Letter from Charles Baxter, Siena, to Anna Henley, 1907 June 14 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning a letter from Robert Louis Stevenson to W.E. Henley and recalling his memories of Henley; saying "The mysterious letter is one of a lot wh. R.L.S. might have left unwritten at the time when the difference between him & Will took place. When for the unfortunate biography it was arranged by request of the family that I should transmit to Graham Balfour all my letters (wh. were complete from boyhood) I sent all. A certain number was returned marked 'to be suppressed' (how do you spell this?) But there was a great deal more than that, as there were folios long requiring all sorts of things for his work : so I took the middle course of placing them in the hands for confidential keeping of an old banker friend of mine in London ; & it is to him that I have written for a confirmation of my impression - and yours - wh. now seems happily not to require any. So - you can go on without any question of disturbance. At the same time when my answer comes, you shall have it for what it is worth - I should dearly like to see that play a success - But "Deacon Brodie", I cannot say I want to see again. I saw its first, and then in Glasgow, & kept its accounts, & I have heard the actors & actresses unbosom themselves about; but - but - it's too much gloom ; & really what we want in life, is a little more sun. No? And this indeed your letter brought me with the good news of Will MacB's doings & Molly's - tempered as it is with the record of the burdens you have taken upon you - How strange! to think of a strong man like Antony needing to be kept - And all the rest - too. I thought Willie M. would do all he could for you. He is the best of fellows, loyal to the backbone, & no fool - (far from it - also Arthur Melville his partner is good.) and he said right when he spoke about Tree's arrangements. All agreements were bound in volumes and elaborately indexed. These were delivered over to Lloyd Osbourne and his mother, when my exorship came to a close. Where they are now of course I don't know ; but I am sure you need not anticipate any trouble on the part of Herbert Tree. At the same time as a matter of simple courtesy I should certainly ask H.B.I. to mention to H.B.T. what he proposes doing not that H.B.I has any rights - but -don't you think so - yourself? Strange how your letters brought up all the past - not that it doesn't often come to me mostly in my dreams. When all is young and we are all once more together. Is it not odd that death never comes in one's dreams? All my lovers are living in my dreams - Is it that they really live and we are only dreaming and that when we cease to dream we too shall live? I like to think so. Eddie is a gambler & Stuart unstable. The crash of 1903 & the Deptford affair wrecked me. The irony of the thing is that I who never gamble speculated lived within my income (well within) should have done much better to have run into debt in as much as I invested in shares which were supposed to be perfectly sound - but they were not fully paid and so call after call - from Australia - N. America - South America - fill up the blanks. I am sending you a photograph of myself in my studio as they call it in Italy : in English 'study' a place where you do no work - I am taken in the very act of writing to you I have no grey hairs or baldness & I have a waist (really) which is quite neat. private (no belly) private - Thus far have I written - and purposely not re-read your letter, because perhaps you may want to remind of something. If I left it till to-morrow, who knows when it would if ever be? My fault not writing to L.O. I had a bad operation (stricture) two years ago & then convalescent & much out of sorts I let things pass - as usual. He is all good Lloyd. He doesn't get on with his wife, who lives somewhere in Italy. He said - last letter - the fault was his. She wrote to us not long ago. Oh another thing. I am anxious as my time is short to arrange as much as possible. I have every scrap of Will's from the Infirmary times when he used to send down to the office rough drafts of the Verses till his last two letters to Paris about the Wedding. Shall I put a codicil to my Will leaving all to you?" I don't want to part with them : but Eddie & Stuart - I have no trust. Will's Life will be written someday : & also you must try to put a replica of Rodin's bust in Gloucester Cathedral. The only excuse for busting a person is that of example. Not their pains & joys their labours & the examples may not be for ever forgotten only this & nothing more should be the aim of those who love the Great Dead;" adding, in a postscript, "As I write comes back to me all the happy times we had. I see myself & Mrs. Jenkin a winter morning in the Edinburgh Cathedral & then all all comes back. How long! and all gone like a flash! Do I not remember the little Dancing Girl! This one we have, - Mignon - is being brought up in the Church, to which we really belong - (and did) But that's another and a strange story."