nd, with all his
faults, he has this merit as well as some others, that he went willingly
on pilgrimage always, and took others, promoting always love of comrades,
fun, and humorous by-play. The latest great romancer, too, took his
side: like Dickens, he was here full brother of Dan Chaucer, and followed
him. How characteristic it is when he tells Mr Trigg that he preferred
Samoa to Honolulu because it was more savage, and therefore yielded more
_fun_.

CHAPTER XXX--LORD ROSEBERY'S CASE

Immediately on reading Lord Rosebery's address as Chairman of the meeting
in Edinburgh to promote the erection of a monument to R. L. Stevenson, I
wrote to him politely asking him whether, since he quoted a passage from
a somewhat early essay by Stevenson naming the authors who had chiefly
influenced him in point of style, his Lordship should not, merely in
justice and for the sake of balance, have referred to Thoreau. I also
remarked that Stevenson's later style sometimes showed too much
self-conscious conflict of his various models in his mind while he was in
the act of writing, and that this now and then imparted too much an air
of artifice to his later compositions, and that those who knew most would
be most troubled by it. Of that letter, I much regret now that I did not
keep any copy; but I think I did incidentally refer to the friendship
with which Stevenson had for so many years honoured me. This is a copy
of the letter received in reply:

"38 BERKELEY SQUARE, W.,
17_th_ _December_ 1896.

"DEAR SIR,--I am much obliged for your letter, and can only state that
the name of Thoreau was not mentioned by Stevenson himself, and
therefore I could not cite it in my quotation.

"With regard to the style of Stevenson's later works, I am inclined to
agree with you.-Believe me, yours very faithfully,

ROSEBERY.

"Dr ALEXANDER H. JAPP."

This I at once replied to as follows:

"NATIONAL LIBERAL CLUB,
WHITEHALL PLACE, S.W.,
19_th_ _December_ 1896.

"MY LORD,--It is true R. L. Stevenson did not refer to Thoreau in the
passage to which you allude, for the good reason that he could not,
since he did not know Thoreau till after it was written; but if you
will oblige me and be so good as to turn to p. xix. of Preface, _By
Way of Criticism_, to _Familiar Studies of Men and Books_ you will
read:

"'Upon me this pure, narrow, sunnily-ascetic Thoreau had exercised a