water from several of the springs. A cistern house, three sand filter beds and a cottage for the water engineer were constructed; these can all still be seen, situated about to the west of Swanston Road. After the engineer's cottage was built, the Corporation decided that they needed further accommodation to serve as a general meeting house. To fill that need, a small, single-storey thatched cottage was built on high ground a short distance to the north west. This became known as Swanston Cottage. According to Robert Louis Stevenson, "after [the city fathers] had built their water-house and laid their pipes, it occurred to them that the place was suitable for junketing. Once entertained, with jovial magistrates and public funds, the idea led speedily to accomplishment; and Edinburgh could soon boast of a municipal Pleasure House". Associations with Robert Louis Stevenson Between 1867 and 1880, Robert Louis Stevenson's family held a lease on Swanston Cottage, which they used as a summer holiday home. The house had by then been modernised and enlarged, with the addition of a second storey, bow windows, a single-story extension, and a slate roof to replace the original thatch. During the family's tenancy, the young Robert Louis Stevenson made frequent use of the cottage, being attracted by the quiet country life and the feeling of remoteness. It is likely that the time he spent there influenced his later writing as well as his wider outlook on life, particularly his love of nature and of wild places. The house and its romantic location are thought to have inspired several of his works. Swanston Cottage itself appears in Stevenson's unfinished novel, St. Ives. It is where the title character, a French prisoner of war, seeks shelter after escaping from Edinburgh Castle. He later obtains help from two drovers, Simms and Candlish, who were probably based on John Todd, a Swanston shepherd with whom Stevenson enjoyed a lasting friendship. Stevenson's nurse, Alison Cunningham (known as Cummy), stayed with the Stevensons in Swanston Cottage. After the family gave up the tenancy in 1880, she stayed on in Swanston, living in the home of her brother, who was the waterman. A lintel above the door of the waterman's cottage bears a faded inscription, '1880 AC 1893', to commemorate her time there. She died in 1913. Swanston Golf Club In 1927, Miss Margaret Carswell, a prominent member of the Edinburgh Women's Athletic