Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/342

 The brothers also entered together the university of St. Andrews on 13 Feb. 1665. How long Claverhouse remained at the university is unknown. The author of ‘Memoirs of Dundee’ (p. 4) mentions his ‘liberal education in humanity and in mathematics;’ while the author of ‘Memoirs of Ewan Cameron’ says that he ‘had made considerable progress in the mathematics, especially those parts of it that related to his military capacity; and there was no part of the belles-lettres that he had not read with great ease and exactness. He was much master of the epistolary way of writing, for he not only expressed himself with great ease and fluency, but argued well, and had a great art in giving his thoughts in few words’ (p. 278). Burnet characterises him as ‘a man of good parts and some very valuable virtues’ (Own Time, ed. 1838, p. 510); and Dalrymple says that he had ‘inflamed his mind from his earliest youth by the perusal of the ancient poets, historians, and orators; with the love of the great actions they paint and describe’ (Memoirs of Great Britain, pt. ii. p. 73). Many letters of Claverhouse are still extant, and induced Scott to say that he spelt like a chambermaid. His letters are less correct than those of Sir George Mackenzie, the Dalrymples, or the ninth Earl of Argyll. His powers of spelling were those of the average country gentleman (see exact specimens in, Red Book of Menteith, pp. xxxvii–ix). The terseness and idiomatic vigour of his letters are, however, in striking contrast to their orthographical defects, and they show familiarity with the great classical writers. Claverhouse, on leaving the university, proceeded to the continent to study the art of war. He entered several foreign services, and when he could not obtain a commission served as a volunteer (Memoirs of Great Britain, pt. ii. p. 73). In all likelihood he joined the English contingent of Turenne, commanded by Monmouth. Subsequently he transferred his services to William, prince of Orange, but hardly so early as 1672, as stated by C. K. Sharpe (, i. 180), and very probably immediately after the conclusion by England of a separate peace with Holland in 1674. In this year Sir David Colyear, earl of Portmore [q. v.], is also known to have entered the troop of William's guards. Claverhouse is reported to have obtained a cornetcy in the troop, and shortly afterwards, at the battle of Seneff, on 14 Aug., to have saved the life of the prince by mounting him on his own horse at a critical moment. According to tradition he was on this account promoted to the rank of captain. Macaulay, supposing the author of ‘Memoirs of Dundee,’ published in 1714, to have been the first to give currency to the story, derides it as a ‘Jacobite invention,’ which ‘seems to have originated a quarter of a century after Dundee's death’ (note to chap. xv.). The gallantry of Claverhouse at Seneff was, however, mentioned, though without specific details, in laudatory verses addressed to him on New Year's day, 1683 (reprinted in, Fugitive Scottish Poetry of the Seventeenth Century). The actual incident is also described in the Latin poem ‘Grameid’ (published by the Scottish History Society, 1888), written by James Philip of Amryclos, Forfarshire, Claverhouse's standard-bearer at Killiecrankie, the original manuscript of which, in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, bears the date 1691. According to ‘Memoirs of Dundee’ (p. 5) and ‘Memoirs of Ewan Cameron’ (pp. 274–5), Claverhouse left the service of the Prince of Orange in 1677, because he was disappointed by not obtaining the colonelcy of one of the Scotch regiments. In ‘Memoirs of Ewan Cameron’ it is further mentioned that his successful rival was David Colyear (who certainly did obtain such a command), and that Claverhouse was dismissed for having assaulted Colyear with his cane within the precincts of the palace at the Loo. That Claverhouse was some time in the Dutch service is fully substantiated by two letters of his own, printed in Fraser's ‘Red Book of Grandtully’ (ii. 229–30). If he joined that service before 1676, he seems either temporarily to have left it before that year, or in that year to have been permitted leave of absence, for in March he wrote, while in Scotland, to the laird of Grandtully about the purchase of a horse for service in Holland (ib.), and on 4 April James Graham also wrote in the name of Claverhouse, who, he stated, had sailed on the previous Saturday, thanking Grandtully for the horse, and asking him to let him know of any men ready to volunteer for service in Holland (ib. i. cxli). In ‘Memoirs of Ewan Cameron’ it is stated that the Prince of Orange, though he thought it expedient to dismiss Claverhouse, ‘had the generosity to write to the king and the duke recommending him as a fine gentleman and a brave officer, civil or military.’ As the peace of Nimeguen was not signed till August 1678, the withdrawal of Claverhouse from the service of the prince in 1677 requires some other explanation than that ‘all fighting on the continent was stayed’ (, p. 15). In November of this year the prince married Mary, daughter of the Duke of York, and, whatever may be the reasons of Claverhouse for leaving his service, the prince seems to have specially recommended him to his