Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/51

 and ‘Head of Scotland’ (Prydain). The poems thus agree with the ‘Saxon Genealogies’ in making Urien a powerful chieftain of the Northern Britons, and the statement of one of them that he was killed at ‘Aber Lleu’ (, ii. 270) may be trustworthy, if the mouth of the river Low, opposite Lindisfarne, once bore that name (, Arthurian Localities, 1869).

The name ‘Urbgen’ was borrowed by Geoffrey of Monmouth for his ‘Urbgennius de Badone’ (x. 6, 9; cf. also ix. 12). But the real representative of Urien in his pages is ‘Urianus rex Murefensium,’ one of three brothers in the north to whom Arthur gave Scotia, the Lothians, and Moray respectively (ix. 9, 12). The latter district, which was Urien's share, is made in another passage to include Loch Lomond (ix. 6). From the narrative of Geoffrey, Urien passed into the realm of Arthurian romance, and finally appears in ‘Malory’ as King Vryens of the land of Goire, who married Morgan le Fay, Arthur's sister, and narrowly escaped being murdered by his wife. Glamorganshire antiquarians took ‘Goire’ to be Gower, and accordingly represent Urien as the means of driving out the Irish from the region between the Towy and the Tawy, which he thereupon received as a gift (anrheg) under the name of Rheged (Iolo MSS. 70–1, 78, 86). But the real situation of Rheged remains unknown.



URQUHART, DAVID (1805–1877), diplomatist, born at Braelangwell, Cromarty, in 1805, was the second son of David Urquhart of Braelangwell, by his second wife, Miss Hunter. His father died while David was still a child, and he was brought up by his mother. In 1817 she took him to the continent, where he received his early education. After a year at a French military school he studied at Geneva under Malin, and subsequently travelled in Spain with a tutor. Returning to England in 1821, he spent six months in learning the rudiments of farming, and three or four more as an ordinary workman at Woolwich arsenal, where he acquired some knowledge of gunnery. He matriculated from St. John's College, Oxford, on 31 Oct. 1822. Being prevented by ill-health from continuing his studies there, he was encouraged by Jeremy Bentham, who had a high opinion of his capacity, to travel in the east. In the beginning of 1827 he sailed from Marseilles with Lord Dundonald to take part in the Greek war of independence. On board the brig Sauveur, in company with the steamer Perseverance, he shared in the attack on 28 Sept. 1827 on a Turkish squadron in the bay of Salona. The squadron was destroyed by the two vessels, and their success precipitated the decisive battle at Navarino. Urquhart was afterwards appointed lieutenant on board the frigate Hellas, and took part in the siege of Scio, where he was severely wounded. In November 1828 he left the Greek service, the war being practically at an end.

His elder half-brother, Charles Gordon Urquhart, had also joined the Greeks, and obtained the rank of colonel in the army; he was accidentally killed on 3 March 1828, in the island of Karabusa, of which he had been appointed governor.

In March 1830 David Urquhart was at Argos when the protocol arrived determining the Greek territory. Urquhart decided to examine the frontier personally, and his reports were communicated by his mother to Sir Herbert Taylor, private secretary of William IV. Taylor, impressed by the ability they displayed, submitted them to the king, and transmitted them to the French and Russian governments. In consequence Urquhart was nominated, while he was still abroad, British commissioner to accompany Prince Leopold to Greece. The prince, however, subsequently declined the Greek throne, and the appointment fell through. On his arrival in England Urquhart was immediately presented to the king. In November 1831 he accompanied the ambassador extraordinary, Sir (afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe) [q. v.], to Constantinople, and he returned with him in September 1832. In 1833, on his own proposition, he was despatched on a secret mission to inquire into the openings for British trade in eastern countries, and to examine the restrictions under which it laboured. Arriving at Constantinople early in 1834, he succeeded in obtaining the implicit confidence of the Turkish government, who were at that time embarrassed by the aggressions of Mehemet Ali. England and France held aloof, and the Turks were obliged to seek help from Russia, who in turn demanded considerable concessions [see, third ]. The Turkish officials placed such reliance on Urquhart that they kept him immediately informed of all communications made to them by the Russian ambassador. Lord Palmerston, however, took alarm at Urquhart's intimacy with the Porte, and wrote to the ambassador, Lord Ponsonby, to remove him from Constantinople as a danger to the peace of