Essays of Travel. Robert Louis Stevenson

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       Robert Louis Stevenson

      Essays of Travel

      Published by Good Press, 2021

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664647245

Table of Contents

       I. THE AMATEUR EMIGRANT

       To ROBERT ALAN MOWBRAY STEVENSON

       THE SECOND CABIN

       EARLY IMPRESSIONS

       STEERAGE SCENES

       STEERAGE TYPES

       THE SICK MAN

       THE STOWAWAYS

       PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND REVIEW

       NEW YORK

       II. COCKERMOUTH AND KESWICK A FRAGMENT 1871

       COCKERMOUTH

       AN EVANGELIST

       ANOTHER

       LAST OF SMETHURST

       III. AN AUTUMN EFFECT 1875

       IV. A WINTER’S WALK IN CARRICK AND GALLOWAY A FRAGMENT 1876

       ON THE PLAIN

       IN THE SEASON

       IDLE HOURS

       A PLEASURE-PARTY

       THE WOODS IN SPRING

       MORALITY

       VI. A MOUNTAIN TOWN IN FRANCE [175] A FRAGMENT 1879

       VII. RANDOM MEMORIES: ROSA QUO LOCORUM

       II

       VIII. THE IDEAL HOUSE

       IX. DAVOS IN WINTER

       X. HEALTH AND MOUNTAINS

       XI. ALPINE DIVERSIONS

       XII. THE STIMULATION OF THE ALPS

       XIII. ROADS 1873

       XIV. ON THE ENJOYMENT OF UNPLEASANT PLACES 1874

I.

       THE AMATEUR EMIGRANT

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To

       ROBERT ALAN MOWBRAY STEVENSON

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      Our friendship was not only founded before we were born by a community of blood, but is in itself near as old as my life. It began with our early ages, and, like a history, has been continued to the present time. Although we may not be old in the world, we are old to each other, having so long been intimates. We are now widely separated, a great sea and continent intervening; but memory, like care, mounts into iron ships and rides post behind the horseman. Neither time nor space nor enmity can conquer old affection; and as I dedicate these sketches, it is not to you only, but to all in the old country, that I send the greeting of my heart.

      R.L.S.

      1879.

THE SECOND CABIN

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      I first encountered my fellow-passengers on the Broomielaw in Glasgow. Thence we descended the Clyde in no familiar spirit, but looking askance on each other as on possible enemies. A few Scandinavians, who had already grown acquainted on the North Sea, were friendly and voluble over their long pipes; but among English speakers distance and suspicion reigned supreme. The sun was soon overclouded, the wind freshened and grew sharp as we continued to descend the widening estuary; and with the falling temperature the gloom among the passengers increased. Two of the women wept. Any one who had come aboard might have supposed we were all absconding from the law. There was scarce a word interchanged, and no common sentiment but that of cold united us, until at length, having touched at Greenock, a pointing arm and a rush to the starboard now announced that our ocean steamer was in sight. There she lay in mid-river, at the Tail of the Bank, her sea-signal flying: a wall of bulwark, a street of white deck-houses, an aspiring forest of spars, larger than a church, and soon to be as populous as many an incorporated town in the land to which she was to bear us.

      I was not, in truth, a steerage passenger. Although anxious to see the worst of emigrant life, I had some work to finish on the voyage, and was advised to go by the second cabin, where at least I should have a table at command. The advice was excellent; but to understand the choice, and what I gained, some outline of the internal disposition of the ship will first be necessary. In her very nose is Steerage No. 1, down two pair of stairs.