The letter from Professor J. R. R. Tolkien is dated 28 July 1973, and is written at Merton College, Oxford. It is a letter of thanks for the honour bestowed on him in Edinburgh. The letter is addressed to 'Dear Professor Campbell', being Professor Ian M. Campbell, at the then Faculty of Arts (Latin, Humanity).
The letter was written some two weeks after the event (award of Honorary Degree), and 'after some further travelling'. Tolkien expresses his thanks to Campbell for his 'part in the events [..] both in feasting and in ceremonial'. This had been 'the most resplendent academic occasion' in which he had taken part. He survived the festivities 'with unmarred pleasure, owing to the generous substitution of whisky for wine'. He refers to confirmation of his doctor's advice to 'transfer allegiance wholly from Bacchus to Ceres'.
Tolkien makes some literary references to his own work in the letter. 'At the laureation', he writes, 'I felt like a hobbit would : as is exhibited [...] especially by Merry and Pippin : great pride and delight in the reception of high honour and title'. Great pride and delight 'combined with [...] a difficulty in believing that it was really happening to me, or was really deserved...'. The words of the Address had left him 'overwhelmed', especially that he had been made 'one of us'.
'Edinburgh has gripped me fast', he writes, and though his age 'had begun to make me reluctant to travel far, a journey back north [...] will not be reluctant' - if 'opportunity and health allows'.