Robert Louis Stevenson

“ I had a common donkey pack-saddle—a barde, [18] as they call it—fitted upon Modestine; and once more loaded her with my effects. The doubled sack, my pilot-coat (for it was warm, and I was to walk in my waistcoat) , a great bar of black bread, and an open basket containing the white bread, the mutton, and the bottles, were all corded together in a very elaborate system of knots, and I looked on the result with fatuous content. ”

“ Now, a horse is a fine lady among animals, flighty, timid, delicate in eating, of tender health; he is too valuable and too restive to be left alone, so that you are chained to your brute as to a fellow galley-slave; a dangerous road puts him out of his wits ”

“ It is true they tightened the cords with a will; as many as three at a time would have a foot against Modestine’s quarters, and be hauling with clenched teeth; but I learned afterwards that one thoughtful person, without any exercise of force, can make a more solid job than half-a-dozen heated and enthusiastic grooms. ”

“ I was determined, if not to camp out, at least to have the means of camping out in my possession; for there is nothing more harassing to an easy mind than the necessity of reaching shelter by dusk, and the hospitality of a village inn is not always to be reckoned sure by those who trudge on foot. ”

“ Stevenson commissioned the first sleeping bag in modern travel literature.↑ cart-cloth .. a canvas cloth used to protect people or goods on a cart in terms of a horse or oxen drawn wagon, as was used by the settlers pioneering the West in the US around mid 19th century. ”

“ Imperialists: desiring a return to the glory days of Napoleon, supporters of the son of Louis Napolean, Prince Napoleon (who was subsequently killed in June 1879 by Zulus in Africa) . Republicans: opposed to monarchy and empire; supporters of the Republic established after the Franco-Prussian War and the ideals of the French Revolution.↑ a mere mountain Poland .. between 1795 and 1918 Poland ceased to exist as a nation being partitioned off between Russian, Prussia and Austria and further divided among a number of Kingdoms, Duchys, etc.. ”