ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES
The following Volumes are now ready:—
THOMAS CARLYLE. By Hector C. Macpherson.
ALLAN RAMSAY. By Oliphant Smeaton.
HUGH MILLER. By W. Keith Leask.
JOHN KNOX. By A. Taylor Innes.
ROBERT BURNS. By Gabriel Setoun.
THE BALLADISTS. By John Geddie.
RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor Herkless.
SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By Eve Blantyre Simpson.
THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor W. Garden Blaikie.
JAMES BOSWELL. By W. Keith Leask.
TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By Oliphant Smeaton.
FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By G. W. T. Omond.
THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. By Sir George Douglas.
NORMAN MACLEOD. By John Wellwood.
SIR WALTER SCOTT. By Professor Saintsbury.
KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE. By Louis A. Barbé.
ROBERT FERGUSSON. By A. B. Grosart.
JAMES THOMSON. By William Bayne.
MUNGO PARK. By T. Banks Maclachlan.
DAVID HUME. By Professor Calderwood.
WILLIAM DUNBAR. By Oliphant Smeaton.
SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. By Professor Murison.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. By Margaret Moyes Black.
PREFACE AND DEDICATION
In so small a volume it would be somewhat hopeless to attempt anexhaustive notice of R. L. Stevenson, nor would it be desirable. Theonly possible full biography of him will be the Life in preparation byhis intimate friend Mr Sydney Colvin, and for it his friends and hispublic look eagerly. This little book is only a reminiscence and anappreciation by one who, in the old days between 1869 and 1880, knew himand his home circle well. My earlier and later knowledge has beenderived from his mother and those other members of his mother's familywith whom it was a pleasure to talk of him, and to exchange news of hissayings and doings.
In the actual writing of this volume, I have received most kind help forwhich I return grateful thanks to the givers. For the verification ofdates and a few other particulars I am indebted to Mr Colvin's ablearticle in the Dictionary of National Biography.
It is dedicated, in the first instance, to the memory[Pg 6] of Mr and MrsThomas Stevenson and their son, and, in the second, to all the dearlyprized friends of the Balfour connection who have either, like thehousehold at 17 Heriot Row, passed into the 'Silent Land,' or who arestill here to gladden life with their friendship.
Margaret Moyes Black.
August 1898.
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