One cold, late September morning in 1878, a young Scotsman named Robert Louis Stevenson set off from the small French village of Le Monastier sur Gazeille. His bulky bag, containing everything he would need for his trip, was loosely strapped to a small brown donkey, which he had purchased a few days earlier and named ‘Modestine’. His plan was to walk through the Cévennes, a range of mountains in south-central France, located on the south-east edge of the Massif Central. His destination was Alés, a small town in the foothills. This plan was more unusual than it might sound today. Trekking as an activity was unheard of in the late 19th century, and his departure was watched by a group of curious locals.
But how did a young Scot with a frisky donkey end up hiking in this remote part of France? From a very young age, Robert Louis Stevenson – perhaps best known today as the author of Treasure Island – had dreamt of becoming a writer, and this trek was to provide material for a book that would, he hoped, earn him some money. He had fallen in love with a woman ten years older than him, and he was desperate to become financially independent from his parents.
Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS) was born in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850, as the only child of Thomas and Margaret Stevenson. His father and grandfather were both civil engineers – most famous for building lighthouses – and his mother came from an aristocratic family. RLS suffered from ill health throughout his childhood. He was often absent from formal education and was instead taught by private tutors. He often spent time with his mother in the warmer regions of France to ease the symptoms of his illness, and between January and May 1863, the young RLS travelled through Europe with his parents. These early trips may well have whet his appetite for travel and adventure.
Following in the footsteps of his engineer father, Robert Louis Stevenson went to study engineering at the University of Edinburgh, but it was soon obvious that he was not interested in the subject, and in 1871 he confessed to his parents that he wanted to dedicate his life to writing. It was then agreed that instead of engineering, he would study law. But although he graduated from these studies, he would never practise law.
RLS continued to travel to France frequently, where he visited art galleries, theatres, and even became a member of various art colonies. It was in one such art colony in Grez where he first met Fanny Osbourne, in September 1876. Separated from her husband, she was an American but lived in France with her two children. They became lovers in 1877 and Stevenson spent a year in France with Fanny and her children. When, in 1878, Fanny returned to San Francisco to seek divorce from her husband, Stevenson – perhaps to distract himself as well as gather material for a book – embarked on his 12-day hike through the Cévennes.
Lightweight outdoor gear had not yet been invented. Stevenson didn’t want to take a tent, but he was prepared to sleep outside if he didn’t find a bed for the night. In his travelogue, he described perhaps his most important piece of kit: a custom-made sleeping sack. “This child of my invention was nearly six feet square, exclusive of two triangular flaps to serve as a pillow by night and as the top and bottom of the sack by day”, he wrote.
In this specially designed bag, he packed all the things he thought he would need, such as warm clothes, books, some food, and an empty bottle for carrying milk. But just like many novice or first-time hikers, he also packed a few wholly unnecessary items. In his case, it was an egg whisk that he ditched on the very first day.
His sleeping sack might have been practical, but it was impossible to carry, so he bought a donkey to assist him. At the beginning of his adventure, he experienced countless problems with his stubborn four-legged companion, which he wrote about – often with humour – in his journal.
But as the days passed, his focus shifted to the landscape and local people. By the time he reached the summit of Mont Lozère – around halfway into his trip – Modestine was causing him less trouble, and RLS seemed to be enjoying the hike. As Stevenson admired the views from the summit, he wrote that all his problems seemed to vanish in the howling wind. During the second half of his trip, he often opted to camp under the stars. He also became quite an accomplished long-distance walker. RLS and Modestine managed to cover the distance from Le Monastier-sur-Gazeille to St Jean-du-Gard in just twelve days. Sadly, Modestine was declared unfit for further travel in St Jean-du-Gard and Stevenson continued alone to Alés by coach. The recount of the hike, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, his first successful book, was published in 1879.
Today, the signposted GR70 long distance trail follows the writer’s footsteps through the Cévennes, and the hundreds of hikers who embark on this journey every year, undoubtedly identify with Robert Louis Stevenson’s thoughts on travel: “For my part I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move;
to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed civilisation, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints. Alas, as we get up in life, and are more preoccupied with our affairs, even a holiday is a thing that must be worked for. To hold a pack upon a pack-saddle against a gale out of the freezing north is no high industry, but it is one that serves to occupy and compose the mind. And when the present is so exacting who can annoy himself about the future?”
However, Travels with a Donkey wasn’t Stevenson’s first published travelogue, and the trek wasn’t even his first outdoor adventure. In 1876, he took a canoe trip along the River Oise through Belgium and France, accompanied by his friend, Sir Walter Simpson. They travelled with a so-called ‘Rob Roy’ canoe, a type of boat that had recently become popular in England and France. This was a decked wooden canoe that could be rigged with a sail as well as paddles. The design was inspired by the Scottish explorer John ‘Rob Roy’ MacGregor, a major figure in the development of canoeing as recreation and sport in the 1860s.
The trip wasn’t without incident. During the 200-mile journey, the friends experienced miserable wet weather. On one occasion, Stevenson’s canoe got swept away by the river. In addition, the two Scotsmen were often mistaken for hawkers or peddlers. It didn’t help that the canoes drew considerable attention wherever they went. The journey certainly provided some good material for his first travelogue, titled An Inland Voyage (1878). Stevenson observed the landscape, the people and the way of life in the villages.
He was also fascinated by the lives of the people living on barges: “There should be many contented spirits on board, for such a life is both to travel and to stay at home. The chimney smokes for dinner as you go along; the banks of the canal slowly unroll their scenery to contemplative eyes; the barge floats by great forests and through great cities with their public buildings and their lamps at night; and for the bargee, in his floating home, ‘travelling abed,’ it is merely as if he were listening to another man’s story or turning the leaves of a picture-book in which he had no concern. He may take his afternoon walk in some foreign country on the banks of the canal, and then come home to dinner at his own fireside.”
In 1879, after the publication of Travels with a Donkey, Stevenson travelled to America to join Fanny. He wrote about the journey from Europe to New York in The Amateur Emigrant, though this account wasn’t published in his lifetime. He and Fanny got married in 1880 and they returned to England, where they lived – but spent the winters in southern France – until 1887. During that time Stevenson wrote many of his most well-known books, such as Treasure Island (1883), A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and Kidnapped (1886).
After his father’s death in 1887, Stevenson and his family returned to America, and in 1888, Stevenson embarked on another adventure. He chartered a yacht and with his mother, Fanny, and his stepson, Lloyd, set off to travel the South Pacific. They sailed among the tropical islands of French Polynesia south of the Equator and then on to Hawaii, where Stevenson spent six months. The warm climate suited Stevenson and in 1890 he bought an estate on the island of Upolu in Samoa, where he lived with his family until his death in 1894. He was buried on Mount Vaea – only a short distance from his house – on Upolu. Today, the building is home to the Robert Louis Stevenson museum.
Perhaps at first – especially as a young man – Stevenson’s primary motivation for travelling to warmer climates was for the sake of his health, and to collect material for his books. But travel for its own sake became an enduring passion throughout his life. His travelogues remain eminently readable today. He doesn’t merely describe the places, people and events that were the common subject matter of the Victorian travel writer – he also recounts his misadventures with a laugh-out-loud humour. But at other times, he is starkly perceptive, confessional and intensely personal. All that has meant books like Travels With a Donkey remain widely read today – with many fans motivated to follow in Stevenson’s footsteps in the Cévennes.
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