[205] our readers +may find a long extract from it, in which that hero's feats are related. +But for fear of making the appendices out of all proportion to the size +of this volume, the whole sketch might have been given. To most people +the name of "the Admirable Crichton" is now a mere proverbial phrase to +describe a universal genius, and whether the person who bore it is a +historical or a mythical character, is a matter of some uncertainty. If +any who are possessed of only this amount of information on the subject +seek for more by reading our author's description of Crichton, the +probability is that they will decide that he is quite mythical. The +extraordinary flightiness, turgidity, and bombast which mark the +narrative, in spite of its many conspicuous merits, make it seem a mere +piece of burlesque, rather than a genuine history;[206] and yet there is +ample evidence of an unimpeachable kind of the truthfulness of the main +statements which it contains. Sir Thomas Urquhart's narrative was for a +long time one of the principal sources of information concerning the +brilliant young Scotchman, and the result was that a general disbelief +in the whole history became prevalent.[207] As Burton says, "It was +from the hands of Sir Thomas Urquhart that the world accepted of an idol +which, after a period of worship, it cast down, but so hastily, as it +was discovered, that it had again to be set up, but rather in surly +justice than the old devout admiration."[208] Tytler, in his _Life of +the Admirable Crichton_, gives full proof from contemporary writers that +the accomplishments and feats ascribed to that personage are authentic. + +James Crichton was born in 1560, of a noble family, at Eliock, in +Perthshire. At the age of ten he became a student at St. Andrews, then +the most famous university in Scotland. Before he was fifteen years of +age he graduated as Master of Arts, and stood third in order of merit +among the students of his year. After leaving the university he spent +three years in the pursuit of learning, devoting himself to one after +another of the various branches of the science and philosophy of his +time, until he had gone through nearly the whole of them; and, by force +of natural ability, aided, no doubt, by intense application, he acquired +the use of ten different languages. + +Some time probably in the year 1578 he began his foreign travels, with +the desire not only to enlarge his experience of the world, but also to +display the extent of his learning in those public disputations which +were still in fashion at the continental universities. In form and +countenance he is said to have been a perfect model of manly beauty; +whilst in all the accomplishments of his time he was as well versed as +in the branches of learning. He was a skilful swordsman, a bold rider, a +graceful dancer, a sweet singer, and a cultivated musician. Soon after +his arrival in Paris he set up, in accordance with a custom of the time, +in various parts of the city, challenges to literary and philosophic +disputation, and announced that he would present himself on a certain +day at the College of Navarre, to answer any questions that might be put +to him "in any science, liberal art, discipline, or faculty, whether +practical or theoretic," and this in any one of twelve specified +languages--Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, +Italian, English, Dutch, Flemish, or Selavonian. Our readers may find in +the appendix a full narrative in Sir Thomas Urquhart's inimitable style +of this extraordinary episode. Though Crichton seemed to make no +preparation for the learned encounter, to which he had challenged the +most scholarly men in France, he acquitted himself in such a manner as +to astonish all beholders, and to receive the congratulations of the +president and professors of the University of Paris. From this display +of his intellectual powers and acquirements, as well as from the +brilliant figure he cut at the balls and tournaments, which were such +favourite employments of the Court of France at that time, he acquired +the title by which he is now universally known--that of "the Admirable +Crichton."[209] + +It is worth while to compare the passage in Rabelais which describes the +similar feats of the giant Pantagruel with the account Sir Thomas +Urquhart gives of Crichton's intellectual tournaments.[210] To us there +seems something very ridiculous in the practice of posting up placards +on the walls, challenging all-comers to disputation, but in the +sixteenth century it would not necessarily appear in this light. +Rabelais, indeed, laughed at it; but then he laughed at many things +which the people of his time did not think absurd. John Hill Burton is +of the opinion that Sir Thomas Urquhart, in describing the way in which +Crichton conducted himself on the field which had witnessed Pantagruel's +feats, had the ridicule of Rabelais in view, and that, in spite of his +laudations, we cannot help having the impression that his tongue is all +the time in his cheek. We think that this is unfair to Sir Thomas. There +is no reason why those who looked on in admiration at a real tournament +should not also enjoy seeing a burlesque one. So that it is quite +possible that our author smiled while he translated the French satire, +and that he glowed with honest pride and admiration as he recounted his +fellow-countryman's exploits before the University of Paris. + +After serving for a couple of years in the French army, Crichton +journeyed into Italy, and in the month of August, 1580, arrived in +Venice. He made the acquaintance of the famous printer, Aldus Manutius, +who introduced him to the principal men of learning and note in that +city. Here he maintained the reputation he had acquired in Paris, and +lives of him were written and published. From Venice he proceeded to +Padua, and from thence to the Court of Mantua, where the adventure +occurred with which Sir Thomas Urquhart begins the narrative of his +celebrated fellow-countryman's exploits, namely, the defeat and death of +the travelling bravo, whose challenge he had accepted. Sir Thomas is the +only authority for this incident in Crichton's history. As there is no +reason to believe that he invented it, we are at liberty to suppose that +he found it in some one of the lives of Crichton which he met with in +his Italian travels, but which has not come down to us, or that he heard +of it from some of those who witnessed it. For, as Urquhart was born +only twenty-three years after Crichton's death, he must, in the course +of his continental travels, have met some who were his contemporaries.[211] + +In consequence of this achievement, and also of the brilliant reputation +acquired by Crichton, he was appointed by the Duke of Mantua, companion +and tutor to his son, Vincenzio de Gonzaga, a young man of some literary +culture, but of furious temper and dissolute morals. Very soon after, +Crichton met his death in a tragical manner. He was walking home one +evening in the streets of Mantua, from a visit to his mistress, and was +playing a guitar, when suddenly he was attacked by a riotous party of +men in masks, whom, however, he speedily put to flight. He seized the +leader of the party, overpowered him, and tore off his mask, and found +to his horror that it was his own pupil, the son of the Duke of Mantua. +He instantly dropped upon one knee, and, in a spirit of romantic +devotion, took his sword by the blade, and presented its hilt to the +prince. Vincenzio, heated with wine, irritated at his discomfiture, and +also, it is said by some, inspired by jealousy, took the sword and +plunged it into Crichton's heart. The brilliant young Scotsman was but +twenty-two years of age when he thus met his fate. + +The narrative which Sir Thomas Urquhart gives of the death of his hero +is marked by the same richness of description as is to be found in the +account of his exploits as a scholar, a swordsman, and an actor. In +language of astonishing luxuriance and frequent happiness of phrase, he +enlarges upon the incidents of the last evening of Crichton's life, and +depicts the tender intercourse of the lovers before the sudden and +bloodly close of their courtship. With a minuteness which, as Tytler +remarks, reminds one of the multitude of particulars by the enumeration +of which Mrs Quickly sought to bring to Falstaff's remembrance his +promise to marry her,[212] Sir Thomas Urquhart depicts the lovers in the +"alcoranal paradise" in which they were embowered on that evening. +"Nothing," he says, "tending to the pleasure of all the senses was +wanting; the weather being a little chil and coldish, they on a blue +velvet couch sate by one another towards a char-coale fire burning in a +silver brasero, whilst in the next room adjacent thereto a pretty little +round table of cedar wood was a covering for the supping of them two +together; the cates prepared for them, and a week before that time +bespoke, were of the choisest dainties and most delicious junkets that +all the territories of Italy were able to afford, and that deservedly, +for all the Romane Empire could not produce a completer paire to taste +them."[213] + +A tragical note rings through the description of the lamentation of the +hapless girl over her murdered lover. "She, rending her garments and +tearing her haire, like one of the Graces possest with a Fury, spoke +thus: 'O villains! what have you done? you vipers of men, that have thus +basely slaine the valiant Crichtoun, the sword of his own sexe and the +buckler of ours, the glory of this age, and restorer of the lost honour +of the Court of Mantua: O Crichtoun, Crichtoun!'"[214] + +The sequel of the story is in the same vein of florid eloquence. "The +whole court," says Sir Thomas, "wore mourning for him full three +quarters of a yeer together. His funeral was very stately, and on his +hearse were stuck more epitaphs, elegies, threnodies, and epicediums, +then [than], if digested into one book, would have outbulk't all Homer's +works; some of them being couched in such exquisite and fine Latin, that +you would have thought great Virgil, and Baptista Mantuanus, for the +love of their mother-city, had quit the Elysian fields to grace his +obsequies; and other of them, besides what was done in other languages, +composed in so neat Italian, and so purely fancied, as if Ariosto, +Dante, Petrark, and Bembo had been purposely resuscitated, to stretch +even to the utmost their poetick vein to the honour of this brave man; +whose picture till this hour is to be seen in the bed-chambers or +galleries of the most of the great men of that nation, representing him +on horseback, with a lance in one hand and a book in the other; and most +of the young ladies likewise, _that were anything handsome_,[215] in a +memorial of his worth, had his effigies in a little oval tablet of gold +hanging 'twixt their breasts, and held, for many yeers together, that +metamazion, or intermammilary ornament, an as necessary outward pendicle +for the better setting forth of their accoutrements, as either fan, +watch, or stomacher. My lord Duke, upon the young lady that was +Crichtoun's mistres and future wife, although she had good rents and +revenues of her own by inheritance, was pleased to conferr a pension of +five hundred ducats a yeer. The Prince also bestowed as much on her +during all the days of his life, which was but short, for he did not +long enjoy himself after the cross fate of so miserable an accident. The +sweet lady, like a turtle bewailing the loss of her mate, spent all the +rest of her time in a continual solitariness."[216] + +After giving a long list of his fellow-countrymen who had won fame in +foreign lands by their valour, learning, or skill, in order to put to +silence those who maligned his nation, Sir Thomas Urquhart takes up a +less pleasing topic--that of contemporary politics. In the plainest and +most forcible manner he repudiates the whole policy of the dominant +party in Scotland, and declares that a true Royalist or Malignant like +himself had much more in common with an Independent, than either of them +had with a Presbyterian; and he enlarges upon the turbulent disloyalty +with which so many of the last-named party had, in his opinion, +conducted themselves towards their sovereigns since Queen Mary's time, +evidently in forgetfulness for the moment that his newly-found friends, +the Independents, had executed Charles I. and abolished monarchy. + +His account of the mode in which the Presbyterian or "Consistorian" +party were in the habit of treating their kings is very amusing. "Of a +king," he says, "they onely make use for their own ends, and so they +will of any other supreme magistracie that is not of their own erection. +Their kings are but as the kings of Lacedemon, whom the Ephors presumed +to fine for any small offence; or as the puppy [puppet] kings, which, +after children have trimmed with bits of taffata, and ends of silver +lace, and set them upon wainscoat cupboards besides marmalade and +sugar-cakes, are often times disposed of, even by those that did pretend +so much respect unto them, for a two-peny custard, a pound of figs, or +mess of cream. Verily, I think they make use of kings in their +Consistorian State, as we do of card kings in playing at the hundred; +any one whereof, if there be appearance of a better game without him, +and that the exchange of him for another incoming card is like to +conduce more for drawing of the stake, is by good gamesters without any +ceremony discarded: or as the French on the Epiphany-day use their _Roy +de la Febre_, or king of the bean; whom, after they have honoured with +drinking of his health, and shouting _Le Roy boit, le Roy boit_, they +make pay for all the reckoning; not leaving him sometimes one peny, +rather then [than] that the exorbitancie of their debosh should not be +satisfied to the full. They may be likewise said to use their king as +the players at nine-pins do the middle kyle, which they call the king; +at whose fall alone they aim, the sooner to obtain the gaining of their +prize; or as about Christmas we do the King of Misrule, whom we invest +with that title to no other end but to countenance the bacchanalian +riots and preposterous disorders of the family where he is installed. +The truth of all this appears by their demeanour to Charles the Second, +whom they crowned their king at Sterlin, and who, though he be for +comeliness of person, valour, affability, mercy, piety, closeness of +counsel, veracity, foresight, knowledge, and other vertues both moral +and intellectual, in nothing inferior to any of his hundred and ten +predecessors, had nevertheless no more rule in effect over the +Presbyterian Senate of Scotland, then [than] any of the six foresaid +mock-kings had above those by whom they were dignified with the +splendour of royal pomp."[217] + +The passage in _The Jewel_ which tells of the faults of the clergy, as +illustrated by the conduct of the ministers of the parishes of which Sir +Thomas was patron, has already been given in these pages, and therefore +need not be repeated here; but room must be found for the paragraph in +which he denounces those who by their covetousness had cast a slur upon +the Scottish name. The art of writing such English perished with him, +its inventor; and one cannot be too thankful for such a passage as the +following. "Another thing there is," he says, "that fixeth a grievous +scandal upon that nation in matter of philargyrie, or love of money, and +it is this: There hath been in London, and repairing to it, for these +many years together, a knot of Scotish bankers, collybists, or +coine-coursers, of traffickers in merchandise to and againe, and of men +of other professions, who by hook and crook, _fas et nefas_, slight and +might, (all being as fish their net could catch), having feathered their +nests to some purpose, look so idolatrously upon their Dagon of wealth, +and so closely, (like the earth's dull center), hug all unto themselves, +that for no respect of vertue, honour, kinred, patriotism, or whatever +else, (be it never so recommendable), will they depart from so much as +one single peny, whose emission doth not, without any hazard of loss, in +a very short time superlucrate beyond all conscience an additionall +increase to the heap of that stock which they so much adore; which +churlish and tenacious humor hath made many that were not acquainted +with any else of that country, to imagine all their compatriots infected +with the same leprosie of a wretched peevishness, whereof those +_quomodocunquizing_ clusterfists and rapacious varlets have given of +late such cannibal-like proofs, by their inhumanity and obdurate +carriage towards some, (whose shoe-strings they are not worthy to unty), +that were it not that a more able pen then [than] mine will assuredly +not faile to jerk them on all sides, in case, by their better demeanour +for the future, they endeavour not to wipe off the blot wherewith their +native country, by their sordid avarice and miserable baseness, hath +been so foully stained, I would at this very instant blaze them out in +their names and surnames, notwithstanding the vizard of Presbyterian +zeal wherewith they maske themselves, that like so many wolves, foxes, +or Athenian Timons, they might in all times coming be debarred the +benefit of any honest conversation."[218] + +After suggesting a number of ways in which the tone of society in +Scotland might be raised and sweetened--one of which is the +establishment of "a free schoole and standing library in every +parish"[219]--Sir Thomas proceeds to argue in a very sensible and +convincing manner for complete union between Scotland and England. The +subject is introduced by lengthy quotations from speeches by Bacon, +delivered by him in Parliament as far back as the year 1608, in which +the advantages of such an arrangement are set forth. + +The style of our author is seen at its worst in the peroration to _The +Jewel_, in which he apologizes for the comparative simplicity, if not +baldness, by which, in the opinion of some, it might be thought to be +characterised. "I could truly," he says, "have enlarged this discourse +with a choicer variety of phrase, and made it overflow the field of the +reader's understanding, with an inundation of greater eloquence; and +that one way, tropologetically, by metonymical, ironical, metaphorical, +and synecdochical instruments of elocution, in all their several kinds, +artificially affected, according to the nature of the subject, with +emphatical expressions in things of great concernment, with +catachrestical in matters of meaner moment; attended on each side +respectively with an epiplectick and exegetick modification; with +hyperbolical, either epitatically or hypocoristically, as the purpose +required to be elated or extenuated, with qualifying metaphors, and +accompanied by apostrophes; and lastly, with allegories of all sorts, +whether apologal, affabulatory, parabolary, aenigmatick, or paraemial. And +on the other part, schematologetically adorning the proposed theam with +the most especial and chief flowers of the garden of rhetorick, and +omitting no figure either of diction or sentence, that might contribute +to the ear's enchantment, or perswasion of the hearer. I could have +introduced, in case of obscurity, synonymal, exargastick, and +palilogetick elucidations; for sweetness of phrase, antimetathetick +commutations of epithets; for the vehement excitation of a matter, +exclamation in the front, and epiphonemas in the reer. I could have +used, for the promptlier stirring up of passion, apostrophal and +prosopopoeiel diversions; and, for the appeasing and settling of them, +some epanorthotick revocations, and aposiopetick restraines. I could +have inserted dialogismes, displaying their interrogatory part with +communicatively pysmatick and sustentative flourishes; or proleptically, +with the refutative schemes of anticipation and subjection, and that +part which concerns the responsory, with the figures of permission and +concession. Speeches extending a matter beyond what it is, auxetically, +digressively, transitiously, by ratiocination, aetiology, circumlocution, +and other wayes, I could have made use of; as likewise with words +diminishing the worth of a thing, tapinotically, periphrastically, by +rejection, translation, and other meanes, I could have served +myself."[220] + +He goes on for a long time in this strain, and is at pains to explain +that, if the work had been written in this more elaborate manner, it +would not necessarily have been found tedious even by young ladies. "I +could have presented it to the imagination," he says, "in so spruce a +garb, that spirits blest with leisure, and free from the urgency of +serious employments, would happily have bestowed as liberally some few +houres thereon as on the perusal of a new-coined romance, or strange +history of love adventures. For although the figures and tropes above +rehearsed seem in their _actu signato_, (as they signifie meer notional +circumstances, affections, adjuncts, and dependencies on words), to be a +little pedantical, and to the smooth touch of a delicate ear somewhat +harsh and scabrous, yet in their exerced act, (as they suppone for +things reduplicatively as things in the first apprehension of the minde, +by them signified), I could, even in far abstruser purposes, have so +fitly adjusted them with apt and proper termes, and with such +perspicuity couched them, as would have been suitable to the capacities +of courtiers and young ladies,[221] whose tender hearing, for the most +part, being more taken with the insinuating harmony of a well-concerted +period, in its isocoletick and parisonal members, then [than] with the +never-so-pithy a fancy of a learned subject, destitute of the +illustriousness of so pathetick ornaments, will sooner convey perswasion +to the interior faculties from the ravishing assault of a +well-disciplined diction, in a parade of curiously-mustered words in +their several ranks and files then [than] by the vigour and fierceness +of never so many powerful squadrons of a promiscuously-digested +elocution into bare logical arguments; for the sweetness of their +disposition is more easily gained by undermining passion then [than] +storming reason, and by the musick and symmetry of a descourse in its +external appurtenances, then [than] by all the puissance imaginary of +the ditty or purpose disclosed by it."[222] + +The last of Sir Thomas Urquhart's original works was his +"LOGOPANDECTEISION, or an INTRODUCTION TO THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE," a +portion of which, as already mentioned, had been embedded in the +conglomerate mass of _The Jewel_. The idea of a universal language was +not originated by Urquhart, for it is said that something of the kind +had been planned a generation earlier by the celebrated William Bedell +(1570-1642), the Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, who is better known for +promoting the translation of the Bible into the Irish tongue. We are +told by Burnet, who wrote his life, that he had in his diocese a +clergyman named Johnston, a man of ability, but, unfortunately, of +"mercurial wit." In order to give him adequate employment, and to keep +him, we suppose, out of mischief, Bedell planned out a scheme for a +universal character, which should be understood by all nations as +readily as the Arabic numerals or the figures in geometry, and started +Johnston upon the task of completing it. He made, we are told, +considerable progress with the scheme, but his labours were interrupted, +and the results of them destroyed, by the frightful rebellion of 1641. + +The _Logopandecteision_[223] is divided into six books, which bear names +of the remarkable kind which seem to come so readily to Urquhart's +tongue, and are so hard to be compassed by the tongues of others. The +"Epistle Dedicatorie" is an elaborate piece of writing, and is animated +by considerable bitterness of spirit. It is addressed to Nobody--the +person who has assisted him in his labours, pitied him in his sorrows, +and relieved him in his penury. It is only the first book--entitled +"Neaudethaumata, or Wonders of the New Speech"--which makes a pretence +of dealing with the professed subject of the volume, and of laying the +great scheme before the reader. Much to the gratification of the +judicious student of the work, Urquhart rambles off in the remaining +books into autobiographical details, from which we have already gleaned +heavily in the earlier chapters of this volume, and the only connexion +between them and the Universal Language is that they show the +difficulties which prevented the author from carrying out his plan. The +sources from which these difficulties arose are vaguely indicated in the +titles of the books: thus, the second is called "Chrestasebeia, or +Impious Dealing of Creditors"; the third, "Cleronomaporia, or the +Intricacy of a Distressed Successor or Apparent Heir"; the fourth, +"Chryseomystes, or the Covetous Preacher"; and the fifth, +"Neleodicastes, or the Pitiless Judge." While the sixth book is entitled +"Philoponauxesis, or Furtherance of Industry," and tells of the +marvellous benefits which would accrue to all branches of trade, +manufacture, and industry in Scotland, if the writer's demands were +granted, and he were at liberty to carry out the multitudinous schemes +with which his mind was filled. The volume concludes with requests or +"proquiritations" from thirty-two distinct petitioners, who modestly +conceal themselves from public notice under the shelter of the initial +letters of their names, that the State would, for the various weighty +reasons which they allege, grant the desire of Sir Thomas to be set +free, and to be established in possession of the estates and honours +which his family had enjoyed from time immemorial. This section of the +work suggests failure in ingenuity on the part of the author, for few +persons above the condition of idiocy could surely be found capable of +believing that the reasons and initials alike were anything else than +the concoction of Sir Thomas himself. + +Very slight indeed can be the notice which we are able to give of the +proposed Universal Language, the description of which, as set forth in +the early part of the _Logopandecteision_, is more like an incoherent +dream than anything else. There is no evidence that Sir Thomas Urquhart +ever really made a grammar or vocabulary of the new language. Indeed, he +writes about it in such a manner as to lead one to think that he had +made no way in the real working out of the scheme, but merely dreamed of +what he was going to do. In the new tongue which was to supersede all +others there were to be twelve parts of speech, all words would have at +least ten synonyms, nouns and pronouns would have eleven cases and four +numbers--singular, dual, plural, and redual--and verbs would have four +voices, seven moods, and eleven tenses. "In this tongue," says the +author, "there are eleven genders,[224] wherein," he truthfully adds, +"it exceedeth all other languages." "Every word in this language," we +are told, "signifieth as well backward as forward, and however you +invert the letters, still shall you fall upon significant words, whereby +a wonderful facility is obtained in making of anagrams.... Of all +languages, this is the most compendious in complement, and consequently +fittest for courtiers and ladies.... As its interjections are more +numerous, so are they more emphatical in their respective expression of +passions, then [than] that part of speech is in any other language +whatsoever."[225] And finally Sir Thomas vouches for its conciseness in +a hyperbole which it would be difficult to excel. "This language," he +says, "affordeth so concise words for numbering, that the number for +setting down, whereof would require in vulgar arithmetic more figures in +a row then [than] there might be grains of sand containable from the +center of the earth to the highest heavens, is in it expressed by two +letters."[226] A considerable revenue might be secured if the rule found +at the end of some of Grimm's _Household Tales_ were applied to this +statement, and strictly enforced: "Whosoever does not believe this must +pay a thaler." In a very innocent manner our author excuses himself for +the extravagant praise he has poured out upon his own invention. "Why it +is," he exclaims, "I should extoll the worth thereof, without the +jeopardy of vaine glory, the reason is clear and evident, being +necessitated ... to merchandise it for the redintegrating of an ancient +family, it needeth not be thought strange, that in some measure I +descend to the fashion of the shop-keepers, who, to scrue up the buyer +to the higher price, will tell them no better can be had for mony, 'tis +the choicest ware in England, and if any can match it, he shall have it +for nought.... [And so] I went on in my laudatives, to procure the +greater longing, that an ardent desire might stir up an emacity [a +propensity to buy], to the furtherance of my proposed end." One is +obliged sadly to assent to his further statement about such +conduct--"whereof ... there wanteth not store of presidents +[precedents]."[227] + +Hugh Miller, animated by the patriotic zeal which prompts one North +Briton to stand by another, and with the desire to make out the best +case possible for one who was not only a fellow-countryman, but also a +fellow-townsman, speaks in high terms of Urquhart's inventive powers as +displayed in the _Logopandecteision_. "The new chemical vocabulary," he +says, "with all its philosophical ingenuity, is constructed on +principles exactly similar to those which he divulged more than a +hundred years prior to its invention, in the preface to his Universal +Language."[228] This is a statement which it is rather difficult to +understand. The only indication of the nature of the new tongue which we +can glean from Sir Thomas's description of it, is that every letter of +every word in it would have a meaning, so that when anyone who knew the +principles of the language heard a word for the first time, he would +understand it.[229] Now, of course, it is true that anyone who knows the +principle of the nomenclature of salts, to which, we suppose, Hugh +Miller refers, can tell a good deal about a salt from the name of it, +say, nitrate of potassium, KNO_{3}, but it would be impossible to invent +a systematic nomenclature of which this would not be true. + +The same author is also very much impressed by the fact that the new +language was to contain the dual, and regards this, on Lord Monboddo's +authority, as a proof of philosophical acumen on the part of the +inventor. He does not take any notice of the "redual," which the +language was also to contain, and which might have been taken as an +indication of double-distilled wisdom. Lord Monboddo (1714-1799) says of +the Greek language that if there "were nothing else to convince him of +its being a work of philosophers and grammarians, its dual number would +of itself be sufficient; for as certainly as the principles of body are +the point, the line, and the surface, the principles of number are the +monad and the duad, though philosophers only are aware of the fact." The +idea that this venerated instrument for the expression or concealment of +thought was the concoction of a committee of primitive sages, and that +they deliberately invented the dual, and added it as another spike to +the _chevaux-de-frise_ through which our young people, of both sexes, +have to struggle[230] on their way to the Temple of Learning, is truly +revolting. One would not like to think that the ancient Greeks were +quite so malicious as to do a thing like that. It is more probably the +case that, like other Aryans, they received the dual as part of the +inheritance of the past, handed down to them, and retained it; while in +some of the cognate languages[231] it was gradually rubbed off, very +much in the same way as Lord Monboddo's men lost their tails, when they +gave up their arboreal habits, and betook themselves to sedentary +occupations. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[199] Its title-page is as follows:--EKSKYBALAURON: Or, The Discovery of +A MOST EXQUISITE JEWEL, more precious then [than] DIAMONDS inchased in +Gold, the like whereof was never seen in any age; found in the kennel of +_Worcester_-streets, the day after the Fight, and six before the +Autumnal Equinox, _anno_ 1651. Serving in this place, To Frontal a +VINDICATION of the honour of SCOTLAND, from that Infamy, whereinto the +Rigid _Presbyterian party_ of that Nation, out of their Covetousness and +ambition, most dissembledly hath involved it. _Distichon ad Librum +sequitur, quo tres ter adaequant Musarum numerum, casus et articuli._ + + _voc._ _nom._ 1 _abl._ 2 _abl._ _dat._ + O thou'rt a Book in truth with love to many, + + 3 _abl._ 4 _abl. acc._ _gen._ + Done by and for the free'st spoke Scot of any. + +_Efficiens et finis sunt sibi invicem causae._ LONDON, Printed by Ja: +Cottrel; and are to be sold by _Rich. Buddeley_, at the +Middle-Temple-Gate. 1652. + +[200] EKSKYBALAURON is supposed to be the Greek for "_Gold out of the +dirt_." Dr Irving, the author of a very carefully-written memoir of Sir +Thomas Urquhart, in his _Lives of Scottish Writers_, vol. ii., is a +little puzzled by this extraordinary name. The latter part of it was, he +thought, perhaps connected with aurion--"to-morrow"--in allusion to the +fact that this "exquisite Jewel" was taken out of the kennel _the +morrow_ after the battle of Worcester. But the word is evidently +auron--the Lat. _aurum_, "gold." In the "Postilla" to the Pedigree of +the Urquharts, our author says that "the shire of Cromartie ... hath the +names of its towns, villages, hamlets, dwellings, promontories, +hillocks, temples, dens, groves, fountains, rivers, pools, lakes, stone +heaps, akers, and so forth, of pure and perfect Greek." We need not be +surprised that Sir Thomas's Greek has more affinity with the vernacular +form of the language current in the Cromartie of his time than with the +Attic of the age of Pericles, + + "_For Greke of Athenes was to him unknowe._" + +Probably in this northern dialect of the Greek tongue ahyron was used +instead of the more classical chrusost. Another indication of the +difference between the Cromartian and Attic forms of speech is given by +Sir Thomas in the same treatise in the name Alexhander, which Thucydides +would have written Alhexandrost. + +[201] Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart., an author who combines a great many of +the peculiarities of the two Sir Thomas Urquharts, the father and the +son, and who has recorded his experiences in an _Autobiography_, lays +stress in like manner upon this quality of speed in composition. Thus he +says of his little novel, _Mary de Clifford_ (published in 1792), "it +was written with a fervent rapidity, which no one seems to +believe;--begun in October, 1791, and the sheets sent to the press by +the post, as fast as they were scribbled." The passage in which he +refers to the vexations to which he had been subjected is worth quoting, +on account of its similarity to our Sir Thomas's story. "I have +suffered," he says, "a hundred times more disappointments, and crosses, +and insults, and wrongs, and deprivations, than Chatterton, yet my +spirit, though bent and sunk, was never broken. I am calm and defiant, +though not hopeful, in proportion as the storm presses me;--and what +trials have I not undergone? I do not mean to relate all these trials; +it would involve the conduct of obscure individuals, many of whom are +still living" (_Autobiography_, pp. 8, 9). + +[202] _Works_, p. 181. + +[203] _I.e._ at such an extremity liable to be forfeited to the +victorious soldier. + +[204] _Works_, pp. 189, 190. + +[205] Appendix II. p. 215. + +[206] "This part is written in a euphuistic, rhapsodical vein, and +affords an indication of the saturation of Urquhart's mind with the +style of Rabelais. It might almost be pieced together from the meeting +of Pantagruel with the Limousin scholar, the discomfiture of Thaumast by +Panurge, and the meeting of Pantegruel and his party with Queen +Entelechia" (W. F. Smith's Introduction to _Rabelais_). + +[207] Dr Kippis, the editor of the _Biographia Britannica, or Lives of +the Most Eminent Persons who have Flourished in Great Britain and +Ireland_ (1789), had a bad time in writing the notice of Crichton that +appears in it. He says that he entered upon the task with diffidence, +and even with anxiety. On the one hand, he was desirous not to detract +from Crichton's real merit, and, on the other, he wished to form a just +estimate of the truth of the facts which are recorded concerning him. +Part of his perturbation of mind was due to the indignation which he +felt towards our author, whose narrative of Crichton's adventures he +regarded as utterly untrustworthy. At an early stage in the article he +remarks: "And here it must be observed that no credit can be granted to +any facts which depend upon the sole authority of Sir Thomas +Urquhart.... I must declare my full persuasion that Sir Thomas Urquhart +is an author whose testimony to facts is totally unworthy of regard; and +it is surprising that a perusal of his works does not strike every mind +with this conviction. His productions are so inexpressibly absurd and +extravagant, that the only rational judgment which can be pronounced +concerning him is, that he was little, if at all, better than a madman. +To the character of his having been a madman must be added that of his +being a liar. Severe as this term may be thought, I apprehend that a +diligent examination of the treatise which contains the memorials +concerning Crichton would show that it is strictly true." The censure +uttered by Dr Kippis _is_ very severe, but some excuse for him is easily +found. He was anxious to make his dictionary of biography a mine of +facts on which the public could rely with absolute confidence; and he +saw before him the danger of quoting as an authority a writer like +Urquhart, who so palpably elongated facts and embroidered them with +fancies. His opinion with regard to the _Pedigree_ of the Urquharts is +given on p. 144. + +[208] _The Scot Abroad_, p. 256. In the _Adventurer_, No. 81, Dr Johnson +has reproduced Sir Thomas Urquhart's narrative of the career of +Crichton, but has toned down its glowing colours. + +[209] The reader will remember that this simply meant the "Wonderful +Crichton"--this use of the word "admire" being now archaic. + +[210] The passage in Rabelais is as follows:--"Pantagruel ... would one +day make trial of his knowledge. Thereupon in all the Carrefours, that +is, throughout all the foure quarters, streets and corners of the city, +he set up Conclusions to the number of nine thousand seven hundred sixty +and foure,[A] in all manner of learning, touching in them the hardest +doubts that are in any science. And first of all, in the +Fodder-street[B] he held disputes against all the Regents or Fellowes of +Colledges, Artists or Masters of Arts, and Oratours, and did so +gallantly, that he overthrew them, and set them all upon their tailes. +He went afterwards to the Sorboune, where he maintained argument against +all the Theologians or Divines, for the space of six weeks, from foure a +clock in the morning until six in the evening, except an interval of two +houres to refresh themselves, and take their repast. And at this were +present the greatest part of the Lords of the Court, the Masters of +Requests, Presidents, Counsellors, those of the Accompts, Secretaries, +Advocates, and others: as also the Sheriffes of the said town, with the +Physicians and Professors of the Canon-Law. Amongst which it is to be +remarked, that the greatest part were stubborn jades, and in their +opinions obstinate; but he took such course with them, that, for all +their ergo's and fallacies, he put their backs to the wall, gravelled +them in the deepest questions, and made it visibly appear to the world, +that, compared to him, they were but monkies, and a knot of mufled +calves. Whereupon everybody began to keep a bustling noise, and talk of +his so marvellous knowledge, through all degrees of persons in both +sexes, even to the very laundresses, brokers, rostmeat-sellers, +penknife-makers, and others, who, when he past along in the street, +would say, This is he! in which he took delight, as Demosthenes the +prince of Greek oratours did when an old crouching wife, pointing at him +with her fingers, said, That is the man"[C] (ii. chap. 10). + +[A] Pico della Mirandola in the winter of 1486-87 offered to maintain at +Rome 900 theses _de omni scitili_ (W. F. S.). + +[B] _Rue de la Feurre_ (near the Place Maubert) was the street in Paris +where the poorer students used to lodge. It got its name because straw +served them for beds and furniture. Dante says in _Par._ x. 137: + + "Essa e la luce eterua di Sigieri, + Che, leggendo nel vico degli strami, + Sillogizzo invidiosi veri." + + (_Ibid._) + +[C] Cf. "At pulchrum est, digito monstrari, et dicier: Hic est" (_Pers._ +i. 28). (_Ibid._) + +[211] He says in reference to the whole history of Crichton: "The verity +of this story I have here related, concerning this incomparable +Crichton, may be certified by above two thousand men yet living, who +have known him" (_Works_, p. 244). There can scarcely have been so many, +unless centenarians were much commoner then than now. + +[212] "Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my +Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon Wednesday +in Wheeson week, when the prince broke thy head for liking his father to +a singing-man of Windsor; thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing +thy wound, to marry me and make me my lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? +Did not good-wife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then and call me +gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us she +had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some; +whereby I told thee they were ill for a green wound! And didst thou not, +when she was gone down stairs, desire me to be no more so familiarity +with such poor people; saying that ere long they should call me madam? +And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings? I +put thee now to thy book-oath: deny it, if thou canst" (_2 Henry IV._ +II. i.). + +[213] _Works_, p. 234. + +[214] _Ibid._ p. 243. + +[215] The italics are ours. + +[216] _Works_, p. 224. At one of Charles Lamb's Wednesday evenings in +Mitre Court Building, Hazlitt tells us, "the name of the Admirable +Crichton was suddenly started as a splendid example of _waste_ talents, +so different from the generality of his countrymen." A North Briton +present declared himself descended from that prodigy of learning and +accomplishment, and said he had family plate in his possession as +vouchers for the fact, with the initials engraved upon them of A. +C.--"Admirable Crichton!" A phrenological report upon this gentleman by +Charles Lamb would have enlarged "the public stock of harmless +pleasure." + +[217] _Works_, p. 277. The charity which "believeth all things and +hopeth all things," or the credulity which persuades itself of the truth +of the things which it wishes to believe, is manifest in Sir Thomas +Urquhart's estimate of the character of Charles II. Less charitable or +more impartial critics are probably inclined to the opinion that the +existence in that sovereign of a number of the above-mentioned virtues +was as mythical as that of a good many of his "hundred and ten +predecessors." So far as "comeliness" is concerned, Charles II. at a +later period had a much humbler view of the matter than Sir Thomas here +expresses. For he complained that when they wished to represent a +villain on the stage they made up a figure somewhat like himself. See +Cibber's _Apology_, p. 111. + +[218] _Works_, p. 212. + +[219] His unhappy prejudices against the Presbyterian clergy are +irrepressible, for immediately after suggesting "a standing library in +custody of the minister of the parish," he adds, "with this proviso, +that none of the books should be embezeled by him or any of his +successors" (_Works_, p. 282). + +[220] We have reason to be thankful to Sir Thomas for his kindness in +refraining from the style of composition which he here indicates, for we +can scarcely credit his assurance that the results would have been less +terrifying than the description of the processes by which they would +have been reached. There is no need for an apology, for he has really +done pretty well as it is. Mr Ruskin had once a vision of ten thousand +school-inspectors assembled on Cader Idris. What horror would seize such +a company, if they were treated as a class in elementary English, and +the above passage were read out as an exercise in dictation! Nay, it is +to be feared that even the more august assembly in Dover House, the +Lords of Education themselves, would be panic-stricken at such a task. +Only Macaulay's "schoolboy" would probably be found to enter upon it +with unblenched countenance, and to accomplish it successfully. + +[221] This reminds us of Bottom the weaver. "I will roar that I will do +any man's heart good to hear me.... [Yet not to frighten the ladies.] I +will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking +dove: I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale" (_Midsummer-Night's +Dream_, I. ii.). + +[222] _Works_, pp. 292, 293. + +[223] _Logopandecteision_, or an INTRODUCTION to the UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. +Digested into these Six several Books, Neaudethaumata, Chrestasebeia, +Cleronomaporia, Chryseomystes, Neleodicastes, and Philoponauxesis. By +Sir Thomas Urquhart of _Cromartie_, Knight. Now lately contrived and +published, both for his own utilie, and that of all pregnant and +ingenious Spirits. _Credere quaerenti nonne haic justissima res est? Qui +non plura cupit, quam ratio ipsa jubet._ _Englished thus_, To grant him +his demands, were it not just? Who craves no more, then [than] reason +says he must. _London._ Printed, and are to be sold by _Giles Calvert_ +at the _Black Spread Eagle_ at the west-end of _Pauls_; and by _Richard +Tomlins_ at the Sun and Bible near Pye-corner. 1653. + +[224] Eleven genders seem nine more than are necessary, and the use of +such a large number suggests to one that in Sir Thomas's Universal +Language the distinctions in question were to receive an undue amount of +attention. At the same time, fault has been found with our English +language for being somewhat defective in accentuating these +distinctions; and an attempt to correct this shortcoming, to a certain +extent, has been made by Southey in _The Doctor_. He proposed to +anglicise the orthography of the female garment, "which is indeed the +sister to the shirt," and then to utilise the hint offered in its new +form: thus _Hemise_ and _Shemise_. In letter-writing every person knows +that male and female letters have a distinct character; they should +therefore, he thought, be generally distinguished thus, _Hepistle_ and +_Shepistle_. And as there is the same marked difference in the writing +of the two sexes, he proposed _Penmanship_ and _Penwomanship_. Erroneous +opinions in religion being promulgated in this country by women as well +as men, the teachers of such false doctrine may be divided into +_Heresiarchs_ and _Sheresiarchs_, so that we should speak of the +_Heresy_ of the Quakers and the _Sheresy_ of Joanna Southcote's people. +The troublesome affection of the diaphragm, which every one has +experienced, is, upon the same principle, to be called, according to the +sex of the patient, _Hecups_, or _Shecups_, which, upon the principle of +making our language truly British, is better than the more classical +form of _Hiccups_ and _Haecups_. In its objective use the word becomes +Hiscups or Hercups; and in like manner Histerics should be altered into +Herterics, the complaint never being masculine. It is perhaps a little +surprising that this suggestion should have lain before the British +public for half a century, and have been left unutilised. + +[225] _Works_, pp. 316-318. + +[226] _Works_, pp. 316-318. + +[227] _Ibid._ p. 332. + +[228] _Scenes and Legends_, chap. vii. + +[229] A somewhat similar project was described in the Marquis of +Worcester's _Century of the Names and Scantling of ... Inventions_ +(1663), in which the steam-engine is anticipated. The passage is as +follows:--"32. How to compose an universal character, methodical, and +easie to be written, yet intelligible in any language; so that if an +Englishman write it in English, a Frenchman, Italian, Spaniard, Irish, +Welsh, being scholars, yea, Grecian or Hebritian, shall as perfectly +understand it in their owne Tongue, as if they were perfect English, +distinguishing the Verbs from the Nouns, the Numbers, Tenses, Cases as +properly expressed in their own Language as it was written in English." + +A writer in _Blackwood's Magazine_ in 1820 affirms that he has good +reasons for believing that the above volume was really by Sir Thomas +Urquhart, and was dishonestly put forth as the work of the Marquis of +Worcester. He does not give us any of his reasons. The style of the +little volume bears no resemblance to that of our author, and this fact +is of itself almost conclusive proof that Sir Thomas Urquhart had +nothing to do with it. The Scottish knight could scarcely open his lips +without revealing his identity. It is rather difficult to believe, too, +that a manuscript lost by Sir Thomas in the streets of Worcester should +have been picked up by the Marquis of Worcester. The coincidence would +be a very extraordinary one. + +[230] Hear Heine's angry allusions to his early scholastic experiences, +in which he suggests another and less honourable origin of the Greek +tongue: "Vom Griechischen will ich gar nicht sprechen--ich aergere mich +sonst zu viel. Die Moenche im Mittelalter hatten so ganz Unrecht nicht, +wenn sie behaupteten, dass das Griechische eine Erfindung des Teufels +sei" (_Das Buch Le Grand_, vii.). + +[231] Sanskrit, Old Persian, Lithuanian, and old Slavonic have the dual +both in declension and conjugation, and in the first of these it is used +much more frequently than in Greek. Faint traces of it in declension are +to be found in Teutonic speech, though in conjugation it is only in the +Gothic that the dual is used. In old Gaelic the dual is a regular +feature of declension, but not of conjugation. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + TRANSLATION OF RABELAIS + +The foundation on which Sir Thomas Urquhart's literary fame securely +rests is his translation into English of the first three books of the +works of Rabelais. Of these the first and second appeared in two +separate volumes in the year 1653--exactly a century after the death of +the great French satirist--and the third was published by Pierre Antoine +Motteux in 1693, long after Sir Thomas's own death.[232] + +The difficulty, singularity, and obscurity of the writings of Rabelais +had probably been hindrances in the way of their being presented to the +English public in their own tongue; for, though the register of the +Stationers' Company preserves a record of two attempts at translation, +these seem to have been but fragmentary, and to have dropped still-born +from the press. The works themselves are not known to be extant, and +nothing more than the bare name of them survives. + +The difficulties which lie in the way of the ordinary reader who wishes +to become acquainted with the works of Rabelais are very +considerable.[233] The fantastical style of the satirist, his countless +allusions to contemporary persons and events, his out-of-the-way +learning, the care with which he conceals at such length the seriousness +of his purpose, and the incredible grossness of manners which so often +disfigures his pages, are obstacles which can with difficulty be +surmounted. The last-mentioned characteristic is, indeed, a grave and +ingrained fault, which must for ever be a slur upon the writer's fame. +Yet we may say of him what Don Pedro says of Benedick, "The man doth +fear God howsoever it seems not in him by some large jests he will +make"; or what Mrs Blower in _St Ronan's Well_ says of her deceased +husband, "He was a merry man, but he had the root of the matter in him +for a' his light way of speaking." Coleridge--"the brother," according +to Mr Birrell, "whose praise is throughout all the churches"--speaks of +Rabelais in very high terms indeed; "Beyond a doubt," he says, "he was +among the deepest, as well as boldest thinkers of his age. His +buffoonery was not merely Brutus' rough stick, which contained a rod of +gold: it was necessary as an amulet against the monks and legates.[234] +Never was there a more plausible, and seldom, I am persuaded, a less +appropriate line than the thousand times quoted + + 'Rabelais laughing in his easy chair' + +of Mr Pope. The caricature of his filth and zanyism show how fully he +both knew and felt the danger in which he stood. I could write a +treatise in praise of the moral elevation of Rabelais' work, which would +make the church stare and the conventicle groan,[235] and yet would be +truth, and nothing but the truth. I class Rabelais with the great +creative minds of the world, Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, etc." + +Francois Rabelais was born in Touraine, according to the date usually +given, and which there is no reason to question, in the same year as +Luther and Raphael, A.D. 1483, and died in Paris in 1553. His father had +a small estate, and was an apothecary (or, as some say, a tavern-keeper) +in the town of Chinon, at the foot of the castle where, three centuries +before, our Henry II. had died, and whither, a little more than fifty +years before Francois was born, Joan of Arc had come with promises of +supernatural aid to Charles VII. He was the youngest of five sons, and, +as was often the case in those days, was provided for by being made a +monk, while the other members of the family divided amongst them the +paternal estate. In one passage in his works he speaks of mothers who +"cannot bear their children nor brook them in their houses nine, nay +often not seven years, but by putting a shirt over their robe, and by +cutting a few hairs on the top of their head ... they transform them +into birds," _i.e._, get rid of them as soon as possible, and thrust +them into monasteries. This seems to have been his own sad fate. + +In course of time, after the schoolboy period of his life was past, he +entered the order of Franciscan monks at the convent of +Fontenay-le-Comte in Poitou, and took holy orders; and it was here, +during the next fifteen years (1509-1524), that he devoted himself to +the acquisition of everything in the shape of literature or learning, +and laid the foundation of the astonishing erudition which his works +display. His long residence in the monastery had inspired Rabelais with +a deep hatred of monasticism and monks, and, after being allowed to +exchange the Franciscan for the Benedictine order, he laid down the +regular habit and took that of a secular priest, and left the convent +without the sanction of his superior--a breach of ecclesiastical +discipline which exposed him to severe censure. After wandering hither +and thither in the pursuit of medical knowledge, he entered the +University of Montpellier, graduated as a physician, and practised there +with credit and success. After being Hospital Physician at Lyons, he +spent some time in Rome, as a medical attendant upon Jean du Bellay, +Bishop of Paris. While here he succeeded in making his peace with the +Church, and by a papal Bull (17th January 1536) was allowed to return to +the Benedictine order and to practise physic according to canonical +rules, _i.e._, to charge no fees and to use neither fire nor knife. This +release from ecclesiastical disabilities allowed him to be appointed to +a place in the abbey of St Maur-des-Fosses, near Paris. After another +period of exile and wandering he was nominated cure of Meudon, an office +which he resigned after two years. Three months afterwards he died in +Paris (9th April, 1553), and was buried in the cemetery of the parish of +St Paul's. + +The publication of the satirical writings of Rabelais was spread over a +long series of years, from 1532 or 1533, when the first installment, in +his _Gargantua_, was brought out, down to 1564, eleven years after his +death, when the fifth and concluding book of his _Pantagruel_ was issued +in its entirety. The main object of his satire was what used to be +called "the intolerance, superstition, and disgusting follies and vices +of the Romish Church," but, incidentally, pretenders to knowledge of +every kind come under his lash. For when imposture, folly, and humbug +grow too rank and noisome, there arise, it can scarcely be by accident, +men like Lucian, Rabelais, and Voltaire, whose calling it is to cut them +down. That theirs is an ill-requited office is sufficiently plain from +the odium which, in spite of their beneficent labours, is often +associated with their names. "[Hast thou] only a torch for burning, no +hammer for building?" says the somewhat wearisome Herr Teufelsdroeckh to +the last named of these satirists, "take our thanks, then, and--thyself +away."[236] Yet the torch for burning is as necessary as the hammer for +building, if the site for the Temple of Truth is to be prepared. It may +well be that burning down and rooting up are needed before building can +be begun, and some of those who have endeavoured to benefit mankind +have felt themselves called to the one sort of work rather than to the +other. + +The form which Rabelais chooses for the frame-work of his satire is the +burlesque adventures of the giant Gargantua, of whom many legends were +current in Touraine, and of his son Pantagruel, sometimes spoken of as +also a giant, and at others as a wise and virtuous prince of ordinary +proportions. Along with the strange, tangled, and chaotic story of their +exploits the writer from time to time enunciates admirable ideas, which +must have seemed revolutionary to his contemporaries, and some of which +even we have not yet realised. + +The translation of Rabelais by Sir Thomas Urquhart is his great literary +achievement. "It is impossible," says Tytler, "to look into it without +admiring the air of ease, freshness, and originality which the +translator has so happily communicated to his performance. All those +singular qualifications which unfitted Urquhart to succeed in serious +composition--his extravagance, his drollery (?), his unbridled +imagination, his burlesque and endless epithets--are in the task of +translating Rabelais transplanted into their true field of action, and +revel through his pages with a licence and buoyancy which is quite +unbridled, yet quite allowable. Indeed, Urquhart and Rabelais appear, in +many points, to have been congenial spirits, and the translator seems to +have been born for his author."[237] + +As might have been expected, the translation is not marked by painful +exactness of rendering. On the contrary, evidences of carelessness and +inaccuracy are by no means uncommon, but yet the work is, as some one +calls it, "one of the most perfect transfusions of an author from one +language to another,[238] that ever man accomplished." The great merits +of the translation consist in its preserving the very air and style of +the original, and in the astonishing richness of vocabulary which it +manifests. Where Rabelais invents a word, Sir Thomas invents one, or +two, or three; and if the former has a list of twenty or thirty +epithets, the latter has no hesitation in supplying his readers with +forty or sixty, which seem quite as good as the original stock which he +thus enlarges. Sometimes, too, as Mr W. F. Smith, a very distinguished +student of Rabelais, remarks, "in translating a single word of the +French he often empties all the synonyms given by Cotgrave into his +version." + +Mr Tytler, in the above-quoted criticism on Urquhart's translation, +speaks of the peculiarities of his style as "revelling through his pages +with a licence and buoyancy which is quite unbridled, yet quite +allowable." One is obliged to demur to the last adjective. A translator, +like a compositor, should be under some obligation to adhere to the text +before him; and, as a matter of fact, the success of Urquhart's version +is occasionally interfered with by this same "unbridled revelling." The +style of Rabelais is graphic and vigorous, and at times exceedingly +graceful, and occupies a high place in French literature. Any tampering +with it, therefore, in the way of alteration or addition, was not likely +to be an improvement. + +But, even after all deductions are made, the praise bestowed upon +Urquhart's work has been fully deserved. "The buoyancy and unembarrassed +sweep of its general character," says Sir Theodore Martin, "which gives +his Rabelais more the look of an original than of a translation, its +rich and well-compacted diction, the many happy turns of phrase that are +quite his own, have fairly earned for it the high estimation in which it +has long been held. His task was one of extreme difficulty, and there +have perhaps been few men besides himself that could have brought to it +the world of omnigenous knowledge which it required. It was apparently +Urquhart's ambition to realise in his own person the ideal of human +accomplishment, to be at once + + 'Complete in feature and in mind, + With all good grace to grace a gentleman.' + +He had left no source of information unexplored, few aspects of life +unobserved, and, in the translation of Rabelais, he found full exercise +for his multiform attainments. Ably as the work has been completed by +Motteux, one cannot but regret that the worthy Knight of Cromarty had +not spared him the task."[239] + +The merits of the translation can scarcely be exhibited in selections +torn from their context, and perhaps only partly intelligible; but +perhaps the following may be welcome to the reader. Let us take these +extracts from the graceful and charming sketch of the Abbey of Thelema, +which was to be different from all other monastic communities, and was +to be the home of a society of young people living together in all +innocence and joy, free from sordid cares, and devoted to the studies, +exercises, and accomplishments which are appropriate to refined and +noble spirits. + +"'First, then,' said Gargantua, 'you must not build a wall about your +convent, for all other abbies are strongly walled and mured about.... +Moreover, seeing there are certain convents in the world, whereof the +custome is, if any woman come in, I mean chaste and honest women, they +immediately sweep the ground which they have trod upon;[240] therefore +was it ordained, that if any man or woman, entered into religious +orders, should by chance come within this new abbey, all the roomes +should be thoroughly washed and cleansed through which they had passed. +And because in all other monasteries and nunneries all is compassed, +limited, and regulated by houres, it was decreed that in this new +structure there should be neither clock nor dial, but that, according to +the opportunities and incident occasions, all their hours should be +disposed of; for,' said Gargantua, 'the greatest losse of time, that I +know, is to count the hours. What good comes of it? Nor can there be any +greater dotage in the world then [than] for one to guide and direct his +courses by the sound of a bell, and not by his owne judgement and +discretion.' + +"Item, Because at that time they put no women into nunneries, but such +as were either purblind, blinkards, lame, crooked, ill-favoured, +misshapen, fooles, senselesse, spoyled, or corrupt; nor encloystered any +men, but those that were either sickly, ill-bred lowts, simple sots, or +peevish trouble-houses; ... therefore was it ordained, that into this +religious order should be admitted no women that were not faire, well +featur'd, and of a sweet disposition; nor men that were not comely, +personable, and well conditioned. + +"Item, Because in the convents of women men come not but under-hand, +privily, and by stealth, it was therefore enacted, that in this house +there shall be no women in case there be not men, nor men in case there +be not women. + +"Item, Because both men and women, that are received into religious +orders after the expiring of their noviciat or probation-year, were +constrained and forced perpetually to stay there all the days of their +life, it was therefore ordered, that all whatever, men or women, +admitted within this abbey, should have full leave to depart with peace +and contentment, whensoever it should seem good to them so to do. + +"Item, for that the religious men and women did ordinarily make three +vows, to wit, those of chastity, poverty, and obedience, it was +therefore constituted and appointed, that in this convent they might be +honourably married, that they might be rich, and live at liberty. + +"In regard of the legitimat time of the persons to be initiated, and +years under and above which they were not capable of reception, the +women were to be admitted from ten till fifteen, and the men from +twelve till eighteen."[241] + +After an elaborate description of the magnificence of the abbey and of +its endowments, and of the apparel worn by the members of the new order, +we are told of "_how the Thelemites were governed, and of their manner +of living_." "All their life," we read, "was spent not in lawes, +statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure. +They rose out of their beds, when they thought good; they did eat, +drink, labour, sleep, when they had a minde to it, and were disposed for +it. None did awake them, none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink, +nor to do any other thing; for so had Gargantua established it. In all +their rule, and strictest tie of their order, there was but this one +clause to be observed, + + DO WHAT THOU WILT; + +Because men that are free, well-borne, well-bred, and conversant in +honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spurre that prompteth +them unto vertuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is +called honour. Those same men when by base subjection and constraint +they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble +disposition, by which they formerly were inclined to vertue, to shake +off and break that bond of servitude, wherein they are so tyrannously +inslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to long after +things forbidden, and to desire what is denied us.[242] + +"By this liberty they entered into a very laudable emulation, to do all +of them what they saw did please one. If any of the gallants or ladies +should say, Let us drink, they would all drink. If any one of them said, +Let us play, they all played. If one said, Let us go a-walking into the +fields, they went all. If it were to go a-hawking or a-hunting, the +ladies mounted upon dainty, well-paced nags, seated in a stately palfrey +saddle,[243] carried on their lovely fists, miniardly begloved every one +of them, either a sparhawk, or a laneret, or a marlin, and the young +gallants carried the other kinds of hawkes. So nobly were they taught, +that there was neither he nor she amongst them but could read, write, +sing, play upon several musical instruments, speak five or sixe several +languages, and compose in them all very quaintly, both in verse and +prose. Never were seen so valiant knights, so noble and worthy, so +dextrous and skilful both on foot and a horseback, more brisk and +lively, more nimble and quick, or better handling all manner of weapons +then [than] were there. Never were seene ladies so proper[244] and +handsome, so miniard and dainty, lesse froward, or more ready with their +hand, and with their needle, in every honest and free action belonging +to that sexe, then [than] were there. For this reason, when the time +came, that any man of the said abbey, either at the request of his +parents, or for some other cause, had a minde to go out of it, he +carried along with him one of the ladies, namely, her whom he had before +that chosen for his mistris,[245] and [they] were married together. And +if they had formerly in Theleme lived in good devotion and amity, they +did continue therein and increase it to a greater height in their state +of matrimony: and did entertaine that mutual love till the very last day +of their life, in no lesse vigour and fervency, then [than] at the very +day of their wedding."[246] + +Such is the dream which floated before the mind of Rabelais, but, +unhappily, it is still an airy fancy, and has never received a local +habitation and a name. Mrs Grundy, the vegetarians, the teetotallers, +the anti-tobacco people, and the enemies of "rational costume" have up +to the present forbidden the erection of any such building. + +One of the most prominent figures in the story of Pantagruel is his +favourite, Panurge, who is a rogue, a drunkard, a coward, and a +malicious scoundrel, but who yet, like Falstaff, in spite of all his +moral deficiencies, manages to appear as an amusing personage. Into his +lips is put, with a fine disregard of congruity, an eloquent speech, +which begins in praise of debt, and ends by setting forth the +interdependence of all things in the universe. Panurge is represented as +having threescore and three ways of making money, and two hundred and +fourteen of spending it, so that he is always poor, and his sovereign +Pantagruel remonstrates with him on account of his prodigal habits. + +He replies as follows: "Be still indebted to somebody or other, that +there may be somebody always to pray for you; [to pray] that the giver +of all good things may grant unto you a blessed, long, and prosperous +life; fearing, if fortune should deal crossly with you, that it might be +his chance to come short of being paid by you, he will always speak good +of you in every company, ever and anon purchase new creditors unto you; +to the end, that through their means you may make a shift by borrowing +from Peter to pay Paul,[247] and with other folk's earth fill up his +ditch. When of old in the region of the Gauls, by the institution of the +Druids,[248] the servants, slaves, and bondmen were burnt quick at the +funerals and obsequies of their lords and masters, had not they fear +enough, think you, that their lords and masters should die? For, per +force, they were to die with them for company. Did not they uncessantly +send up their supplications to their great God Mercury,[249] as likewise +unto Dis, the Father of Wealth,[250] to lengthen out their days, and +preserve them long in health? Were not they very careful to entertain +them well, punctually to look unto them, and to attend them faithfully +and circumspectly? For by those means were they to live together at +least until the hour of death. Believe me your creditors with a more +fervent devotion will beseech [Providence] to prolong your life, they +being of nothing more afraid than that you should die.... I, in this +only respect and consideration of being a debtor, esteem myself +worshipful, reverend, and formidable. For, against the opinion of most +philosophers, that of nothing ariseth nothing, yet, without having +bottomed on so much as that which is called the First Matter [Primary +Matter], did I out of nothing become such [a] maker and creator, that I +have created--what?--a gay number of fair and jolly creditors. Nay, +creditors, I will maintain it, even to the very fire itself +exclusively,[251] are fair and goodly creatures. Who lendeth nothing is +an ugly and wicked creature.... You can hardly imagine how glad I am, +when every morning I perceive myself environed and surrounded with +brigades of creditors,--humble, fawning, and full of their reverences. +And whilst I remark that, as I look more favourably upon, and give a +chearfuller countenance to one than to the other, the fellow thereupon +buildeth a conceit that he shall be the first dispatched, and the +foremost in the date of payment; and he valueth my smiles at the rate of +ready money.... I have all my lifetime held debt to be as an union or +conjunction of the heavens with the earth, and the whole cement whereby +the race of mankind is kept together;[252] yea, of such vertue and +efficacy, that, I say, the whole progeny of Adam would very suddenly +perish without it." + +He then goes on to describe a world in which there are no debtors and no +debts. There will be no regular course among the planets, but all will +be in disorder. Jupiter, reckoning himself to be nothing indebted to +Saturn, will go near to thrust him out of his place; Saturn and Mars +will combine to promote the confusion; Mercury, being debtor to no one, +will no longer serve any; Venus, because she shall have lent nothing, +will no longer be venerated. "The moon," he says, "will remain bloody +and obscure. For to what end should the sun impart unto her any of his +light?[253] He owed her nothing. Nor yet will the sun shine upon the +earth, nor the stars send down any good influence,[254] because the +terrestrial globe hath desisted from sending up their wonted nourishment +by vapours and exhalations, wherewith Heraclitus said, the Stoicks +proved, Cicero maintained, they were cherished and alimented.... No rain +will descend upon the earth, nor light shine thereon; no wind will blow +there, nor will there be in it any summer or harvest.... Such a world +without lending will be no better than a dog-kennel, a place of +contention and wrangling.... Men will not then salute one another; it +will be but lost labour to expect aid or succour from any, or to cry +fire, water, murther, for none will put to their helping hand. Why? He +lent no money, there is nothing due to him. Nobody is concerned in his +burning, in his shipwrack, in his ruine, or in his death; and that +because he hitherto hath lent nothing, and would never thereafter have +lent anything. In short, Faith, Hope, and Charity would be quite +banish'd from such a world--for men are born to relieve and assist one +another." + +"But, on the contrary," he went on to say, "be pleased to represent +unto your fancy another world, wherein every one lendeth, and everyone +oweth, all are debtors, and all creditors. O how great will that harmony +be, which shall thereby result from the regular motions of the heavens! +Methinks I hear it every whit as well as ever Plato did.[255] What +sympathy will there be amongst the elements! O how delectable then unto +nature will be our own works and productions! Whilst Ceres appeareth +loaden with corn, Bacchus with wines, Flora with flowers, Pomona with +fruits, and Juno fair in a clear air, wholsom and pleasant. I lose +myself in this high contemplation. Then will among the race of mankind, +peace, love, benevolence, fidelity, tranquillity, rests, banquets, +feastings, joy, gladness, gold, silver, single money [small change], +chains, rings, with other ware, and chaffer of that nature, be found to +trot from hand to hand. No suits at law, no wars, no strife, debate, nor +wrangling; none will be there an usurer, none will be there a +pinch-penny, a scrape-good wretch, or churlish hard-hearted refuser. +Will not this be the golden age in the reign of Saturn?--the true idea +of the Olympick regions, wherein all [other] vertues cease, charity +alone ruleth, governeth, domineereth, and triumpheth? All will be fair +and goodly people there, all just and vertuous. O happy world! O people +of that world most happy! Yea, thrice and four times blessed is that +people! I think in very deed that I am amongst them."[256] + +In one curious passage Sir Thomas Urquhart amplifies the text of the +author whom he translates, and supplies his readers with an astonishing +list of onomatopoeic words, many of which will probably be new to those +who have not come across this passage before. Rabelais has nine of these +words, but the translator[257] enlarges the list to seventy-one. +Pantagruel is arguing against fasting and solitude as aids to a +contemplative life, and quotes the authority of his father Gargantua. + +"He [Gargantua] gave us also," he said, "the example of the philosopher, +who, when he thought most seriously to have withdrawn himself unto a +solitary privacy, far from the rusling clutterments of the tumultuous +and confused world, the better to improve his theory, to contrive, +comment, and ratiocinate, was, notwithstanding his uttermost endeavours +to free himself from all untoward noises, surrounded and environ'd about +so with the barking of currs [bawling of mastiffs, bleating of sheep, +prating of parrets, tatling of jack-daws, grunting of swine, girning of +boars, yelping of foxes, mewing of cats, cheeping of mice, squeaking of +weasils, croaking of frogs, crowing of cocks, kekling of hens, calling +of partridges, chanting of swans, chattering of jays, peeping of +chickens, singing of larks, creaking of geese, chirping of swallows, +clucking of moorfowls, cucking of cuckos, bumling of bees, rammage of +hawks, chirming of linots, croaking of ravens, screeching of owls, +whicking of pigs, gushing of hogs, curring of pigeons, grumbling of +cushet-doves, howling of panthers, curkling of quails, chirping of +sparrows, crackling of crows, nuzzing of camels, wheening of whelps, +buzzing of dromedaries, mumbling of rabets, cricking of ferrets, humming +of wasps, mioling of tygers, bruzzing of bears, sussing of kitnings, +clamring of scarfes, whimpring of fullmarts, boing of buffaloes, +warbling of nightingales, quavering of meavises, drintling of turkies, +coniating of storks, frantling of peacocks, clattering of mag-pyes, +murmuring of stock-doves, crouting of cormorants, cigling of locusts, +charming of beagles, guarring of puppies, snarling of messens, rantling +of rats, guerieting of apes, snuttering of monkies, pioling of +pelicanes, quecking of ducks], yelling of wolves, roaring of lions, +neighing of horses, crying of elephants, hissing of serpents, and +wailing of turtles, that he was much more troubled than if he had been +in the middle of the crowd at the fair of Fontenay or Niort."[258] In +spite of the amplification of the original text of Rabelais, two of the +sounds are omitted--"the braying of asses," and the noise made by +grass-hoppers (_sonnent les eigales_), which we might have called +"chirping," if the swallows and sparrows had not taken possession of +that term. + +As already stated, the first two books were all that were published in +the lifetime of Sir Thomas Urquhart. They appeared as separate volumes +in 1653. The unsold stock of each was reissued in 1664, in one volume, +an additional title-page, an extra preface, and a life of Rabelais being +prefixed to them. The volume became very scarce, and in 1693-94 Pierre +Antoine Motteux, a Frenchman, who was master of exceedingly racy and +idiomatic English, published an edition containing the third book. This +was extremely inaccurate, so far as typography was concerned, and gave +the public the version of Sir Thomas Urquhart with certain unspecified +changes made by the editor in order to impart to it additional +"smartness." In 1708 Motteux published a complete translation of +Rabelais, the version of the fourth and fifth books being supplied by +himself,[259] as supplementary to Urquhart's work. After the death of +Motteux, a somewhat pretentious editor named Ozell[260] brought out the +combined versions, with notes principally taken from the French of +Duchat, and this has been reprinted time after time since its first +appearance in 1737. + +At least seventeen editions of Urquhart's work, either by itself or with +Motteux's supplementary matter, have been issued since his day, and +there is no sign of its fame waxing dim through the lapse of time; and +therefore the immortality after which he longed has in a measure been +won by him. And so, once more before we take our leave of him, we look +again into the twilight of the past, and see his striking figure--the +soldier, the scholar, and the author--crowned with the wreath which his +own hands have placed upon his brows, but which succeeding generations +declare him worthy to bear. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[232] The title-page of the first book does not contain Sir Thomas +Urquhart's name, but on it is his motto ("Mean, speak, and do well"). It +runs as follows:--"The first Book of the Works of MR. FRANCIS RABELAIS, +Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, +and Sayings of GARGANTUA and his Sonne PANTAGRUEL. Together with the +Pantagrueline Prognostication, the Oracle of the divine Bacbuc, and +response of the bottle. Hereunto are annexed the Navigations unto the +sounding Isle and the Isle of the Apedefts: as likewise the +Philosophical cream with a Limosin Epistle. All done by Mr. Francis +Rabelais, in the French Tongue, and now faithfully translated into +English. eunoei ehyloge kai ehypratte. London, Printed for Richard +Baddeley, within the Middle Templegate. 1653." On the title-page of the +second book are the translator's initials, S, T. V. C. (Sir Thomas +Urquhart of Cromartie). While on that of the third book we have his name +in full: "Now faithfully translated into English by the unimitable pen +of Sir Thomas Urwhart, Kt. and Bar. The Translator of the Two First +Books. Never before Printed. London: Printed for Richard Baldwin, near +the Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane, 1693." Copies of the first and second +books of the above date are in the British Museum, but erroneously +catalogued--not under Urquhart, but only under C., S. T. V. A second +edition of them both seems from the Bodleian Catalogue to have been +published in 1664. Both are very rare, it is said, owing to the +destruction caused by the fire of London in 1666. + +[233] For those who are not special students, adequate information +concerning Rabelais and extracts from his works are to be got in Sir +Walter Besant's luminous and charming volume in the series of Foreign +Classics for English Readers (Blackwood), and in Morley's _Universal +Library_ (Routledge). In one of his poems Browning describes the steps +taken by a reader to banish the memory of a dreary pedant, whose book he +had been perusing. He says: + + "Then I went indoors, brought out a loaf, + Half a cheese, and a bottle of Chablis; + Lay on the grass, and forgot the loaf + Over a jolly chapter of Rabelais." + +Some have turned over Rabelais and searched for the jolly chapter in +vain, and have, perhaps, attributed their failure to the want of a +bottle of Chablis. + +[234] This is somewhat doubtful. The Sorbonne and the Parliaments might +have been moved by ultra-orthodox opponents to prosecute Rabelais on +this account. The true explanation seems to be that the form of his book +was popular, and the popular French literature of the Middle +Ages--fableaux, farces, and burlesque romances--can hardly be exceeded +in the matter of coarseness (_Ency. Brit._, "Rabelais"). + +[235] This is surely an early allusion to the superior sensitiveness on +some points of the "_Nonconformist Conscience_." The fact alluded to +should inspire joy rather than call forth sneers, for when a conscience +becomes sensitive on some points there are reasonable hopes of its +becoming sensitive on others. + +[236] _Sartor Resartus_, chap. ix. + +[237] _Life of Crichton_, p. 182. + +[238] In addition to any aid Urquhart may have received from friends who +were intimately acquainted with the French language, he was deeply +indebted to Cotgrave's French Dictionary, published in 1611, and +dedicated to "Sir William Cecil, Knight, Lord Burghley, and sonne and +heir apparant unto the Earle of Exeter," _i.e._, the grandson of Queen +Elizabeth's Lord Burghley. + +[239] _Rabelais_, p. xxi. + +[240] _I.e._ the Carthusians: like their impudence! + +[241] Book i. chap. 52. + +[242] "_Nitimur in vetitum, semper cupimus negata_" (Ovid, Amor. iii. 4, +17). + +[243] _Avec leur palefroy guorrier_--rather, "with their prancing +palfrey." Guorrier from Gr. gaurost--haughty. + +[244] Cf. Heb. xi. 23, "a proper child." + +[245] _Celle laquelle l'auroit prins pour son devot_--rather, "her, who +had chosen him as her devoted servant." + +[246] Book i. chap. 57. + +[247] Fr. _faire versure_ = Lat. _facere versuram_ (Cic. Att. v. 1, Sec. +2), to borrow money to pay another debt (F. W. S.). + +[248] Caes. B. G. vi. 19. + +[249] "_Deum maxime Mercurium colunt_" (B. G. vi. 17) (Ibid.). + +[250] "_Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatos dicunt_" (B. G. vi. 18). +Dis is called _pere des escuz_, as identical with Plutus, the god of +hidden wealth (_Ibid._). + +[251] _Exclusively_, _i.e._, "I will affirm it, but not go to the stake +for it" (F. W. S.). + +[252] A fine passage in one of South's _Sermons_ was evidently suggested +by the above chapter in Rabelais. "The World is maintained by +Intercourse; and the whole Course of Nature is a great Exchange, in +which one good Turn is and ought to be the stated Price of another. If +you consider the Universe as one Body, you shall find Society and +Conversation to supply the Office of the Blood and Spirits; and it is +Gratitude that makes them circulate. Look over the whole Creation, and +you shall see that the Band or Cement that holds together all the Parts +of this great and glorious Fabric is Gratitude, or something like it: +you may observe it in all the Elements, for does not the Air feed the +Flame? and does not the Flame at the same time warm and enlighten the +Air? Is not the Sea always sending forth, as well as taking in? And does +not the Earth quit scores with all the Elements, in the noble Fruits and +Productions that issue from it? And in all the Light and Influence that +the Heavens bestow upon this lower World, though the lower World cannot +equal their Benefaction, yet with a Kind of grateful Return, it reflects +those Rays that it cannot recompense: so that there is some Return +however, though there can be no Requital.... In short, Gratitude is the +great Spring that sets all the Wheels of Nature agoing; and the whole +Universe is supported by giving and returning, by Commerce and +Commutation. And now, thou ungrateful Brute, thou Blemish to Mankind, +and Reproach to thy Creation; what shall we say of thee, or to what +shall we compare thee? For thou art an Exception from all the visible +World; neither the Heavens above nor the Earth beneath afford anything +like thee: and therefore, if thou wouldest find thy Parallel, go to +Hell, which is both the Region and the Emblem of Ingratitude; for +besides thyself, there is nothing but Hell that is always receiving and +never restoring" (I. SERM. xi. "_Of the odious Sin of Ingratitude_"). + +[253] "Nec fratris radiis obnoxia surgere Luna" (Virg. _Georg._ i. 396) +(F. W. S.). + +[254] _Influence_, much used as an astrological term. Cf. Milton: + + "Taught the fix'd + their _influence_ malignant when to shower." + + _Par. Lost_, x. 662. + + "Bending one way their precious _influence_." + + _Hymn on the Nativity_, 71. + (_Ibid._). + +[255] _Plato_ never pretends that the "music of the spheres" can be +heard. He adopts the theory to some extent from the Pythagoreans. +Aristotle (_de Coelo_, ii. 9), that the noise caused by the movements of +the heavenly bodies is so prodigious and continuous, that, being +accustomed to it from our birth, we do not notice it. The only notice in +Plato that can be construed into a statement about audible music of the +spheres is in _Rep._ x., where he speaks of a siren standing upon each +of the circles of the planetary system uttering one note in one tone; +and from all the eight notes there results a single harmony (F. W. S.). + +[256] Book iii. chaps. 3, 4. + +[257] It is quite possible that Motteux, who published the third book of +Rabelais after Urquhart's death, is responsible for some of the +interpolations. + +[258] Book iii. chap 13. _Fontenay le Comte_ in Lower Poitou and _Niort_ +were noted for their busy yearly fairs. There can be doubt that the +above passage was suggested to Rabelais by what St Jerome records of the +experience of St Hilarion in the desert. "Sic attentuatus," he says, +"[jejunio et vigiliis], et in tantum exeto corpore, ut ossibus vix +haereret, quadam nocte coepit infantum audire vagitus, balatus pecorum, +mugitus boum, planctum quasi mulierum, leonum rugitus, murmur exercitus, +et prorsus variarum portenta vocum," etc. (_Vita Sancti Hilarionis_). In +Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_ (iii. 4. 1. 2) there is the following +reference to the same passage: "Monks, Anachorites, and the like, after +much emptiness become melancholy, vertiginous, they think they hear +strange noises, confer with Hob-goblins, Devils.... _Hilarion_, as +_Hierome_ reports in his life, and _Athanasius of Antonius_, was so bare +with fasting, _that the skin did scarce stick to the bones_; for want of +vapours (_sic_) he could not sleep, and for want of sleep became +idle-headed, _heard every night infants cry, Oxen low, Wolves howl, +Lions roar (as he thought), clattering of chains, strange voices, and +the like illusions of Devils_." It is probable also that Rabelais had +read the following passage in the _Life of Geta_, by AElius Spartianus +(c. A.D. 317): "Familiare illi fuit has quaestiones grammaticis +proponere, ut dicerent, singula animalia quomodo vocem emitterent, +velut, Agni balant, porcelli grumniunt, palumbes minurriunt, ursi +saeviunt, leones rugiunt, leopardi rictant, elephanti barriunt, ranae +coaxant, equi hinniunt, asini rudunt, tauri mugiunt, easque de veteribus +approbare." Nor is it likely that Rabelais was unacquainted with the +verses in Teofilo Folengo's (1491-1544) _Merlini Cocaii Macaronicon_, +which run thus: + + "Nam Leo rugitum mittit, Lupus ac ululatum, + Bos boat, et uitrescit equus, Gallusque cucullat, + Sgnavolat et Gattus, baiat Canis, Ursus adirat, + Rancagat Oca, rudit Mullus, sed raggiat Asellus; + Denique quodque animal propria cum voce gridabat." + + _Macaronea_, xx. + +[259] In the introduction to this volume Motteux says that Sir Thomas +Urquhart was "a learned physician." It is difficult to understand what +could have given rise to such a statement. Sir Thomas had many projects +for the benefit of the human race, but there is no evidence of his ever +having cherished that of combating disease. One cannot help thinking of +the magniloquent terms in which he would have extolled his remedies, if +the fates had led him to the concoction of patent medicines. It is +doubtful, however, whether he would have had what is technically known +as "a good bed-side manner." It is quite possible that Motteux simply +meant that Sir Thomas was well acquainted with medical science, and not +that he was a physician by profession. Yet his words have often been +understood as asserting the latter. Thus we find the erroneous statement +in Granger's _Biographical Dictionary_, the Amsterdam (1741) edition of +Rabelais, and Sir John Hawkins' _Life of Johnson_, p. 294. + +[260] Both Ozell and Motteux figure in Pope's _Dunciad_, in i. 296, and +ii. 412, respectively. + + + + +APPENDICES + +I. PRIMITIVE FATHERS AND MOTHERS OF THE NAME OF URQUHART. + +II. THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON. + + + + +APPENDIX I + + THE NAMES OF THE CHIEFS OF THE NAME OF URQUHART, AND OF THEIR PRIMITIVE + FATHERS; as by Authentick Records and Tradition they were from time + to time through the various Generations of that Family successively + conveyed, till the present yeer 1652 (p. 143). + + The ancestors of Sir Thomas, for whose existence there is evidence + apart from his assertions, are indicated by their names being + printed in italics. If the editor of the _Tracts_ (1774) were to + believed, the italics would have to begin with George, No. 138 in + the list. The fact that the names in this list are more numerous + than those in the list which follows, is to be explained by + brothers succeeding each other occasionally, when there was no son + to inherit the dignity of chieftainship. + + 1. _Adam._ + 2. _Seth._ + 3. _Enos._ + 4. _Cainan._ + 5. _Mahalaleel._ + 6. _Jared._ + 7. _Enoch._ + 8. _Methusalah._ + 9. _Lamech._ + 10. _Noah._ + 11. _Japhet._ + 12. _Javan._ + 13. Penuel. + 14. Tycheros. + 15. Pasiteles. + 16. Esormon. + 17. Cratynter. + 18. Thrasymedes. + 19. Evippos. + 20. Cleotinus. + 21. Litoboros. + 22. Apodemos. + 23. Bathybulos. + 24. Phrenedon. + 25. Zameles. + 26. Choronomos. + 27. Leptologon. + 28. Aglaetos. + 29. Megalonus. + 30. Evemeros. + 31. Callophron. + 32. Arthmios. + 33. Hypsegoras. + 34. Autarces. + 35. Evages. + 36. Atarbes. + 37. Pamprosodos. + 38. Gethon. + 39. Holocleros. + 40. Molin. + 41. Epitomon. + 42. Hypotyphos. + 43. Melobolon. + 44. Propetes. + 45. Euplocamos. + 46. Philophon. + 47. Syngenes. + 48. Polyphrades. + 49. Cainotomos. + 50. Rodrigo. + 51. Dicarches. + 52. Exagastos. + 53. Denapon. + 54. Artistes. + 55. Thymoleon. + 56. Eustochos. + 57. Bianor. + 58. Thryllumenos. + 59. Mellessen. + 60. Alypos. + 61. Anochlos. + 62. Homognios. + 63. Epsephicos. + 64. Eutropos. + 65. Coryphaeus. + 66. Etoimos. + 67. Spudaeos. + 68. Eumestor. + 69. Griphon. + 70. Emmenes. + 71. Pathomachon. + 72. Anepsios. + 73. Auloprepes. + 74. Corosylos. + 75. Detalon. + 76. Beltistos. + 77. Horicos. + 78. Orthophron. + 79. Apsicoros. + 80. Philaplus. + 81. Megaletor. + 82. Nomostor. + 83. Astioremon. + 84. Phronematias. + 85. Lutork. + 86. Machemos. + 87. Stichopaeo. + 88. Epelomenos. + 89. Tycheros (2). + 90. Apechon. + 91. Enacmes. + 92. Javan (2). + 93. Lematias. + 94. Prosenes. + 95. Sosomenos. + 96. Philalethes. + 97. Thaleros. + 98. Polyaenos. + 99. Cratesimachos. + 100. Eunaemon. + 101. Diasemos. + 102. Saphenus. + 103. Bramoso. + 104. Celanas. + 105. Vistoso. + 106. Polido. + 107. Lustroso. + 108. Chrestander. + 109. Spectabundo. + 110. Philodulos. + 111. Pallidino. + 112. Comicello. + 113. Regisato. + 114. Arguto. + 115. Nicarchos. + 116. Marsidalio. + 117. Hedumenos. + 118. Agenor. + 119. Diaprepon. + 120. Stragayo. + 121. Zeron. + 122. Polyteles. + 123. Vocompos. + 124. Carolo. + 125. Endymion. + 126. Sebastian. + 127. Lawrence. + 128. Olipher. + 129. Quintin. + 130. Goodwin. + 131. Frederick. + 132. Sir Jasper. + 133. Sir Adam. + 134. Edward. + 135. Richard. + 136. Sir Philip. + 137. Robert. + 138. George. + 139. James. + 140. David. + 141. Francis. + 142. William. + 143. _Adam._ + 144. _John._ + 145. _Sir William._ + 146. _William._ + 147. _Alexander._ + 148. _Thomas._ + 149. _Alexander._ + 150. _Walter._ + 151. _Henry._ + 152. _Sir Thomas._ + 153. Sir Thomas. + + THE NAMES OF THE MOTHERS OF THE CHIEFS OF THE NAME OF URQUHART, AS ALSO + OF THE MOTHERS OF THEIR PRIMITIVE FATHERS. The authority for the + truth thereof being derived from the same Authentick Records and + Tradition on which is grounded the above-written Genealogie of + their male collaterals. + + 1. _Eva._ + 2. Shifka. + 3. Mahla. + 4. Bilha. + 5. Timnah. + 6. Aholima. + 7. Zilpa. + 8. Noema. + 9. Ada. + 10. Titea. + 11. Debora. + 12. Neginothi. + 13. Hottir. + 14. Orpah. + 15. Axa. + 16. Narfesia. + 17. Goshenni. + 18. Briageta. + 19. Andronia. + 20. Pusena. + 21. Emphaneola. + 22. Bonaria. + 23. Peninah. + 24. Asymbleta. + 25. Carissa. + 26. Calaglais. + 27. Theoglena. + 28. Pammerisla. + 29. Floridula. + 30. Chrysocomis. + 31. Arrenopas. + 32. Tharsalia. + 33. Maia. + 34. Roma. + 35. Termuth. + 36. Vegeta. + 37. Callimeris. + 38. Panthea. + 39. Gonima. + 40. Ganymena. + 41. Thespesia. + 42. Hypermnestra. + 43. Horatia. + 44. Philumena. + 45. Neopis. + 46. Thymelica. + 47. Ephamilla. + 48. Porrima. + 49. Lampedo. + 50. Teleclyta. + 51. Clarabella. + 52. Eromena. + 53. Zocallis. + 54. Lepida. + 55. Nicolia. + 56. Proteusa. + 57. Gozosa. + 58. Venusta. + 59. Prosectica. + 60. Delotera. + 61. Tracara. + 62. Pothina. + 63. Cordata. + 64. Aretias. + 65. Musurga. + 66. Romalia. + 67. Orthoiusa. + 68. Recatada. + 69. Chariestera. + 70. Rexenora. + 71. Philerga. + 72. Thomyris. + 73. Varonilla. + 74. Stranella. + 75. AEquanima. + 76. Barosa. + 77. Epimona. + 78. Diosa. + 79. Bonita. + 80. Aretusa. + 81. Bendita. + 82. Regalletta. + 83. Isumena. + 84. Antaxia. + 85. Bergola. + 86. Viracia. + 87. Dynastis. + 88. Dalga. + 89. Eutocusa. + 90. Corriba. + 91. Praecelsa. + 92. Plausidica. + 93. Donosa. + 94. Solicaelia. + 95. Bontadosa. + 96. Calliparia. + 97. Crelenca. + 98. Pancala. + 99. Dominella. + 100. Mundala. + 101. Pamphais. + 102. Philtrusa. + 103. Meliglena. + 104. Philetium. + 105. Tersa. + 106. Dulcicora. + 107. Gethosyna. + 108. Collabella. + 109. Eucnema. + 110. Tortolina. + 111. Ripulita. + 112. Urbana. + 113. Lampusa. + 114. Vistosa. + 115. Hermosina. + 116. Bramata. + 117. Zaglopis. + 118. Androlema. + 119. Trastevole. + 120. Suaviloqua. + 121. Francoline. + 122. Matilda. + 123. Allegra. + 124. Winnifred. + 125. Dorothy. + 126. Lawretta. + 127. Genivieve. + 128. Marjory. + 129. Jane. + 130. Anne. + 131. Magdalen. + 132. Girsel. + 133. Mary. + 134. Sophia. + 135. Elconore. + 136. Rosalind. + 137. Lillias. + 138. _Brigid._ + 139. _Agnes._ + 140. _Susanna._ + 141. _Catherine._ + 142. _Helen._ + 143. _Beatrice._ + 144. _Elizabeth._ + 145. _Elizabeth._ + 146. _Christian._ + + + + +APPENDIX II + +THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON (p. 157). + +"To speak a little now of his compatriot Crichtoun, I hope will not +offend the ingenuous reader; who may know, by what is already displayed, +that it cannot be heterogeneal from the proposed purpose, to make report +of that magnanimous act atchieved by him at the Duke of Mantua's court, +to the honour not only of his own, but to the eternal renown also of the +whole Isle of Britain; the manner whereof was thus: + +"A certain Italian gentleman, of a mighty, able, strong, nimble, and +vigorous body, by nature fierce, cruell, warlike, and audacious, and in +the gladiatory art so superlatively expert and dextrous, that all the +most skilful teachers of Escrime, and fencing-masters of Italy, (which +in matter of choice professors in that faculty, needed never as yet to +yeild to any nation in the world), were by him beaten to their good +behaviour, and by blows given in, which they could not avoid, enforced +to acknowledge him their over comer; bethinking himself, how, after so +great a conquest of reputation, he might by such means be very suddenly +enriched, he projected a course of exchanging the blunt to sharp, and +the foiles into tucks. And in this resolution providing a purse full of +gold, worth neer upon four hundred pounds English money, traveled +alongst the most especial and considerable parts of Spaine, France, the +Low-Countryes, Germany, Pole, Hungary, Greece, Italy, and other places, +where ever there was greatest probability of encountring with the +eagerest and most atrocious duellists. And immediately after his arrival +to any city or town that gave apparent likelihood of some one or other +champion that would enter the lists and cope with him, he boldly +challenged them with sound of trumpet, in the chief market-place, to +adventure an equal sum of money against that of his, to be disputed at +the sword's point who should have both. There failed not several brave +men, almost of all nations, who, accepting of his cartels, were not +afraid to hazard both their person and coine against him; but, (till he +midled with this Crichtoun), so maine was the ascendant he had above all +his antagonists, and so unlucky the fate of such as offered to scuffle +with him, that all his opposing combatants, (of what state or dominion +soever they were), who had not lost both their life and gold, were glad, +for the preservation of their person, (though sometimes with a great +expence of blood), to leave both their reputation and mony behind them. +At last, returning homewards to his own country, loaded with honor and +wealth, or rather the spoils of the reputation of those forraginers, +whom the Italians call Tramontani, he, by the way, after his accustomed +manner of abording other places, repaired to the city of Mautua, where +the Duke, (according to the courtesie usually bestowed on him by other +princes), vouchsafed him a protection and savegard for his person; he +(as formerly he was wont to do, by beat of drum, sound of trumpet, and +several printed papers, disclosing his designe, battered on all the +chief gates, posts, and pillars of the town), gave all men to +understand, that his purpose was to challenge, at the single rapier, any +whosoever of that city or country, that durst be so bold as to fight +with him, provided he would deposite a bag of five hundred Spanish +pistols over against another of the same value, which he himself should +lay down, upon this condition, that the enjoyment of both should be the +conqueror's due. His challenge was not long unanswered, for it happened, +at the same time, that three of the most notable cutters in the world, +(and so highly cryed up for valour, that all the bravos of the land were +content to give way to their domineering, how insolent soever they +should prove, because of their former constantly obtained victories in +the field), were all three together at the court of Mantua, who, hearing +of such a harvest of five hundred pistols to be reaped, (as they +expected), very soon, and with ease, had almost contested amongst +themselves for the priority of the first encounterer, but that one of my +Lord Duke's courtiers moved them to cast lots for who should be first, +second, and third, in case none of the former two should prove +victorious. Without more adoe, he whose chance it was to answer the +cartel with the first defiance, presented himself within the barriers, +or place appointed for the fight, where, his adversary attending him, as +soon as the trumpet sounded a charge, they jointly fel to work; and, +(because I am not now to amplifie the particulars of a combat), although +the dispute was very hot for a while, yet, whose fortune it was to be +first of the three in the field, had the disaster to be first of the +three that was foyled; for, at last, with a thrust in the throat, he was +killed dead upon the ground. This, nevertheless, not a whit dismayed the +other two, for, the nixt day, he that was second in the roll gave his +appearance after the same manner as the first had done, but with no +better success; for he likewise was laid flat dead upon the place, by +means of a thrust he received in the heart. The last of the three, +finding that he was as sure of being engaged in the fight as if he had +been the first in order, pluckt up his heart, knit his spirits +together, and, all the day after the death of the second, most +couragiously entering the lists, demeaned himself for a while with great +activity and skill; but at last, his luck being the same with those that +preceded him, by a thrust in the belly, he within four and twenty hours +after gave up the ghost. These (you may imagine), were lamentable +spectacles to the Duke and citie of Mantua, who, casting down their +faces for shame, knew not what course to take for reparation of their +honour. The conquering duellist, proud of a victory so highly tending to +both his honour and profit, for the space of a whole fortnight, or two +weeks together, marched daily along the streets of Mantua, (without any +opposition or controulment), like another Romulus or Marcellus in +triumph; which, the never too much to be admired Crichtoun perceiving, +to wipe off the imputation of cowardise lying upon the court of Mantua, +to which he had but even then arrived, (although formerly he had been a +domestick thereof), he could neither eat nor drink till he had first +sent a challenge to the conqueror, appelling him to repair with his best +sword in his hand, by nine of the clock in the morning of the next day, +in presence of the whole court, and in the same place where he had +killed the other three, to fight with him upon this quarrel, that in the +court of Mantua there were as valiant men as he; and, for his better +encouragement to the desired undertaking, he assured him that, to the +aforesaid five hundred pistols, he would adjoyn a thousand more, wishing +him to do the like, that the victor, upon the point of his sword, might +carry away the richer bootay. The challenge, with all its conditions, is +no sooner accepted of, the time and place mutually condescended upon, +kept accordingly, and the fifteen hundred pistols _hinc inde_ deposited, +but of the two rapiers of equal weight, length, and goodness, each +taking one, in presence of the Duke, Dutchess, with all the noblemen, +ladies, magnificos, and all the choicest of men, women, and maids of +that citie, as soon as the signal for the duel was given, by the shot of +a great piece of ordnance of threescore and four pound ball, the +combatants, with a lion-like animosity, made their approach to one +another, and, being within distance, the valiant Crichtoun, to make his +adversary spend his fury the sooner, betook himself to the defensive +part; wherein, for a long time, he shewed such excellent dexterity in +warding the other's blows, slighting his falsifyings, in breaking +measure, and often, by the agility of his body, avoiding his thrust, +that he seemed but to play, while the other was in earnest. The +sweetness of Crichtoun's countenance, in the hotest of the assault, like +a glance of lightning on the hearts of the spectators, brought all the +Italian ladies on a sudden to be enamoured of him; whilst the sternness +of the other's aspect, he looking like an enraged bear, would have +struck terrour into wolves, and affrighted an English mastiff. Though +they were both in their linens, (to wit, shirts and drawers, without any +other apparel), and in all outward conveniences equally adjusted, the +Italian, with redoubling his stroaks, foamed at the mouth with a +cholerick heart, and fetched a pantling breath; the Scot, in sustaining +his charge, kept himself in a pleasant temper, without passion, and made +void his designes; he alters his wards from tierce to quart; he primes +and seconds it, now high, now lowe, and casts his body, (like another +Prothee), into all the shapes he can, to spie an open on his adversary, +and lay hold of an advantage, but all in vain; for the invincible +Crichtoun, whom no cunning was able to surprise, contrepostures his +respective wards, and, with an incredible nimbleness of both hand and +foot, evades the intent and frustrates the invasion. Now is it, that the +never before conquered Italian, finding himself a little faint, enters +into a consideration that he may be over-matched; whereupon a sad +apprehension of danger seizing upon all his spirits, he would gladly +have his life bestowed on him as a gift, but that, having never been +accustomed to yield, he knows not how to beg it. Matchless Crichtoun, +seeing it now high time to put a gallant catastrophe to that so long +dubious combat, animated with a divinely inspired servencie to fulfil +the expectation of the ladies, and crown the Duke's illustrious hopes, +changeth his garb, falls to act another part, and, from defender, turn +assailant; never did art so grace nature, nor nature second the precepts +of art with so much liveliness, and such observancie of time, as when, +after he had struck fire out of the steel of his enemie's sword, and +gained the feeble thereof with the fort of his own, by angles of the +strongest position, he did, by geometrical flourishes of straight and +oblique lines, so practically execute the speculative part, that, as if +there had been Remoras and secret charms in the variety of his motion, +the fierceness of his foe was in a trice transqualified into the +numbness of a pageant. Then was it that, to vindicate the reputation of +the Duke's family, and expiate the blood of the three vanquished +gentlemen, he alonged a stoccade _de pied ferme_; then recoyling, he +advanced another thrust, and lodged it home; after which, retiring +again, his right foot did beat the cadence of the blow that pierced the +belly of this Italian, whose heart and throat being hit with the two +former stroaks, these three franch bouts given in upon the back of the +other; besides that, if lines were imagined drawn from the hand that +livered them, to the places which were marked by them, they would +represent a perfect isosceles triangle, with a perpendicular from the +top angle cutting the basis in the middle; they likewise give us to +understand, that by them he was to be made a sacrifice of atonement for +the slaughter of the three aforesaid gentlemen, who were wounded in the +very same parts of their bodies by other such three venees as these, +each whereof being mortal; and his vital spirits exhaling as his blood +gushed out, all he spoke was this, That seeing he could not live, his +comfort in dying was, that he could not dye by the hand of a braver man; +after the uttering of which words, he expiring, with the shril clarcens +of trumpets, bouncing thunder of artillery, bethwacked beating of drums, +universal clapping of hands, and loud acclamations of joy for so +glorious a victory, the aire above them was so rarified by the extremity +of the noise and vehement sound, dispelling the thickest and most +condensed parts thereof, that (as Plutarch speakes of the Grecians, when +they raised their shouts of allegress up to the very heavens at the +hearing of the gracious proclamations of Paulus AEmilius in favour of +their liberty), the very sparrows and other flying fowls were said to +fall to the ground for want of aire enough to uphold them in their +flight. + +"When this sudden rapture was over, and all husht into its former +tranquility, the noble gallantry and generosity, beyond expression, of +the inimitable Crichtoun, did transport them all againe into a new +exstasie of ravishment, when they saw him like an angel in the shape of +a man, or as another Mars, with the conquered enemie's sword in one +hand, and the fifteen hundred pistols he had gained in the other, +present the sword to the Duke as his due, and the gold to his high +treasurer, to be disponed equally to the three widows of the three +unfortunate gentlemen lately slaine, reserving only to himself the +inward satisfaction he conceived, for having so opportunely discharged +his duty to the House of Mantua. + +"The reader perhaps will think this wonderful; and so would I too, were +it not that I know, (as Sir Philip Sydney sayes), that a wonder is no +wonder in a wonderful subject, and consequently not in him, who for his +learning, judgement, valour, eloquence, beauty, and good-fellowship was +the perfectest result of the joynt labour of the perfect number of those +six deities, Pallas, Apollo, Mars, Mercury, Venus, and Bacchus, that +hath been seen since the dayes of Alcibiades; for he was reported to +have been inriched with a memory so prodigious, that any sermon, speech, +harangue, or other manner of discourse of an hour's continuance, he was +able to recite without hesitation, after the same manner of gesture and +pronuntiation in all points, wherewith it was delivered at first; and of +so stupendious a judgment and conception, that almost naturally he +understood quiddities of philosophy; and as for the abstrusest and most +researched mysteries of other disciplines, arts, and faculties, the +intentional species of them were as readily obvious to the interiour +view and perspicacity of his mind, as those of the common visible +colours to the external sight of him that will open his eyes to look +upon them; of which accomplishment and Encyclopedia of knowledge, he +gave on a time so marvelous a testimony at Paris, that the words of +_Admirabilis Scotus_, the Wonderful Scot, in all the several tongues and +idiomes of Europ, were, (for a great while together), by the most of the +echos resounded to the peircing of the very clouds. To so great a hight +and vast extent of praise did the never too much to be extolled +reputation of the seraphick wit of that eximious man attaine, for his +commanding to be affixed programs on all the gates of the schooles, +halls, and colledges of that famous university, as also on all the chief +pillars and posts standing before the houses of the most renowned men +for literature, resident within the precinct of the walls and suburbs of +that most populous and magnificent city, inviting them all, (or any +whoever else versed in any kinde of scholastick faculty), to repaire at +nine of the clock in the morning of such a day, moneth, and yeer, as by +computation came to be just six weeks after the date of the affixes, to +the common schoole of the colledge of Navarre,[261] where, (at the +prefixed time), he should, (God willing), be ready to answer to what +should be propounded to him concerning any science, liberal art, +discipline, or faculty, practical or theoretick, not excluding the +theological nor jurisprudential habits, though grounded but upon the +testimonies of God and man, and that in any of these twelve +languages,[262] Hebrew, Syriack, Arabick, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, +Italian, English, Dutch, Flemish, and Sclavonian, in either verse or +prose, at the discretion of the disputant; which high enterprise and +hardy undertaking, by way of challenge to the learndst men in the world, +damped the wits of many able scholars to consider whether it was the +attempt of a fanatick spirit, or lofty designe of a well-poised +judgment; yet after a few days enquiry concerning him, when information +was got of his incomparable endowments, all the choicest and most +profound philosophers, mathematicians, naturalists, mediciners, +alchymists, apothecaries, surgeons, doctors of both civil and canon law, +and divines both for controversies and positive doctrine, together with +the primest grammarians, rhetoricians, logicians, and others, professors +of other arts and disciplines at Paris, plyed their studys in their +private cels for the space of a moneth, exceeding hard, and with huge +paines and labor set all their braines awork how to contrive the +knurriest arguments, and most difficult questions could be devised, +thereby to puzzle him in the resolving of them, meander him in his +answers, put him out of his medium, and drive him to a _non plus_; nor +did they forget to premonish the ablest there of forraign nations not to +be unprepared to dispute with him in their own material dialects, and +that sometimes metrically, sometimes otherwayes, _pro libitu_.[263] All +this while the Admirable Scot, (for so from thenceforth he was called), +minding more his hawking, hunting, tilting, vaulting, riding of +well-managed horses, tossing of the pike, handling of the musket, +flourishing of colours, dancing, fencing, swimming, jumping, throwing of +the bar, playing at tennis, baloon, or long catch; and sometimes at the +house games of dice, cards, playing at the chess, billiards, trou-madam, +and other such like chamber sports, singing, playing on the lute and +other musical instruments, masking, balling, reveling; and, which did +most of all divert, or rather distract him from his speculations and +serious employments, being more addicted to, and plying closer the +courting of handsome ladyes, and a jovial cup in the company of +bacchanalian blades, then [than] the forecasting how to avoid, shun, and +escape the snares, grins [gins?], and nets of the hard, obscure, and +hidden arguments, ridles, and demands, to be made, framed, and woven by +the professors, doctors, and others of that thrice-renowned university. +There arose upon him an aspersion of too great proness to such like +debordings and youthful emancipations, which occasioned one less +acquainted with himself then [than] his reputation, to subjoyn, (some +two weeks before the great day appointed), to that program of his, which +was fixed on the Sorbone gate, these words: 'If you would meet with this +monster of perfection, to make search for him ... in the taverne ... is +the reedyest way to finde him.' By reason of which expression, (though +truly as I think, both scandalous and false), the eminent sparks of the +university, (imagining that those papers of provocation had been set up +to no other end, but to scoff and delude them, in making them waste +their spirits upon quirks and quiddities, more then [than] was fitting), +did resent a little of their former toyle, and slack their studyes, +becoming almost regardless thereof, till the several peals of bells +ringing an hour or two before the time assigned, gave warning that the +party was not to flee the barriers, nor decline the hardship of +academical assaults; but, on the contrary, so confident in his former +resolution, that he would not shrink to sustaine the shock of all their +disceptations. This sudden alarm so awaked them out of their last +fortnight's lethargy, that, calling to minde, the best way they might, +the fruits of the foregoing moneth's labour, they hyed to the forenamed +schoole with all diligence; where, after all of them had, according to +their several degrees and qualities, seated themselves, and that by +reason of the noise occasioned through the great confluence of people, +which so strange a novelty brought thither out of curiosity, an +universal silence was commanded, the Orator of the University, in most +fluent Latine, addressing his speech to Crichtoun, extolled him for his +literature, and other good parts, and for that confident opinion he had +of his own sufficiency, in thinking himself able to justle in matters of +learning with the whole university of Paris, Crichtoun answering him in +no less eloquent terms of Latine, after he had most heartily thanked him +for his elegies, so undeservedly bestowed, and darted some high +encomiums upon the university and the professors therein; he very +ingeniously [ingenuously] protested that he did not emit his programs +out of any ambition to be esteemed able to enter in competition with the +university, but meerly to be honoured with the favour of a publick +conference with the learned men thereof. In complements after this +manner, _ultro citroque habitis_, tossed to and again, retorted, +contrerisposted, backreverted, and now and then graced with a quip or a +clinch for the better relish of the ear, being unwilling in this kind of +straining curtesie to yeeld to other, they spent a full half hour and +more; for he being the centre to which the innumerable diameters of the +discourses of that circulary convention did tend, although none was to +answer but he, any of them all, according to the order of their +prescribed series, were permitted to reply, or commence new motions on +any subject, in what language soever, and howsoever expressed; to all +which, he being bound to tender himself a respondent, in matter and form +suitable to the impugners propounding, he did first so transcendently +acquit himself of that circumstantial kinde of oratory, that, by +well-couched periods, and neatly running syllables, in all the twelve +languages, both in verse and prose, he expressed to the life his +courtship [courtliness] and civility; and afterwards, when the Rector of +the university, (unwilling to have any more time bestowed on superficial +rhetorick, or to have that wasted on the fondness of quaint phrases, +which might be better employed in a reciprocacy of discussing +scientifically the nature of substantial things), gave direction to the +professors to fall on, each according to the dignity or precedency of +his faculty, and that conform to the order given. Some metaphysical +notions were set abroach, then mathematical, and of those arithmetical, +geometrical, astronomical, musical, optical, cosmographical, +trigonometrical, statical, and so forth through all the other branches +of the prime and mother sciences thereof; the next bout was through all +natural philosophy, according to Aristotle's method, from the +acroamaticks, going along the speculation of the nature of the heavens, +and that of the generation and corruption of sublinary things, even to +the consideration of the soul and its faculties; in sequel hereof, they +had a hint at chymical extractions, and spoke of the principles of +corporeal and mixed bodies, according to the precepts of that art. After +this, they disputed of medicine, in all its thereapeutick, +pharmacopeutick, and chirurgical parts; and not leaving natural magick +untouched, they had exquisite disceptations concerning the secrets +thereof. From thence they proceeded to moral philosophy, where, debating +of the true enumeration of all vertues and vices, they had most learned +ratiocinations about the chief good of the life of man; and seeing the +[that] oecumenicks and politicks are parts of that philosophy, they +argued learnedly of all the several sorts of governments, with their +defects and advantages; whereupon perpending, that, without an +established law, all the duties of ruling and subjection, to the utter +ruin of humane society, would be as often violated as the irregularity +of passion, seconded with power, should give way thereto. The Sorbonist, +canonical, and civilian doctors most judiciously argued with him about +the most prudential maximes, sentences, ordinances, acts, and statutes +for ordering all manner of persones in their consciences, bodyes, +fortunes, and reputation; nor was there an end put to those literate +exercitations till the grammarians, rhetoricians, poets, and logicians +had assailed him with all the subtleties and nicest quodlibets their +respective habits could afford. Now when, to the admiration of all that +were there, the incomparable Crichtoun had, in all these faculties above +written, and in any of the twelve languages wherein he was spoke to, +whether in verse or prose, held tack to all the disputants, who were +accounted the ablest scholars upon earth in each their own profession; +and publickly evidenced such an universality of knowledge, and accurate +promptness in resolving of doubts, distinguishing of obscurities, +expressing the members of a distinction in adequate terms of art, +explaining those compendious tearms with words of a more easie +apprehension to the prostrating of the sublimest mysteries to any vulgar +capacity, and with all excogitable variety of learning, (to his own +everlasting fame), entertained, after that kinde, the nimble witted +Parisians from nine o'clock in the morning till six at night; the Rector +now finding it high time to give some relaxation to these worthy +spirits, which, during such a long space, had been so intensively bent +upon the abstrusest speculations, rose up, and saluting the divine +Crichtoun, after he had made an elegant panegyrick, or encomiastick +speech of half an houre's continuance, tending to nothing else but the +extolling of him for the rare and most singular gifts wherewith God and +nature had endowed him, he descended from his chaire, and, attended by +three or four of the most especial professors, presented him with a +diamond ring and a purse ful of gold, wishing him to accept thereof, if +not, as a recompense proportional to his merit, yet as a badge of love, +and testimony of the universitie's favour towards him. At the tender of +which ceremony, there was so great a plaudite in the schoole, such a +humming and clapping of hands, that all the concavities of the colledges +there about did resound with the echo of the noise thereof. + +"Notwithstanding the great honor thus purchased by him for his +literatory accomplishments, and that many excellent spirits, to obteine +the like, would be content to postpose all other employments to the +enjoyment of their studyes, he, nevertheless, the very next day, (to +refresh his braines, as he said, for the toile of the former day's +work), went to the Louvre in a buff-suit, more like a favourite of Mars +then [than] one of the Muses' minions; where, in presence of some +princes of the court, and great ladies, that came to behold his +gallantry, he carryed away the ring fifteen times on end, and broke as +many lances on the Saracen. + +"When for a quarter of a yeer together he after this manner had +disported himself, (what martially, what scholastically), with the best +qualified men in any faculty so ever, that so large a city, (which is +called the world's abridgement), was able to afford, and now and then +solaced these his more serious recreations, (for all was but sport to +him), with the alluring imbellishments of the tendrer sexe, whose +_inamorato_ that he might be, was their ambition; he on a sudden took +resolution to leave the Court of France, and return to Italy, where he +had been bred for many yeers together; which designe he prosecuting +within the space of a moneth, (without troubling himself with long +journeys), he arrived at the Court of Mantua, where immediately after +his abord, (as hath been told already), he fought the memorable combat +whose description is above related. Here it was that the learned and +valiant Crichtoun was pleased to cast anchor, and fix his abode; nor +could he almost otherwise do, without disobliging the Duke, and the +Prince his eldest son; by either whereof he was so dearly beloved, that +none of them would permit him by any means to leave their Court, whereof +he was the only _privado_, the object of all men's love, and subject of +their discourse; the example of the great ones, and wonder of the meaner +people; the paramour of the female sexe, and paragon of his own. In the +glory of which high estimation, having resided at that Court above two +whole yeers, the reputation of gentlemen there was hardly otherwayes +valued but by the measure of his acquaintance; nor were the young +unmaryed ladies, of all the most eminent places thereabouts, any thing +respected of one another, that had not either a lock of his hair, or +copy of verses of his composing. Nevertheless it happening on a +Shrove-tuesday at night, (at which time it is in Italy very customary +for men of great sobriety, modesty, and civil behaviour all the rest of +the yeer, to give themselves over on that day of carnavale, as they call +it, to all manner of riot, drunkenness, and incontinency, which that +they may do with the least imputation they can to their credit, they go +maskt and mum'd with vizards on their faces, and in the disguise of a +Zanni or Pantaloon, to ventilate their fopperies, and sometimes +intolerable enormities, without suspicion of being known), that this +ever renowned Crichtoun, (who, in the afternoon of that day, at the +desire of my Lord Duke, the whole court striving which should exceed +each other in foolery, and devising of the best sports to excite +laughter, neither my Lord, the Dutchess, nor Prince, being exempted from +acting their parts, as well as they could), upon a theater set up for +the purpose, begun to prank it, _a la Venetiana_, with such a flourish +of mimick and ethopoetick gestures, that all the courtiers of both +sexes, even those that a little before were fondest of their own +conceits, at the sight of his so inimitable a garb, from ravishing +actors that they were before, turned them ravished spectators. O with +how great liveliness did he represent the conditions of all manner of +men! how naturally did he set before the eyes of the beholders the +rogueries of all professions, from the overweening monarch to the +peevish swaine, through all the intermediate degrees of the superficial +courtier or proud warrior, dissembled churchman, doting old man, +cozening lawyer, lying traveler, covetous merchant, rude seaman, +pedantick scholar, the amourous shepheard, envious artisan, vainglorious +master, and tricky servant; he did with such variety display the several +humours of all these sorts of people, and with a so bewitching energy, +that he seemed to be the original, they the counterfeit; and they the +resemblance whereof he was the prototype. He had all the jeers, squibs, +flouts, buls, quips, taunts, whims, jests, clinches, gybes, mokes, +jerks, with all the several kinds of equivocations, and other +sophistical captions, that could properly be adapted to the person by +whose representation he intended to inveagle the company into a fit of +mirth; and would keep in that miscelany discourse of his, (which was all +for the splene, and nothing for the gall), such a climacterical and +mercurially digested method, that when the fancy of the hearers was +tickled with any rare conceit, and that the jovial blood was moved, he +held it going with another new device upon the back of the first, and +another, yet another, and another againe, succeeding one another for the +promoval of what is a-stirring into a higher agitation; till in the +closure of the luxuriant period, the decumanal wave of the oddest whimsy +of all, enforced the charmed spirits of the auditory, (for affording +room to its apprehension), suddenly to burst forth into a laughter, +which commonly lasted just so long as he had leisure to withdraw behind +the skreen, shift off, with the help of a page, the suite he had on, +apparel himself with another, and return to the stage to act afresh; for +by that time their transported, disparpled, and sublimated fancies, by +the wonderfully operating engines of his solacious inventions, had from +the hight to which the inward scrues, wheeles, and pullies of his wit +had elevated them, descended by degrees into their wonted stations, he +was ready for the personating of another carriage; whereof to the number +of fourteen several kinds, (during the five hours space that at the +Duke's desire, the solicitation of the court, and his own recreation, he +was pleased to histrionize it), he shewed himself so natural a +representative, that any would have thought he had been so many several +actors, differing in all things else, save only the stature of the body; +with this advantage above the most of other actors, whose tongue, with +its oral implements, is the onely instrument of their minds' +disclosing, that, besides his mouth with its appurtenances, he lodged +almost a several oratour in every member of his body; his head, his +eyes, his shoulder, armes, hands, fingers, thighs, legs, feet, and +breast, being able to decipher any passion whose character he purposed +to give. + +"First, he did present himself with a crown on his head, a scepter in +his hand, being clothed in a purple robe furred with ermyne; after that, +with a miter on his head, a crosier in his hand, and accoutred with a +paire of lawn-sleeves; and thereafter, with a helmet on his head, the +visiere up, a commanding stick in his hand, and arayed in a buff-suit, +with a scarf about his middle. Then, in a rich apparel, after the newest +fashion, did he shew himself, (like another Sejanus), with a periwig +daubed with Cypres powder; in sequel of that, he came out with a +three-corner'd cap on his head, some parchments in his hand, and +writings hanging at his girdle like Chancery bills; and next to that, +with a furred gown about him, an ingot of gold in his hand, and a bag +full of money by his side; after all this, he appeares againe clad in a +country-jacket, with a prong in his hand, and a Monmouth-like-cap on his +head; then very shortly after, with a palmer's coat upon him, a bourdon +in his hand,[264] and some few cockle-shels stuck to his hat, he look'd +as if he had come in pilgrimage from St Michael; immediately after that, +he domineers it in a bare unlined gown, with a pair of whips in the one +hand, and Corderius in the other; and in suite thereof, he +honderspondered[265] it with a pair of pannier-like breeches, a +mountera-cap on his head, and a knife in a wooden sheath dagger-ways by +his side; about the latter end, he comes forth again with a square in +one hand, a rule in the other, and a leather apron before him; then very +quickly after, with a scrip by his side, a sheep-hook in his hand, and a +basket full of flowers to make nosegayes for his mistris; now drawing to +a closure, he rants it first _in cuerpo_, and vapouring it with gingling +spurs, and his armes a kenbol like a Don Diego he strouts it, and by the +loftiness of his gate, plaies the Capitan Spavento; then in the very +twinkling of an eye, you would have seen him againe issue forth with a +cloak upon his arm, in a livery garment, thereby representing the +serving-man; and lastly, at one time amongst those other, he came out +with a long gray beard, and bucked ruff, crouching on a staff tip't, +with the head of a barber's cithern,[266] and his gloves hanging by a +button at his girdle. + +"Those fifteen several personages did he represent with such excellency +of garb, and exquisiteness of language, that condignely to perpend the +subtlety of the invention, the method of the disposition, the neatness +of the elocution, the gracefulness of the action, and wonderful variety +in the so dextrous performance of all, you would have taken it for a +comedy of five acts, consisting of three scenes, each composed by the +best poet in the world, and acted by fifteen of the best players that +ever lived, as was most evidently made apparent to all the spectators in +the fifth and last hour of his action, (which, according to our western +account, was about six a clock at night, and by the calculation of that +country, half an hour past three and twenty, at that time of the yeer), +for, purposing to leave off with the setting of the sun, with an +endeavour nevertheless to make his conclusion the master-piece of the +work, he, to that effect, summoning all his spirits together, which +never failed to be ready at the call of so worthy a commander, did by +their assistance, so conglomerate, shuffle, mix, and interlace the +gestures, inclinations, actions, and very tones of the speech of those +fifteen several sorts of men, whose carriages he did personate into an +inestimable _ollapodrida_ of immaterial morsels of divers kinds, +suitable to the very ambrosian relish of the Heliconian nymphs, that, in +the peripetia of this drammatical exercitation, by the inchanted +transportation of the eyes and eares of its spectabundal auditorie, one +would have sworne that they all had looked with multiplying glasses, and +that, (like that angel in the Scripture whose voice was said to be like +the voice of a multitude), they heard in him alone the promiscuous +speech of fifteen several actors; by the various ravishments of the +excellencies whereof, in the frolickness of a jocund straine beyond +expectation, the logofascinated spirits of the beholding hearers and +auricularie spectators, were so on a sudden seazed upon in their risible +faculties of the soul, and all their vital motions so universally +affected in this extremitie of agitation, that, to avoid the inevitable +charmes of his intoxicating ejaculations, and the accumulative +influences of so powerfull a transportation, one of my lady Dutchess' +chief maids of honour, by the vehemencie of the shock of those +incomprehensible raptures, burst forth into a laughter to the rupture of +a veine in her body; and another young lady, by the irresistible +violence of the pleasure unawares infused, where the tender +receptibilitie of her too tickled fancie was least able to hold out, so +unprovidedly was surprised, that, with no less impetuositie of +ridibundal passion then [than], (as hath been told), occasioned a +fracture in the other young ladie's modestie, she, not being able +longer to support the well beloved burthen of so excessive delight, and +intransing joys of such mercurial exhilations through the ineffable +extasie of an overmastered apprehension, fell back in a swown, without +the appearance of any other life into her then [than] what, by the most +refined wits of theological speculators, is conceived to be exerced by +the purest parts of the separated entelechises of blessed saints in +their sublimest conversations with the celestial hierarchies; this +accident procured the incoming of an apothecary with restoratives, as +the other did that of a surgeon with consolidative medicaments.[267] The +Admirable Crichtoun now perceiving that it was drawing somewhat late, +and that our occidental rays of Phoebus were upon their turning oriental +to the other hemisphere of the terrestrial globe; being withall jealous +that the uninterrupted operation of the exuberant diversitie of his +jovialissime entertainment, by a continuate winding up of the humours +there present to a higher, yet higher, and still higher pitch, above the +supremest Lydian note of the harmonie of voluptuousness, should, in such +a case, through the too intensive stretching of the already super-elated +strings of their imagination, with a transcendencie over-reaching Ela, +and beyond the well concerted gain of rational equanimitie, involve the +remainder of that illustrious companie into the sweet labyrinth and +mellifluent anfractuosities of a lacinious delectation, productive of +the same inconveniences which befel the two afore-named ladies; whose +delicacie of constitution, though sooner overcome, did not argue, but +that the same extranean causes from him proceeding of their pathetick +alteration, might by a longer insisting in an efficacious agencie, and +unremitted working of all the consecutively imprinted degrees that the +capacity of the patient is able to containe, prevaile at last, and have +the same predominancie over the dispositions of the strongest +complexioned males of that splendid society, did, in his own ordinary +wearing apparel, with the countenance of a Prince, and garb befitting +the person of a so well bred gentleman and cavalier, kat exochen full of +majestie, and repleat with all excogitable civilitie, (to the amazement +of all that beheld his heroick gesture), present himself to epilogate +this his almost extemporanean comedie, though of five hours continuance +without intermission; and that with a peroration so neatly uttered, so +distinctly pronounced, and in such elegancie of selected tearmes, +expressed by a diction so periodically contexed with isocoly of members, +that the matter thereof tending in all humility to beseech the +highnesses of the Duke, Prince, and Dutchess, together with the remanent +lords, ladies, knights, gentlemen, and others of both sexes of that +honourable convention, to vouchsafe him the favour to excuse his that +afternoon's escaped extravagancies, and to lay the blame of the +indigested irregularity of his wits' excursions, and the abortive issues +of his disordered brain, upon the customarily dispensed with priviledges +in those Cisalpinal regions, to authorize such like impertinencies at +Carnavalian festivals; and that, although, according to the meet +commonly received opinion in that country, after the nature of Load-him, +(a game at cards), where he that wins loseth, he who, at that season of +the year, playeth the fool most egregiously, is reputed the wisest man; +he, nevertheless, not being ambitious of the fame of enjoying good +qualities, by vertue of the antiphrasis of the fruition of bad ones, did +meerly undergo that emancipatorie task of a so profuse liberty, and to +no other end embraced the practising of such roaming and exorbitant +diversions but to give an evident, or rather infallible, demonstration +of his eternally bound duty to the House of Mantua, and all inviolable +testimony of his never to be altered designe, in prosecuting all the +occasions possible to be laid hold on that can in any manner of way +prove conducible to the advancement of, and contributing to, the +readiest means for improving those advantages that may best promove the +faculties of making all his choice endeavours, and utmost abilities at +all times, effectual to the long-wished-for furtherance of his most +cordial and endeared service to the serenissime highnesses of My Lord +Duke, Prince, and Dutchess, and of consecrating with all addicted +obsequiousness, and submissive devotion, his everlasting obedience to +the illustrious shrine of their joynt commands. Then incontinently +addressing himself to the Lords, ladies and others of that rotonda, +(which, for his daigning to be its inmate, though but for that day, +might be accounted in nothing inferior to the great Colisee of Rome, or +Amphitheater of Neems), with a stately carriage, and port suitable to so +prime a gallant, he did cast a look on all the corners thereof, so +bewitchingly amiable and magically efficacious as if in his eys had bin +a muster of ten thousand cupids eagerly striving who should most deeply +pierce the hearts of the spectators with their golden darts. And truly +so it fell out, (that there not being so much as one arrow shot in +vain), all of them did love him, though not after the same manner, nor +for the same end; for, as the manna of the Arabian desarts is said to +have had in the mouths of the Egyptian Israelites, the very same tast of +the meat they loved best, so the Princes that were there did mainly +cherish him for his magnanimity and knowledge; his courtliness and sweet +behaviour being that for which chiefly the noblemen did most respect +him; for his pregnancie of wit, and chivalric in vindicating the honour +of ladies, he was honoured by the knights, and the esquires and other +gentlemen courted him for his affability and good fellowship; the rich +did favour him for his judgment and ingeniosity; and for his liberality +and munificence he was blessed by the poor; the old men affected him for +his constancie and wisdome, and the young for his mirth and gallantry; +the scholars were enamoured of him for his learning and eloquence, and +the souldiers for his integrity and valour; the merchants, for his +upright dealing and honesty, praised and extolled him, and the +artificers for his goodness and benignity; the chastest lady of that +place would have hugged and imbraced him for his discretion and +ingenuity; whilst for his beauty and comeliness of person he was, at +least in the fervency of their desires, the paramour of the less +continent; he was dearly beloved of the fair women, because he was +handsome, and of the fairest more dearly, because he was handsomer: in a +word, the affections of the beholders, (like so many several diameters +drawn from the circumference of their various intents), did all +concenter in the point of his perfection. After a so considerable +insinuation, and gaining of so much ground upon the hearts of the +auditory, (though in a shorter space then [than] the time of a flash of +lightning), he went on, (as before), in the same thred of the conclusive +part of his discourse, with a resolution not to cut it, till the +overabounding passions of the company, their exorbitant motions and +discomposed gestures, through excess of joy and mirth, should be all of +them quieted, calmed, and pacified, and every man, woman, and maid +there, (according to their humour), resented in the same integrity they +were at first; which when by the articulatest elocution of the most +significant words, expressive of the choisest things that fancie could +suggest, and, conforme to the matter's variety, elevating or depressing, +flat or sharply accinating it, with that proportion of tone that was +most consonant with the purpose, he had attained unto, and by his verbal +harmony and melodious utterance, setled all their distempered pleasures, +and brought their disorderly raised spirits into their former capsuls, +he with a tongue tip't with silver, after the various diapasons of all +his other expressions, and making of a leg for the spruceness of its +courtsie, of greater decorement to him then [than] cloth of gold and +purple, farewel'd the companie with a complement of one period so +exquisitely delivered, and so well attended by the gracefulness of his +hand and foot, with the quaint miniardise of the rest of his body, in +the performance of such ceremonies as are usual at a court-like +departing, that from the theater he had gone into a lobie, from thence +along three spacious chambers, whence descending a back staire, he past +through a low gallerie which led him to that outer gate, where a coach +with six horses did attend him, before that magnificent convention of +both sexes, (to whom that room, wherein they all were, seemed in his +absence to be as a body without a soul), had the full leisure to +recollect their spirits, (which, by the neatness of his so curious a +close, were _quoquoversedly_ scattered with admiration), to advise on +the best expediency how to dispose of themselves for the future of that +[delightful] night." + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[261] The College of Navarre was founded by Jeanne of Navarre, consort +of Philippe the Fair, in 1305. Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries it was the foremost foundation of the University of Paris (F. +W. S.). + +[262] John Hill Burton points out the somewhat curious fact that, among +the hero's linguistic accomplishments, Gaelic, which must have been +talked at his own door, does not appear. + +[263] In the matter of length this is surely a record sentence. + +[264] "_A bourdon in his hand_"--"A musical instrument resembling a +bassoon, in use with pilgrims who visit the body of St James at +Compostella" (Sir John Hawkins). + +[265] "_Honderspondered_"--_i.e._ floundered. Fr. _hondrespondres_ +(_Rab._ iii. 42)--"hundred-pounders," heavy, burly fellows. + +[266] "_Barber's cithern_"--"The instrument now ignorantly called a +guitar. It was formerly part of the furniture of a barber's shop, and +was the amusement of waiting customers" (Sir John Hawkins). + +[267] This incident reminds one of the effect produced upon the lawyers +in court when "Pantagruel gave judgment upon the difference of the two +lords." Our readers will remember that it is the author of the above +description who is the translator of the narrative which tells of that +wonderfully satisfactory decision. "As for the counsellors, and other +doctors in the law that were there present, they were all so ravished +with admiration at the more than humane wisdom of Pantagruel, which they +did most clearly perceive to be in him, by his so accurate decision of +this so difficult and thornie cause, that their spirits, with the +extremity of the rapture, being elevated above the pitch of actuating +the organs of the body, they fell into a trance and sudden extasie, +wherein they stayed for the space of three long houres; and had been so +as yet, in that condition, had not some good people fetched store of +vinegar and rose water to bring them again into their former sense and +understanding, for the which God be praised everywhere. And so be it." +(_Rabelais_, ii. 13.) + + + + +INDEX + + Aberdeen, 43. + Attitude towards covenant, 32, 36. + + "Aberdeen Doctors," 37. + + _Aberdeen Sasines_, 7 (note). + + Aberdeen University, 19. + New constitution, 10, 11 (note). + + Abercrombie, Sir Alexander, 7 (note). + + Abernethie, Helen, wife of Thomas Urquhart, 141. + + Abraham, Patriarch, 133. + + _Acts of the Parliament of Scotland_, 61 (note 3), 71 (note 2), 93 + (note), 101 (notes). + + Adam, 130, 146. + + _Advancement of Learning_, 118 (note). + + AEgyptus' sons, 134. + + AEquanima, sister of Marcus Coriolanus, 136. + + Agamemnon, 135. + + Ainsworth, W. Harrison, _Crichton_, 105 (note 2). + + "_Airgiod cagainn_" (chewing-money), 77. + + Airlie, Earl of, 19 (note). + + Alcibiades, 136. + + Alexander of Macedon, 27, 51. + + Allibone, _Dictionary_, and Urquhart, 101. + + Alsop, Captain, treatment of Sir Thomas Urquhart, 89. + + _Amadis of Gaul_, 144 (note 2). + + _Anastasius_, quoted, 77 (note 1). + + Anderson, Gilbert, minister of Cromartie, 63, 66 (note 3). + + ---- Hugh, 66 (note 3). + + ---- P. J., 10, 11 (notes). + + _Annals of Banff_, quoted, 8 (note 2), 19 (note), 47 (note 3). + + Annand, John, minister of Inverness, and Sir Thomas Urquhart, 68, 82. + + _Antiquarian Notes_, 7 (note), 69 70 (note). + + _Apprizing_, 58 (note). + + Arcalaus, 144 (note). + + Archimedes, 124. + + Arduamurchan, 136 (note 1). + + Ardoch farm, 55. + + Argyll, Marquis of, and Covenanters, 32. + + Ariosto, 166. + Hippogriff and Astolfo, 107. + + Aristotle, 124, 202 (note). + _Organon, Ethics, and Politics_, 10. + + Arnold, Matthew, standard for judging literature, 143. + + Arran, 136 (note 1). + + Arren, Earle of, 115. + + Arundel, Earl of, 116. + + Astioremon, 137. + + Asymbleta, 144 (note). + + Atbara, battle of, 102 (note 3). + + Atropos, 129. + + Bacchus, 202; + conquers India, 135. + + Bacon, Lord, Solicitor-General, 8. + On fate of solid and weighty things, 118. + Rules for young travellers in _Essays, Civil and Moral_, 26. + + Baddeley, Richard, 128 (note), 149 (note). + + Badenoch, 76. + + Baillie, Robert, _Letters_, 81 (note 1), 82. + + Baldwin, Richard, 185 (note). + + Balquholly Castle, 35, 39, 102 (note 3): now Hatton Castle. + Account of, 39 (note 1). + + Balvenie, battle at, 77 (and note 2), 79. + + Banff, 8, 18. + Entry in Court-book of Burgh, 15, 19. + + Barclay, Waiter, 41 (note 2). + + Barclays, 38 (note 2). + + Baron, Dr Robert, 37 (note 2). + + Basagante, 144 (note). + + Beaten, Cardinal, 55. + + Bedell, William, idea of universal language, 175. + + Belladrum, 70. + + Bellay, Jean du, Bishop of Paris, 188. + + Bellenden, Adam, 43 (note). + + Beltistos, 2. + + Bembo, 166. + + Berwick, 44. + + Besant, Sir Walter, 185 (note 2). + + Bickerstaffe, Isaac, 51 (note). + + Biggar, 85. + + Billing, _Baronial Antiquities_, 39 (note). + + _Biographia Britannica_, quoted, 144 (note 2), 158 (note 2). + + Birkenbog, 7 (note). + + Birrell, A., 186. + + Black Island, 62 (note 1). + + _Blackwood's Magazine_, quoted, 181 (note 2). + (_See_ also names of subjects.) + + Boece, Hector, fictions, 145. + + _Book of Bon Accord_, 13 (note 1). + + Bracegirdle, Mrs, 50 (note 2). + + Braughton discovers Sir Thomas Urquhart's MSS., 155, 156. + + Brisena, 144 (note). + + Browne, Sir Thomas: + Phraseology, 2. + Quoted, 49, 137. + _Vulgar Errors_, 126. + + Browning, Robert, 113. + + Bruce, James, 126 (note 1). + + ---- King David, 4. + + ---- King Robert, grants Cromartie to Sir Hugh Ross, 4. + + Bruklay, 7 (note). + + Brydges, Sir Egerton, _Autobiography_; + _Mary de Clifford_, 152 (note 1). + + Bullock, J. M., _History of University of Aberdeen_, quoted, 36. + + Burghley, William Cecil, Lord, 191 (note). + + Burnet, quoted, 82 (note), 175. + + Burns, Robert, 23. + + Burton, John Hill: + On "Aberdeen Doctors" in _History of Scotland_, 37. + On description of Crichton's feats, 162, 223 (note 2). + On Sir Thomas Urquhart's writings, 157, 159. + _Scot Abroad_, quoted, 159. + + Burton, Robert, _Anatomy of Melancholy_, 205 (note). + + Caesar, _De Bello Gallico_, 198 (note). + + Caithness, 3, 70, 80 (note 2). + + Calder, Campbell of, 7 (note). + + _Calendar of Proceedings in Committee for Advances of Moneys-Taxes_, + 50 (note). + + Calvert, Giles, 176 (note). + + Cambridge, Earl of, 115. + + Cant at Aberdeen, 36. + + Carberry Tower, 13 (note 3). + + Carlisle, 85. + + Carlyle, Thomas: + _Oliver Cromwell_, quoted, 86, 87. + _Sartor Resartus_, quoted, 189. + + Cartadaque, 144 (note). + + Castalia, 109. + + Cawdor, 66 (note 3). + + Chanonry Castle taken, 76. + + Charles I.: + Endeavours to force Episcopacy on Scotland, 31. + Execution of, 69, 70, 168. + Letter of Protection to Sir Thomas Urquhart, senior, 15. + Licence to T. York, 50 (note 2). + On knowledge of law, 52. + + Charles II., 97, 99. + Crowned, 84, 169. + Lands in Scotland, 83. + + Charles VII., 187. + + Chatterton, 152 (note). + + Chinon, 187. + + "Christianus Presbyteromastix," 150. + + Cibber, _Apology_, 170 (note). + + Cicero, 201; _De Officiis_, 10. + + Cid, The, 27. + + Clan Mackenzie, 72. + + Clanmolinespick, 135 (and note). + + Clanrurie, 136 (note 1). + + Clare, Earl of, 50 (note 2). + + Clare Street, 50 (note 2). + + Clio, 109 (note). + + Coleridge, on Rabelais' writings, 186. + + College of Navarre, 160, 223 (note). + + "Colophonian Poet," 109 (note). + + Colophos, 109 (note). + + Commission of General Assembly, 72, 79 (and note 1), 81. + + Constantinople, 77 (note 1). + + Cotgrave, _French Dictionary_, 191. + + Cottrel, James, 149 (note). + + Court of Session, Decisions of, 146. + + Covenant signed, 47 (note 3). + + Covenanting Movement, 31. + + Coventry, 86. + + Craig, John, 42 (note). + + Craigfintray, 5, 19 (note), 60, 101 (note 2). + + Cratynter, 132. + + Craven, Earl of, 116. + + ---- Rev. J. B., 57 (note). + + Crawford, Earl of, 146. + + Crichton, James (the Admirable), 157, 158 (note 2). + Age on entering St Andrews, 9. + Sketch of, 159; + Appendix ii, 215. + + Cromartie (Crwmbawchty or Crumbathy), 3, 70. + + ---- Castle, account of, 17 (and note 1), 18. + Library, 29. + Put in state of defence, 70, 71 (note 1). + Siege of, 139. + + ---- estate, proprietors of, 103. + + ---- Lady Dowager of, 120. + + ---- parish, 62 (note 1). + + Cromwell, Oliver, 8, 32 (note), 84, 86, 96. + + Cullicudden, 62 (note 1), 63, 71 (note 1). + + Culloden, 19 (note). + + Cumberland's, Duke of, headquarters, 19. + + Curators, 5 (note). + + Danaus' daughters, 133. + + Dante, 166. + Quoted, 161 (note). + + Darioleta, 144 (note). + + Darwin, Charles, 131 (note). + + _David Copperfield_, quoted, 51 (note 2), 59 (note), 62 (note). + + Debora, Judge and Prophetess, 135. + + Delgatie, Laird of, plunders Balquholly, 39. + + Delos, 119 (note). + + Demosthenes, 162 (note). + + Dickson, David, Professor of Divinity, Glasgow, 82. + At Aberdeen, 36. + + _Dictionary of National Biography_, quoted, 82 (note), 101 (note). + + Diosa, daughter of Alcibiades, 136. + + Dis, Father of Wealth, 198. + + Don river, 126 (note 1). + + Don Quixote, 104 (and note 2). + + Donne, Age on going to Oxford, 9. + + Dorset, Earl of, 116. + + Douglas, Robert, Moderator of Commission of General Assembly, 81 (and + note 2). + + Dove, Dr, 114 (note). + + Duchat, Notes on Rabelais, 206. + + Duff, Garden Alexander, 39, 102 (note 3). + + ---- Isabel Annie, 102 (note 3). + + Dunbar, Battle of, 83, 87. + + Dunlugas in Alvah, 47 (note 1). + + Edward, King, 138. + + Egypt, English peer in, 27. + + Elgin, 4 (note), 70, 95. + + Elibank, Patrick, Lord, buys Cromartie estate, 103. + + Eliock, Perthshire, 159. + + Elphinstone, Alexander, Lord, 6, 13 (and note 3). + + ---- Lady Christian, 6, 7 (note). + + Englishman abroad, 22. + + Entelechia, Queen, 158 (note). + + Episcopacy in Scotland, 32, 102 (note 2). + + Erasmus, 143. + + Eromena, 144 (note). + + Errol, Earl of, 146. + + Esormon, Prince of Achaia, 131. + + Euclid, 124, 142. + + Falkirk, 84. + + Famongomadan, 144 (note). + + Farquhar, Sir Robert of Mounie, and Cromartie creditors, 60. + + Fergus, King of Scots, 136, 145. + + Findlay, Andrew, 43. + + Findrassie. (_See_ Lesley, Robert.) + + Firth of Cromartie, 62 (note 1). + + ---- of Forth, 38. + + Fisherie, Barony of, 4, 8 (and note 1), 19 (note). + + Fleetwood, 96. + + Florence, 28. + + Folengo, T., _Macaronea_, 205 (note). + + Fontenay-le-Comte, 188, 204 (note). + + Forbes, Alexander, 15, 41 (note 2). + + ---- Arthur, of Blacktown, 40. + + ---- Dr John, 37 (note 2). + + Forestalling, 15 (note 2). + + Fortrose Castle garrisoned, 76. + + Fountainhall, _Decisions_, 146 (note). + + Fraser, (Colonel) Hugh, of Belladrum, and Rising in North, 70. + + ---- (Sir) James, 71 (note 1). + + ---- Lord, garrisons Towie-Barclay Castle, 39. + + ---- Sir William: + _Earls of Cromartie_, quoted, 3 (note 2). + _The Lords Elphinstone_, quoted, 7 (note), 13 (note 3). + + G. P., 128. + + Gardenstoun Papers, 7 (note). + + Gargantua, 190, 193. + + Gathelus, 145. + + Gaurin (Gowran), Earl of, 116. + + _General Assembly Commission Records_, 72 (note), 74 (note), 75 (note), + 78 (note), 79 (note 2), 80 (note). + + Genoa, 28. + + Gight, Laird of, 40. + + Gladmon, Captain, 88. + + Glasgow, General Assembly in, 35. + + Glenkindie, 7 (note). + + Glover, George, portraits of Sir Thomas Urquhart, 107. + + Gonima, 144 (note). + + Gonzaga, Vincenzio de, 164. + + Goodwin, Captain, 94. + + Gordon, James, _History of Scots Affairs_, 35 (notes), 41 (note 2), + 132 (note). + + ---- (Sir) James, of Lesmoir, 7 (note). + + ---- John, 101 (note 3). + + Granada, 27. + + Granger, _Biographical Dictionary_, 107 (note 2), 112 (note 1), 206 + (note 1). + + Grimm, _Household Tales_, 180. + + Guild, Dr William, 13 (note 1), 19 (note). + Sir Thomas Urquhart's account of, 12. + + _Gulliver's Travels_, 144 (note 2). + + Gustavus Adolphus, 81 (note 2). + + Guthrie, James, 82. + + Halket, General, 77 (note 2), 81 (note). + + Hatton Castle. (_See_ Balquholly.) + + Hamilton, Marquis of, 111, 115. + At Berwick, 44. + + Harrison, 85. + + Hawkins, Sir John, 232, 233 (notes). + _Life of Johnson_, 206 (note). + + Hazlitt, quoted, 167 (note). + + Heine, _Das Buch Le Grand_, 182 (note). + + Henderson at Aberdeen, 36. + + Henry II., 187. + + Henry, Prince, 8. + + Heraclitus the Obscure, 119(note), 201. + + Herbert of Cherbury, Lord, _Autobiography_, 25 (note 1). + + Hercules Lybius, 133. + + Herd, David, 101 (note). + + Highland soldiers in Inverness, 76, 79. + + Hippocrene, 109. + + History of Clan Mackenzie, 70 (note). + + _History of Scotland._ (_See_ under Burton, J. H.) + + _History of Scots Affairs._ (_See_ Gordon, James.) + + Holland, Earl of, 116. + + Holles, Gervase, 50 (note 2). + + ---- John, Earl of Clare, 51 (and note 1). + + Homer, Birthplace of, 109. + Works, 166. + + Hope, _Anastasius_, quoted, 77(note). + + Horace, _Odes_, quoted, 134 (note 1). + + Houghton, in Nottingham, 51 (note 1). + + _Hudibras_, Alexander Ross mentioned in, 126. + + Huntly, Second Marquis of, 116. + Covenanters and, 33. + Family name (Gordon), 41 (note 2). + Taken prisoner, 38. + + ---- Third Marquis of, takes Ruthven Castle, 77. + + Hypermnestra, 133, 134. + + Innes, Alexander, 43 (note). + + Inverkeithing, 84. + + Inverness, 2, 32. + Capture of, 68, 70, 81. + Fortifications destroyed, 76. + Highland soldiers at, 76, 78. + _Sasines_, 101 (note 3). + + Irving, Dr: + Account of Sir Thomas Urquhart leaving Scotland, 43. + _Lives of Scottish Writers_, 44 (note), 149 (note). + + ---- John, of Bruklay, 7 (note). + + J. A., 124. + + James III.: + Act of, 54. + Grant of Motehill of Cromartie to William Urquhart, 17. + + James VI., 7, 147 (note). + + Japhet, 131. + + Jericho, 55. + + Joan of Arc, 187. + + Johnson, Dr, on-- + Crichton in _Adventurer_, 159 (note 1). + Traveller in Egypt, 27. + + Johnston and Mr Bedell, 175. + + ---- Arthur, 112. + Latin Poems, 57 (note). + + Jonson, Ben, _Catiline_, 8. + + Jovius, Panlus, 145. + + Julius Caesar, 27. + + Ker, General, 77 (note 2). + + Kinbeakie, Stone lintel at, 137 (note). + + King-Edward, Aberdeenshire, 4, 8 (note 2), 19 (note). + + _King's College: Officers and Graduates_, 10 (note). + + King's Covenant, Account of, 42 (note 1). + + Kippis, Dr, 158 (note 2). + On Urquhart's pedigree, 144 (note 2). + + Kirkhill, 76. + + Kirkmichael, 62 (note 1), 63. + + Lamb, Charles, 132 (note), 167 (note). + + Lambert, 85. + + Laud, Archbishop, 32. + + Leake, William, 116. + + Leighton, Archbishop, 66 (note 1). + + Lemlair, 70. + + Lesley, Lieut.-General David, 32 (note). + March to England, 84. + Message of encouragement to, 75. + Takes Castle of Chanonry, 76. + + ---- Norman, 55 (and note 1). + + ---- Robert, of Findrassie, 59 (note), 71 (note 1). + Conduct towards Sir Thomas Urquhart, 55, 95. + Mortgage on Cromartie estate, 46. + + ---- Dr William, Sir Thomas Urquhart's account of, 12 (and note 2), 37 + (note 2). + + _Letters of Junius_, 103 (note 3). + + _Lives of Eminent Men of Aberdeen_, quoted, 126 (note 1). + + _Lives of Scottish Writers._ (_See_ under Irving, Dr.) + + Logarithms, 123 (and note). + + Lowndes, _Bibliographer's Manual_, 101 (note). + + Lucian, 100 (note), 189. + + Lumphanan, 3 (note 2). + + Lunan, Alexander, 11 (note). + + Luther, Martin, 187. + + Lynceus, 134. + + Macaulay, 174 (note). + _History of England_, quoted, 23. + + Macbeth's titles, 3. + + Macduff, 3 (note 2). + + Mackenzie. Alexander, 70 (note). + + ---- (Sir) George, 102. + + ---- George, sells estate to Capt. W. Urquhart, 103. + + ---- (Sir) Kenneth, 103. + + ---- Thomas, of Pluscardine. + Enters Inverness, 76. + Proclaimed rebel and traitor, 71. + Rising in North and, 69, 70, 76. + + Mackintosh, C. Fraser, (_See Antiquarian Notes._) + + Macmillans of Knapdale, 135 (n.). + + Madanfabul, 144 (note). + + Madasima, 114 (note). + + Madrid, 27. + + M'Farlane, Genealogical Collections, 16 (note 1). + + Maitland, on date of Sir Thomas Urquhart's birth, 6. + + Mantua, 163. + + Mantua, Duke of, 164, 215 _seqq._ + + Mantuanus, Baptista, 166. + + Marischal College, 11 (note). + + Marischal, Earl, 36, 146. + Enters Aberdeen, 43. + + Martin, Sir Theodore, on-- + _Trissotetras_, 119 (note). + Unpublished Epigrams of Sir Thomas Urquhart, 116. + Urquhart's account of his misfortunes, 61. + Death, 97. + Translation of Rabelais, 192. + + Mary Queen of Scots, 104 (note 1). + + Maubert, Place, 161 (note). + + Meldrum arms, 139 (note). + + Melville, Andrew, assists to remodel University education, 10, 11 (note). + + Mercury, 198. + + Messina, 27. + + Micawber, Wilkins. (_See David Copperfield._) + + Middleton, General, 32 (note). + Joins Mackenzie's force, 76. + + ---- Earl of, 102 (note 2). + + Miller, Hugh, 102 (note 2). + Description of Cromartie Castle, 18. + On siege of Cromartie Castle, 140. + On stone lintel at Kinbeakie, 138. + On Urquhart's inventive powers, 180. + Reference to Sir Alexander Urquhart, 101 (note 3). + (_See_ also _Scenes and Legends of North of Scotland_.) + + Milton, John, 8, 30, 91. + _Hymn on Nativity_, quoted, 201 (note 2). + _Paradise Lost_, quoted, 201 (n. 2). + Sonnet to Cromwell, quoted, 86. + + Miol, 145. + + Mitchell, Thomas, minister of Turriff, 41 (note 2), 42. + + Molinea, 133. + + Monboddo, Lord, on dual number, 182. + + Montaigne, age on completing collegiate course, 9. + + Montrose, Earl of, 36, 38, 78, 80 (note 2). + + _Moral Tales_, 113 (note). + + Moray, 3, 4 (note). + + Moray Firth, 32, 62 (note 1). + + Morley, _Universal Library_, 185 (note 2). + + Morrison, _Dictionary of Decisions_, 146 (note). + + Motteux, Pierre A., 97, 184, 203 (note 2). + Completes Urquhart's Translation of Rabelais, 192, 206 (and note 1). + On Urquhart's Translation of Rabelais, 98. + + Monat (de Monte Alto) family in Cromartie, 4 (and note 1). + + ---- William, takes part of King Robert Bruce, 138. + + Mounie, 60. + + Mucholles, Lord, 41 (note 2). + + Munro, John, of Lemlair, and rising in North, 70. + + ---- Colonel Robert, Mission to Marquis of Huntly, 34. + + Nairn, 70. + + Napier, John, of Merchiston, 119, 122 (and note 2), 124. + + Naples, 28. + + Narfesia, Sovereign of the Amazons, 132. + + National Covenant, quoted, 31. + + Newcastle, Earl of, 116. + + _Nicholas Nickleby_, quoted, 11 (note). + + Nicolia, 136. + + Nimrod, 131. + + Niort, 204 (note). + + Nisbet, on Urquhart's property, 2. + _System of Heraldry_, 3 (note 1). + + Noah, 131, 146. + + _Noctes Ambrosianae_ (Blackwood), version of Urquhart's death, 101 (note). + + "Nonconformist Conscience," 187. + + Northumberland, Earl of, 116. + + Nottingham, 86. + + Ogilvie, Lord, joins Mackenzie's force, 76. + + Old Machar, 10. + + Orkneys, 80 (note 2). + + Orpah, 131. + + Overton, 96. + + Ovid, 195 (note). + _Metamorphosis_, 133. + + Ozell, edition of Rabelais, 206. + + Padua, 163. + + Pantagruel, 158 (note), 161, 190. + (_See_ also Urquhart, Sir Thomas, Translation of Rabelais.) + + Panthea, daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha, 133. + + Panurge, 158 (note), 197. (_See_ also Urquhart, Sir Thomas, Translation + of Rabelais.) + + Pape, Charles, Minister of Cullicudden, 63. + + Paris, 28. + + Parnassus, Mount, 44, 109. + + Pegasus, 109. + + Pembroke, Earl of, 116. + + Pentasilea, Queen of the Amazons, 135. + + Penuel, 131. + + Pericles, 149 (note). + + Persius, 8 (note 2); quoted, 162. + + Perth, 84. + + Petrarch, 166. + + Petric, James, 8 (note 2). + + Pharaoh Amenophis, 133. + + Philemon (Philomenes), death of, 100 (note). + + Pillars of Hercules, 124. + + Pistol, Ancient, 2, 109 (note). + + Pitkerrie, 103. + + Plato, 124, 202 (and note). + + Pliny, 52 (note 2). + + Pluscardine. (_See_ Mackenzie, Thomas.) + + Plutus, 52, 198 (note). + + Pococke's _Tour_, 17 (note 2), 103 (note 1). + + Pope, Alexander-- + _Dunciad_, 206 (note 2). + On Rabelais, 186. + + Portia, 22, 25. + + Portugal founded, 145. + + Pothina, niece of Lycurgus, 136. + + Prott, David, killed at Towie-Barclay, 40. + + Providence, Rhode Island, 90. + + Pulteney, Sir William, 103 (note 2). + + Pythagoras, 124, 202. + + Queen Elizabeth, 120. + + ---- Mary, of England, 102. + + ---- Mary, of Scotland, 104 (note 1), 168. + + Queensferry, 84. + + Raban, printer, Aberdeen, 57 (n.). + + _Rabelais_, 107 (note 2), 119 (note), 185 (and note 2), 192 (note), + 235 (note). + + Rabelais, Francois, sketch of, 187. + _Gargantua_ and _Pantagruel_, 189. + (_See_ Urquhart, Sir Thomas, Translation of Rabelais.) + + Raleigh, Sir Walter, 120. + _History of the World_, 8. + + Raphael, 187. + + Reay, Lord, joins Mackenzie's force, 76, 78 (note). + + _Records of Court of Justiciary_, 16 (note 2). + + _Redgauntlet_, quoted, 102 (note 1). + + Resolis, 62 (note 1). + + Riddell, J., _Scotch Peerage Law_, 55 (note). + + Rising of Cavaliers in North, 69. + + Robertson, William, of Kindeasse, Sir Thomas Urquhart's account of, 94. + + Rolland, Catharine, 13 (note 1). + + Rome, 28. + + Ross, Alexander (1), minister in Aberdeen, 37 (note 2). + + ---- Alexander (2), 126 (note 1). + Recommends _Trissotetras_, 126. + Verses, 126, 127 (note). + + ---- George, of Pitkerrie, buys Cromartie estate, 17, 103. + + ---- (Sir) Hugh, owns Cromartie, 4. + + ---- (Major) Walter Charteris, of Cromartie, 103 (note 3). + + ---- William, Earl of, 4. + + Rothes, Earls of, 55 (note). + + Rothiemay, Banffshire, 35 (note 1), 43 (note). + + Row, _Historie of Kirk of Scotland_, 42 (note). + + Royalists escape to England, 43 (note 1). + + Ruskin, John, 173 (note). + + Rutherford, Samuel, Principal of St Andrews, 82. + + Ruthven Castle taken by Marquis of Huntly, 77. + + St Andrews, 82. + + St Hilarion, 204 (note). + + St Jerome, _Vita Sancti Hilarionis_, 204 (note). + + _St Ronan's Well_, quoted, 186. + + Salton, Lord, 141. + + Saragossa, 27. + + _Scenes and Legends of North of Scotland_, quoted, 18, 102 (note 2), + 139 (note), 141 (note). + + Scota, daughter of Pharaoh, 145. + + Scotch army marches into England, 84. + + _Scotch Peerage Law._ (_See_ Riddell, J.) + + Scotchman abroad, 24. + + Scotland: + Episcopacy in, 32, 102 (note 2). + Four armies in, 32, (note 1). + Mythical history of, 145. + University education in, 9. (_See_ also Aberdeen University.) + + Scrogie, Dr Alexander, 37 (note 2), 43 (note). + + Seaforth, George, Earl of, 69. + + Seaton, Dr, in Paris, 28. + + ---- John, 11 (note). + + ---- William, 11 (note). + Sir Thomas Urquhart's account of, 13. + + Seton, Alexander, of Meldrum, 102 (note 3). + + ---- arms, 139 (note). + + ---- Elizabeth, 102 (note 3). + + Shafton, Sir Piercie, 124. + + Shakespeare, William: + _Henry IV._, 165 (note). + _Merchant of Venice_, 25. + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, 174 (note). + _Twelfth Night_, 122 (note). + _Winter's Tale_, 8. + + Shephard, Jack, 51 (note). + + Shrewsbury, 86. + + Sibbald, Dr James, 37 (note 2). + + Smith, Sidney, "preaching to death by wild curates," 66. + + ---- W. F., Translation of Rabelais, 158 (note 1), 99 (note 1), 191. + + Socrates, 119 (note), 124. + + Sodom and Gomorrha, 133. + + Solvatius, King, 137. + + Somerled, Lord of the Isles, 136 (note 1). + + South, _Sermons_, 199 (note). + + Southcote, Joanna, 179 (note). + + Southey, _Dr Dove_, 114 (note), 178 (note). + + Spalding, mentions Sir Thomas Urquhart, 38. + _Memorials_, quoted, 40, 43 (note). + + Spartianus, AElius, _Life of Geta_, 205 (note). + + Spenser, 120. + + Spilsbury, Sir Thomas Urquhart stays with, 86, 153. + + Stacker, James, 41 (note 2). + + Steele, Richard, 50 (note 2). + + Stirling, 84. + + Strachan, General, 77 (note 2), 81 (note). + + Strafford, Earl of, 116. + + Stralsund, 69. + + Stratford-on-Avon, 86. + + Strathbogie, 34. + + Strathearn, Earls of, family name, 135 (note). + + Sutherland, Earl of, action against Earls of Crawford, Errol, and + Marischal, 146. + + ---- James, "Tutor of Duffus," 56. + + Tamerlane, 67. + + Tarbat, Viscount, First Earl of Cromartie, 103. + + Termuth, daughter of Pharaoh Amenophis, 133. + + Thaumast, 158 (note). + + _The Lords Elphinstone_, quoted, 7 (note), 13 (note 3). + + The Tables and Aberdeen, 35, 37. + + Thelema, Abbey of, 193 _seqq._ + + Thelemites, 195 _seqq._ + + _Through the Looking-Glass_, quoted, 114 (note). + + Thucydides, 149 (note). + + Thymelica, daughter of Bacchus, 135. + + Toledo, 27. + + Torespay, 77 (note). + + Tor Wood, 84. + + Tomlius, Richard, 176 (note). + + Towie-Barclay Castle, 38 (note 2). + + ---- laird of, plunders Balquholly, 39. + + _Tristram Shandy_, quoted, 47 (note 3). + + Trot of Turriff, 41 (and note 2). + + Turriff, 38. + Inhabitants subscribe King's Covenant, 42. + + "Tutor," Meaning of, 5 (note 1). + + Tycheros, 131. + + Tytler, Patrick F.: + _Life of the Admirable Crichton_, 159, 165, 190. + On Urquhart's Translation of Rabelais, 190. + + University of Aberdeen, New Constitution, 10, 11 (note). + + Urquhart, Adam of, owns Cromartie, 4. + + ---- Sir Alexander, 16. + Petition for compensation for losses, 61. + Petition for Sheriffship of Cromartie, 98, 100. + + ---- Annas, 7 (note). + + ---- arms, 132, 133, 137 (and note 1). + + ---- (Major) Beauchamp Colclough, 102 (note 3). + + ---- Cainotomos, 135. + + ---- Euplocamos, 134. + + ---- family, descent of, 130 _seqq._ + + ---- George, 7 (note). + + ---- Helen, 7 (note). + + ---- Henry, 7 (note). + + ---- Hypsegoras, 133. + + ---- Colonel James, 102 (note 3). + + Urquhart, Jane, 7 (note). + + ---- John, 7 (note). + + ---- Sir John, of Craigfintray, 101 (note 2). + Hereditary Sheriff of Cromartie, 60. + Death, 102 (note 2). + + ---- John, of Craigfintray, "the Tutor of Cromartie," 5 (and note 1), + 6 (and note 1), 19 (note), 102 (note 3). + + ---- Jonathan, 102. + + ---- Margaret, 7 (note). + + ---- Mellessen, 136. + + ---- Molin, 133. + + ---- Names of Chiefs and Primitive Fathers, Appendix i. 211. + Names of Mothers of Chiefs, Appendix i. 213. + + ---- (de Vrquhartt), origin of name, 4 (note 2), 132 (note 1). + + ---- Pamprosodos, 133. + + ---- Phrenedon, 133. + + ---- Propetes, 133. + + ---- Rodrigo, 135. + + ---- SIR THOMAS (Urchard, Urquhardus, Wrqhward, Wrwhart), 132 (note). + Account of Aberdeen and eminent men, 12. + Account of Admirable Crichton, 157. + Account of impoverished estates, 45. + Ancestry, 2. + At Worcester, 86, 129. + Birth, 6. + Birthplace unknown, 8. + Book-hunting, 29. + Characteristics, 53, 104 (and notes 1, 2), 105, 130, 144 (note 2). + Conduct of creditors, 94. + Death, 97, 99 (note 1). + Description of his father's character, 14. + Enters University of Aberdeen, 9 (and note 1). + Escapes to England, 43. + Foreign Travel, 22, 25, 27. + Knighted, 44. + Lesley and, 55. + Liberated on parole, 89. + Literary achievements, 2, 148. + Lives at Cromartie--financial difficulties, 51. + Loses ancestral domains and jurisdiction, 60. + MS. of unpublished Poems quoted, 5 (note 2); described, 116. + MSS. lost after Worcester, 88, 129, 154. + On G. Anderson's preaching, 63, 66. + Papers seized, 93. + Portraits, 107. + Praise of "the Tutor of Cromartie," 5 (and note 2). + Prepares MSS. for publication, 89. + Prisoner in the Tower, 88. + Proclaimed rebel and traitor, 71. + Relations with Ministers of Church, 61. + Religious belief, 67. + Reminiscence of his youth, 20. + Rental, 51. + Reply to Commissioners' remonstrances, 72. + Resides in London, 50 (and note 2). + Returns home, 30. + Rising in North and, 69. + Schemes and inventions, 53. + Speed in composition, 117, 151. + Succeeds to estates, 47. + "Supplication" for pardon, 81. + Takes up arms for Stuarts, 38, 69, 84. + Vanity, 24 (note 3). + Works:-- + EKSKYBALAURON: or, Discovery of a most exquisite Jewel, 92. + Account of, 148 _seqq._ (and note 1). + Description of Admirable Crichton, 157 _seqq._ + In contemporary politics, 168. + On fame of Scots in battle, 157. + Quoted, 67, 153, 165, 168, 170, 172, 174. + _Epigrams_: Divine and Moral, 44. + Account of, 111 _seqq._ + Dedication, 111, 115. + Quoted, 60 (note), 113, 114. + MS., quoted, 109 (note). + _Logopandecteision_; or, An Introduction to the Universal Language: + Account of, 175 _seqq._ + Published, 96. + Quoted, 48, 57, 62 (note 2), 90. + PANTOCHRONOCHANON: Peculiar Promptuary of Time, 92. + Account of, 128 seqq. + Translation of Rabelais, 2, 96, 97, 161, 205. + Account of, 184, 190 _seqq._ + Exploits of Pantagruel, 161 (note 2). + Genealogy of Pantagruel, 144. + Interpolations, 203. + Panurge, Sketch of, 197. + Sketch of Abbey of Thelema, 193. + Various editions, 206. + _Trissotetras_, 92, 114. + Account of, 117 (and note 1). + Unpublished Epigrams, Dedications of, 116. + + ---- Thomas, marries Helen Abernethie, their family, 141. + + ---- Sir Thomas, senior-- + Action against his sons, 16. + Becomes caution for Alexander Forbes, 15. + Believes in long pedigree, 147. + Death, 47 (and note 3). + "Desk" or Pew in Banff Church, 19 (and note 1). + Episcopalian, 30, 33, 35. + Marriage-contract, 7 (and note 1). + Pecuniary difficulties, 13, 15, 45. + Residence in Banff, 18 (and note 2). + Sketch of, 5, 6. + + ---- (Captain) William, of Meldrum, buys Cromartie estate, 103. + + ---- William, receives grant of Motehill of Cromartie, 17. + + Urquharts of Meldrum, 102 (note 3). + + Valerius Maximus, 100 (note). + + Venice, 28, 163. + + Virgil, 166, 201 (note 1). + + Vocompos, arms of, 137. + + Voltaire, 189. + + Wallace, Professor of Mathematics, Edinburgh, on _Trissotetras_, 119. + + ---- William, and William Mouat, 139. + + Wardlaw MS., 76, 78 (note). + + Warrington Bridge, 85. + + Westminster Abbey, 145. + + Whibley, Charles, _New Review_, quoted, 112. + + Williams, Roger, Missionary to Indians, 90, 91 (note 1). + + Williamson, Robert, Minister of Kirkmichael, 63. + + Windsor Castle, Sir Thomas Urquhart removed to, 89. + + Wodrow, quoted, 81 (note 2), 102 (note 2). + + Worcester, 86. + Battle of, 87. + + ---- Marquis of, _Century of the Names and Scantling of ... Inventions_, + 181 (note 2). + + Worldly Wiseman, 34. + + Wyntown's _Cronykil_, quoted, 3 (note 2). + + Yares of Udoll, 56. + + York, 86. + + ---- Thomas, 50 (note 2). + + Young, James, 118 (note). + + + + + BY THE SAME AUTHOR. + + Second Thousand. In Fcap. 8vo, 174 pp. Cloth, 2s. 6d. + + _A Shetland Minister of the 18th Century._ + + Being Passages in the Life of the Rev. John Mill. + + + NOTICES OF THE PRESS. + +"We have read this little book with real pleasure, and we wish it +well."--_Saturday Review._ + +"John Mill was a character such as Robert Louis Stevenson would have +rendered immortal, and that Mr. Willcock's well-written sketch portrays +with skill."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + +"A very remarkable life-history."--_New Age._ + +"A curious phase of Scottish life and character."--_Standard._ + +"A most readable little book."--_Athenaeum._ + +"It is delightful to receive such a pretty book.... 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A book of no ordinary +interest."--_Presbyterian._ + +"The picture of a man of remarkable vigour and individuality of +character."--_Scotsman._ + +"A really readable little book, which should find a considerably wider +public than that of the Shetland Islands."--_Glasgow Herald._ + +"Mill was a man of mark in his day, and his life-story is simply and +worthily told in this little volume."--_Aberdeen Free Press._ + +"Glimpses of old-world life in these remote islands."--_Scottish +Pictorial._ + +"A perspicuous and complete sketch."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + +"A little volume which is full of charm and interest."--_John O'Groat +Journal._ + +"The work is one of high literary ability, is of more than ordinary +value for the light it throws on the religious and moral condition of +the times it covers, and is specially interesting from the uniqueness of +the character of Mr. Mill."--_North British Daily Mail._ + +"A curious and interesting picture of old Shetland life."--_Elgin +Courant._ + +"Mr. Mill's idiosyncrasies furnish an unfailing source of +amusement."--_United Presbyterian Magazine._ + +"The whole work is excellent, and, we cannot doubt, will be welcomed in +a wider area than the northern islands in which Mr. Mill spent his +life."--_Banffshire Journal._ + +"A very interesting biography, which has already and deservedly +attracted a good deal of attention."--_Northern Ensign._ + +"We commend the perusal of the volume to all those in any way interested +in Scotland and her past."--_Liverpool Daily Post._ + +"We can recommend the book as interesting to many more than Shetland +readers."--_Life and Work._ + +"One can see what a romance Stevenson could have constructed out +of Mill's diary, which seems incredibly old-fashioned and +primitive."--_Sketch._ + +"A most interesting and readable volume, containing many quaint and +curious pictures of Shetland life and manners during last +century."--_Orkney Herald._ + +"Mr. Willcock has done well to provide this record of a man so +memorable."--_United Presbyterian Record._ + +"There is a great deal that is interesting in this book.... 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GROSART, D.D., LL.D. + +"It is a creditable, useful, and painstaking book, a genuine +contribution to Scottish literary history."--_British Weekly._ + +=James Thomson.= By WILLIAM BAYNE. + +"The story of Thomson's claim to the disputed authorship of 'Rule +Britannia' is sustained by his countryman with spirit and in our +judgment with success."--_Literature._ + + + + + OLIPHANT ANDERSON & FERRIER'S + "FAMOUS SCOTS" SERIES. + +=Mungo Park.= By T. BANKS MACLACHLAN. + +"Not only a charming life-story, if at times a pathetic one, but a vivid +chapter in the romance of Africa."--_Leeds Mercury._ + +=David Hume.= By HENRY CALDERWOOD, LL.D. + +"Fulfils admirably well the purpose of the writer, which was that of +presenting in clear, fair, and concise lines Hume and his philosophy to +the mind of his countrymen and of the world."--_Scotsman._ + +=William Dunbar.= By OLIPHANT SMEATON. + +"A graphic and informed account not only of the man and his works, but +of his immediate environment and of the times in which he +lived."--_Bailie._ + +=Sir William Wallace.= By Professor MURISON. + +"Mr. Murison is to be heartily congratulated on this little book. After +much hard and discriminate labour, he has pieced together by far the +best, one might say the only rational and coherent, account of Wallace +that exists."--_Speaker._ + +=Robert Louis Stevenson.= By MARGARET M. 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MACPHERSON. + +"I have learned much from your sketch of Adam Smith's life and work. It +presents the essential facts in a lucid and interesting way."--Mr. +HERBERT SPENCER _to the Author_. + +=Andrew Melville.= By WILLIAM MORISON. + +"The story is well told, and it takes one through a somewhat obscure +period with which it is well to be acquainted. No better guide could be +found than Mr. Morison."--_Spectator._ + +=James Frederick Ferrier.= By E. S. HALDANE. + +"Ferrier the man, and even Ferrier the professor, Miss Haldane brings +near to us, an attractive and interesting figure."--_Scotsman._ + +"This biography of him will be highly esteemed because of the grace and +vigour with which Miss Haldane has done her work. 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MARY STREET, EDINBURGH; + 21 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: Hyphenation has been standardized, for instance, +"footnote" rather than "foot-note". Spelling has not been standardized, +for instance "Lieutenant-General" and "Lieutenant-Generall", or +"falsehood" and "falshood". 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