Passing from what may be regarded as Mr. Stevenson’s public character as an engineer, it is only natural that I should conclude this Memoir by adding a few paragraphs descriptive of his social bearing as a man.
In politics my father was a decided conservative, but he never took a prominent part in political or municipal affairs. He was, however, from his earliest days a loyal subject of the king; and, as we find from his Journal, a zealous supporter of the Government. He says:—“After my return from the Pentland Skerries in 1794, I enrolled myself as a private in the 1st Regiment of Edinburgh Volunteers raised as the local Defenders of our Firesides against the threatened invasion by the French, and served about five years in the ranks of that corps. However, when the war became hot, and invasion was fully expected, other corps of Volunteers were embodied, when I was promoted to be a Lieutenant in the ‘Princess (Charlotte’s) Royals,’ and afterwards Captain of the Grenadier Company.”
His connection with the volunteers seems to have been of a very agreeable and satisfactory character, proving that such loyal and patriotic services were not then and are not now incompatible with the most ardent pursuit of those studies and duties which are to qualify a man for the business of life. On his promotion to the Royals he received the following friendly letter from his Colonel, Charles Hope, Lord Advocate, and afterwards Lord President of the Court of Session:—
“24th January 1804.
“Sir,—I always part with any of my friends in the Regiment with great regret, especially such as belonged to the old Blues. But I cannot object to your leaving me in order to be more extensively useful in another corps. I therefore heartily wish you every success in your new undertaking, and have no doubt that you will prove a valuable acquisition to the discipline of the Spearmen.
Notify to Captain Spens your resignation, that he may send for your arms.—I am, Sir, yours sincerely,
C. Hope,
“Lt.-Col. 1st. R.E.V.“Mr. Robert Stevenson,
“Capt., Spens’ Company.”
Mr. Stevenson remained several years in his new corps, until he was obliged, on commencing the Bell Rock Lighthouse, to tender his resignation, when he received a letter from Colonel Inglis conveying the request of the Regiment that he should continue as an honorary member of the corps:—
“Edinburgh, 9th April 1807.
“Sir,—My anxious desire to have, if possible, devised means for detaining you among us, must plead my excuse for being so long of replying to your letter; and it is with most sincere regret, that, after the most mature consideration, I am obliged to express my fears that the rules of the Volunteer Corps must deprive us of your services, in consequence of your active charge of a work of national importance, rendering your absence from Edinburgh unavoidable for years, during the months of drill.
“While I feel myself impelled, therefore, to accept of your proffered resignation, I beg to assure you of my own sense, as well as that of all the other officers, of the loss we sustain, and of our great personal regard.
“And I am directed to entreat you will do us the favour of continuing as an honorary member of a corps which has been so much indebted for your zeal and exertions.
“I cannot conclude without returning you my thanks for the obliging sentiment contained in your letter towards myself; and have the honour to be, with much esteem, sir, your faithful obedient servant,
“William Inglis, L.C.C., L.E.S.
“Captain Stevenson, Etc.”
Many of his personal friends have recorded the pleasant satisfaction with which they continued through life to look back upon the days spent in my father’s company on board the lighthouse tender, while making his annual inspection of the lighthouses. On one of these voyages he was accompanied by his friends Patrick Neill, LL.D., the Botanist; Charles Oliphant, Writer to the Signet; and John Barclay, M.D., the Anatomist; who presented him with a piece of plate in remembrance of “the many happy hours they passed in his company on sea and shore.”
On another occasion in 1814, the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses invited Sir Walter Scott to accompany them on their annual tour. Mr. Lockhart, in his life of Scott, says, “The company were all familiar friends of his, William Erskine, then Sheriff of Orkney, Robert Hamilton, Sheriff of Lanarkshire, Adam Duff, Sheriff of Forfarshire, but the real chief of the expedition was the Surveyor Viceroy, the celebrated Engineer Stevenson, and Scott anticipated special pleasure in his society.” “I delight,” Scott writes to Morritt, “in these professional men of talent; they always give you some new lights by the peculiarity of their habits and studies, so different from the people who are rounded, and smoothed, and ground down for conversation, and who can say all that every other person says, and—nothing more.” I quote a single paragraph from Scott’s diary of this memorable voyage, in which he gives an amusing account of the first landing of the Commissioners on the rock on which the celebrated Skerryvore lighthouse has since been erected by Alan Stevenson, who succeeded my father as Engineer, on his retirement from the Scottish Lighthouse Board in 1843.
“Having crept upon deck about four in the morning,” says Sir Walter, “I find we are beating to windward off the Isle of Tyree, with the determination, on the part of Mr. Stevenson, that his constituents should visit a reef of rocks called Skerry Vhor, where he thought it would be essential to have a lighthouse. Loud remonstrances on the part of the Commissioners, who one and all declare they will subscribe to his opinion, whatever it may be, rather than continue this infernal buffeting. Quiet perseverance on the part of Mr. S., and great kicking, bouncing, and squabbling upon that of the yacht, who seems to like the idea of Skerry Vhor as little as the Commissioners. At length, by dint of exertion, come in sight of this long ridge of rocks (chiefly under water), on which the tide breaks in a most tremendous style. There appear a few low broad rocks at one end of the reef, which is about a mile in length. These are never entirely under water, though the surf dashes over them. To go through all the forms, Hamilton, Duff, and I resolve to land upon these bare rocks in company with Mr. Stevenson. Pull through a very heavy swell with great difficulty, and approach a tremendous surf dashing over black, pointed rocks. Our rowers, however, get the boat into a quiet creek between two rocks, where we contrive to land well wetted. I saw nothing remarkable in my way excepting several seals, which we might have shot, but in the doubtful circumstances of the landing, we did not care to bring guns. We took possession of the rock in name of the Commissioners, and generously bestowed our own great names on its crags and creeks. The rock was carefully measured by Mr. S. It will be a most desolate position for a lighthouse, the Bell Rock and Eddystone a joke to it, for the nearest land is the wild island of Tyree, at fourteen miles’ distance. So much for the Skerry Vhor.”
In family life Mr. Stevenson was a man of sterling worth. As a husband, a father, and a friend, he was remarkably distinguished by the absence of selfishness. His exertions in forwarding the progress of young men through life were generous and unwearied; and few men had more solid grounds than he for indulging in the pleasing reflection that, both in his public and private capacity, he had consecrated to beneficial ends every talent committed to his trust.