ocket one book to read, and
another to write in, he was slowly perfecting that style which was to
give to his literary work a distinction all its own. He spared himself
no trouble in ensuring the accuracy of all that he wrote.

It may be interesting to recall in this connection the letters written
by two of his readers to the _Scotsman_ expressing some doubt as to
there having been shops in Princes Street at the date of his story _St
Ives_--Mr Stevenson mentions shops in _St Ives_. In reply to the letters
of enquiry, his uncle, Dr G. W. Balfour, wrote to the _Scotsman_ on 26th
November 1897:--

'Sir,--It may interest your correspondents "J. W. G." and "J. C.
P." to know that Louis Stevenson always took care to verify his
statements before making them, and that his correspondent, to whom
he applied for information as to the existence of shops in Princes
Street at the early date referred to, took the only legitimate
means open to him of ascertaining this by consulting the
directories of the date.'

And, as a matter of fact, it was conclusively proved that Mr Stevenson
was correct, by the name and number of at least one well-known shop, of
that date, being given by another correspondent in the paper very
shortly afterwards.

No minute observation was too trying for Mr Stevenson, no careful
research too tedious for him; no historical fact apparently too
insignificant or obscure for him to verify. He was never weary of
reading books dealing with the periods in which the action of his
stories takes place.

Costume, dialect, scenery, were all thoroughly studied, and when himself
distant from the scenes of his tales, he is to be found constantly
writing from Vailima to friends in London or in Edinburgh for the books
and the information he required. In the period between 1745 and 1816, in
which the plots of _Kidnapped_, _Catriona_, _The Master of Ballantrae_,
_Weir of Hermiston_, and _St Ives_ are laid, he is especially at home,
and old record rolls, books on manners and on costume, are all
laboriously studied to give to his stories that accuracy and truth to
life which he considered to be absolutely necessary. To such good effect
did he study volumes of old Parliament House trials, that the dress of
Alan Breck, in _Kidnapped_, is literally transcribed from that of a
prisoner of Alan's period, whose trial he had perused.

Nor did his conscientiousness stop here; he wrote and re-wrote