The letter from Burns is written across the columns of an an improvised half sheet of accountancy paper measuring 7 x 10in., having the recipient's address and small wax seal showing a pierced heart to one side, and the text, without place or date, to the other. Folded twice in order to fit it into the octavo book, and presumably written sometime after August 1789 when Burns himself became an exciseman, the letter is addressed to Mr. Alex Findlater, Supervisor of Excise, Dumfries, and reads: "Sir, Inclosed are the two schemes. -- I would not have troubled you with the Collectors one, but for suspicion lest it be not right. -- Mr. Erskine promised me to make it right, if you will have the goodness to shew him how. As I have no copy of the Scheme for myself, & the alterations being very considerable from what it was formerly, I hope that I shall have access to this Scheme I send you, when I come to face up my new books. -- So much for Schemes. -- And that no Scheme, to betray a Friend, or mislead a Stranger; to seduce a Young Girl, or rob a hen-roost; to subvert Liberty, or bribe an Excise-man; to disturb the General Assembly, or annoy a Gossiping; to overthrow the credit of Orthodoxy, or the authority of old Songs; to oppose your wishes, or frustrate my hopes ---- May prosper ---- is the sincere wish & prayer of Robt Burns."