Some places speak distinctly. Certain dark gardens cry aloud for a murder; certain old houses demand to be haunted; certain coasts are set apart for shipwreck.

Stevenson personifies landscapes and buildings as if they possessed an inherent “destiny” or moral atmosphere. The line suggests that settings are not neutral backdrops: some places seem to carry a narrative charge that invites particular kinds of stories—crime in a shadowed garden, ghosts in an aged house, disaster along a treacherous shore. It reflects a Gothic and Romantic sensibility in which environment shapes expectation and emotion, and it also hints at the writer’s craft: the right setting can almost dictate plot and genre. The quote captures how strongly human imagination reads meaning into place, turning geography into omen.