The title of this etching comes from James Hogg’s classic novel, ‘The Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner’, published in 1824. Bellany read it when he went to London to study at the Royal College of Art. The book examines the potential for evil within humanity, a theme that links directly to Bellany’s Calvinist upbringing. This etching is filled with ambiguities, creating an unsettling scene. In the foreground a figure carries a skate in a basket whilst behind, another apparently hermaphrodite figure with a cat-like face, clutches an egg timer. The skate has human features and external sexual organs - an alter ego of some description that appears frequently in his work. Bellany only began to experiment with etching when he started teaching at Winchester College of Art. This is one of the first of a series of etchings he made in 1970.