The letters were written while George Dimma was a student in Edinburgh in 1856, an apprentice mechanic at Anderston Foundry, Glasgow, 1837-1842, and with Seaward and Capel, marine engine makers in London, 1843-1844. He describes his work in the machine shops, his social life, and visits to harbours, docks, railways and mills.

Fleeming Jenkin was Professor of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh and Stevenson’s tutor in that capacity. Stevenson showed little aptitude or interest in engineering but the two men became firm friends. After Jenkin’s sudden death in 1885, his widow Anne asked Stevenson to write a memoir of her husband and this correspondence arose from that connection.