22 January 2018
RLS on Davos
The Editors
On his doctor's advice, Robert Louis Stevenson spent two winters in Davos. He finished Treasure Island there, but didn't like the place:
Shut in a kind of damned Hotel,
Discountenanced by God and man;
The food? – Sir, you would do as well
To fill your belly full of bran.
The company? Alas the day
That I should toil with such a crew,
With devil anything to say,
Nor anyone to say it to.
'So,' according to E.S. Turner, 'RLS took to tobogganing, alone and at night, which he found strangely exalting.'
Comments
'...tobagganing alone and at night' is simply exhilarating, nothing 'strange' about it. The darkness adds risk and uncertainty, the solitude intensifies the experience. If you're in the countryside on a clear night, the stars glitter over your feverish efforts. You're both frozen from the snow spray and sweating from the uphill jogs.
A flask of something 80+ proof doesn't hurt.