Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, Knight Part 8

[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-Gla.s.s_, 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 t.i.tle 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 ent.i.tled_ 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 t.i.tle-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 Herac.l.i.tus 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 pa.s.sing 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 t.i.tle as simply equivalent to "_laird_." He calls himself on one of his t.i.tle-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 cla.s.s of our readers. The following explanations are, therefore, intended for those members of the inferior s.e.x 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 tut 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 pa.s.sage.

CHAPTER V

???????????????, OR THE PEDIGREE

One of the most characteristic of Sir Thomas Urquhart's works is his ???????????????: 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 doc.u.ments of interest to which they solicit attention; but why a man in Sir Thomas Urquhart's position should have gone on a campaign, enc.u.mbered by various unpublished works in ma.n.u.script, 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 surpa.s.sing 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 "s.p.a.cious" manner of self-eulogy, which by its very grandeur seems lifted up above all such petty feelings as pride or vanity.

The concluding pa.s.sage in the address to the reader is also worth quoting, as it ill.u.s.trates 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 pa.s.ses through j.a.phet. 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 doc.u.ment 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, j.a.phet, fell the inheritance of "all the regions of Europe"; j.a.phet'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 ?????a?t??, 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, ta?ta ta t??a a????eata; 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 a.s.sisted Bacchus to conquer India, he "pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sisted 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 princ.i.p.al 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 ident.i.ty 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."