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00 Preface · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson Breakfast to the biographical edition.
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  Speaker 1: While my husband and mister Henley were engaged in writing
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  Speaker 1: plays in Bournemouth, they made a number of titles, hoping
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  Speaker 1: to use them in the future. Dramatic composition was not
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  Speaker 1: what my husband preferred, but the tord of mister Henley's
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  Speaker 1: enthusiasm swept him off his feet. However, after several plays
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  Speaker 1: had been finished, and his health seriously impaired by his
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  Speaker 1: endeavors to keep up with mister Henley, playwriting was abandoned forever,
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  Speaker 1: and my husband returned to his legitimate vocation. Having added
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  Speaker 1: one of the titles, The Hanging Judge, to the list
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  Speaker 1: of projected plays now thrown aside, and emboldened by my
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  Speaker 1: husband's offer to give me any help needed, I concluded
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  Speaker 1: to try and write it myself, as I wanted a
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  Speaker 1: trial scene in the Old Bailey. I chose the period
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  Speaker 1: of seventeen hundred for my purpose, but, being shared aimfully
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  Speaker 1: ignorant of my subject, and my husband confessing to little
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  Speaker 1: more knowledge than I possessed, a London bookseller was commissioned
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  Speaker 1: to send us everything he could procure, bearing on Old Bailey, trials.
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  Speaker 1: A great package came in response to our order, and
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  Speaker 1: very soon we were both absorbed, not so much in
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  Speaker 1: the trials as in following the brilliant career of a
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  Speaker 1: mister Garrow, who appeared as counsel in many of the cases.
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  Speaker 1: We sent for more books, and yet more, still intent
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  Speaker 1: on mister Garrow, whose subtle cross examination of witnesses and masterly,
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  Speaker 1: if sometimes startling methods of arriving at the truth seemed
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  Speaker 1: more thrilling to us than any novel. Occasionally, other trials
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  Speaker 1: than those in the Old Bailey would be included in
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  Speaker 1: the package of books we received from London. Among these
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  Speaker 1: my husband found and read with avidity, the trial of
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  Speaker 1: James Stewart in o'carne en, Durer of Eppin, for the
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  Speaker 1: murder of Colin Campbell of Glenor e f q Factor
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  Speaker 1: for his majesty on the forfeited estate of Ardfield. My
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  Speaker 1: husband was always interested in this period of his country's history,
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  Speaker 1: and had already the intention of writing a story that
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  Speaker 1: should turn on the Appen murder. The tale was to
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  Speaker 1: be of a boy, David Balfour, supposed to belong to
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  Speaker 1: my husband's own family, who should travel in Scotland as
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  Speaker 1: though it were a foreign country, meeting with various adventures
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  Speaker 1: and misadventures. By the way, from the trial of James Stewart,
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  Speaker 1: my husband gleaned much valuable material for his novel, the
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  Speaker 1: most important being the character of Alan Breck. Aside from
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  Speaker 1: having described him as smallish in stature, my husband seems
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  Speaker 1: to have taken Alan Breck's personal appearance, even to his
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  Speaker 1: clothing from the book. A letter from James Stewart to
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  Speaker 1: mister John McFarlane introduced his evidence in the trial, says,
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  Speaker 1: there is one Alan Stewart, a distant friend of the
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  Speaker 1: late Art deals, who is in the French service, and
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  Speaker 1: came over in March last as he said to some
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  Speaker 1: in order to settle at home, to others that he
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  Speaker 1: was to go soon back, and was, as I hear,
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  Speaker 1: the day that the murder was committed, seen not far
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  Speaker 1: from the place where it happened, and is not now
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  Speaker 1: to be seen, by which it is believed he was
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  Speaker 1: the actor. He is a desperate, foolish fellow, and if
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  Speaker 1: he is guilty, came to the country for that very purpose.
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  Speaker 1: He is a tall, hawk pitted lad, very black hair,
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  Speaker 1: and wore a blue coat and metal buttons, an old
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  Speaker 1: red vest, and breeches of the same color. A second
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  Speaker 1: witness testified to having seen him wearing a blue coat
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  Speaker 1: with silver buttons, a red waistcoat, black shag breeches, tartan hose,
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  Speaker 1: and a feathered hat with a big coat dun colored,
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  Speaker 1: a costume referred to by one of the council as
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  Speaker 1: wrench clothes, which were remarkable. There are many incidents given
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  Speaker 1: in the trial that point to Allan's fiery spirit highland
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  Speaker 1: quickness to take offense. One witness declared also that the
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  Speaker 1: said Alan Brick threatened that he would challenge Bali Violin
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  Speaker 1: and his sons to fight because of his removing the
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  Speaker 1: declarant last year from Glendura. On another page, Duncan Campbell
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  Speaker 1: change keeper at Annett, aged thirty five years married. Witness
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  Speaker 1: sighted sworn, purged and examined at Supra depones that in
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  Speaker 1: the month of April last the opponent met with Alan
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  Speaker 1: breck Stewart, with whom he was not acquainted, and John
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  Speaker 1: Stuart in Ochnachuan in the house of the walk Miller
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  Speaker 1: of Auchofragan, and went on with them to the house.
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  Speaker 1: Alan breck Stewart said that he hated all the name
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  Speaker 1: of Campbell, and the opponent said he had no reason
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  Speaker 1: for doing so, but Alan said he had very good
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  Speaker 1: reason for that. Thereafter they left that house, and after
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  Speaker 1: drinking a dram at another house, came to the deponent's house,
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  Speaker 1: where they went in and drunk some DRAMs, and Alan
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  Speaker 1: Breck renewed the former conversation, and the opponent making the
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  Speaker 1: same answer. Alan said that if the deponent had any
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  Speaker 1: respect for his friends, he would tell them that if
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  Speaker 1: they offered to turn out the possessors of Ardheel's estate,
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  Speaker 1: he would make black cocks of them before they entered
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  Speaker 1: into possession, by which the deponent understood shooting them, it
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  Speaker 1: being a common phrase in the country. Some time after
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  Speaker 1: the publication of Kidnapped, we stopped for a short while
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  Speaker 1: in the Appen country, where we were surprised and interested
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  Speaker 1: to discover that the feeling concerning the murder of Glennyeur
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  Speaker 1: the Red Fox, also called Colin Roy, was almost as
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  Speaker 1: keen as though the tragedy had taken place the day before.
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  Speaker 1: For several years my husband received letters of expostulation or
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  Speaker 1: commendation from members of the Campbell and Stuart clans I
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  Speaker 1: have in my possession of paper yellow with age that
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  Speaker 1: was sent soon after the novel appeared, containing the pedigree
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  Speaker 1: of the family of Appine, wherein it is said that Alan,
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  Speaker 1: third Baron of Appine, was not killed at Flowdone though there,
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  Speaker 1: but lived to a great old age. He married a Cameron,
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  Speaker 1: daughter to Ewen mccameron of Lochiel, following this as a
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  Speaker 1: paragraph stating that John Stuart, first of Ardshiel of his
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  Speaker 1: descendants Alan Breck had better be omitted Duncan Bain Stuart
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  Speaker 1: in Achonderach, his father was a bastard. One day, while
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  Speaker 1: my husband was busily at work, I sat beside him
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  Speaker 1: reading an old cookery book called The Complete Housewife, An
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  Speaker 1: accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion. In the midst of receipts for rabbits
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  Speaker 1: and chickens, mumbled nickeled samphire skirt, pye, baked tansy and
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  Speaker 1: other forgotten delicacies, there were directions for the preparation of
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  Speaker 1: several lotions for the preservation of beauty. One of these
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  Speaker 1: was so charming that I interrupted my husband to read
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  Speaker 1: it aloud. Just what I wanted, he exclaimed, And the
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  Speaker 1: receipt for the lily of the valley water was instantly
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  Speaker 1: incorporated into Kidnapped Signed F V D G S dedication.
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  Speaker 1: My dear Charles Baxter. If you ever read this tale,
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  Speaker 1: you will likely ask yourself more questions than I should
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  Speaker 1: care to answer, as, for instance, how the app and
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  Speaker 1: murder has come to fall in the year seventeen fifty one,
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  Speaker 1: how the Torran rocks have crept so near to Eiraid,
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  Speaker 1: or why the pretty trial is silent? As to all
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  Speaker 1: the touches David Balfour, these are nuts beyond my ability
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  Speaker 1: to crack. But if you tried me on the point
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  Speaker 1: of Allan's guilt or innocence, I think I could defend
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  Speaker 1: the reading of the text To this day you will
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  Speaker 1: find the tradition of appin clear in Alan's favor. If
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  Speaker 1: you inquire, you may even hear that the descendants of
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  Speaker 1: the other man who fired the shot are in the
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  Speaker 1: country to this day, but that other man's name. Inquire
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  Speaker 1: as you please, you shall not hear. For the Highlander
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  Speaker 1: values a secret for itself and for the congenial exercise
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  Speaker 1: of keeping it. I might go on for long to
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  Speaker 1: justify one point and own another indefensible. It is more
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  Speaker 1: honest to confess at once how little I am touched
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  Speaker 1: by the desire of accuracy. This is no furniture for
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  Speaker 1: the scholar's library, but a book for the winter evening
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  Speaker 1: school room, when the tasks are over and the hour
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  Speaker 1: for bed draws near. And honest, Alan, who was a
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  Speaker 1: grim old fire eater in his stay, has in this
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  Speaker 1: new avatar no more desperate purpose than to steal some
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  Speaker 1: young gentleman's attention from his ovid, carry him a while
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  Speaker 1: into to the highlands and the last century, and pack
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  Speaker 1: him to bed with some engaging images to mingle with
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  Speaker 1: his dreams. As for you, my dear Charles, I do
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  Speaker 1: not even ask you to like this tale. But perhaps
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  Speaker 1: when he is older, your son will. He may then
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  Speaker 1: be pleased to find his father's name on the fly leaf.
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  Speaker 1: And in the meanwhile, it pleases me to set it
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  Speaker 1: there in memory of many days that were happy, and
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  Speaker 1: some now perhaps is pleasant to remember that were sad.
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  Speaker 1: It is strange for me to look back, from a distance,
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  Speaker 1: both in time and space, on these bygone adventures of
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  Speaker 1: our youth. It must be stranger for you, who tread
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  Speaker 1: the same streets, who may tomorrow open the door of
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  Speaker 1: the old speculative, where we began to rank with Scott
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  Speaker 1: and Robert Emmett and the beloved and inglorious Macbean. Or
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  Speaker 1: may pass the corner of the clothes, where that great
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  Speaker 1: society the l j R. Held its meetings and drank
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  Speaker 1: its beer, sitting in the seats of Burns and his companion.
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  Speaker 1: I think I see you moving there by plain daylight,
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  Speaker 1: beholding with your natural eyes those places that have now
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  Speaker 1: become for your companion a part of the scenery of dreams.
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  Speaker 1: How in the interval of present business, the past must
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  Speaker 1: echo in your memory. Let it not echo often without
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  Speaker 1: some kind thoughts of your friend, Robert Louis Stevenson, signed
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  Speaker 1: in Scarybore, Bournemouth. And now a disclaimer your reader is
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  Speaker 1: an American. I'm sorry. I will do my absolute level
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  Speaker 1: best to pronounce the Scott's words accurately and the names
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  Speaker 1: as well, but I cannot promise that they are accurate.
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  Speaker 1: Neither can I pretend to a Highland or a Lowland
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  Speaker 1: Scot's accent. I will make some kind of an attempt,
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  Speaker 1: but please bear with me when I fall short. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you and good listening.