SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh 1 June

5, Randolph Cliff,
Edinburgh [letterhead]

1st June

My dear Louis,

I have been hearing all about you and you have been a great deal in my mind old chap. Just because so many men were attending to you with all their heart, the electricity of thought and sympathy going the length of ten telegrams a day. I've not even even [sic] written you a line - played queen bee, left everything to my workers. What a lot of friends you have old man. ["Well" deleted] That is curious in itself. Few have so many. But that is not the most curious. What a lot of energetic friends you have! It is a positive luxury for me to feel that Baxter & Henley &c will be shooting ten telegrams a day the moment you are ill & that all I've to do is to feel that that [sic] they have done all I would have wished done and I have only to hear reports. Perhaps at the bottom I have a comfortable sensation that at a pinch our respective ["wif" deleted] wives are all in all - I don't mean for use so much as for - for - I mean a wife is everything.

Old man! I've solemnly read all these medical reports. How is that George Balfour & Menell & the rest of them end harrowing details with almost a bathos - sort of say that there is no great harm (between the lines). It is not the way of medicine men to say their patients are not very bad & will come all right. They usually

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S. [cont'd.]

2.

Edinburgh

1 June

prefer afterwards to brag that they have removed a polypus when
it was only a pimple. But that's what G.B. and Menell do. They
prove they have done much & that there is nothing. Your mother takes
it calmly. That's because she has put up blood. Also my wife says
it is nothing. Both these women have had experience, tho' ignorant
scientifically. My wife positively has forgotten that she once in
my presence filled a basin with blood. How many other times she
did so I can't tell. It did not hurt & she does not remember.

Our doctor says she has half a lung away but is quite sound. I've
great trouble to make her be careful of a cold. Just give your
old brain plenty [of] rest - (easy work). Take it as easy as you
can, and you'll be as fat as Oscar Wild[e] before you are my age.

I say isn't this out of the "detroit free press" funny I began this
letter to send it meaning to do no more than send it just to show
I was about. I've laughed several times over it.

Yours

WGS

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh

[crest]

victo dolore

2 St. Colme St

Tuesday

My dear Young Friend,

Pause in your thoughtless course, and listen to my Glad
Tidings. The Heron will be waiting to receive you in the middle
of next week. Close with the offer **now**. It is free You have to
do nothing but accept. ["Close" deleted] There is room for you.
If you accept not **now** you may be **Too late** I am yearning to receive
you. Spirits will be added to you when you have once accepted

Yours waiting to be gracious

W G Simpson

P.S. I don't start till next Wednesday or Thursday. I hope you are
coming. Come & show your nose here anyway, & let me know at once,
as I want to make arrangements

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh

13 February 1877

2 St. Colme Street,
Edinburgh.

13 Feby 77

My dear Louis,

I've been looking over my journal. Struck me I would
? like it in print, was going to send it to the canoeist Struck me
again it was too good. Strike me dead if it isn't good enough
for the magazines. There was a canoe trip of Rob Roys in it
once & one of Powells once. If you'll get it into the Cornhill,
you can have half the coin as commission. However, if you want
really to keep it for your book, then I'll get it into that sort
of private thing the canoeist.

Answer and say whether I shall amend it and send it
you to London.

Henley stumped in here last night. Says your article
in London on latin quarter is effete. We like "falling in love."
No news. I was walking along the street the other night, passed two
gents one telling a story evidently & just heard (without apprecia-
ting for a moment) these words "So says she ["you" deleted] ye're
no gawn to mak a foreign post office of my c -- t."

That's all

WGS

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh

2 St Colme St

Monday

any day you are in town, you can find "Salla Fatimas
Belly" & the assault of the Beudy houses" by X.X.X. on my shelves

W G Simpson

P.S. Excellent reading for misanthropes. all anthropes being de-
picted as most putrescent gristle

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh

10 June 1879

2, St. Colme Street,
Edinburgh.

10th June 79

My dear Louis

It is one ['p' deleted] am. I am somewhat whiskied
and expansive also discompased and unwilling to think of my own
affairs. I have read the donkey. Tho' I have no personal interest
in it I like it better than the other fellow, tho you are the most
handless, clumsy unmechanical traveller I ever read about. The
power of gentle exaggeration is with you. As for your language
it is perfect. Critics say it is pedantic. Away with them.
You merely use dictionary words when they are necessary and what
the critics resent is that your vocabulary is larger than that
of a ploughman or a merchant. Not that I would travel with you
with a donkey. The thing is too brutal. a good is against my
principles. I might buy a donkey: but at the second stall I would
build it a shrine & gather [inserted above line] thistles and
buy a currycomb, and remain there tending and worshipping it for-
ever. I know what it is to learn to love a child; but a donkey!
I would hand in my cheques in three days or less.

Edinburgh

10 June 1879

Baxter tells me you have had 2 places on the times
offered you. Dont become a leader writer. But a special corres-
pondence appointment is not to be lightly refused, tho in due time
it might be gaily chucked. As your medical adviser I am [of the]
opinion that it would suit your wierd constitution always provided
you could stand the greater distance from love. (There are no
specials in California).

Yours

W G Simps[o]n

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh

10 December 1879

Edin<sup>g</sup> 10 Dec 79

My dear Louis.

I am rather knocked out of time this morning - cant
get to golf on account of frost, and cant put in one or two of
my five or six hours per week of work on account of said agita-
tions, so as premeditated feeling I send you these lines.

I dont know much as to your whereabouts. Saw Bob in
October for a moment, who Stevensonianly mysterious said you
were in the Pyrenees A few days later Gillespie & Aeneas Mackay
told me you were in California. Bob was just making for Paris
at that time to intrigue with a lady who rode four horses stride-
legs or something and also studied medicine.

I gather from Baxter that he jaws you about your future
(or are they present when you get this) intentions I suppose that
must be rather depressing. Now when I think of it I usually let him
think I agreee with him when he speaks of it: but that is only a
lucky habit & a sense of the futility of argument. I believe
they rather frite it on to you about your father's health. He looks
well enough. anyhow it seems to me that if he is burst it is not
your fault but his for having so many inflammable gasses concealed
about his person. They say that if you wrung your own neck, cut

Edinburgh

10 December 1879

off your own arm, or some such surgical operation to say the least
difficult for a man to perform on himself in two years you would be
glad of it. I believe that may be true. Two years are not long
but neither are fifty, and tho' it is true about anything that it
will be all the same 5 years hence, no one ever conducts himself
accordingly nor finds consolation in the fact.

C.B's wife has instituted a system of fines for drunkenness.
There is a graduated scale. I was dining with him the other night
and he was find two shillings. He tells me that one evening lately
cost five pounds. What a night he must have had. He is great fun
just now. Dining here a week ago he turned round and rebuked the
waiter for putting a chicken before him "I didn't come here to carve."
However he did carve till it came to my turn, when he flatly refused
to give me any as I would save myself from cold beef in the future
by taking what was before me.

Bentz is living at Trinity with people called turner.

MRS T. has been delivered of a child by my cousin. B. has not called here. I think we gave him an impression that there was too much pace in daily life here. However Willie, who is doing "totle" at Trinity his life's blood having been nearly vomited away about two months ago, calls there. There is a M' T. who drinks, ["who's deleted"] & who is secluded with an attendant who is impotent from dissipation, & whose

Edinburgh 10 December 1979

head at present is like a steak done on the brander owing to his
having pillowed it in the fire place. M<sup>rs</sup> T. is fat fair & forty.
& there is a "Guy" or "dear" as he is sometimes inadvertently called
who keeps the purse and manages everything (I always [thought] that
his name was "Fred" but the "Guy" may have been lurking on the
register. I can give no account of the "dear." I had some talk
with my cousins wife about him the other day. She says "He is so
nice. So good of him to devote all his time to his friends. He has
no time even to paint. Don't you think he has a nice face. He takes
such an interest in "Stepping stones across the stream" [a tractly
publication of hers] says it ought to have gilt edges. He seems a
very good young man. I am so glad he is a friend of yours. Such
a safe companion for you to have."

Enfield was cruising in a cursed old ten tin tub this summer.
He and M<sup>r</sup> & M<sup>rs</sup> Sieberman sleep in one room. E. is more the sailor
than ever - more a sailor than any sailor. He seems to have entirely
abandoned hand washing even when on shore. Even in Havre he does
not seem to consider it decent to have any buttons on his fly. They
started on a cruise for Cherbourg; but I believe they never got there
but spent the summer in the basin at Havre.

Do you remember Jack Rose? He has married a widow without
money & in spite of violent family remonstrances. Did not think it
was in him did you. Saw him on the ice with his children the other

Edinburgh 10 December 1979

day - 3 strapping daughters ranging in age from 20 to 25.

What are you busy at? Writing any more stories at £50
a piece with a moral. I am working slowly and ill at what you thought
might make a "bookie." The harder I think the more muddled I get
& the worse I compose. I am hammering out painfully the last mono-
logue of what will make a little volume when done called say
"monologues on conduct" in two parts viz. why be moral? & "what is
right?" But such is the badness of my style that so far they are
really only notes "in a logical rather than chronological order"
(vide the [double underscoring] preface which you love).
Monologuing is monotonous. One cant help knocking over the traces
& ["becoming" deleted] essay fying.

Bloomer was at Azier with us most of the summer. He re-
turned penniless to London & depressed. I saw him there elate[d]
and almost invisible in a new top coat. A dealer was going to look
at some of his pictures, so he had rented a swell studio, but new
clothes and was gay as if he had actually sold a picture of ten pounds.

With kindest messages to MRS --- whatever the name where
you get this

Yours sincerely
W S Simpson

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Resipoll Strontian

30 July [?1884]

Resipoll

Strontian

30th July

5, Randolph Cliff,
Edinburgh.

My dear Louis,

I wrote you longingly some time ago: but I could not find
your address. Kept it re-read it burnt it. Why? It so reeked of
whiskey the chimney was nearly in a haze. Homme proposed this
summer to go to go to [sic] the South of England. Thence I proposed
to visit you. We came up here & the highlands generally for a
weeks touring & lo! took this house in the uttermost ends of the
earth. I've conceived a sort of hope that you and your missus
might come up here, if you are in Scotland. I wish to goodness
you could. It isn't a very long journey - most being by steamer
from Oban, which is quite pleasant up the sound of Mull. You stop
at our old friend Tobermory which is unchanged. The first week
I felt certain you ought to come. There are woods all about the
sea, hills and - When I felt certain you ought to we had not west
coast weather; but then the house is snug enough. Its no end of

2.

Resipoll Strontian

30 July [?1883]

wild. The natives are ready to do anything, & really dont expect
a tip. When I go fishing I put up the pony in a fellows stable
for nothing. Each man places at his gate a box from which post-
man passing in a gig takes & deposits letters. Nearest place is
Salen 4 houses one shop. We proposed going to Strontian the shop
7 miles. It appears there are no shops there. Nearest shop to
Salen - Tobermory No means of getting there & back in one day.
We have lived on lamb since we came here. cant stand another lamb,
a sheep is to big to keep. It is a burning domestic question where
the next butcher meat is to come from. There is another burning
question. There is one W.C. Boy loves above all things in the
country to throw stones. Every man, woman hen & dog about the place
would be goliathed by this time had he but Davids skill. Yday

I found him staggering into the house with a boulder. I let it pass
It seemed better than the spadefuls of gravel that are constantly
being introduced. Alas! it was brot for a purpose, to hurl into
the W.C. to break the pan of it to atoms. A nice fix with no plumber
nearer than Oban! One can order most things by letter but a W.C.
pan baffles my powers of description. Do you take their dimensions
across round or how? & then who make[s] them. There are hatters
(the size of a hat is easily ordered) in Oban ["But"deleted] shoe-
makers &c but even in Edinburgh I could not think without a directory
of a china pan maker. I scolded the boy: but he is not sensitive
to rebuke He pointed with pride to his achievement & said "toe" (stone)

3.

Resipoll Strontian

30 July [?1883]

then rushed away to cry I thought. I had been too stern. No!
It was to bring another "toe" with which to show me how this ingenious
and original feat was performed.

Do you know the works of John Burrows. If not get from
Douglas & Toulis "Pepacton" price 14- It's an Inland voyage.
Do read it. I think he got some of the spirit of it from the
I.V., because he alludes to Travels with a Donkey. ["I've" deleted]
I am in love with the writings of John Burrows. The come pretty
near you my man I think comme essays. Perhaps I am biassn because
they are birdy & beasty which you are not. Notwithstanding dogs
& your row of waxbells in a cage.

I've been reading a George Meredith since I came here
If he were dead 1000 years I would commentate him & prove that they
were not novels but plays & that ["our" deleted] in the course of
ages the stage directions had got printed along with the text.

Yours ever

W G Simpson

P.S. I meant to order you as a medical man to come here before
the wet set in. I wont venture so far as it is pouring just now.
All the same there is the finest odour in the air of trees sea
weed peat & all that. Whenever I get to an oasis without horseflies,
I involuntarily gasp in air & call out "this is life" (call loud,
there is no one to hear)

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh 5 November 1881

[The words "bodies for universities",
deleted, appear sidewise in the upper
left hand corner of the page.]

5, Randolph Cliff,
Edinburgh.

5th Nov 1881

My dear Louis,

I went down & gave your father a note of the voting today,
which I suppose he will send you. He seemed a little disappointed
but I suppose that was paternal. I was not - did not expect you
would do as well. Why did they take the patronage from the town
council. Shopkeepers can at least appreciate learning as a worshipful
thing, but those lawyers get it into their head that a knowledge
of law is learning. So help me they do. Is it because they call
each other "my learned brother"? and yet it is no more learning
than a knowledge of piece goods. I got this a dozen times "no
dowbt S. is the best qualified -- awfully able writer but -- scarce-
ly one of us [does'nt walk the boards Chinese learning], & then
Kirkpatrick is such a plodding fellow &c &c"

One fellow said ought to elect K. "for the best lawyer"
which was neither an argument nor a fact. Another card said you
were not serious in going in - a mere youth. The idea seemed to be
that a professor without side whiskers and a plug hat was inconceivable.

Into the first lobby the only known persons who went with

2.

Edinburgh 5 November 1961

me were Shaw & Makgill. (Mac & I concluded yesterday we would be
alone. The others were youths unknown to me, either smarting from
dull lectures or as yet unnarrowed by law. Your contemporaries?
why you see, if K or G gets the place it gives them a step of pos-
sible promotion, whilst you are not possible between them and any
[p] deleted] sherrifship.

Shaw seconded you because Guthrie was ["suddle" deleted]
suddenly called away, & because I suppose he likes his name brot
forward.

Numbersvoted for K. because he was hard up. The history
chair is a more purely administered charity than the Heriot Trust.
And he will certainly uphold the traditions of the chair which are
3 sleeping students.

It is a curious fact that town councils & governments seem
the least corrupt electioneering bodies for universities.

Do you know I was nevertheless astonished how unanimous
people were in admitting your true position in literature I was
astonished to find I could class a living author with classical
writers ["&" deleted] of past generations & not be laughed at by
learned lawyers.

For the present you are not to be the colleague of Fraser
Grainger Stewart & Macpherson. You must "be content among the rejected,
? Huxley, Hazleton, ["&" deleted] Mendholsen & such poor creatures.

Your affectly but bad
correspondent
W G Simpson

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh

17 April 1882

[The words "I don't know whether you are "Herr" "Monsieur" or ["wha" deleted] cony or what among the rocks" appear side-wise in the upper left hand corner of the first page.]

W S G
[crest]

Eding 17 Apl 82

My dear Louis,

It is a gross thing that I should not have written to
you sooner, & that I should have indulged my aversion to pen and
ink ["aversion" deleted] with the sybaritic conscience salve that
you owed me a letter.

When taking our Sunday walk we met your mother who told
us your lungs were healed. In this selfish world it was a joy to me
to feel that I was more elated than if I had got a £1000 to think
you had no more cicatrices on your lungs than I had on my liver.
I have always had a superstition that you were not going to shut
up, tho' last autumn I began to distrust my quack diagnoses. I am
again the confident quack. I have not an ache nor a pain, not had
two headaches in 3 months. You with a little extravagance in the

2.

Edinburgh

17 April 1962

way of dry stockings, & some self denial in the matter of draughts
such as I have to exercise (a pun forced upon me unawares) will be
healthier than ever you were. I am reassured about you. I am ready
to back you to achieve a fame such as - let me see - yes! I won't have
slightly the worst of it in 15 years, when I have a fierce combat
with my wife & try to prove that you are quite as great a historian
as Carlyle, who is her literary facile princeps. You and Carlyle!
you will say. Different types! Argument impossible! Not at all.
I say what a style you have and in every line Carlyle says what
sparkling sprightly fellow I am, & the wife takes him at his word.
I should have liked to try & convince the chelsea sage that luscious
lochmaben vendace were of more importance to humanity than his clever
sentences.

"Talk and talkers". Agree with the spectator. I was told
I was there. Did not recognise myself. Bob I knew Henry I knew.
Rather inclines me to think myself Purcell. Knowing who I am flattered -
very much really. It is a good picture & true. ["Speaking of" deleted]
Speaking of myself I would have said wrestling with a jest was done
in jest, but I see that pretending to myself it was jest was a cloak
for my slowness. Why I keep a subject always on the tapis is not (I
w^d have said of myself) conscientiousness but slowness. We both re-
cognise that half truths alone are true. You laugh out the solution
in a paper or a quarter of an hours talk. I want three days talk or
a quarter volume. No not the quarto. I w^d tire of the jest before

3.

Edinburgh

17 April 1882

5 chapters of the quarto were written.

?

I like athelred better than my own ideal self and mean to
pose round that way. & How are your clothes? Still black shirts?
I've been rushed into white spats and smart sort of things; but I
couldnt live up to them & am let back to longish widish sort of
middle aged things.

My book: Henley persuaded me to let him try. I had not
the illusion myself, knowing I was not "pandering" to the public
(thats my word when on my high horse) & ["Chat" deleted] Chatto &
Elder both said it would not pander and they w<sup>d</sup> not buy. For some
days it seemed to me that canary breeding was my "call" & duty to
humanity. And then I spoke to Douglas meaning to get him to publish,
for assuredly the public of Edin<sup>g</sup> would read the book desiring to read
between the lines. With athelred's silly honesty I jested with D
about its rejection & D was kind & w<sup>d</sup> read it & tell me what he
thought, &c &c. In short Al. the unready collected his thoughts,
& said what is Douglas to patronise me, reading thro' the eyes of a
lot of women who come to ask for the works of scribbling women
out from his library. Because I wish to publish a book (& others
after it) & have money to do [?it], am I to be compelled to fawn on,
& be patronised by publishers? Am I a publishers hack? No I would
rather be a clerk in an office or an advocate if forced by necessity.
I dont understand the government of the country. I thought it a plu-
tarchy. It is an oligarchy governed by an aristocracy of publishers?

4.

Edinburgh

17 April 1882

I wrote a cavalier letter to Hurst & Blackett. They are of the oligarchs but polite. I told Henley to hand them the precious thing. They have it. It will only be one more snub. after that I have a mind to ask Kegan Paul to publish. You see I wish to publish & they any how offered to do so with the other work, just as my tailor offers to make clothes at a profit. Tailors are not oligarchs. Did a tailor ever refuse to make clothes for a man because his figure was bad? When we hoist these two flags on front of our canoes we may wish to conceal our disfigured faces. But as we are, it would be a pretty thing if our tailors refused to give us clothes to go into drawing rooms with. I do not think I am Adonis but I do not live in the dark for that. Why shd I live in the dark because I am not George Sand? ["& am" inserted above line] Am I not to publish because I am not Croesus? I have some acquaintances who are longing to see my little story, some of them sweet girls ["(hush!)"] inserted above line] who would be ebloui with the mere fact of print & uncritical. I have other reasons for wishing to publish which I wont put on paper, and am I not to do it because the public would not accept (or ridicule which is not so bad) the work, or because a publisher would rape me of $50 or so? I want a publisher who is not a slave owner, not one of these fellows who bow the knee to you [?like] a recognised potentate, some "mean white", not an emancipated nigger like the "charing X publish-ing Co." What do you say?

Your letter had a very fine ring about it. I am not maudlin about friendship & would not break my heart about having none May

5.

Edinburgh

17 April 1882

I hate the thing if it means obligation. Somebody says friendship
cannot genuinely exist between men of the same profession. We are
both advocates! My gosh! If either of us rises to be Lord advocate!
No danger. If you are the greatest living historian & essayist.
Pretty snug. I would not feel jealous. Would chuckle awful! That
day at Hawes would be nice. My wife might drive yours to Rosslyn
that day, if yours did not mind risking her neck. And yet it would
be safe, as we are ?

[The remaining words of the letter are
written sidewise in the upper left hand
corner of the fifth page.]

to be cautious on account

of the _twins_ (one chancellor one commander in chief) who are expected

in august

Yours

WGS

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh

9 May 1982

5, Randolph Cliff,
Edinburgh.
[letterhead]

9 May 82

My dear Louis,

We called today at no 17. The wife had an idea of asking your parents to go with us to see MRS Langtry perform next Friday, which occured to me as a forlorn hope as I never saw them in a theatre. We were told you would likely co[me] here next week & and my wife too desires me to request the pleasure of MR & MRS Louis Stevensons company to dinner Friday 19th & box at the theatre after. If medical faculty wont let you come, will your wife come. That's my question.

Duncan Robertson tells me he saw you in the saville the other day with "a shock headed able looking fellow & with a fellow with a low forehead and a big black moustache -- peculiar looking."

Guess I have met these so-designated beings

Yours
W G Simpson

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh

22 June 1882

5, Randolph Cliff,
Edinburgh.

{ [letterhead]

22nd June 82

My dear Louis,

I have read Moral emblems several times. I prefer them
to all your other works. I could give pages of wherefore's, as
one could write essays on jests and spoil all. They are to your
works what La Sorcière is to Michelet's History. I return the
macintosh'es I stole, with damps. Your father spells them damn's.
It poured gutters onto my cloth ["both" deleted] boots & soaked my
feet before I reached the club. But I sneezed once & defied catarrh
(cant spell it)

yours
WGS

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh

21 January 1863

21st Jany 83

My dear Louis,

My last letter of long ago must have crossed yours.

It is on account of increasing laziness that I have never written again. I suppose you will at once conclude that I reproach myself with my laziness. Instinctively yes! rationally no! I don't seem to find a groove for my energy. The world does not seem to want it. I notice a paragraph going round the papers of a fellow who willed £2000 to have a book on "A theory of Ethics & Religion" just published, & all the papers jest at him & his book. That's just about the way I would work off my energy & do my duty; & would it not be d -- d foolish. Is't not Zadig who after every sort of combat with the world, solves the problem of duty & happiness by returning to cultivate cabages and other amiable vegetables in the country.

Voltaire ought to know something about the secret of life. Am I not fulfilling my destiny by being about one of the happiest cusses living, happy to live; not wishing to, but not dreading to, die? Seems to me benefactors of humanity were not such because they longed to be but because they happened to be whilst pursuing their

2.

Edinburgh 21 January 1883

own ends * e.g. Jas Watt was seeking patents out of which to raise coins. Then again -- Walter shut up! What I was saying was that I had not written. I said it was from laziness. I now say it was your fault. ["when" deleted] I would not write except when so inclined, having studied the doctrines of Epicurus. It was in my cups I always felt inclined. You had chaffed me out of writing when the whiskey was yellow, so I did not write, [even altho'" deleted] my master Epicurus seems to have written a great deal of dull stuff upon parched peas & water, & seems to have liked doing so. I am not his disciple in this.

My news Louis is nil, not being in my cups. My health is good so is the weather. We had a frost it is true, but it has gone. I had a week of seediness, that has also gone. I had a threatening of enteric fever You may ask what is that? I cannot tell you. I called my symptoms so, & after I was better I meant to look up two points viz: (1) Is there such a thing as enteric fever (2) If so what is it like. I have not looked [?them] up. Perhaps it is better not to do so; the word may serve again.

The boy is perfectly well and very sturdy. The doctor is at present engaged in trying to make him ill with vaccine matter; but it is absorbed & seen no more. I take him in to see the canaries every morning after I am dressed. He stares intently tugging meantime at my whiskers ["an" deleted] eyelids or anything rough

* Its a moral longing not a fame greed I have. The conviction that I have not been gifted & chartered by heaven to be useful satisfies me and yet does not satisfy me.

5.

Edinburgh 21 January 1885

enough to get a hold of, and roars lustily when removed from the canaries. ergo, his mother argues that he will be a second Darwin. It is also intended to make him Archbishop of Canterbury - Darwin A. of C. I met your mother one day who had had bad news of you; but I saw a letter an hour after about T. Brash which convinced me that the bad news sent to her was the result of enteric fever. Charles I daresay you know is acting. The last time I saw him he was very seedy, vouvray whilst rehearsing had done it. He swore a blue ribbon oath about vouvray. He made disparaging Remarks about Jenkins wines in general. How young Charles is, still to blame quality for the results of quantity. He never was ill from Brash or Rutherford. Surely, even if bad, vouvray is better than these.

I went to a sale. I bot a clock for £7 which would not go I have since seen the same article in a shop going for £6. But I got some other articles which I had no need of very cheap. I was Magnus who tempted me to go to sales. Everything in his house was a bargain. I suspect that there is a secret chamber in his house filled with things which cost twice their value. Epicurus says (or somebody) that the secret of wealth is to limit your desires not to increase your possessions. I thought the modern application of the dictum was - sales. He must have meant blue ribbons, kitchen chairs, and parched peas. Epicurus cant have been a golfer. No

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S. [cont'd. ]

4.

Edinburgh 21 January 1883

man could drive a ball on parched peas.

This is a sober letter. There is mighty little in it
is there not.

Yours affeely

W G Simpson

To write well, a man must have the gush of drunkenness with the
clearness of sobriety, therefore dreams recounted are dull.

They lack the flash but have the muddle of drunken obfuscation.

N.B. written after whiskey this here p.S. also the note at
p -- 2

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

London

[? June, 1883]

Thursday

Dear Louis,

Send your governor up to the club on Monday (the 1st)
to vote for the man of the world & any one else you like. Its
apt to be a scanty ballot.

Pul[1]man carring is grand. As warm as a room no draft
& yet ventilated. Can sit at a table & write if you like.

She's looking all right. Never "<u>spot</u> blood thank god",
but "burst a blood vessel" when ill this last time & 3 mouthfuls
came up
Seems to have no cough now Its [a] very depressing state
of matters however.

Surprise on getting here my portrait by Bloomer on the
wall. Remarkably good but flattering & young. Also her sister
by Bloomer. Good it seems, but vulgarly dressed. That's the worst
of him. Facy his giving me too, a black coat indeed but a brown
necktie.

In case you come to London or wish to communicate

I am yours

W. Samson Esq
25 Kirchen Road
Castle Hill
Baling London

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

London

23 June 1883

London.

23 June 83

My dear Louis

I got your letter in this London & am here yet without
means to answer your leper questions. Governors papers was about
lepers in Scotland statistics. Ill try and work your facts off
when I get back, if you have not put your finger in a poultice
by then & conceived your leper by its appearance. There is a
ripping good novel I read twenty years ago about a leper, if I
could only remember its name. Mystery about wife (who was going
to pieces in a secret suite of appartments) daughter would marry -
eyebrows begin to fall out, nails get shaky complexion suspiciously
white agony of father, tableau of mother appearing appearing [sic]
in family circle - at least the essential part of her minus
excrescences such as fingers feet noses hair ears &c - harrowing
leper moral.

Probably the horrors of leprosy exaggerated. In an age
when nobody washed a man with a white face would look revolting.
Would it do to tell your butcher boys that at your period nobody
for a thousand years had taken a bath?

What a time we've been having Lunch, dinner, squeezing
in here & saying "how do you do & squeezing out again in a buttoned
surtout, buttoned over a stagnant lives."

2.

London

23 June 1963

I've walked, sir, to keep myself up to the mark, but there
is no ozone in the strand. I've walked round by Lambeth to the bank
and back here to Bayswater but it does not exercise the upper
part of the body.

There is nothing new. I invented a new kind of bicycle
(two wheels parallel) during three walks patent-fortune, sanguine -
when dashed if I did not meet the thing with a man in it coming
along Oxford Street! I cant yet make up my mind whether that Oxford
St machine was not an optical delusion.

Lifes a vapour. There is nothing else but seeing baby
bathed.

This is not a letter. London is a place to drivel in

Yours

W G Simpson

If a parcel I post[ed] reaches your wife, the contents are aprons
I seized, rolled up, and addressed wife had purchased. value nil.
It struck me the dark one would look awfully well on M rs Stevenson

WGS

2.

Edinburgh

29 June 1883

attempting to quote from it. It is full of material for working up
a picture of leprosy. ["The governor" deleted] It is a picture as
far as facts go, arranged too, only needing the padding filled in.
I would send you the volume (will if you like), but don't as you may
have finished your leper before you get this accurately enough for
["I]send you" deleted] butcher boys.

I send you by post de Maistre's "Leper of Aosta", as it may
suggest something. That bleached and mangled kind of Henley in Williams
& Norgates despised me for sending it. He said you must know it by
heart. Said b. & M. H. said Williams or Norgate or Company had been
thinking of telling Tauschnitz to issue Will o' the Mill. b & m.
did not seem to know any of your stories had been republished. Will
o' the Mill w d not make a Tauschnitz of itself: but one could be
made of your stories. It may be worth your while to move in this as
b. & m. says Tauschnitz pays the authors (d -- d if he ever pays
the custom house officers).

Saw Bob in London, had him at lunch. Nice bird Bob. He's
quiet but seems cheery. Of course we talked ["baby's" deleted] babies.

1. [cont'd.]:

"Forbidden to enters inns churches & of touch healthy persons.

"Lived in leper houses, religious places dedicated to St. Lazarus.
one of these in every considerable town

"Leprosy begins with a cold numb feeling in member first affected. Spots generally appear on face first. Colour from white to blue. As advances beard & eyebrows fall out voice raucous, eyesight impaired. Spirits depressed. Death ensues when gets deeper i.e. into a vital part, or when say jaw bone goes preventing mastication. If death not caused sooner fingers & toes feet legs rot off. Ten years is about the time a leper lives. No cure. Certain death.

"Leper of the city of Aosta de Maistre. Williams"

3.

Edinburgh

29 June 1883

"The worst of it is getting up during the night to make its food"
The brightening "but I suppose you have a nurse" I assent "My God!"
there is no better fun than a baby if you have a nurse to keep it
at night."

Yours ever my dear Captain

W G S of her
majestys body guard in battles as
per letters patent

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

[?Edinburgh]

[?August 1884]

Thursday ev8

My dear Louis,

I can't make out what your "night warbler" is
(is that what you called it?) There is the nightingale thrush
but he is so rare in England as to get himself certain[y] shot
& skinned. The [""nightjar"" deleted] "nightjar" is the only
english bird who makes a pretence of singing. He like a big
brown swallow with similar flight. During the day he sleeps
perched <u>along</u> a branch & begins his work when the moths come
out. Morris says "The sound of the nightjars <u>hum</u> is exceedingly
pleasing: it is, to me, ["only" deleted] one thoroughly associated
with sylvan scenes."

I happened to mention your house at Heyères. If you
send me rent &c & who to apply to, he may possibly get you a sub-
tenant

I came home Monday night i.e. Tuesday morning I've not
had clothes off since except today for a wash. Baby took convulsions
that afternoon & had 4 before next morning. Don't have a child. I
could not have believed that God had invented anything so hideous
& terrifying. add to that what was a real danger viz: a temperature

2.

[?Edinburgh]

[? August 1964]

over 105°. Doctors thought pneumonia or a fever certain, but it
is now almost certain that it was plumpudding & teething. He is
very seedy - stomach out of order with plumpudding aconite, chloral
chloroform & other things but convalescent. I knew he was getting
too many luxuries, but nothing seemed to disagree. He shall have
nasty plain food in future.

I've got it burnt into my brain what M<sup>RS</sup> S said about
my heads being week [sic] circulation. Certain it is I've kept
very first these three days my circulation taking a bound at every
second lest it should be the women screaming out ["ato"deleted]
another fit. on the other hand there's been no whiskey & no time
cfor smoke. Odd half hours with Morpheus always suited me that's
another thing. Here dry up becoming valetudinarian & an egotis-
tical one too.

yours affectly

W G Simpson

Have not looked up M.S. of course can[t] send it either till I
know your address is fixed at P & G or some other extra dry place.
I hope you are sticking to the new theory. If you are trying
doctors try a specialist in that Are you quite sure iodide of
potash is inimical to you? of course it is the thing if the theory
is true It is also ["wri" deleted] right to pay no attention to
quacks like me

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh 18 November 1944

[On black-borderered notepaper,
without letterhead.]

5 R.C.

18 Nov 84

My dear Louis,

I was told on the previous Saturday that Magnus showed
symptoms of obliviousness & had been sent to bed, that typhoid
or some fever was feared. I seems some unwellness has hung about
him all summer & that he caught a chill shooting in rain whilst I
was down with you. This feeling of illness must have been slight
as the last time we met we spoke of the Doune valley, stocks
cabinets dogs my headaches & his own health was not in his mind.
Eva was moved to send for a doctor by finding that he had gross-
ly misspelt a note telling MRS Hugo Haig that he had only got a cold
with the shooting. True during his last week he gave many instruc-
tions about his funeral &c, but that is a subject his mind has
always dwelt on from time to time. It seems that he spoke of him-
self as without stamina, whom the first illness would kill & gave
that as one reason for giving up his profession. "How could I
encourage patients having so little fighting power myself" is the
kind of phrase imputed to him.

On Monday he seemed convalescent - quite well the doctors
would have said but for the previous symptoms which left them puzzled.

2.

Edinburgh

18 November 1884

He had a bad night with fever & rigors, more mysterious than alarming. The doctors left him [inserted above line] calm sensible and comfortable at 11. At twelve he rose from a dose, ["sring" deleted] sprang out of bed. Shortly after when I got there he was comatose the doctors applying heroic remedies to reduce his temperature which had suddenly risen to 108° They failed & of course he [inserted above line] never at that heat recovered consciousness.

They found some disease of the mitral valve probably of old ["snad" deleted] standing (he always had a weakish heart) but nothing in the brain nothing to account for the symptoms. They were something like Davids whose death was equally mysterious.

Magnus wished the English church burial service read over him, a great consolation to me as we had an old mutual promise that we were to see no minister officiated at our respective funerals. That was in the days of reaction against salvation by contract, or at least some of its Scotch exponents. We must look to God if we are to feel If we explain him away our best impulses are but put up nine pins, solid looking but wooden to the touch.

You remember you & I were saying that women dont respect reason enough.

Isnt that only true regarding practice - not as to the ultimate facts God & life. Magnus expressed a strong aversion to extempore prayers at his funeral. The English service is about the best attempt that there is to express the inexpressible, less clumsy than

3.

Edinburgh

18 November 1964

all considered attempts ["of" deleted] to say what the greatest
literary ability can only crudely & partially express.

I need scarcely say ["that" deleted] how I regret that
we were not more fully reconciled. Very likely we were, knew where
each had made ["a" deleted] mistakes from lack of perfect wisdom
& understanding each other [the phrase inserted above the line].
I suppose anyhow we are at one now, or then whenever that is which
only God knows. As it is, our last transaction was a favour offered
& accepted what more is wanted? That isn't a matter that bites.
As you say ["h" deleted] there are worse things than death: but think
as one will it bites to know that I wont see him [" " deleted]
again in the flesh on this side of the mist.

Baxter says you were thinking of writing to Eva. That's
all right; but he says you were thinking of improving the occasion.
I should say dont at least listen to this [the phrase beginning
"at least..." inserted above the line]. You can understand what a
terrible blow it is for her. She has been nearly out of her mind.
She saw nobody but Mr Haig except to give orders. With her she
lived all last week (lived qua sympathy). That's a woman made of
the best human material. I was going to tell you what happened
between us. Not. They angered me by urging me to console her [inserted
above the line] when - bar a broken home, the balance of consoling
power was about equal, & before a bevy of women - it seems to gratify
their excited fancies. I did it afterwards. The poor thing clings

4.

Edinburgh

18 November 1884

to me & I supported her with all love. Some of it acted, for I
was sore myself. But I'm not acting now. She shall have me as
a brother I want [to] advance like the cautious diplomatist
proposing a treaty - certainly no explanations which at all times
but lead to [inserted above line] fresh battles. I shall hold
out my hand, & even if it is rejected there is nothing to be angry
about. After all she is more my child than my sister, & there
is no humiliation when the child you would kiss slaps your face.
I will not quarrel with her more. Still I must remember that my
leathery face is not the only one that may be slapped. Of course
I'm not contemplating any cat canary & rabbit happy family kind
of damned nonsense.

Why this is in futuro is that Eva went to Pife with MRS
H immediately her work of ordering the funeral was over. I hear
today she has slept, & she neither slept (bar drugs) nor ate from
Tuesday to Saturday.

..................

Why I didn't send the drunk this was that when I read it I found
in it the finest jerky Simpsonianism really notes - pages uncon-
so[i]ously unwritten in the hurry to get to the next point. Its
the deuce that pens wont keep up to the mark. How do you do it?
I suspect its by letting the ideas come to you & not being afraid
that they will escape you if you don't run after them. I am sending

5.

Edinburgh 18 November 1984

a bit of the novel. You Bob & your wife can amuse yourselves
with it or ["if" deleted] lay it carefully aside if you are not amused.

By the bye I must send you that family record to fill
up for Galtif.

Yours affeely
W G Simpson

P.S. Willie has been making tremendous efforts to resign his
bishopric. I stood by in wonder & delight. A tradesman broke him
down once, by asking whether he would begin a piece of work at 8 or
9. It was quite immaterial. But he hesitated so long that I
interposed with "8". Such marvellous decision of character crushed
the bishop.

P.S. I've expressed myself so badly about Eva I see. She has
said so much that even tho' said when distraught, it wont freeze
again. I think we will draw charitably leaving judging to God
but I might prevent this by not coming forward - holding on guard
for fear of a snub. Wont do this at the worst (which I really dont
expect) a snub wont hurt. ["On Saturday leaving she asked me to
take a puppy dog of Wags" deleted.]

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh 7 January [1885]

[On black bordered notepaper
without letterhead.]

5 R.C.

7 January

My dear Louis,

An idle swab ought to write you oftener. Swab does nt
want to bother you to write. Would like to hear about your health
however. Almost ashamed to ask ["ed" deleted] your wife to let
me know as I am conscious of "owing her letters" as they call it.

Am I to gather from your letter that the Drunkard notes
never reached you? They were sent. Its not like a drunkard to
fail in reaching his destination in the end.

Did I tell you Mag's disease ["h" deleted] was diagnosed
as endocarditis, (ask a doctor about it) & that there was some old
disease - slight- of one of the heart valves, which Alick remarked
to me was probably the cause of the mental state which induced
him to give up his profession. I suppose it was deductions from
that which made Alick so anxious to examine my heart, and rather
indifferent to my despondency about my stomach. Altho' it is just
a week since I was very bad with my head, I believe I've shaken the
thing off. I took this & did'nt take that up till ten days ago
& remained a perfect rag. Then in despair ["ed" deleted] having
cleaned the house thought I would let it dry, so chucked away all
my bottles. A head crescendo for three days followed. I went &

2.

Edinburgh 7 January [1965]

ate & drank bestially, very ill took a pill & next morning on a-
wakening felt sure I was cured. Proof - I'm going up in weight like
a rocket again. That drinking is good, is not the moral of this.

Such ["a" deleted] things as you tell me about [the]rier
are very painful for the moment, but we exaggerate our regret about
them. It is our loss not these things that are really ["hut" deleted]
paining us. However a death coming on top of one of them red-
handed would be terrible. Alick Bells sisters the morning he died
received a note from Montgomery & recognising his (their brother's
writing) returned it by the messenger & only heard of Alicks death
from a stranger in the street consequently

I've received a nice how-do-ye-do from Eva. We invited
her to come & stay here, her house being full of Roberts children
with scarlet fever. Rather precipitate? But you see I was being
asked to dinner at MRS Haigs & to Cameron & I took the charitable
view that she & MRS H. couldn't ["ca" deleted] be wanting to raise
Cain in my house, thereby but were opening negociations for acquain-
tance. It was either that or an insult as I was calling on Eva
about everything that turned up & the invites were not needed for
us to meet I got back a choice production. She "couldn't enter
my house" (there's nothing wrong in that but the saying it) I
was sort of left the choice of being a tool or a scoundrel for
"turning magnus out of the house" & told that (not at the time
mark) ["but" deleted] till he died he was expecting an apology
(Delicate!) However she wants to be friends, & if I made it a

3.

Edinburgh 7 January [1965]

"condition" she would call here. She made a lot of ["more" deleted]
other points. I found on sitting down to answer that I could
make more & score game ["However" deleted] But I didn't send that
answer Yesterday I sent three lines + that our opening a door
was motivated by pure kindness & that I would not wrangle with her
over Magnus's grave at which we had met.

I was awfully tickled with one statement:- that she con-
sidered herself heir to all Mag's dislikes. I must try not to
give her the chance of spending as they are evidently invested at
a regal rate of interest.

There were some back handers at the wife; but she is so
beastly pleased that she has done her duty in giving Eva the chance
of coming into the house & so glad she isn't coming that she does nt
mind. I hope this will merely interest you. If more I'm sorry I
wrote. My anger is gone or I wouldnt write it. I'll just go on
as if it hadnt happened, bar being on the watch not to get another
over the knuckles.

Did you get a dozen of that port I sent New Years day?

Its one. I must go to bed with a dull book. That the
programme instead of grog now. I've done no writing but a little
golf which must burn. I've had no ideas lately -- only a temper.
What can you do with a sprite galloping all ["over" deleted] through
your head or squeezing himself into your cerebellum for a snooze.

Yours affeely

What became of your child's rhymes
Are they out yet.

W G Simpson

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh 9 February [1885]

5 R.C.

9th Feb

My dear Louis,

It is quite some time since I got your letter. It did
not require so long consideration before answering but I've been off
writing. Do you remember the funny sensation you had in the back
of your head after Kummerl on the "heron." I had that pretty
chronic for a while. My researches into what ["wh" deleted] one
can exceed in and live are being conducted very exhaustively.
I find morning frousting & every thing that comes out of a tin
impossibles. An empty stomach whether the result of eating tinned
meat or vegetables is bad. I find that water is more conducive
to digestion and a clear head than wine. I find a pint of port
after ten days absolute t.t. produces complete intoxication without
bad effects. But one truffle, one stalk of ["r" deleted] tinned
asparagus, one mouthful of tinned mutton however well curried!
Ach! "Resurgam" sh'd be stamped on each tin.

And now to business as you say. Thanks for your careful
danced on the top of a book. ["I ve" deleted] A review is tinned
[note here a pun] your remarks are not. I have digested them They
agree with me. Whether they will produce muscle depends on my nature.

3.

Edinburgh 9 February [1885]

George Eliot says of Disraeli (his books) that he had fine veins
but very little blood. Roughly & in a small way you mean the con-
verse of me; - also this :- food but no intestinal canal to carry
it off. If books and speaking & writing were superseded by thought
reading I would be an author. Perhaps not. Anyway my own are an
unfailing source of amusement, even with tinned meats trying to
get into my cerebellum. There is one thing that pins me & damps
me back from trying to conceive characters instead of painting
from the life which is a mistake. (How did I come to do it. At
Gretz I was always clear that painting pure sections of nature
was not ["art" deleted] making pictures however necessary as train-
ing & there I went & tried) Its your wife saying Allen Roberts
is C.B. I see there is truth in the remark, & I thinking I had
created that being by [c]rowing Bobs head off and putting it on
upside down The name too is his upside down. I see the C.B. &
I am shocked with him. I wonder you weren't rude about it. I've
had acquaintances with a key note like that & very pleasant fellows.
I like them. You avoid them. Nice men. always civil but never
friends who bein present when you were drowning -- better look out
for a straw to grasp at than waste your breath calling to them.
Dman it that's not C.B.

Sir W.G.S reaches about this height in art. I fear he
can draw an elephant thus

[drawing]

Edinburgh 9 February [1965]

3.

We got another boy y'day - Randolph Magnus - He was
born with a caul No sign of the enemy about his nose. Its a thumper.
I hear you were house buying. Has it come off I've got 3 Belgrave
Crescent The trouble is to sell this place now - difficult houses
cheap.

Yours affeely
W G Simpson

Please send me the abortion & the dissection some time or other

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh 18 March [1945]

[On black bordered note paper
without letterhead.]

5 R.C.

18 March

My dear Louis,

That baby was registered "Odo." Its to be christened
Odo Louis. I am going to see if they will add that to the register.
I ("we" that is) want to know if you will be god father to the kid.
The duties are light the emoluments nil. I shall teach him to say
his prayers. "Tim" has not learnt yet. I ashamed to say he could
not even ask a blessing when at tea at 52 Queen St. Being called
upon to do so he caught the tone & whined "penny for a poor old man"

I sent you two dozen port 3 weeks ago. You meant me to
order it for you: but you will forgive me for presenting it this
time. I'll promise not to do it again.

Have not seen your children's book. Hear it is very neat.
Will buy it tomorrow or so.

My young friend who 'listed has died of his wounds a
corporal. Poor chap he was into the thick of it alongside General
Earle.

I hope to get south next month when this flitting is
over.

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh

8 April [1965]

5, Randolph Cliff,
Edinburgh

[letterhead]

8th Apl

12 p.m.

My dear Louis,

I write to you now because I am perturbed, & therefore
unfit to go to sleep on milk and potash: but of that anon.

Odo Louis was duly baptised. He did not cry, which
["as you know" deleted] baby's ought to do as either a sign of
repentance or a demonstration of their need of regeneration. It
may be passing thro' your mind that you ought to send him a fork
and spoon. I am assured that it is not the fashion to do so now-
adays. Let me suggest that you give him a few verses in the next
edition of the child's garland. I am much pleased with his name.
It is a Xian name, which something, Magnus would not have been under
the circumstances. I also wonder now why it did not suggest itself
to me first. I due course, Louis will be his actual soubriquet
I expect. In the meantime he is the dodo, much resembling that wing-
less & heavy headed pigeon. It is a child robust & placid. Crying
little, I take little interest in it. In[d]eed Tim wont let me.
He tries to strike it if I do. Tim being a bad boy I like him better.

Now I will tell you what is disturbing me. I designed some

2.

Edinburgh

8 April [1965]

book cases and a fire place for my room in the new house & I [sic]
they have just been erected. You know that wise men buy & fool
build houses. It is the same with bookcases. They don't come out
as you intend. I see now that it was no more to be expected than
that you should sketch out an article & expect some one else to
write it to your mind. I hope this piece of advice won't come too
late to you furnishing your new house -- buy don't have things made.
Just imagine what the man has done. He has made two little concealed
cupboards in the buttresses of my bookcase, & cupboards with keys
too - cupboards where things get secreted & keys to prevent them
being recovered if you do remember where they are. They will remind
me forever of Bobs leather canes with a niche for everything and a
place for nothing

Yours in much distress

W G Simpson

I meant to say something about the child's garland & your article
in the Co[n]tem[porary Review]: but I cannot bring my mind to bear
on such trifles under the circumstances.

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

North Berwick 12 June 1885

[The words "3 Belgrave Crescent is my new address" appear diagonally across the upper left hand corner of the page.]

12 June 85

My dear Louis,

I am getting worse and worse at sitting down to write every
day or say year. I am only doing so now because the wife wants you
to send back the bit of the M.S. of my still born story, as she is
going to play with it at St. Andrews. I hear that you are keeping
pretty well. Bournemouth seems to be a great place. We are going
to St. Andrews next month for a spell. Its the best place for the
kids, there being sands. West coast is better fun but it is so
damp and midgy. Wife has gone to London for a fortnight. I didn't.
Costs & costs to begin with and trouble to get the liver working when
one returns. I suppose I need not tell you that getting into a new
house costs heaps of gold. I've sold my horses & dont mean [" to"
deleted] to buy more till all the carpets are paid for. I have come
down here for 3 days to see the kids enjoying the sea breezes and the
sand.

Your (plural) dynametrs [sic] was very interesting. Its
great fault for pleasing the railway public is that you keep laughing

North Berwick 12 June 1995

2.

at them all the time i.e. you are not a real Reynolds Miscellany chap, but only a King of Bavaria disguised as a beggar. I think those storys the woman tells are your wife's. They are awfully good stories. One of them or more told in a tear compelling fashion would make Miss Braddon sit up. I know she has lots of them. I would like to read one written in a heartstring-rending manner.

Can't say anything about "Otto" Don't see what's coming next.
So far it is very fresh. Very difficult working on such entirely
virgin soil wasnt it?

Kindest respects to your
missus

Yours ever

W G Simpson

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Bembridge, Isle of Wight

28 June 1886

3 Belgrave Crescent,
Edinburgh

[letterhead]

Royal Spithead
Hotel

Bembridge
Isle of Wight

28 June 86

My dear Louis,

If I had a pen I would write a letter, but the thing
here is a prong.

Why we came here I don't know but we did. It was the longest
journey I have ever taken. From Edin⁸ to London I never opened a
book except once, when a boy at once fell off the stick rack onto
my head and nearly broke my neck In short I had to play with two
boys from ten to seven, and one of them is a devil His mind is
developing. He is able to ["dr" deleted] make inferences He saw
me drown some mice caught in the bird room igitur next morning
he went and drowned all the young birds and eggs he could ["get"
deleted] catch & then launching out on a course of original thought
opened the cages and let the old ones out at the window to get the
"whesh air."

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S. [cont'd.]
Bembridge, Isle of Wight

28 June 1886

2.

I see that I can get a steamer some days from Portsmouth
to Bournemouth, & mean to run over some day if you are to be at
home.

In London wife ["ma" deleted] stopped our cab & made me
run after your wife who had just passed. It was some one else's
wife I need scarcely say. I hear from the melancholy Charles
that you are knocking about in rather better health than most people.

Have you seen this place? When the geologists were con-
structing Wight they threw some of the ["m" deleted] spare material
into the sea, but not quite enough to fill it up. The Brading
Harbour ° drained it all except some oyster ponds and a harbour.
There [is] a small golfing course which reclaimed itself.

Yours

W G Simpson

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh 28 December 1886

[fragment]

3 Belgrave Crescent
Edinburgh

28th Dec r 86

My dear Louis,

I sent you a new years box of 1 dozen of your port.
Hope it will arrive in time for you to drink a health in on 1st
January. I shall drink yours in same. I send a parcel of three
books borrowed from your library last summer.

Hope you are keeping wellish. I am having rather a
merry Xmas. There is a girl staying here who has an insatiable
appetite for young men to dinner & some how all the young men I
know are of the sort that will sit up till 2 or 3 a.m. And I
don't know them so well as the young men who used to frequent the sign
of the twinkling eye, whom you [sic] may recollect I used
occasionally to retire from leaving them to go away when tired.
This does not do for the oldish, or as some ["say old" deleted]
call me old. It happened thus. The Fettes are in the gallery
over our heads in church & they have a habit of chanting psalms. / summary
Here was a verse I detected. "The Simpsons have got a new girl
what do you think of her?

The thing (Flo) has had its hair cut short. Lady Simp-

2.

Edinburgh

28 December 1886

sons new jacket is by no means bad.

What's made old Simpson come to church. He very seldom
does."

Health here good enough Want to hear of yours & wifes
also how is your father. Odo Louis ate a steel watch chain with
a button at the end of it some days [ago], but Bembridge so made
his digestion to flourish that it overcame the difficulty.

Owing to trouble about photographs my golf book wont
get out till about March. I have a kind of

[the balance of the latter missing]

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Edinburgh 1 April 1967

3 Belgrave Crescent
Edinburgh

1 Apl 87

My dear Louis,

For "the day after tomorrow" thanks. Man! its fine I had forgotten them, but golly! you are a dog at essays. We dumb dogs and indefinite feel that the common ants who pretend they are queens are contemptible & we have no politics - we are drones but you can say & dont sneer & dont preach. Look here old man. You have nt written anything more trenchant, clearer, or more pregnant than "the day after tomorrow."

The devil of it is, a lot of them wont pick it up. Wm
E.G. might but his admirers? The Emperor of Germany or Prince
Krapotkin certainly not! (Chaps like Bismarck & Dizzy only ["keep"
deleted] use their sense of humanity, to laugh at & humbug humanity
with.) By the bye I have read a good deal of anarchist literature,
& never found an attempt at a jest (practical jesting such as blow-
ing up emperors is not real humour). So much have I been impressed
with this & thinking on the same lines as you evolve in your essay -
the terrible and inevitable army of inspector[s] I made a jotting
of the kind of examination inspectors or rulers ought to pass. It is.

Men to select a lite from those who propound the best co-
nundrum choosing thus as many as are required, for officials.

2.

Edinburgh

1 April 1887

Rescues from drowing having struck a man bigger than self & to
be taken into consideration along with the conundrum.

The selected candidates to be examined by women after
a years study in ordinary branches Latin Greek Mathematics &
weeded.

Universal suffrage of all children under 6 to decide the
rank of the officials. the candidate's of course having the chance
of canvassing the constituency.

I expect Ruskin would get a good post. of course there
would be some ["bun" deleted] bungles You would be asked to write
a jubilee hymn (of course there w^d^ be jubilees every 50 years)
& C.B. would be made Archbishop of Canterbury

This is merely a note of admiration of "the day after
tomorrow

Yours always

W G Simpson

5524

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Reston, Berwickshire

3 October 1889

[crest]
victo dolore

3 Oct. 89

My dear Louis,

Last night I read the last of "the master" & today I
saw your arrival at Sidney announced, both suggesting that its
about a year since I wrote you. Your "home in Honolulu" the
papers speak of will set a fashion I think. To go to real warm
climates instead of to fuggy rock shelters on southern coasts
is a noble idea. Some of your novelties such as black shirts
are not. Enfield was right. Alternate bands of white and brown
is the real dirt concealers. I find that a flannel shirt on that
scheme quite refuses to show dirt. Now Enfield who had no wish
to look clean found out I dont know. The "master" has given me
much joy. The flavour is too delicate for the falsely named
reading public of course you know. But you cant grumble. Dont
know of any other living author whose merit in refusing to cloy
the palate with sweet characters is so fully admitted. You give
(shall I say) dry wines to be left if not liked. It is a proud
thing that to compare you with R. Haggard is the cruellest criti-

2.

Reston, Berwickshire

3 October 1889

cism. What a grind that last century language must have been. I found great pleasure in trying to detect places in which you got in a rage with their bare faces & their 3 cornered hats, and "chiqued" a few sentences of their tiresome lingo. I admit that some words I marked as brumagem turned out to be genuine. But I would like to know whether I am not right in supposing you got angry sometimes to think many of your readers w³ not appreciate the labour of it. By the way the illustrator thought the story worth¹ of his best efforts dont you think?

I've been wasting time & pretending to myself that it was [*"workig" deleted*] work by making Scottish observations for Henley. I cant conceive any more irksome occupation than editing a weekly with the aid of a cheap staff. Pity for H did not prevent me from being angry once. A thing of mine remodelled & brought out signed without permission - not the form only but a fair proportion of different falsehoods from what I had committed myself to. The patience of the man in polishing the coarse material supplied by his cheap staff is pathetic; but I never did like his shock-headed prose & like still less the latinised words he seems to think periodical literature requires peppered over it.

Whilst you are roaming the globe I have not slept a night out of this house since I came to it. I see your uncle occasionally when I want to be told I have a thousand years to live yet. Last time he did not say so. No wonder cocaine cures the

3.

desire for the drug which you say clears off the population of
islands; but unless you have a heart equal to doing 130 to the
minute occasionally, I think it [a] safer fight without his assis-
tance. As an occasional amusement for a strong man cocaine had
no rival. I read in the lancet lately of a chap who for catarrh
had it put up his nose with a feather. He so enjoyed having his
cold cured, that he went on for 3 years curing it with feathers
every 2 hours. The reporting doctor says that at the end of 3
years the gent had very little difficulty in returning to the ordin-
ary bandana for his cold prompted there by the presence of palpi-
tations & absence of memory.

What do I do here? I rear pigeons, I drive sometimes,
ride more seldom & at this season I walk about with a gun & frighten
animals. Willie has a farm house now, with another farm house tumb-
ling down close to it in which he has one room water tight called
a studio because there are canvasses in it an incubator and a
billiard table. The other rooms are devoted to animals. He has
a large rough shooting all £50 a year - a perfect place for him
His fame as a breeder of spaniels is perhaps equal to yours as an
author. It is not a week since fully £60 worth of puppies died
in a night. Why he refused £75 for another dog his man explained
to me. Another 2 prizes will make him a champion, when instead
of £2 as now he will get £5 for the slightest show of politeness
to the other sex. By the bye Willie was persuaded by me to see

4.

your uncle, who told him he had or had not (I forget which) a
mitral valve. Willie himself insists that "had" is the word,
he being a bishop. He recommended him to play bishop more than
ever. He did not ask, but Willie acts on the assumption that the
smaller his doses of beer are the better. Of swollen legs & a
hoarse voice your uncle cured him very fast. I was telling you
what I do. Well my big and (whisper it) favorite scu is now at
school & when not he prefers the society of other boys so that
I chum with your godson. He is different effusive gushing caressing
boy given to chaff and humor but not greedy for information like
his brother. The entire absence of humour in No 1 produces anger
and tears if twitted & procures for No 2 many a hammering. The
charm of No 2 now my constant companion is his bold claim to
know everything & therefore to be able to teach me. He is what
prosy people call a liar (tho' phenominally truthful when taxed
with any bad deed) He lives in a world peopled by imaginary beasts
and real wooden horses which live eat act and need feeding as reg-
ularly as real rabbits. He can tell a great deal about not only
his beast world but about his life before arriving in Edin⁸ four
years ago. His rabbits are delicate, only y day he brought me
the eye and the piece of the intestine of a rabbit which he had
been compelled to tear out to prevent a rabbit choking. He also
produced an earthworm extracted from another rabbit. On going to
his rabbit hutch much horrified, I was relieved to find the eye &⁹

5.

Reston, Berwickshire

3 October 1889

were picked from kitchen offal.

I was about to go on with more. No: There is too much.
I beg your pardon. I always begin meaning to be dumb as to chil-
dren to you as it lays me bare to quips by return of post. Amen!
Quip Sir quip, and my hand is tired.

to your wife greeting

yours always

W.G.S.

If you don't know
this is my gold nib
stylograph & bed, hand of
write.

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to R.L.S.

Reston, Berwickshire

[$?January 1890$]

Stoneshiel

Reston,

[letterhead]

Berwickshire,

My dear Louis,

I find it very hard that I should like to blether that
I have no wind for v.v. & that on paper it is dangerous. Willie
took it for rude (as his knowledge of french was all taken to
mean "wine") some say drunk, some mad Charles allows it but
it is too, too evident he never reads it. oh, that a magazine
would let me do "the sign of the Ship" on them. I can do it so well
(raving mad! poor fellow! so sad! say some).

It is terrible thing Louis my will is invalid I cannot test
It will be reduced: because I wrote to my enemy that a having
letter he had was valuable property. Just fancy what the following
literary curiosity will fetch at Dowells in 2002. A vol of "talk
& talkers" owned by WGS & with a note at foot in my writing ["and"
deleted] to Athe[l]red "the late myself" also a letter pointing out
the future value of a letter from a person named by R.L.S. (King
of the Cannibal Islands) Next lot" The button Rob Burns refused to
give for the his wife [sic] to the weaver of Lincumduddy. Cat 16.
Skulmahow, landscape by R.L.S.

2.

Reston, Berwickshire

[?January, 1890]

Strava! Louis! There are minerals in Strava. But
more! Its new Grindlay of Straven & ? The place I have just
bought or wh: C.B. is buying is called Millbank It is at the
junction of the Eye and the Ale. What am I to call it? Gleneye
is my best yet. ["The" deleted] ["he" deleted] Odo says old Simp-
sons house. ["The young" deleted] He also ["un" deleted] there
family theologian says "Faffys house."

["Here &" deleted] It was built by Mitchell Innes of
Ayton as a dower house & it was a hobby. Cost anything. Awfully
well built - panneling [sic] in most rooms but (!!) in library
pine walls oak mantel Oh! Jehu! Stain green No! I was for-
bidden that by the public as awful. Now the mighty Morris says
its right! and its common.

I'll be very vexed if I don't live to swing a few cats
in de Grindlay House.

Millbank is what I always looked for & never even found
existing before - A small place (Willie says there are six garden-
ers & many such things but he is taking it for Ayton's Castle)
a possible[e] boating place (I don't want that now) and a trout
river of one's own.

Tell Lloyd if he has to come to Britain again he ought
to make our house his home, a centre. I don't say "ought" but if
he would or could we would be glad. I would not worry him. He

Reston, Berwickshire [?January 1890]

3.

could go and come as he liked.

I was always trying to see your mother before she left.
I don't think we ever asked her here. I asked your uncle ab[out]
her. And I did so really feel disgusted at myself. Its
like the fact that I write to Tom & D. Harry and have only done
so once

I send you some of my new picture journal Try and return.
I would send more of it but don't think you will understand even
this much.

I saw you in Black & White Sleeping suit. I can tell you
where to get these. I've 2 suits in pattern flannels 15/- a suit.
When you want some say, I'm sold. How can you live without long
boots! I've a house pair as well as others, real stage ones,
lines, and warm! ripping! Kind of chamois leather turned over with
scarlet. The theory of boots and trousers is the same. Boots
must be wide at ankles

[drawing deleted]

[drawing of boot with
upper portion designated
as "red", the rest as "yellow".]

And as for clo[the]s I've writ a doggerel that is nearly sickening
["wh some day" deleted] ends well

Rob[i]n with the red breast
Ive a secret unconfessed
I am dressed Rob[i]n dressed
(drab coat &c)
I've got a tartan vest &c &c

4.

When I press her to my bussun
And then there's swallows home fly
so do I, rather high,
fly black & white morning
cab I cry

If you still get the National observer observe _stra ovis_ wh: is me
but I not a socinian not having been present at creation

6 Feb C.B. here two days ago. Laid up with scarlet fever.
Awfully mum that day

[The picture journal referred to above begins here.]

Modern hieroglyphs

[drawing] [1]

[drawing] a backslide[r] [drawing] [2]

I, C. Huibh! (expressed by the halo. what's ee' got. Soles for uppers eh? (uppers ie. heaven expressed by a tin of Ricketts

1. The scene is evidently Heaven. A representation of a can appears above two stick-figures. The figure at the left holds a crown in the left hand and with the right holds a bunch of strings leading to four balloon-like objects representing souls. The figure at the right wears a halo and is carrying some books.

2. The drawings on either side of the words "a backslide[r]" also represent souls and are similar to those above.

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to MRS. STEVENSON

Edinburgh 22 November 1883

5, Randolph Cliff,
[letterhead]
Edinburgh.

My dear Mrs Louis,

I have enquired about the means of slaying the dragon.
Tuppin your doggies breeder says arica nut. There are lots of other
prescriptions but I believe that is the best. Give him a dose of
arica _fasting_ 6 hours say at 2 pm & follow it with castor oil at
six & food then if he will take it (by "he" I mean the dog. The
undying one is neuter). He is a most knowing looking doggie,
healthy looking. One would never guess from his appearance that there
were wheels within wheels.

I send you the photograph of a dead dog & of a "lv" de-
leted] living lion. I put some of my effusions on the back of
Bettys photograph. If you ever feel tempted to have a dog stuffed,
dont! dont! The skinful of straw which now stands on the landing
is a penance. I cant throw it away & I cant burn it. Death really
ought to remove the body when it takes the soul. It is a cruel
refinement to take the one & leave the dross. Providence has shown
too much favor to undertakers.

I am writing for my wife in sending you baby. She was
going to do it herself when I volunteered. He begs me to say he
agrees with me about stuffing dogs. At the first sight of the hid-

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to MRS. STEVENSON [cont'd.]

2.

Edinburgh

22 November 1883

eous thing he went straight for her as had been his wont - paused -
stared - roared. Nothing will persuade him to look at her now.
He kisses my brothers and my fathers ["ever" deleted] busts every
morning, or else slaps them & giggles, but he wont look at Betty.
He roars determinedly at the hideous travesty.

He made a call at 17 Heriot Row today, walked up the steps
with the assistance of a finger & battered at the door with a card
case till it was opened. No one being at home he returned to his
carriage groggily but sturdily.

Tell Louis his cousin David seems to be coming out. He
was playing golf y'day for a dinner with Tommy Graham, Alick Bell
& Peter Neaves. Nice company for him! I would have felt serious-
ly alarmed for his morals if it had not been ten to one on his side
winning the dinner.

The messages I was to send along with the photo of baby
I forget. Copying the "poetry" has put them out of my head. With
all kinds of things from both of us

[?Bembridge, Isle of Wight]

[?1886]

[The note is written on a folded card bearing Lady Simpson's monogram.]

F A S
[monogram]

My dear Mrs Stevenson,

We were out of the way yesterday at golf &c till it was too late to send a wire. We arrive by same steamer I came last time Thursday can return by ditto Saturday. If it weren't so late at night I would bring Tim too; but he has a knack of getting [a] toothache in the evening & roaring terribly. There would be room in your big bed. No I won't bring him. There is a post in a minute which I am catching.

You ought to have got a telegram this morning, but that ["you"deleted] it was only sent this afternoon is entirely her ladyship's blame.

SIR WALTER SIMPSON to Mrs STEVENSON

Edinburgh

8 June 1887

8th June 87

My dear Mrs Stevenson,

I hope you both got over your journey successfully.

I now send you baby's photograph, and by the same post
I am sending Louis a copy of my other baby. I sent a press copy
to Henley on chance, and by the bye I noticed that one went to
the Saturday Review which Bob as he writes there might get the
doing of if it is worth their notice. He mentioned when here
that being a golfer he would probably get Henley['s] copy & do
it for some paper. Louis rather deprecated his article in the
Co[n]temporary to me. He seems to me to have done rather a diffi-
cult task with great tact. I see it much praised. Pall Mall says
filial without being fulsome or something of that sort.

We are not going to Bembridge. We have taken a house
at Taynuilt. Rheumatisms seem to like cheery company. Mine have
nearly gone being disgusted with the dispiriting company I am
under the influence of bromine & Iodine.

Wife awfully busy sends kindest regards