SECTION II. MISCELLANEOUS POEMS, BY SIR WILLIAM MURE, KNIGHT, OF ROWALLAN, AUTHOR OF "THE TRVE CRVCIFIXE. WITH BIOGRAPHICAL & RELATIVE NOTICES. BY JOHN FULLARTON, ESQ. NOTICES OF SIR WILLIAM MURE. It would seem confessed, in assailing the "ancient Faith," little proved more formidable than those satires and pasquils, for which, in particular, Sir David Lindsay stands so pre-eminently distinguished. Modified to the progress of events, writings of this nature continued to appear, no doubt with decreasing interest and point, down at least to the final period of the Revolution. Considerably previous to the renewed outbreakings in the time of Charles the First, Sir William Mure of Rowallan published an elaborate and lengthy poem, under the title of the Trve Crucifixe, and by which, in this class of literature, his name has not yet utterly been forgotten. Haply, therefore, at least to those solicitous of such matters, a selection of the lighter emanations of the muse of the True Crucifixe, may not be deemed wholly uninteresting. Nor, peradventure, may the few casual memorials subjoined of its zealous author, at this distance of time, be viewed as greatly less acceptable; and it is only regretted, that neither the nature of the present compilation, nor the means of obtaining materials, enable doing more suitable justice to the subject. The family of Rowallan in Ayrshire, is amongst the most ancient and honourably connected of the baronial rank in the country. Elizabeth Mure, wife of the Second Robert of Scotland-from whom have descended the succeeding Royal line of Stuart, and their illustrious successors to the present time was a daughter of the house of Rowallan.1 SIR WILLIAM MURE, a selection of whose poesies here follow, was the lineal descendant and successor of the family. About the year 1593, his father, Sir William Mure of Rowallan, married, first, when very young, Elizabeth, daughter of Montgomery of Hazelhead, and by whom our author was the eldest of two sons, and a daughter married to Boyd of Pinkill. This lady appears to have been daughter to Hugh Montgomery of Hazelhead, Ayrshire (descended of Eglintoun), by Marion Sempill, daughter of Lord Sempill, and sister to MONTGOMERY, author of the Cherrie and the Slae. In a metrical address, now first printed, to Charles, Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles the First, Sir William Mure thus alludes to his near connection with the Poet: 2 My Muse, quhich noght doth challenge worthy fame, 1 An interesting genealogical memoir of the family, written by our author, was lately published, from the original MS. at Glasgow, by the Rev. William Muir. In which the curious reader may find an account of the ancestry of Rowallan detailed at length. 2 Crawford, followed by subsequent genealogists, calls her Janet; but in an original writ belonging to the family of Blair, Ayrshire, wherein "Hew Montgomerie of Heiselheid" grants a reversion of lands to John Blair of that ilk, 1581, she is named Marion, and was then living. SIR WILLIAM MURE. 103 There certainly still remain indubitable indications of Sir William Mure's early proficiency as a scholar; and, as we learn from himself, before attaining his twentieth year, he composed an English metrical version of Virgil's Dido and Eneas-some further notice of which afterwards: But pardon, Maro, if myn infant Muse Yet, in his education, it appears not that he was ever destined otherwise than merely to support, in his succession, the hereditary rank and condition of the family, in the several relations of society and the state: indeed, in the extremely limited field of that period, professional pursuits of any kind seem to have been but little thought of by the eldest branches of the more wealthy families. Before this time, Kilmarnock, in the near vicinity of the family residence, had risen to the rank of a burgh, and so, probably, might afford him the means of rudimental instruction. And there is perhaps still more probability, that he completed his education at the then newly revived University of Glasgow, under the direction of the eminent Principal Boyd, for whom it is apparent he always entertained the highest veneration: it is at least so far presumable, his brother Hugh, afterwards a clergyman in England, in 1618, was matriculated in that College. Before fully completing his majority, in 1615, he mar |