Robert Louis Stevenson's Edinburgh
the houses he stayed in
Aug 17, 2007 George Frederick Winter
Edinburgh
Although Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) complained of the ‘draughty parallelograms’ of the New Town, and that Edinburgh had ‘the worst climate under heaven’, with its ‘belching winter wind and missile rain’,he nevertheless recalled the city when he was close to death in Samoa, declaring that when all else was forgotten he would still hear ‘the old cry of the wind in our inclement city.’
Howard Place
Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place on 13 November 1850, and it has become something of a place of pilgrimage for fans of the writer. When Robert was three the Stevensons moved to 1 Inverleith Terrace , where they stayed until he was seven.
Heriot Row
In 1857 the Stevenson family moved to 17 Heriot Row, which was to be their home for thirty years, and where Robert spent his adolescence and young manhood. From the front windows of the house he could watch ‘Leerie’ making his rounds of lighting the streetlamps, and from the back windows, he gazed across the Firth of Forth to the distant hills in the Kingdom of Fife. And as a young man, it was from here that he edited the Edinburgh University Magazine. This was also the place that Robert’s rebellious nature began to assert itself, arguing with his father on matters of religion and politics, his choice of career and life itself. From Heriot Row, by now an advocate, he set off in search of a fuller life and improved health, and he would later return here with his wife.
Colinton Manse
However, Stevenson’s formative years at Heriot Row were interspersed with many enjoyable visits to Colinton Manse, where his maternal grandfather, a minister, lived. Here, with his cousins, he found childish adventure under the watchful eye of his ‘Chief of Aunts’, Miss Janet Balfour, whom he regarded with the warmest affection, second only to his beloved nanny, Cummy. The manse was close to both the Water of Leith and Keepsake Mill, and of course the adjacent churchyard fed Robert’s lively imagination, prompting him to tell his cousins that from one of the graves a dead man’s eye might meet theirs.
Swanston Cottage
Swanston nestles at the end of the Pentland Hills, which stretch south of Edinburgh. Today, it overlooks the busy Edinburgh City Bypass, and is itself overlooked by the Hillend artificial ski slope. But in 1867, when the Stevenson family rented Swanston Cottage as a holiday home, it was in a remote hamlet. However, today Swanston still retains much of its old-world charm, and of all Stevenson’s Lothian homes it was perhaps his best-loved.
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