"Travels through Europe, Asia, and Africa" Lithgow, under date 1628, writes thus: "And now being arrived at Maji (Mey) to embark for Orkney, sight, time, and duty command me to celebrate these following lines, to gratify the kindness of that noble lord, George, Earl of Caithness, with his honourable cousin and first accadent of his house, the right worshipful Sir William Sinclair of Catboll, knight, laird of Maji: -
Sir! sighting now thyself and palace fair,
I find a novelty, and that most rare;
The time though cold and stormy, sharper sun
And far to summer, scarce the spring begun;
Yet with good luck, in Februar, Saturn's prey,
Have I not sought and found out fruitful May,
Plank'd with the marine coast, prospective stands,
Right opposite to the Orcade isles and lands;
Where I for flowers, ingorg'd strong grapes of Spain
And liquor'd French, both red and white amain.
Which palace doth contain two four-squar'd courts
Graft with brave works, where th'art drawn pencil sports
On walls, high chambers, galleries, office bowers,
Cells, rooms, and turrets, platforms, stately towers;
Where green-fac'd gardens, set at Flora's feet,
Make natures beauty quick Apelles greet,
Nay, not by blood, as she herself can do,
But by her pattern, feeding younglings too;
For which this patron's crescent stands so stay,
That neither spite nor tempest can shake May;
Whose scutcheons cleave so fast to top and side,
Portends to me his arms shall ever bide.
So Murckle's arms are so, except the rose
Spread all the cross, which Bothwell's arms disclose:
Whose uterine blood he is, and present brother
To Caithness' Lord, all three sprung from one mother;
Bothwell's prime heretrix, plight to Hepburns race,
From whom religious Murckles rose I trace,
This country’s instant shrieve; whose virtue raised
His honoured worth; his godly life more praised.
But now to rouse their roots and how they sprung,
See how antiquity time's triumph sung,
This scallet, worth them banched, for endeavour
And service done to Englands conqueror;
With whom from France they first to Britain came,
Sprung from a town, St.Clair, now turn'd their name,
Whose predecessor, by their val'rous hand,
Won endless fame, twice in the Holy Land;
Where in that Christian war, their blood been lost
They loath'd of Gaul and sought our Albion coast,
Themselves to Scotland came in Canmore’s reign
With good Queen Marg'ret and her English train.
The ship from Orkney sail’d, now ruled by Charles,
Whereof the Sinclairs long time had been earls,
Whose lord, then William, was, by Scotlands king
(Called Robert Second; First whence Stewarts spring)
Sent with his second son to France, called James,
Who eighteen years lived captivate at Thames.
This prisoner last turned king, called James the First,
Who Sinclair's credit kept in honour's thirst.
The galley was the badge of Caithness lords,
As Malcolm Canmore’s reign at length records,
Which was to Magnus given for service done
Against Macbeath, usurper of his crown,
All which survey'd, at last the midmost gate
Designed to me the arms of that great 'state,
The Earls of Caithness; to whose praise imbaged
Thy muse must mount, and here's my pen incadg'd;
First then their arms; a cross did me produce
Limb'd like a scallet, traced with flour de luce;
The lion, red and rag’d, two times divided
From coin to coin as heralds have decided:
The third join'd stance denotes to me a galley,
That on their sea-wrapt foes dare make a sally;
The fourth a gallant ship, puft with taunt sail
'Gainst them their ocean dare, or coast assail:
On whose bent crest a pelican doth sit -
An emblem for like love, drawn wondrous fit:
Who as she feeds her young with her hearts blood
Denotes these lords, to theirs, like kind, like good:
Whose best supporters guard both sea and land
Two stern-drawn griffins, in their strength do stand:
Their dictum bears this verdict, for heavens ode:
Ascrib’d this clause, Commit thy work to God.
O sacred motto! Bishop Sinclair's strain
Who turned Fyfe's lord on Scotland's foes again.
Lo! here's the arms of Caithness, here's the stock!
On which branched boughs rely as on a rock.
But further in I found like arms more patent,
To kind Sir William and his line as latent;
The premier accade of that noble race,
Who for his virtue may reclaim the place;
Whose arms, with tongue and buckle, now they make
Fast cross sign ty'd, for a fair Lesly’s sake.
The lion hunts o'er land; the ship, the sea;
The ragged cross can scale high walls; we see
The wing-laid galley with her factious oars,
Both heavens and floods command, and circling shores;
The feathered griffin flies, 0 grim-limb'd beast !
That winging sea and land, upholds thy crest;
But for the pelicans life-sprung kind story
Makes honour sing, Virtute et amore.
[Sir William Sinclair’s motto]
The lion came, by an heretrix to pass,
By marriage, whose sire was sirnamed Douglas.
Where, after him, the Sinclair now record
Was Sheriff of Dumfries and Nithsdales lord,
Whose wife was niece to good King James the Third:
Who for exchange 'twixt Wick and Southern Nidde,
Did lands excambiate; whence this Caithness soil
Stands fast for them; the rest their friends recoil.
Then circle-bounded Caithness, Sinclairs ground,
Which Pentland Firth environs, Orkney's sound;
Whose top is Dunkane’s bay, the root the Ord.
Long may it long stand fast for their true lord;
And as long, too, heavens grant what I require,
The race of Maji may in that stock aspire,
Till any age may lust, time's glass be run,
For earth's last dark eclipse, of no more sun.