SIR THOMAS URQUHART
OF CROMARTIE
Sir Thomas Urquhart.
SIR THOMAS
URQUHART
OF CROMARTIEKNIGHT.
BY
JOHN WILLCOCK
M.A.B.D.
LERWICK.
1899
EDINBURGH & LONDON
OLIPHANT
ANDERSON & FERRIER
[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
EW persons who take an interest ingeneral literature are wholly unacquaintedwith the name of SirThomas Urquhart, as that of thetranslator of a great French classic.Only the more erudite can tellhow the name of another literary man, PierreAntoine Motteux, comes to be associated with hisin connexion with the translation in question, andare aware that the Scottish knight is the author oforiginal compositions in such diverse departmentsas poetry, trigonometry, genealogy, and biography,and that he played a prominent part in the publiclife of his time.
It has been my object to bring together in thefollowing volume all the materials which areavailable for giving a vivid picture of the personalityof Sir Thomas Urquhart, and of the circumstancesin which his life was passed, as I think it would bea pity if his romantic, fantastical figure were topass into oblivion. The materials for his life arefairly abundant, though they have to be sought forin many out-of-the-way corners. The slight butfairly accurate sketch prefixed to his Works in the[Pg xii]Maitland Club edition, and the carefully writtenarticles in Dr Irving's Scottish Writers, and theDictionary of National Biography, contain the onlyprevious attempts which have been made to givehis history. The limits within which the authorsof these notices had to work, have, however,prevented their giving more than a bare outline ofhis career. I have attempte