[30] _Annals of Banff_ (New Spalding Club), ii. 28. The old church in which Sir Thomas had a "desk" or pew, and a "loft" or small gallery, is now in ruins. Only the south transept is standing. In the parish church of King-Edward, Aberdeenshire, the handsome silver communion cups bear an inscription to the effect that they were a joint present from Dr William Guild, the then incumbent of the parish, Sir Thomas Urquhart, and his uncle John Urquhart of Craigfintray. That the Sir Thomas Urquhart here named is not our author but his father, is evident from the date of the incumbency of his fellow-donor, Dr Guild, who was minister of King-Edward from 1608 to 1631. The cups bear date of 1619.
[34] "_Scotus est, piper in naso_," Mediæval proverb.
[35] "_Fier comme un Ecossais_," French proverb.
[36] It may be as well to warn our readers at this point that Sir Thomas Urquhart's vanity, or what would be called vanity in any other man, was unbounded. So calm and unconscious is it, that it often seems to betray a disordered mind. Those who seek in his estimates of himself for illustrations of the grace of humility will seek in vain. They may, however, find other things, which, if not so edifying, are far more amusing.
[37] The reader who has sufficient curiosity and leisure may compare with the above the account which his contemporary, Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1581-1648), gives of his duels in his _Autobiography_. That nobleman was a kind of Sir Thomas Urquhart in water-colour, and his single combats are surrounded with a proportionately milder glow of romance. Indeed, they seem to have been generally undertaken in order to compel impudent young men to give back pieces of riband to charming young ladies from whom they had snatched them.
[39] _Merchant of Venice_, Act I. Scene ii.
Recalled Home--The Covenanting Movement--The Trot of Turriff--Our Author escapes to England--Is Knighted--Publishes his _Epigrams_--His Father's Embarrassments increase--Lesley of Findrassie--Death of Sir Thomas Urquhart, senior--Our Author struggles in vain to keep his Creditors at bay--Other Wrongs and Losses--On bad Terms with the Church.
While Urquhart was engaged in foreign travel, the ecclesiastical and political controversies in Scotland came to such a height, that it was evident that matters could only be settled by an appeal to the sword, and, accordingly, he returned home to assist the party to which his family adhered. He, doubtless, like Milton, considered it disgraceful that, while his fellow-countrymen were fighting at home for liberty, he should be travelling abroad for amusement and intellectual culture. His father, who had been the first of the Urquharts to give up Roman Catholicism for Protestantism, took the unpopular side in the conflict that agitated the Church of Scotland. He was a staunch Episcopalian, and refused to accept the National Covenant, when those who had voluntarily and enthusiastically entered into it attempted to coerce others into following their example, and so turned it into an instrument of tyranny.