Excerpt from Report on the Laing Manuscripts, Vol. 1: Preserved in the University of Edinburgh, Presented to Parliament by Command of His Majesty

The Laing Manuscripts here dealt with are part of a collection formed by the late David Laing, LL.D., who for many years was Keeper of the Library of the Writers to the Signet, Edinburgh, and was one of the most distinguished and assiduous antiquaries of his day. He was the second son of William Laing, a bookseller in Edinburgh, and was born on 20 April, 1793. At first he followed his father's calling and often went abroad in search of rare and curious books, for the discovery of which he developed great skill. He associated himself with the publishing societies known as the Abbotsford, Bannatyne and Spalding Clubs, and also with the Wodrow Society, all of which were instituted for the publication of manuscripts or the resuscitation of old texts, and his own contributions to these and other publi cations were numerous and for very many years he acted as Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. He became librarian to the Society of Writers to the Signet in 1837, and held that position until his death in 1878. During his whole life he was an indefatigable collector of' manuscripts, the bulk of which he bequeathed to the University Library of Edinburgh. When these manuscripts came to be sorted out, for they were in a state of great confusion, they were found to consist of manuscript books and printed books with manuscript additions, dealing with all varieties of subjects, ahd also of an immense mass of documents, parchment charters, paper deeds and correspondence. A kind of general arrangement of the whole was made by the late Rev. J ohn Anderson, afterwards Curator of the Historical Department in the General Register House, Edinburgh. He separated the parchment charters from the others and made abstracts of each, which were published in a large volume entitled The Laing Charters. Oi the other books and documents, he made a brief catalogue containing a list of the manuscript books to the number of 780 and another list of the historical documents, letters and miscellaneous papers, in two divisions, the first extending to 350 numbers and the second to 654, but in the second division most of the numbers relate to bundles of deeds and not merely to separate documents. In the present report the writer was limited by his instructions to treat only of the historical documents 1n these collections, and therefore it Will be under stood that this is not an exhaustive calendar of the whole of their contents, although it is believed it will give a fair idea of the nature of the collection.

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