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your approval: when the author of Montrose
accepts a piece of historical interpretation, it
means something. It was only after planning,
in a lazy way, a kind of guilty-but-with-
recommendations-for-mercy interpretation of Mary
that I found the evidence simply wouldn't fit in;
& I was compelled to re-plan & take the
view I did. I expected - & I've got -
the usual accusations of special pleading, but
your approval shoulders them out & fortifies
me in my faith. - And how charming
of you to write from Holyrood House!

Very gratefully & sincerely,

Eric Linklater.