Robert Louis Stevenson was a 19th century Scottish essayist, poet, novelist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Kidnapped, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Treasure Island. Edinburgh Picturesque Notes describes the largest city in Scotland by one of America's leading writers of the time. An excerpt about the climate reads as follows, "But Edinburgh pays cruelly for her high seat in one of the vilest climates under heaven. She is liable to be beaten upon by all the winds that blow, to be drenched with rain, to be buried in cold sea fogs out of the east, and powdered with the snow as it comes flying southward from the Highland hills. The weather is raw and boisterous in winter, shifty and ungenial in summer, and a downright meteorological purgatory in the spring. The delicate die early, and I, as a survivor, among bleak winds and plumping rain, have been sometimes tempted to envy them their fate. For all who love shelter and the blessings of the sun, who hate dark weather and perpetual tilting against squalls, there could scarcely be found a more unhomely and harassing place of residence."