Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/David Laing

LAING, David (1793–1878), a distinguished Scottish antiquary, especially eminent for his bibliographical knowledge, was the son of William Laing, a bookseller in Edinburgh, and was born in that city in 1793. He was brought up to his father’s business, and continued for many years in partnership with him. Shortly after the death of the latter, however, a vacancy having occurred in the librarianship of the Signet Library, Laing was elected to that office in 1837, and continued to hold it till the time of his death. In addition to, it is believed, an almost unexampled knowledge of the titles and value of books, Laing possessed on intimate acquaintance with the early literary history of Scotland. His knowledge of Scottish art was also very extensive; and the ecclesiastical history of his native country, particularly during the 16th and 17th centuries, had long been the subject of his profound investigation. It is perhaps to be regretted that with all this knowledge he never produced any large independent work, but confined himself to the editing of the works of others. Of these, the chief are—Dunbar’s Works, 2 vols., 1834, with a supplement added in 1865; Robert Baillie’s Letters and Journals, 3 vols., 1841–42; John Knox’s Works, 6 vols., 1846–64; Poems and Fables of Robert Henryson, 1865; Andrew of Wyntoun’s Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, 3 vols., 1872–79; Sir David Lyndsay’s Poetical Works, 3 vols., 1879. Laing was for more than fifty years an active member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and during that period he contributed upwards of a hundred separate papers to their Proceedings. He was also for more than forty years secretary to the Bannatyne Club, many of the publications of which were carefully edited by him, and few of them we believe failed to benefit by his assistance. A complete list of his productions would occupy many pages. His literary activity ended only with his life. He was struck with paralysis when attending to his duties in the Signet Library, and it is touchingly recorded of him that, on awakening out of the fit, he looked about him and asked if a proof of Wyntoun had been sent up from the printers. He died a few days afterwards, on October 18, 1878, at the age of eighty-six years. Perhaps few men who ever lived possessed so much recondite knowledge on subjects connected with Scottish history and literature, and no one could be more ready to communicate whatever he knew to those who were engaged in investigations similar to his own. In 1864 the university of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of LL.D. In the course of his long life Laing had collected an immense library, a large portion of the books being illustrative of the literature or history of Scotland, and many of them being of extraordinary rarity. It was dispersed by auction in London soon after his death, and the enormous prices obtained for many of the books were such as had hardly ever been known even in the most celebrated of previous book sales. A valuable collection of MSS., chiefly relating to Scotland, was bequeathed by him to the library of Edinburgh university.