353
To James Payn 355
To Lady Taylor 357
To Sidney Colvin 357
To the Same 362
To E. L. Burlingame 367
To Charles Baxter 369
To Lady Taylor 372
To Dr. Scott 374
To Charles Baxter 375
To E. L. Burlingame 377
To James Payn 381
To Henry James 382
To Mrs. Thomas Stevenson 383
To Charles Baxter 384
To Sidney Colvin 385
To E. L. Burlingame 387
To Charles Baxter 392
To E. L. Burlingame 394
To Henry James 396
To Marcel Schwob 397
To Andrew Lang 399
To Miss Adelaide Boodle 401
To Mrs. Charles Fairchild 403

THE LETTERS OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

1882-1890

THE LETTERS OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

VII

THE RIVIERA AGAIN--MARSEILLES AND HYERES

OCTOBER 1882--AUGUST 1884

In the two years and odd months since his return from California,
Stevenson had made no solid gain of health. His winters, and especially
his second winter, at Davos had seemed to do him much temporary good;
but during the summers in Scotland he had lost as much as he had gained,
or more. Loving the Mediterranean shores of France from of old, he now
made up his mind to try them once again.

As the ways and restrictions of a settled invalid were repugnant to
Stevenson's character and instincts, so were the life and society of a
regular invalid station depressing and uncongenial to him. He
determined, accordingly, to avoid settling in one of these, and hoped to
find a suitable climate and habitation that should be near, though not
in, some centre of the active and ordinary life of man, with accessible
markets, libraries, and other resources. In September 1882 he started
with his cousin Mr. R. A. M. Stevenson in search of a new home, and
thought first of trying the Languedoc coast, a region new to him. At
Montpellier, he was laid up again with a bad bout of his lung troubles;
and, the doctor not recommen