Written to "Sir" at The Meadows [Edinburgh]. Subject: Send me certain books (Pitt, Wellesley...) in order to write your article touching modern and French revolutionary history; communicate with me through the Miss Millers; must keep address secret even from children. Heavily corrected. On half-sheet of mourning paper, thin border - 2 pages. Begins: "My opportunities of communicating with my children... " Signed: T De Q.

Recipient: Thought to be William Tait, publisher of the radical Tait's Edinburgh Magazine by previous cataloger (on presently unknown grounds).

Dating: De Quincey's wife died in 1837 and he began living apart from family (according to the Dictionary of National Biography); Tait retired in 1848 (but the Magazine continued); Sat 26 May could therefore be 1838, 1849, or 1855.