Discovering Edinburgh...
By Bob McCulloch ©
Robert Louis Stevenson
American woman named Fanny Van Degrift Osbourne and they struck up a
friendship. She returned to America and R.L.S. returned to Scotland where
1850 - 1894
he wrote “Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes” but he followed her to
California in 1879, almost dying on the journey. When he had recovered she
N
ovelist, poet, essayist and travel
divorced her husband and they were married in 1880. For the sake of his
writer he was a 19th century
health they decided to live in a warmer climate and after wandering round
superstar. Such was his reputation
the Pacifi c they fi nally settled in Samoa. He wrote “Treasure Island” in 1882,
that travel companies would charter
“Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde” in 1886 (which was based on the character on
yachts for months at a time to sail
Deacon Brodie) and the following year “Kidnapped”. His book of poems a
him round the Caribbean. Born at
“Childs Garden of Verse” is still a popular childrenʼs book today. He was a
Number 8 Howard Place Edinburgh
prolifi c writer and as well as novels and poems he also wrote travelogues
into a family of Lighthouse
for tour companies. Many of his stories are based around the Edinburgh
engineers, the young Robert was
area. When he died on 3rd.December 1894 the natives of Samoa, who
a sickly child. The family moved to
revered him and called him “Tusitala” (the teller of tales) hacked a path
Inverleith Terrace, but the house
through the undergrowth to the top of Mount Vaea where he was buried. On
was subject to damp which did not
his grave stone is the inscription:
help his bronchial condition and so
when he was seven years old they
“Home is the sailor home from the sea
moved again this time to 17 Heriot
And the hunter home from the hill”
Row, which was to be his fi nal home
in Edinburgh. He was Christened
At the time of his death he was working on the novel “The Weir of
Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson in favour of his maternal Grandfather, but
Hermiston”. which critics said was his best work. His childhood nurse
when he grew up he dropped the Balfour and changed the spelling to the
Alison Cunningham (Cummy) is buried in Morningside cemetery. In 1994
French, Louis, as he thought this more Avant Garde. He would become
to mark the centenary of Stevensonʼs death the Royal Bank of Scotland
one of a group of people who was known worldwide by his initials. Whilst
issued a series of two million commemorative £1 notes. the notes bore
living in Inverleith Terrace R.L.S. he attended Canonmills School (opposite
Stevensonʼs face on the reverse and his signature on the obverse
the Canonmills service station) where a plaque on the wall commemorates
and the serial numbers began RLS. Streets in the Clermiston area are
the fact. As a child he was often in bed ill and his nurse Alison Cunningham
named after places and characters in his novels. On Corstorphine Road
(Cummy to the family) would read him stories about the Covenanters
at Western Corner stands a statue of Alan Breck and David Balfour the
and from the Bible. During this time the street lights were gas fi red and
heroes of the novel “Kidnapped” erected by the Distillers Company.
a man was required to go round at dusk lighting them and again in the
morning to turn them off. As a small boy R.L.S. would watch for “Leerie” the
Copyright Bob McCulloch 2010
Lamplighter coming along the street and was always pleased when he gave
him a wave. He later immortalised him in the poem, which is inscribed on a
brass plaque on the railings of No. 17.Heriot Row.
My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky
Pay less
Itʼs time to take the window to see Leerie going by
For every night at teatime and before you take your seat
With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street
on your insurance
Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea
And my Papaʼs a banker and as rich as he could be;
whatever cab you drive
But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I can do
O Leerie, Iʼll go round at night and light the lamps with you
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And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;
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And oh, before you hurry by with ladder and with light;
O Leerie see a little child and nod to him tonight.
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From his bedroom window he could see the ornamental pond with
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the island in the middle in Queen Street Gardens East from which he
conceived the idea of “Treasure Island”. While visiting his Grandfather,
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Robert Stevenson, who was the greatest Lighthouse Engineer and
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who lived at Baxterʼs Place (now called Stevenson House) he purchased
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cardboard from an adjacent shop (now an Italian Restaurant) which he
used to make a small theatre. He used this for his poem “Penny Plain
Twopence Coloured”. His maternal grandfather was minister at Colinton
Church and as a young boy he would spend the summers with him at
Swanston cottage in Swanston village. He loved to roam the Pentland
hills and would listen avidly to the stories told to him by Jock Todd the
Swanston shepherd and in later life he would always yearn for what he
called “The Hills of Home”. In 1867 he studied Engineering at Edinburgh
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University but had to give up through ill health, as some days he could
not even wear a jacket as it caused his lungs to haemorrhage. He wanted
to become a writer but his father was not keen on the idea so as a
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compromise he agreed to study Law so that he would have a profession
to fall back on. In 1875 he was called to the Scottish Bar, but his heart
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was not in it and he only had one client. Stevenson would frequent the
lower class drinking dens and became very friendly with the prostitutes
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recover from another bout of illness he went to France where he met an
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