xvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HEW SCOTT, D.D. Kennedy, a Colmonell farmer), surviving him till 1st May 1874. He left £9000 mostly to the Kennedy family, and a parcel of land at Pittenweem — • two crofts and a toft"—to endow the "Scott and Dunbar Bursary" in his alma mater. His large and interesting library was disposed of by auction. Parsimonious he never was where any rare volume was at stake. The Laing letters are full of references to book sales and the picking up of rarities. Scott's passion was books, and his book-plate (displaying an array of books surmounted by a John Knox bust, a scroll with the "Amo " of the Buccleuch Scotts, and the "buck that in the cleuch was ta'en ") is a sure indication of where his heart lay. Hot and choleric on occasion, he was as a little child when surrounded by tomes that were his dearest treasures. Such, then, was the compiler of the Fasti. Seldom has a finer piece of work been carried out with almost the minimum of encouragement. Yet one of the author's sunniest moments was Dr Chalmers's benediction on the superlative undertaking: "Go on, Mr Scott, go on; the unborn will bless you, sir. It is the work I would so like to do." Courtly compensation for much that might have been ! To have earned the approval of Thomas Chalmers was not only recognition worth while : it was stimulus sufficient for the perfecting of what was truly a patriot's legacy to posterity. W. S. CROCKETT.