d perhaps Laing's
_Memorials_ therewith; and a work I'm ashamed to say I have never read,
_Balfour's Letters_.... I have come by accident, through a
correspondent, on one very curious and interesting fact--namely, that
Stevenson was one of the names adopted by the Macgregors at the
proscription. The details supplied by my correspondent are both
convincing and amusing; but it would be highly interesting to find out
more of this.

R. L. S.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

These notes are in reply to a set of queries and suggestions as to
points that seemed to need clearing in the tale of _Catriona_, as
first published in Atalanta under the title _David Balfour_.

_[Vailima] April 1893._

1. _Slip_ 3. Davie would be _attracted_ into a similar dialect, as he is
later--_e.g._ with Doig, chapter XIX. This is truly Scottish.

4, _to lightly_; correct; "to lightly" is a good regular Scots verb.

15. See Allan Ramsay's works.

15, 16. Ay, and that is one of the pigments with which I am trying to
draw the character of Prestongrange. 'Tis a most curious thing to render
that kind, insignificant mask. To make anything precise is to risk my
effect. And till the day he died, Davie was never sure of what P. was
after. Not only so; very often P. didn't know himself. There was an
element of mere liking for Davie; there was an element of being
determined, in case of accidents, to keep well with him. He hoped his
Barbara would bring him to her feet, besides, and make him manageable.
That was why he sent him to Hope Park with them. But Davie cannot
_know_; I give you the inside of Davie, and my method condemns me to
give only the outside both of Prestongrange and his policy.

- -I'll give my mind to the technicalities. Yet to me they seem a part
of the story, which is historical, after all.

- -I think they wanted Alan to escape. But when or where to say so? I
will try.

- -20, _Dean_. I'll try and make that plainer.

_Chap._ XIII., I fear it has to go without blows. If I could get the
pair--No, can't be.

- -XIV. All right, will abridge.

- -XV. I'd have to put a note to every word; and he who can't read Scots
can _never_ enjoy Tod Lapraik.

- -XVII. Quite right. I _can_ make this plainer, and will.

- -XVIII. I know, but I have to hurry here; this is the broken back of
my story; some business briefly transacted, I am leaping for Barbara's
apron-strings.

_Slip_ 57. Quite right again; I shall make it pla