Letter: TO MRS. SITWELL
THE COTTAGE, CASTLETON OF BRAEMAR, AUGUST 1881.
... WELL, I have been pretty mean, but I have not yet got over my cold so completely as to have recovered much energy. It is really extraordinary that I should have recovered as well as I have in this blighting weather; the wind pipes, the rain comes in squalls, great black clouds are continually overhead, and it is as cold as March. The country is delightful, more cannot be said; it is very beautiful, a perfect joy when we get a blink of sun to see it in.
The Queen knows a thing or two, I perceive; she has picked out the finest habitable spot in Britain.
I have done no work, and scarce written a letter for three weeks, but I think I should soon begin again; my cough is now very trifling. I eat well, and seem to have lost but I little flesh in the meanwhile. I was WONDERFULLY well before I caught this horrid cold. I never thought I should have been as well again; I really enjoyed life and work; and, of course, I now have a good hope that this may return.
I suppose you heard of our ghost stories. They are somewhat delayed by my cold and a bad attack of laziness, embroidery, etc., under which f.a.n.n.y had been some time prostrate. It is horrid that we can get no better weather. I did not get such good accounts of you as might have been. You must imitate me. I am now one of the most conscientious people at trying to get better you ever saw. I have a white hat, it is much admired; also a plaid, and a heavy stoop; so I take my walks abroad, witching the world.
Last night I was beaten at chess, and am still grinding under the blow. - Ever your faithful friend,
R. L. S.
Letter: TO EDMUND GOSSE
THE COTTAGE (LATE THE LATE MISS M"GREGOR"S), CASTLETON OF BRAEMAR, AUGUST 10, 1881.
MY DEAR GOSSE, - Come on the 24th, there is a dear fellow.
Everybody else wants to come later, and it will be a G.o.dsend for, sir - Yours sincerely.
You can stay as long as you behave decently, and are not sick of, sir - Your obedient, humble servant.
We have family worship in the home of, sir - Yours respectfully.
Braemar is a fine country, but nothing to (what you will also see) the maps of, sir - Yours in the Lord.
A carriage and two spanking hacks draw up daily at the hour of two before the house of, sir - Yours truly.
The rain rains and the winds do beat upon the cottage of the late Miss Macgregor and of, sir - Yours affectionately.
It is to be trusted that the weather may improve ere you know the halls of, sir - Yours emphatically.
All will be glad to welcome you, not excepting, sir - Yours ever.
You will now have gathered the lamentable intellectual collapse of, sir - Yours indeed.
And nothing remains for me but to sign myself, sir - Yours,
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
N.B. - Each of these clauses has to be read with extreme glibness, coming down whack upon the "Sir." This is very important. The fine stylistic inspiration will else be lost.
I commit the man who made, the man who sold, and the woman who supplied me with my present excruciating gilt nib to that place where the worm never dies.
The reference to a deceased Highland lady (tending as it does to foster unavailing sorrow) may be with advantage omitted from the address, which would therefore run - The Cottage, Castleton of Braemar.
Letter: TO EDMUND GOSSE
THE COTTAGE, CASTLETON OF BRAEMAR, AUGUST 19, 1881.
IF you had an uncle who was a sea captain and went to the North Pole, you had better bring his outfit. VERb.u.m SAPIENTIBUS. I look towards you.
R. L. STEVENSON.
Letter: TO EDMUND GOSSE
[BRAEMAR], AUGUST 19, 1881.
MY DEAR WEG, - I have by an extraordinary drollery of Fortune sent off to you by this day"s post a P. C. inviting you to appear in sealskin. But this had reference to the weather, and not at all, as you may have been led to fancy, to our rustic raiment of an evening.
As to that question, I would deal, in so far as in me lies, fairly with all men. We are not dressy people by nature; but it sometimes occurs to us to entertain angels. In the country, I believe, even angels may be decently welcomed in tweed; I have faced many great personages, for my own part, in a tasteful suit of sea-cloth with an end of carpet pending from my gullet. Still, we do maybe twice a summer burst out in the direction of blacks . . . and yet we do it seldom. . . . In short, let your own heart decide, and the capacity of your portmanteau. If you came in camel"s hair, you would still, although conspicuous, be welcome.
The sooner the better after Tuesday. - Yours ever,
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
Letter: TO W. E. HENLEY
BRAEMAR [AUGUST 25, 1881].
MY DEAR HENLEY, - Of course I am a rogue. Why, Lord, it"s known, man; but you should remember I have had a horrid cold. Now, I"m better, I think; and see here - n.o.body, not you, nor Lang, nor the devil, will hurry me with our crawlers. They are coming. Four of them are as good as done, and the rest will come when ripe; but I am now on another lay for the moment, purely owing to Lloyd, this one; but I believe there"s more coin in it than in any amount of crawlers: now, see here, "The Sea Cook, or Treasure Island: A Story for Boys."
If this don"t fetch the kids, why, they have gone rotten since my day. Will you be surprised to learn that it is about Buccaneers, that it begins in the ADMIRAL BENBOW public-house on Devon coast, that it"s all about a map, and a treasure, and a mutiny, and a derelict ship, and a current, and a fine old Squire Trelawney (the real Tre, purged of literature and sin, to suit the infant mind), and a doctor, and another doctor, and a sea-cook with one leg, and a sea-song with the chorus "Yo-ho-ho-and a bottle of rum" (at the third Ho you heave at the capstan bars), which is a real buccaneer"s song, only known to the crew of the late Captain Flint (died of rum at Key West, much regretted, friends will please accept this intimation); and lastly, would you be surprised to hear, in this connection, the name of ROUTLEDGE? That"s the kind of man I am, blast your eyes. Two chapters are written, and have been tried on Lloyd with great success; the trouble is to work it off without oaths. Buccaneers without oaths - bricks without straw. But youth and the fond parient have to be consulted.
And now look here - this is next day - and three chapters are written and read. (Chapter I. The Old Sea-dog at the ADMIRAL BENBOW. Chapter II. Black Dog appears and disappears. Chapter III. The Black Spot) All now heard by Lloyd, F., and my father and mother, with high approval. It"s quite silly and horrid fun, and what I want is the BEST book about the Buccaneers that can be had - the latter B"s above all, Blackbeard and sich, and get Nutt or Bain to send it skimming by the fastest post. And now I know you"ll write to me, for "The Sea Cook"s" sake.
Your "Admiral Guinea" is curiously near my line, but of course I"m fooling; and your Admiral sounds like a shublime gent. Stick to him like wax - he"ll do. My Trelawney is, as I indicate, several thousand sea-miles off the lie of the original or your Admiral Guinea; and besides, I have no more about him yet but one mention of his name, and I think it likely he may turn yet farther from the model in the course of handling. A chapter a day I mean to do; they are short; and perhaps in a month the "Sea Cook" may to Routledge go, yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! My Trelawney has a strong dash of Landor, as I see him from here. No women in the story, Lloyd"s orders; and who so blithe to obey? It"s awful fun boys" stories; you just indulge the pleasure of your heart, that"s all; no trouble, no strain. The only stiff thing is to get it ended - that I don"t see, but I look to a volcano. O sweet, O generous, O human toils. You would like my blind beggar in Chapter III. I believe; no writing, just drive along as the words come and the pen will scratch!