Robert Louis Stevenson

Edinburgh Robert Louis Stevenson

Despite his affection for the city, Stevenson did not shy away from detailing the darker aspects of life in Edinburgh however; including references to its more gruesome history and inhabitants such as Deacon Brodie, whose dual life proved inspiration for Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the occultist Major Thomas Weir, who was executed for witchcraft. Stevenson's vivid and frank depiction of the city also includes mention of Edinburgh's plague-ridden past, when officials punished those with plague symptoms by drowning women in the Quarry Holes and hanging men in their own doorways.