Literary Walk
Updated: Sep 20, 2020
12pm, Saturday 24 October
Merchant Venturers’ Almshouse, King Street, Free
Volunteers from the Long John Silver Trust will lead this literary walk from King Street to Merchants’ Landing following the route of the Treasure Island Trail which celebrates Bristol’s link with Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island.
Did you know that the first book to feature a treasure map as a key element of its plot was written in Bristol? We start our walk outside the Merchant Venturers’ Almshouse on King Street where William Williams wrote his book A Journal of Llewellin Penrose: A Seaman published in 1815 which included the first ever record of an encrypted treasure map. Williams’ treasure map idea was used by Edgar Alan Poe in his short story The Gold Bug published in 1843 in which solving an encrypted message leads the characters to dig up buried treasure. In turn, Stevenson was influenced by The Gold Bug and the pirate treasure map is central to the plot of Treasure Island.
We’ll also take you to the pub where the Berni Brothers claimed Daniel Defoe met Alexander Selkirk whose tale of being marooned was the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe; reveal the role of Blackbeard in Treasure Island and visit the pub where Long John Silver was landlord.
This special Festival Of Literature Walk will also feature a section on Chatteron and the Romantics.