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.