to Professor Æneas Mackay

Kinnaird Cottage, Pitlochry, Wednesday, June 21, 1881.

MY DEAR MACKAY,—What is this I hear?—that you are retiring from your chair.  It is not, I hope, from ill-health?

But if you are retiring, may I ask if you have promised your support to any successor?  I have a great mind to try.  The summer session would suit me; the chair would suit me—if only I would suit it; I certainly should work it hard: that I can promise.  I only wish it were a few years from now, when I hope to have something more substantial to show for myself.  Up to the present time, all that I have published, even bordering on history, has been in an occasional form, and I fear this is much against me.

Please let me hear a word in answer, and believe me, yours very sincerely,

Robert Louis Stevenson.