The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 23Stevenson, Robert Louis
General
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 23
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 -- Correspondence
From Liverpool the Stevenson party went on to make a stay in Scotland,
first at Edinburgh, and afterwards for a few weeks at Strathpeffer,
resting at Blair Athol on the way. It was now, in his thirtieth year,
among the woods of Tummelside and under the shoulder of Ben Wyvis, that
Stevenson acknowledged for the first time the full power and beauty of
the Highland scenery, which in youth, with his longings fixed ever upon
the South, he had been accustomed to think too bleak and desolate. In
the history of the country and its clans, on the other hand, and
especially of their political and social transformation during the
eighteenth century, he had been always keenly interested. In
conversations with Principal Tulloch at Strathpeffer this interest was
now revived, and he resolved to attempt a book on the subject, his
father undertaking to keep him supplied with books and authorities; for
it had quickly become apparent that he could not winter in Scotland. The
state of his health continued to be very threatening. He suffered from
acute chronic catarrh, accompanied by disquieting lung symptoms and
great weakness; and was told accordingly that he must go for the winter,
and probably for several succeeding winters, to the mountain valley of
Davos in Switzerland, which within the last few years had been coming
into repute as a place of recovery, or at least of arrested mischief,
for lung patients. Thither he and his wife and stepson travelled
accordingly at the end of October. Nor must another member of the party
be forgotten, a black thoroughbred Skye terrier, the gift of Sir Walter
Simpson. This creature was named, after his giver, Walter--a name
subsequently corrupted into Wattie, Woggie, Wogg, Woggin, Bogie, Bogue,
and a number of other affectionate diminutives which will be found
occurring often enough in the following pages. He was a remarkably
pretty, engaging, excitable, ill-behaved little specimen of his race,
the occasion of infinite anxiety and laughing care to his devoted
master and mistress until his death six years later.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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