Robert Louis Stevenson: A Record, an Estimate, and a Memorial

nk of. It brought me into personal association with R. L. Stevenson, who had written and publish

ined to play the part of the "sedulous ape," as he had acknowledged doing to many others-a later exercise, perhaps in some ways as fruitful as any that had gone before. A recent poet, h

Northern see

auty then

fine, and No

isses, mout

been grafted on an English pippin, and produced a wholly new kind with the flav

less easily assessed, as Stevenson himself, as we shall see, was ever ready to admit.

nsoniana says of the circumstances in which he found our

d at the moment like a half-drowned man, yet he was not cast down. His work, an endless task, was better than a straw to him. It was to become his life-preserver and to prolong his years. I feel convinced that without it he must have surrendered long since. I found Ste

stand up-a belief on which poor Branwell Bront? was fain to act and to illustrate, but R. L. Stevenson i

ed. This brought me a private letter from Stevenson, who expressed the wish to see me, and have some talk with me on that and other matters. To this letter I at once replied,

e, Castleto

ugust (?

nd frank letter; but, in my state of health, papers are apt to get mislai

ss that we disagreed which led me, I daresay, wrongly, to suppress all references th

ar in that invaluable particular, health; but if it should be at all possible for you to pass by Braemar

I shall religiously revise what I have written, and bring out more clearly the point of

s. Thus, for instance, when I mentioned his return to the pencil-making, I did it only in passing (perhaps I was wrong), because it seemed to me not an illustration of his princip

part, would surprise me: I know he would be more pitiful in practice than most of the whiners;

ndness for my subject, but you may be sure, sir, I would give up most other th

ve me your visit will be very welcome. The weather is cruel, but the place is, as

ouis Ste

my delay, and expressing the fear that I might have to forego the prospect of seeing him in Braemar, as his circumstanc

, Castleton

da

? We shall then, I believe, be empty: a thing favourable to talks. You get here in time for dinner. I stay till near the

e he and his wife and her son were

asant intercourse with his honoured father and himself. Here is m

ly a merry impish expression arising over that, yet frank and clear, piercing, but at the same time steady, and fall on you with a gentle radiance and animation as he speaks. Romance, if with an indescribable soup?on of whimsicality, is marked upon him; sometimes he has the look as of the Ancient Mariner, and could fix you with his glittering e'e, and he would, as he points his sentences with a movement of his thin white forefinger, when this is not monopolised with the almost incessant cigarette. There is a faint suggestion of a hair-brained sentimental trace on his countenance, but controlled, after all, by good Scotch sense and shrewdness. In conversation he is very animated, and likes to ask questions. A favourite and characteristic attitude with him was to put his foot on a chair or stool and rest his elbow on his knee, with his chin on his hand; or to sit, or rather to half sit, half lean, on the corner of a table or desk, one of his legs swinging freely, and when anything that tickled him was said he would laugh in the heartiest

ggestion of the American accent, which only made it the more pleasing to my ear. She is heart and soul devoted to her

at I was putting some restraint on myself out of respect for the host's feelings, Stevenson said to me with a sly wink and a gentle dig in the ribs, "It's laugh and be thankful here." On Lloyd's account simple engraving materials, types, and a small printing-press had been procured; and it was Stevenson's delight to make funny poems, stories, and morals for the engravings executed, and all would be duly printed together. Stevenson's thorough enjoyment

ort. At all events I cannot look at the slight memorials of that time, which I still possess, without laughing afresh till my eyes are dewy. Stevenson, as I understood, began Treasure Island more to entertain Lloyd Osbourne t

L. Osbourne, printed by the author; Davos Platz," with the most remarkable cuts. It would not do some of the sensationalists anything but good to read it even at this day, since many points in their art are absurdly caricatured. Another

ng on untro

venturous Co

heavens abo

seeks its

fact to fa

eagles, hil

temn the fa

s emblem an

Elephant, has

print how, m

Jumbo, grea

trunk, lik

hat indivi

Ibis in t

rve his bold

rom Davos Platz, in sen

flattered, for this is simply the first time he has ever

id, in send

Remembering the night at Braemar, when we visited the picture-galle

f-paradoxical assertion, or compel advance on the point from a new quarter by a searching question couched in the simplest language, or reveal his own latest conviction finally, by a few sentences as nicely rounded off as though they had been w

as a kind of rhythmical commentary on the story. His fine voice, clear and keen it some of its tones, had a wonderful power of inflection and variation, and when he came to stand in the place