Autograph letter signed : Summerfield, to Robert Blair, 1795 July 18.

Telling Blair that he had received his letter "in which you mentioned your having made an attempt to see Mr Dundas & to have some further explanation with him on the Subject of which I wrote you"; saying that he must have explained the matter "confusedly & inaccurately" earlier; explaining that, when William Robertson died, a number of positions opened up and, at that point, Blair had written to Henry Dundas, asking for an assistant and declining, in advance, the office of the Principal of Edinburgh University (which Robertson had held previously); saying that Dundas did not respond: "perhaps he was displeased with my intention of refusing that office, when offered; but surely my behavior as to him was proper & respectful"; explaining that Dundas had proposed the minister Thomas Hardy for the principalship instead, and when Hardy was not chosen by the Edinburgh Town Council, he received a compensatory annual stipend; writing that, after this series of events, Blair felt ill-used: "But of me no notice whatever was taken--it was in these circumstances I felt mortified, & remonstrated to Mr D. as a person who was neglected on all hands"; mentioning that Dundas had just left the area a few days ago, after staying for a fortnight in Melville, and that, though he and Blair did not speak about this business during his visit, they did have a friendly dinner together: "his whole behavior to me was as kind & cordial as at any time I ever saw it. We had much friendly intercourse & he pressed me to stay all night with him, which I could not do"; writing that he also received "a polite card" from Dundas after his departure, and that he had dined with Lady Jane Dundas: "I am very much taken with her as an amiable engaging woman; and I told Mr D. how happy I thought him in the choice he had made"; concluding that he has great "Esteem & Love" for Dundas and asking Blair not to press the latter further about the issue; writing that he is "in tolerable health in my Summer habitation though feeling as you may believe (in my 78th year) infirmities fast coming on"; inviting Blair to come visit; describing a recent portrait of himself, "in my Night cap & among my Books," as "a like & a good picture."