Some Stevensoniana.

“Robert Louis Stevenson and the Scottish Highlanders,” by David B. Morris (Eneas Mac-Kay, Stirling, Scotland). When one remembers the many well known writers who have contributed excellent volumes to the still growing literature of Stevensoniana, one is apt to hesitate and look askance at anything there anent which comes from an unknown pen. There need be no such hesitancy in regard to Mr. Morris's book. We believe the volume is the work of a “‘prentice hand.” If so, it is a” ‘prentice hand” that lacks neither art nor cunning, backed by knowledge and heart. We say “heart” advisedly, for knowledge alone never enabled any author to write in such a way as to grip his reader's attention almost from the first line, and to hold it to the last. No Stevenson lover can afford to ignore this volume. Mr. Morris leads his page 55 readers behind the scenes in Stevenson's literary workshop. There he reverently shows them the material out of which the Master fashioned some of his finest characters. As the title explains, the author deals chiefly with Stevenson and the Scots Highlanders, therefore much of the volume is given up to tracing, interestingly and instructively, the sources from which Stevenson drew his information regarding Highlanders in general, and one Highlander in particular, as portrayed in “Kidnapped” and “Catriona.” Of all Stevenson's Highland characters, Alan Breck is the most consummate. The material out of which this character is fashioned was not always of the choicest, but the finished figure is without a flaw. Space does not allow of our indulging in the joy of quotation at any length, but one passage we must quote. As already said, Alan Breck was Stevenson's supreme study of the Highland character, and Mr. Morris loves Alan as intensely as Stevenson must have done. Here is our author's reference to Alan:

“Alan is portrayed as a lovable little man with the spirit of a game-cock, a faithful friend who risked his life for his companion, and, what is perhaps more trying, endured days of extreme fatigue for and with him. He was filled with an inordinate vanity. ‘Oh, man, am I no' a bonnie fechter?’ He was a bit of a poet. As he lay in the haystack near Silvermills he made songs about the deer and

“Delivering The Goods.”
(Photo., A. P. Godber.)
Portion of a week's output of nine engines recently delivered to the Traffic Department after being repaired in the New Workshops in the Hutt Valley, Wellington.

the heather and the ancient chiefs. In the heat of victory he composed ‘The Song of the Sword of Alan!’ and was musician enough to make the melody. Throughout the tale recur the weird notes of Alan's choice of a Highland tune, which David Balfour called ‘Alan's Air,’ when he whistled it to Barbara Grant, but which Barbara renamed ‘David's Air,’ as she played it on the harpischord. Alan performed it creditably on the pipes. In spite of his extreme jealousy of his rival, he could say in a burst of generosity, ‘Robin Oig, ye are a great piper! I am not fit to blaw in the same kingdom wi’ ye. Body o' me! ye ha'e mair music in your sporran than I ha'e in my heid.’”

Familiarity with the contents of this volume will enable the reader of Stevenson's Highland novels the more intelligently to enjoy the Master and to enjoy him to the full. The volume shows that Mr. Morris has read carefully the history of the various Jacobite families, especially those of Stirlingshire and Perthshire, and his literary skill enables him to pass his knowledge thereof on in an easily assimilated form to his readers. Indeed, Mr. Morris has acquired some of Stevenson's own charm of writing, so that one reads on and reads on captivated, and must needs read on to a finish. The get-up of the volume is one with the best of Eneas MacKay's productions, and Eneas MacKay's best is some “best.” Price 5/-.