The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes
Page 73
Weighing the remaining possibilities, the Editors conclude that the most attractive candidate is Spiranthes Spiralis (L.) Koch (ladies’ tresses). Found on Dartmoor, this striking plant flowers from September to October. Indeed, according to the Editors, “It is probably the only orchid that could have been found in full flower on Dartmoor on the date in question.” However, it is not commonly found in wet places, such as Watson described. Perhaps Watson meant that the orchid was near the Hippuris, on a dry patch. “[I]t must be assumed that Watson and Mrs. Stapleton were not actually in the marsh at the time the conversation took place.”
On the other hand, R. F. May, taking into consideration the same difficulties in his essay “Hound of the Baskervilles: A Botanical Enquiry,” suggests that the orchid was the Marsh Spotted Orchid (Dactylorchis maculata subspecies ericetorum), which grows in damp acid peaty soil and in spongy marshes and is widely established in suitable places all over Britain. He notes, “This plant has been seen in flower occasionally as late as the second half of September …”
APPENDIX 2
The Source of The Hound of the Baskervilles
Three different acknowledgements appeared in important editions of The Hound of the Baskervilles. In the first part, published in the Strand Magazine in August 1901, this footnote follows the title:
This story owes its inception to my friend, Mr. Fletcher Robinson, who has helped me both in the general plot and in the local details.—A. C. D.
In the first book edition, the acknowledgement reads:
MY DEAR ROBINSON:
It was to your account of a West-Country legend that this tale owes its inception. For this and for your help in detail all thanks.
Yours most truly,
A. CONAN DOYLE
HINDHEAD, HASLEMERE.
In the first American edition, the acknowledgement reads:
MY DEAR ROBINSON:
It was your account of a west country legend which first suggested the idea of this little tale to my mind.
For this, and for the help you gave me in its evolution, all thanks.
Yours most truly,
A. CONAN DOYLE
Philip Weller points out, in “Nightmare on Yew Alley,” that this was actually the earliest book acknowledgement of Robinson’s involvement, being a reproduction of a letter from Doyle to Robinson dated January 26, 1902. The original letter resides in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library.
In the Preface to The Complete Sherlock Holmes Long Stories: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear, published in 1929, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote:
Then came The Hound of the Baskervilles. It arose from a remark by that fine fellow, whose premature death was a loss to the world, Fletcher Robinson, that there was a spectral dog near his home on Dartmoor. That remark was the inception of the book, but I should add that the plot and every word of the actual narrative was my own.
As usual, Conan Doyle makes no mention of Dr. Watson, and so the reader is left to sort out how much of the tale is fiction, how much historical record.
APPENDIX 3
Was Richard Cabell “Hugo Baskerville”?
James Branch Cabell (1879–1958), the famed writer of medieval romanticism and fantasy, was descended from a venerable Southern family and counted among his ancestors English nobility. In his “Fifteenth Letter: To Richard Cabell of Buckfastleigh, Devon, Armiger, Lord of the Manor of Brooke,” Cabell writes to his ancestor:
It must remain to me always, Sir Richard, a source of regret that by another writer you were high-handedly plucked from my family-tree some while before I myself had the chance to employ you… . [W]hen your bond had run out—in the October of 1677—then black hounds came racing over Dartmoor; and toward midnight they gathered around Brooke Manor House, breathing smoke and fire, and howling expectantly. These creatures, having served you for the agreed time, were come now for their agreed payment, the country-side remarked later. And these fire-breathing hounds obtained their earned wages: for at midnight you mounted your black mare, and you rode away, across the dark moor, in the company of these hounds. Your body, when men found it, was badly mangled; it was scorched here and there; and your throat was torn open… . Dr. [Watson] … left out of his book that which is, to me, the most interesting part of your story. For they record, Sir, that after your burial you did not rest quietly in your grave… . It appears enough to say that your corpse was dug up and reburied in the same place, just outside the south porch of the parish church, with all the ceremonies necessitated by your post-mortem restlessness. And besides that, a very special edifice was erected above your grave, to prevent your coming out again to trouble the neighbourhood you had once adorned.
Others confirm the identification of Hugo Baskerville with Richard Cabell (who, notwithstanding Branch Cabell’s pretensions, was apparently never knighted). Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, grandfather of the great Sherlockian scholar William S. Baring-Gould, recounts the legend in his Devon, and the grandson certainly appears to endorse his ancestor’s identification. Walter Klinefelter, in his splendid Ex Libris A. Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes, does so as well.
Susan Cabell Djabri, in The Story of the Sepulchre: The Cabells of Buckfastleigh and the Conan Doyle Connection, denies that Richard Cabell was actually the man described in the Baskerville legend and says that the legend was about a “composite character,” built up out of various elements of the family history. In a fine piece of scholarship entitled The Curious Incident of the Hound on Dartmoor: A Reconsideration of the Origins of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Janice McNabb rejects the identification as tenuous at best and concludes that the legend is substantially a work of fiction. May we attribute it to Stapleton?
APPENDIX 4
The Search for Baskerville Hall
Philip Weller writes, in “The Mire and the Moor,” “Even a cursory investigation of the locations described by Watson … will reveal that very few of these can be identified easily, and an extensive investigation will reveal that some of them simply cannot be found. Applying Holmes’s infamous maxim that, when the impossible has been eliminated, whatever remains must be the truth, we eliminate the impossibility that these Dartmoor locations do not exist on Dartmoor.” In this spirit, numerous scholars assert claims of discovery of the original of Baskerville Hall.
Manaton area residence. Percy Metcalfe, in “In Search of Baskerville Hall,” lays out many of the geographical issues and concludes that the Hall is “some miles north-west of Bovey Tracey, probably in the Manaton area.” Bernard Davies237 rejects this as unlikely, on the basis that the train trip he has reconstructed based on Watson’s descriptions would make a trip to the outskirts of Manaton “a ridiculously roundabout journey.” This is in turn based on his identification of Totnes as Coombe Tracey.
Lew Trenchard House. William S. Baring-Gould writes, “A rather thorough investigation of the halls and houses in the vicinity of Coryton Station has unhappily, to date, revealed none that might be described as having ‘twin towers, ancient, crenellated, and pierced with many loopholes … ’ ” He then argues for Lew House (or Hall), at Lew Trenchard, near Lew Down, Devon, as the original Hall. Baring-Gould notes the presence of lodge gates which are “a maze of fantastic tracery in wrought iron with weather-bitten pillars on either side, blotched with lichens … ,” as well as an avenue opening into a broad expanse of turf. The house, Baring-Gould observes, may be described as “a heavy block of a building from which a porch” projects, “draped in ivy, with a patch clipped bare here and there where a window or a coat-of-arms” appears, “heavy mullioned windows,” “high chimneys,” and a “steep, high-angled roof.” Baring-Gould forgivably omits to mention that Lew House was the family home of the Baring-Goulds for three centuries. Anthony Howlett writes, “If ever a house ought to be Baskerville Hall, this it it. Unfortunately it palpably is not …” David Hammer, in The Game Is Afoot, points out, “The chief and insurmountable objection is that it is on the wron
g side of the moor, and too far from what have been designated [by Hammer] as Grimpen Mire, Grimpen, and Cleft Tor. All of the distances furnished by Watson would have to be in substantial error for Lew Trenchard Manor to be Baskerville Hall.” Philip Weller adds that there are no views at all of the Moor from the Manor.
Mount Edgcumbe. On the basis of the boars’ heads alone, Dr. Julian Wolff, in his Practical Handbook of Sherlockian Heraldry, identifies “Baskerville Hall” as Mount Edgcumbe in Devonshire, the family seat of the Edgcumbes, whose coat of arms is blazoned: “Gules, on a Bend Erminois, between two Cottifes or, three Boars Heads couped, Argent.”
Brook Manor. David L. Hammer concludes that Baskerville Hall is Brook Manor, the ancestral home of Richard Cabell.238 The geographical location is suitable, although Hammer admits that Brook Manor is “smaller than one would imagine Baskerville Hall to be.” Furthermore, while its chimneys give a suitable appearance, it does not have “two high, narrow towers,” lodge gates, a ruined lodge and new lodge, or a yew alley. Anthony Howlett calls Brook Manor “[o]ne of the more probable locations [of Baskerville Hall],” but Philip Weller criticises this candidate in detail:
(a) It is not located in a hollow, but in a v-shaped valley. (b) it does not have any towers. (c) It is L-shaped, rather than being a central block with wings. (d) Although there is now a tunnel-like driveway which travels through the trees and opens out in front of the house, one cannot see the gate area from the house, and this was not the driveway in 1889, when the drive travelled along the open bank of the River Marble. (e) There is no gatehouse at the end of the driveway. (f) There are not gateposts at the end of the driveway. (g) There are no crenellations. (h) There are no coats of arms. (i) The walls are not lined with black granite. (j) There is no yew alley. (k) It is located almost two miles from the edge of the Moor. (1) One cannot see a light on the Moor from the west window of the house, since one cannot see the Moor from any window in the house. (m) One would have to travel through at least four farms to reach the nearest part of the Moor. (n) The Moon could never be partially obscured by trees to the south of the house, since it would need to be above the higher hills which surround the trees to be seen at all. (o) There are no stunted oaks and firs, since the trees are full-grown and healthy through not being exposed to the winds of the Moor. The three good elements of candidacy which have recommended this building are its age, its occupation by an unpopular squire in the 17th Century, and the hound legend associated with it, although with the last it is a legend involving multiple hounds.
Hayford Hall. Howard Brody, in an award-winning essay entitled “The Location of Baskerville Hall,” points out the strengths of the Brook Manor attribution except for its situation (in the middle of woods and streams) and location (a mile or so east of the Moor). Brody notes on his modern map a neighbouring house, Hayford Hall, which is situated in relative isolation directly upon the Moor. “I cannot document that Hayford Hall itself was in existence in 1888,” he writes. Philip Weller writes to this editor:
Although it does not closely resemble the description of Baskerville Hall, [Hayford Hall] is almost perfectly located with reference to the Moor. It is situated in a cup-like depression, surrounded by trees, and there is a yew alley from which one can walk directly onto the Moor. From the house one can see a split outcrop of rock on the Moor upon which a candle could be located to signal to the house. There is a good track leading across the width of the Moor for three leagues to a group of farms. It is within easy walking distance of excellent candidates for the Great Grimpen Mire (Fox Tor Mires), Merripit House (Nun’s Cross Farm), Grimpen (a track along the edge of the Moor, exactly as required, to Hexworthy), and Black Tor (Black Tor above the River Aune). It is certainly old enough, in that there has been a house on this site since 1413, and it was in existence in 1889, although it was then a farm and was occupied by Christopher Hawkins. It does have strong connection with Dartmoor hounds, in that it was used as a hunting lodge for the South Devon Hunt, and a 19th Century owner is said to have died in the saddle whilst hunting on Dartmoor. There is even a solitary hound legend, and there are very few of these on Dartmoor, associated with the stream which rises in the grounds, the Dean Burn, although it bears no resemblance to the legend of The Hound of the Baskervilles. The house also has familial connections with the Cabell family of Brook Manor and Cromer.
Lustleigh Hall. Put forth by Roger Lancelyn Green, in “Baskerville Hall,” this candidate is three miles north of Bovey Tracey, exactly fourteen miles from Princetown. The main dining room matches Watson’s description.239
Other Candidates. Philip Weller discusses in detail other candidates:
•Wooder Manor Hotel (does not satisfy any structural requirements or geographical requirements, but is self-promoted as “Baskerville Hall”). Kelvin Jones, in “The Geography of the Hound of the Baskervilles,” argues its merits;
•Bagpark (its appropriate physical characteristics did not exist contemporaneously with The Hound of the Baskervilles, and there are no reasonably adjacent mires);
•Natsworthy Manor (the house has no clear view of the Moor and no adjacent mires);
•Heatree House (distant from a mire);
•Moretonhampstead Manor House Hotel (used as “Baskerville Hall” in the 1931 filming of The Hound of the Baskervilles but not built until 1907);
•Leighon (no suitable mires nearby);
•Lukesland (on the extreme southern edge of the Moor, an unlikely location).
In truth, the game remains afoot in the search for the real Baskerville Hall.
237 See note 86, above.
238 See Appendix 3.
239 A photograph of the dining room accompanies the article.
APPENDIX 5
The Dating of The Hound of the Baskervilles
There is a fair amount of disagreement among the major chronologists concerning the dating of The Hound of the Baskervilles, influenced primarily by the juxtaposition of incongruous characterisations (e.g., the relationship with Lestrade, the absence of mention of Mary Morstan) with explicit dates:240
Source
Date Assigned to Beginning of Case
Canon
Oct. 1889
Bell, H. W. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Chronology of Their Adventures
Sept. 28, 1886, Tues.
Blakeney, T. S. Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction?
Early Oct. 1889
Christ, Jay Finley. An Irregular Chronology of Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street
Sept. 28, 1897, Tues.
Brend, Gavin. My Dear Holmes
Oct. 1899
Baring-Gould, William S., “New Chronology of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson”
Oct. 1, 1889, Tues.
Baring-Gould, William. The Chrono-logical Holmes. Mr. Baring-Gould uses the same dates in Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A Life of the World’s First Consulting Detective and Annotated Sherlock Holmes.
Sept. 25, 1888, Tues.
Zeisler, Ernest Bloomfield. Baker Street Chronology: Commentaries on the Sacred Writings of Dr. John H. Watson
Sept. 25, 1900, Tues.
Folsom, Henry T. Through the Years at Baker Street: A Chronology of Sherlock Holmes
Sept. 25, 1888, Tues.
Folsom, Henry T. Through the Years at Baker Street: A Chronology of Sherlock Holmes, Revised Edition
Sept. 25, 1900, Tues.
Dakin, D. Martin. A Sherlock Holmes Commentary
Sept. 25, 1900, Tues.
Butters, Roger. First Person Singular: A Review of the Life and Work of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the World’s First Consulting Detective, and His Friend and Colleague, Dr. John H. Watson
Oct. 1889
Bradley, C. Alan, and William A. S. Sarjeant. Ms. Holmes of Baker Street: The Truth about Sherlock
Sept. 26, 1899, Tues.
Hall, John. “I Remember the Date Very Well”: A Chronology of the Sherlock Holmes Stories of Arthur Conan Doyle
Autumn 1889
Thomson, Jun
e. Holmes and Watson
Autumn 1888
240 Rev. G. Basil Jones, in “The Dog and the Date,” neatly argues that the case occurred in 1899 but that Holmes required that Watson conceal the date. See also Alan Howard’s “A New Year for the Hound.” A number of other scholars assert still different dates; see Andrew Jay Peck and Leslie S. Klinger, “The Date Being—”: A Compendium of Chronological Data.
1 The Valley of Fear was published in serial form in the Strand Magazine from Sept. 1914 to May 1915. Uniquely among the serialised long stories, each installment was introduced by text likely prepared by the editors (see notes 42, 64, 70, 82, and 116, below). The first British book edition was published in June 1915 by Smith, Elder & Co.; the first American edition appeared earlier, in Feb. 1915, published by George H. Doran Co. of New York. Many changes occurred between the Strand Magazine and American texts, and some are noted specifically below. See generally David A. Randall’s “The Valley of Fear Bibliographically Considered.”
The Valley of Fear
The Valley of Fear, published at the onset of the Great War and comprising the last long account of Holmes and Watson, combines to near perfection a classic “locked-room” mystery—which comes to Holmes’s attention via a tip from a disaffected lieutenant of Professor Moriarty’s—and a hard-boiled detective story, set twenty years earlier and featuring the victim in Holmes’s case. Modern readers may quickly penetrate the mystery itself, as it features a clever device that has by now been so frequently copied as to become a cliché. For Edwardian readers, however, the story (serialised in the Strand Magazine) was enthralling. So, too, was the backstory of the tale, which recounted the violent history of the Molly Maguires, a secret organisation enmeshed in labour unrest in the Pennsylvania coal mines of the 1880s. Drawn from Allan Pinkerton’s significantly fictionalised book The Molly Maguires and the Detectives (1877), this portion of The Valley of Fear takes a critical view, as did most people at the time, of the Irish miners and the violence in which they purportedly engaged. And while modern historians find the Mollies to be less villainous than oppressed, the rôle of the Pinkertons distorted, and the character of the “hero” less than spotless, Watson’s version remains a gripping account of courage in the Valley of Fear.