xii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HEW SCOTT, D.D. first portion of the work (it was in three volumes of two parts each) appeared in 1866, the last in 1871. The price was twenty-five shillings a part, and the impression was limited to 250 copies. The Fasti was pre-eminently a labour of love. Whatever profits might accrue from it were to be devoted to the Societies for the Sons of the Clergy and the Ministers' Daughters' College. At least £200 are known to have reached those institutions out of the Scott exchequer. That amount may or may not have been a contribution from Fasti profits. From Scott's letters to Laing we learn that the prospects were anything but rosy : "I thought, at least was always told, that the sales were greater, and as I expected something would be gained, perhaps not much, I find myself disheartened, and tremble at proceeding further. No gin-horse has worked harder than I have done for years, and here is the result—only making business for printers and booksellers." And again : "I am puzzled about going on with such a loss. The sales show that few of the great or literary folks care for it." A third letter informs Dr Laing that of 250 copies of one part, 96 were sold, 12 were in the author's hands, while 142 remained on the booksellers' shelves. Hew Scott's last letter to David Laing is full of pathos : "I received yours when in bed yesterday (4th Dec. 1871), where I have been for eight or ten days. I am very thankful my humble, or what you call great work, is so near a close. Dr Gordon wrote me lately something similar when I told him I intended doing no more, but he persuaded me it would be necessary to give the Moderators. The work at the very outset brought me into trouble, even with the purest intentions, and has been carried on under sometimes great privations, at times under great depression of spirit, exertions few constitutions could have undergone, and an expense which to many might have been a little fortune. For the last twelve months it has been carried on in a sick- room and nursing an affectionate partner, and last of all, threatened with blindness. So you may judge if I would not gladly be done with it. Whoever is dissatisfied with my past labour is very welcome to try his hand and make it better. I know of none such except two individuals." But if the author of the Fasti toiled and sowed in tears, the herculean labour of his life has not been lost. The Fasti has filled a noble niche in Scottish ecclesiastical history. As a work of reference it has long taken a high place, and its pages have been a mine for the digging of every local annalist. By the triumphant realisation of his early dream, Hew Scott made not merely the Church but the whole of Scotland his debtor.