"Baynes" in the following is Stevenson's good friend and mine, the
late Professor Spencer Baynes, who was just relinquishing the
editorship of the Encyclopaedia Britannica by reason of ill-health.
[_Swanston, July 1876._]
Here I am, here, and very well too. I am glad you liked _Walking Tours_;
I like it, too; I think it's prose; and I own with contrition that I
have not always written prose. However, I am "endeavouring after new
obedience" (Scot. Shorter Catechism). You don't say aught of _Forest
Notes_, which is kind. There is one, if you will, that was too sweet to
be wholesome.
I am at Charles d'Orleans. About fifteen Cornhill pages have already
coule'd from under my facile plume--no, I mean eleven, fifteen of
MS.--and we are not much more than half-way through, Charles and I; but
he's a pleasant companion. My health is very well; I am in a fine
exercisy state. Baynes is gone to London; if you see him, inquire about
my _Burns_. They have sent me L5, 5s. for it, which has mollified me
horrid. L5, 5s. is a good deal to pay for a read of it in MS.; I can't
complain.--Yours,