Edinburgh

Despite being drawn to the city again and again in his writing, RLS’s feelings about Edinburgh were ambiguous. “I say, old man, Edinburgh is a very sanguinary shop, and bloodier than ever, you should be glad you are out of it” ( The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, ed. by Bradford A. Booth and Ernest Mehew, vol ii [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995], p. 86).In Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes, however, despite complaining about Edinburgh’s drenching, cold and blustery weather, Stevenson writes:“And yet the place [Edinburgh] establishes an interest in people’s hearts; go where they will , they find no city of the same distinction”