| Evidence: | '[…] I’ve been to church and am not depressed − a great step. I was at that beautiful church my P.P.P.[Petit Poeme en Prose] was about. It is a little cruciform place, with heavy cornices and string course to match, and a steep slate roof. The small kirkyard is full of old gravestones; one of a Frenchman from Dunquerque, I suppose he died prisoner in the military prison hard by. And one, the most pathetic memorial I ever saw: a poor school-slate, in a wooden frame, with the inscription cut into it evidently by the father’s own hand.' |
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| Century: | 1850-1899 | ||||||||||
| Date: | 4 Jul 1875 | ||||||||||
| Country: | Scotland | ||||||||||
| Time: | daytime | ||||||||||
| Place: | city: Glencorse, nr Edinburgh county: Mid-Lothian specific address: Glencorse Church/Old Kirk. other location: The churchyard. |
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| Type of Experience (Reader): |
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| Type of Experience (Listener): |
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| 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, workmates) |
n/a |
| Additional comments: | n/a |
| Author: | Anon [Apprently the father of the dead child] |
| Title: | [memorial on grave] |
| Genre: | Improvised memorial on grave. |
| Form of Text: | Manuscript: Inscription carved on school slate. |
| Publication details: | n/a |
| Provenance: | read in situ |
| Record ID: | 20512 | |
| Source - | ||
| Author: | Robert Louis Stevenson | |
| Editor: | Bradford A. Booth | |
| Title: | The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July 1879 | |
| Place of Publication: | New Haven and London | |
| Date of Publication: | 1994 | |
| Vol: | 2 | |
| Page: | 147 | |
| Additional comments: | Section headed Sunday in Letter 399, To Frances Sitwell, Thursday [1 July 1875], [Swanston]. Co-editor Ernest Mehew, The material 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-July 1879 (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 147, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=20512, accessed: 04 June 2023 | |
| On p. 147 in the Editors’ Note 3 to Letter 399 we read: “Glencorse Church in the Pentlands, now a picturesque ruin.[…] The church and the clergyman reappear in ch. 6 of "Weir of Hermiston." The gravestones are still there. The French prisoner was Charles Cotier, captured during the Napoleonic wars and killed in January 1807 when a sentry was ordered to fire at random into the prison; there was a public outcry and the officer responsible was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment.” |
Reading Experience Database version 2.0. Page updated: 27th Apr 2016 3:15pm (GMT)