“ The number of volumes is no guide to the magnitude of the work, for most of them have more than one part, and one (Vol. IV) has four parts and runs to over 4,000 pages. The total number of entries exceeds 50,000 and the number of documents calendared is not less than 100,000, while the index to the last volume along occupies 736 columns. The editorial standard steadily rose as the work progressed, and the result has been a corpus of historical materials unequalled in value in any other period of history, unrivalled in scholarship in any other country. ”

“ The son sought satisfaction in the Established Church of England, passing from Presbyterianism to a higher and higher Anglo-Catholicism, and growing more and more convinced in his conservatism as he grew older. ”

“ Gairdner inherited many of his great-grandfather's attractive qualities, but he followed neither his profession nor that of his father and uncle. After being educated in Edinburgh he entered the Record Office as a clerk in 1846 at the age of 18, and became Assistant Keeper of the Records in 1859. ”