Record Number: 20134

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'My dear Henley, Sketches III line 11. More laughter comes from them than moan. IV As a whole. VII Both quatrains. VIII line 2. Extemporising a becoming gloom. IX Well, I don’t like it. Portraits I The sestett[sic] is not up to the mark, I think, but I don’t press this. IV Is a little broken, and the phrasing is a little imbecile. VII I don’t like. IX The first quatrain, and the words "does not feel his place" in the second. There is positively all I find….'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 1 May 1875 and 31 May 1875

Country:

Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Edinburgh
county: Lothian
specific address: Swanston Cottage, Lothianburn, Edinburgh

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Aspiring writer and intermittent law student

Religion:

Uncommitted

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

William Ernest Henley

Title:

Hospital Outlines: Sketches and Portraits

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Probably proof.

Publication Details

1875, Cornhill Magazine.

Provenance

borrowed (other)
Probably a proof copy to be returned (with the letter?) to the poet.

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

20134

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

137

Additional Comments:

Letter 390, To W.E. Henley, [May 1875], Swanston Cottage. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The date in square brackets has been added by the editors.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July1879 (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 137, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=20134, accessed: 19 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

Editors’ Note 1 to the heading “Sketches” on p. 137 reads: “RLS is commenting on Henley’s ‘Hospital Outlines’ but since these were accepted by the "Cornhill" in April and RLS did not go to Swanston until May, he is presumably commenting on the proof.” Editors’ Note 2 to the end of the text given for Letter 390 reads: “The MS was pasted down and framed by Lord Guthrie, and the rest cannot be read.”