Undiscovered Scotland

  • Home
  • Stevenson - Catriona
    • eBooks Index
    • Main Page & Chapter List
    • Dedication
    • Chapters 1 & 2
    • Chapters 3 & 4
    • Chapters 5 & 6
    • Chapters 7 & 8
    • Chapters 9 & 10
    • Chapters 11 & 12
    • Chapters 13 & 14
    • Chapters 15 & 16
    • Chapters 17 & 18
    • Chapters 19 & 20
    • Chapters 21 & 22
    • Chapters 23 & 24
    • Chapters 25 & 26
    • Chapters 27 & 28
    • Chapters 29 & 30
  • Discover
    • Site Index
    • A-Z Indexes
    • Categories
    • Find Accommodation
    • Tours & Holidays ▼
      • Tour Operators
      • Walking Holidays and Guiding
      • Wildlife Tours & Holidays
      • Golf Tours and Holidays
      • Motorhome Hire
      • Cruising & Charter
      • Arts, Crafts & Photo Holidays
  • Site Resources
    • Late Availability
    • What's On?
    • What's New?
    • Links Collections
    • Hotel Reviews
    • Scotfax
    • Biography
    • eBooks
    • Book Reviews
    • Bookshop
  • Site Info
    • Contact
    • Site Information
    • How to Feature
    • Website Design Services
    • Twitter: Follow Us
    • Cookies & Privacy
    • Copyright, T & C

Dedication

Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson

TO CHARLES BAXTER, Writer to the Signet.

My Dear Charles,

It is the fate of sequels to disappoint those who have waited for them; and my David, having been left to kick his heels for more than a lustre in the British Linen Company's office, must expect his late re-appearance to be greeted with hoots, if not with missiles. Yet, when I remember the days of our explorations, I am not without hope. There should be left in our native city some seed of the elect; some long-legged, hot-headed youth must repeat to-day our dreams and wanderings of so many years ago; he will relish the pleasure, which should have been ours, to follow among named streets and numbered houses the country walks of David Balfour, to identify Dean, and Silvermills, and Broughton, and Hope Park, and Pilrig, and poor old Lochend - if it still be standing, and the Figgate Whins - if there be any of them left; or to push (on a long holiday) so far afield as Gillane or the Bass. So, perhaps, his eye shall be opened to behold the series of the generations, and he shall weigh with surprise his momentous and nugatory gift of life.

You are still - as when first I saw, as when I last addressed you - in the venerable city which I must always think of as my home. And I have come so far; and the sights and thoughts of my youth pursue me; and I see like a vision the youth of my father, and of his father, and the whole stream of lives flowing down there far in the north, with the sound of laughter and tears, to cast me out in the end, as by a sudden freshet, on these ultimate islands. And I admire and bow my head before the romance of destiny.

R. L. S.
Vailima, Upolu,
Samoa, 1892.

To Next Two Chapters

Copyright Undiscovered Scotland © 2000-2024