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