he altered when he was about eighteen, in deference to a wish
of his father's, as at one time the elder Mr Stevenson had a prejudice
against the name of Lewis, so his son thereafter signed himself Louis.
That he may have himself also preferred it is very possible; he was fond
of all things French, and he may have liked the link to that far off
ancestor, the French barber-surgeon who landed at St Andrews to be one
of the suite of Cardinal Beaton! In spite of the belief on the part of
Robert Louis, who had a fancy to the contrary, the name in the Balfour
family was _invariably_ spelt Lewis. His grandfather was christened
Lewis, and so the entry of his name remains to this day in the old
family Bible at Pilrig; so also it is spelt in that, already mentioned,
most interesting pamphlet for private circulation, written by the late
James Balfour-Melville, Esq., who gives the name of his uncle, the
minister of Colinton, as Lewis Balfour, and so the old clergyman signed
himself all his life.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The portion of this family history--_Family of
Engineers_--which Mr Stevenson had completed, at the time of his death,
is to be found in 'The Edinburgh Edition' of his works.

CHAPTER II

CHILDHOOD

... 'With love divine
My mother's fingers folded mine.'
--FROM VERSES IN AN AMERICAN PAPER.

'We built a ship upon the stairs,
All made of the back bedroom chairs;
And filled it full of sofa pillows,
To go a-sailing on the billows.'
--R. L. STEVENSON.

Mr and Mrs Thomas Stevenson, who were married in 1848, made their first
home at 8 Howard Place, and there, on 13th November 1850, Robert Lewis
Balfour Stevenson was born. In 1853 they moved to a house in Inverleith
Terrace, and in 1857, when Louis was about seven years old, they took
possession of 17 Heriot Row, the house so long and so intimately
associated with them in the minds of their many friends.

The little Louis was from his earliest babyhood a very delicate child,
and only the most constant and tender care of his devoted mother and
nurse enabled him to survive those first years which must have been so
full of anxiety to his parents. In _The Child's Garden of Verses_ there
are some lines called 'The Land of Counterpane,' the picture heading of
which is a tiny child propped up against his bed pillows, and with all
his toys scattered on the coverlet. Beneath it are four verses that