Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson Volume 2 Part 39

It is generally thus. The Battle of the Golden Letters will never be delivered. On making preparation to open the campaign, the King found himself face to face with invincible difficulties, in which the rapacity of a mercenary soldiery and the complaints of an impoverished treasury played an equal part. - Ever yours,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

I enclose a bill for the medallion; have been trying to find your letter, quite in vain, and therefore must request you to pay for the bronze letters yourself and let me know the damage.

R. L. S.

Letter: TO J. HORNE STEVENSON

VAILIMA, SAMOA, NOVEMBER 5TH, 1893.

MY DEAR STEVENSON, - A thousand thanks for your voluminous and delightful collections. Baxter - so soon as it is ready - will let you see a proof of my introduction, which is only sent out as a sprat to catch whales. And you will find I have a good deal of what you have, only mine in a perfectly desultory manner, as is necessary to an exile. My uncle's pedigree is wrong; there was never a Stevenson of Caldwell, of course, but they were tenants of the Muirs; the farm held by them is in my introduction; and I have already written to Charles Baxter to have a search made in the Register House. I hope he will have had the inspiration to put it under your surveillance. Your information as to your own family is intensely interesting, and I should not wonder but what you and we and old John Stevenson, 'land labourer in the parish of Dailly,'

came all of the same stock. Ayrs.h.i.+re - and probably Cunningham - seems to be the home of the race - our part of it. From the distribution of the name - which your collections have so much extended without essentially changing my knowledge of - we seem rather pointed to a British origin. What you say of the Engineers is fresh to me, and must be well thrashed out. This introduction of it will take a long while to walk about! - as perhaps I may be tempted to let it become long; after all, I am writing THIS for my own pleasure solely. Greetings to you and other Speculatives of our date, long bygone, alas! - Yours very sincerely,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

P.S. - I have a different version of my grandfather's arms - or my father had if I could find it.

R. L. S.

Letter: TO JOHN P-N

VAILIMA, SAMOA, DECEMBER 3RD, 1893.

DEAR JOHNNIE, - Well, I must say you seem to be a tremendous fellow! Before I was eight I used to write stories - or dictate them at least - and I had produced an excellent history of Moses, for which I got 1 pound from an uncle; but I had never gone the length of a play, so you have beaten me fairly on my own ground. I hope you may continue to do so, and thanking you heartily for your nice letter, I shall beg you to believe me yours truly,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

Letter: TO RUSSELL P-N

VAILIMA, SAMOA, DECEMBER 3RD, 1893.

DEAR RUSSELL, - I have to thank you very much for your capital letter, which came to hand here in Samoa along with your mother's.

When you 'grow up and write stories like me,' you will be able to understand that there is scarce anything more painful than for an author to hold a pen; he has to do it so much that his heart sickens and his fingers ache at the sight or touch of it; so that you will excuse me if I do not write much, but remain (with compliments and greetings from one Scot to another - though I was not born in Ceylon - you're ahead of me there). - Yours very truly,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

Letter: TO ALISON CUNNINGHAM

VAILIMA, DECEMBER 5, 1893.

MY DEAREST c.u.mMY, - This goes to you with a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The Happy New Year anyway, for I think it should reach you about NOOR'S DAY. I dare say it may be cold and frosty.

Do you remember when you used to take me out of bed in the early morning, carry me to the back windows, show me the hills of Fife, and quote to me.

'A' the hills are covered wi' snaw, An' winter's noo come fairly'?

There is not much chance of that here! I wonder how my mother is going to stand the winter. If she can, it will be a very good thing for her. We are in that part of the year which I like the best - the Rainy or Hurricane Season. 'When it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is horrid,' and our fine days are certainly fine like heaven; such a blue of the sea, such green of the trees, and such crimson of the hibiscus flowers, you never saw; and the air as mild and gentle as a baby's breath, and yet not hot!

The mail is on the move, and I must let up. - With much love, I am, your laddie,

R. L. S.

Letter: TO CHARLES BAXTER

6TH DECEMBER 1893.

'OCTOBER 25, 1685. - At Privy Council, George Murray, Lieutenant of the King's Guard, and others, did, on the 21st of September last, obtain a clandestine order of Privy Council to apprehend the person of Janet Pringle, daughter to the late Clifton, and she having retired out of the way upon information, he got an order against Andrew Pringle, her uncle, to produce her. . . . But she having married Andrew Pringle, her uncle's son (to disappoint all their designs of selling her), a boy of thirteen years old.' But my boy is to be fourteen, so I extract no further. - FOUNTAINHALL, i. 320.

'MAY 6, 1685. - Wappus Pringle of Clifton was still alive after all, and in prison for debt, and transacts with Lieutenant Murray, giving security for 7000 marks.' - i. 372.

No, it seems to have been HER brother who had succeeded.

MY DEAR CHARLES, - The above is my story, and I wonder if any light can be thrown on it. I prefer the girl's father dead; and the question is, How in that case could Lieutenant George Murray get his order to 'apprehend' and his power to 'sell' her in marriage?

Or - might Lieutenant G. be her tutor, and she fugitive to the Pringles, and on the discovery of her whereabouts hastily married?

A good legal note on these points is very ardently desired by me; it will be the corner-stone of my novel.

This is for - I am quite wrong to tell you - for you will tell others - and nothing will teach you that all my schemes are in the air, and vanish and reappear again like shapes in the clouds - it is for HEATHERCAT: whereof the first volume will be called THE KILLING TIME, and I believe I have authorities ample for that. But the second volume is to be called (I believe) DARIEN, and for that I want, I fear, a good deal of truck:-

DARIEN PAPERS, CARSTAIRS PAPERS, MARCHMONT PAPERS, JERVISWOODE CORRESPONDENCE,

I hope may do me. Some sort of general history of the Darien affair (if there is a decent one, which I mis...o...b..), it would also be well to have - the one with most details, if possible. It is singular how obscure to me this decade of Scots history remains, 1690-1700 - a deuce of a want of light and grouping to it!

However, I believe I shall be mostly out of Scotland in my tale; first in Carolina, next in Darien. I want also - I am the daughter of the horse-leech truly - 'Black's new large map of Scotland,'