"A nycht he thowcht in hys dreming, Dat syttand he wes besyd þe Kyng At a Sete in hwnting; swà Intil his Leisch had Grewhundys twà. He thowcht, quhile he wes swà syttand, He sawe thre wemen by gangand; And þai wemen þan thowcht he Thre werd Systrys mást lyk to be. De fyrst he hard say gangand by, 'Lo yhondyr þe Thayne of Crwmbawchty.' De toyir woman sayd agayne, 'Of Morave yhondyre I se þe Thayne.' De thryd þan sayd, 'I se þe Kyng.' All þis 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 volume of unpublished poems by Sir Thomas, which is described on p. 116, there is the following:--"Upon the tutor of Cromarty, my great-grandfather's younger brother, and my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.