On holiday in Dorset, we are staying in a little flat in Westbourne. A stones throw from the flat I was amazed to find the site of "Skerryvore" where Robert Louis Stevenson lived between 1885 and 1887. The building itself was destroyed in the Second World War, but the foundations have been preserved and a small memorial has been erected based on the Lighthouse "Skerryvore" that the Stevenson family built in Scotland and after which the house was named.
Stevenson wrote Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde here along with Kidnapped. Having already read and Jeckyl and Hyde but never Kidnapped, I decided to buy a copy and read the first chapter in the grounds of the house where he wrote the novel; a strange, possibly pretentious but magical experience
Painting by John Singer Sargent entitled "Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife" from 1885 which shows RLS pacing about in the drawing room at Skerryvore:
0 comments:
Post a Comment