by Неизвестный
to Mary Doyle HOTEL ALBEMARLE, PICCADILLY, LONDON, SEPTEMBER 1897
We have had a very pleasant stay in town & we go on tomorrow to Cromer where the Royal Links Hotel is our address. In a week we shall be back in town & probably we shall stay at Morley’s Hotel. Anyhow the Club is a sure find.
I have engaged a most excellent coachman, Holden by name, 33 years, handsome, honest faced, 9 years in last situation. He is to have 21/ a week with an extra 3/ instead of fuel & the right of garden. I think we have been very lucky to get him.
We hear glowing accounts from the house. Everybody falls in love with it who approaches it. Lottie is very pleased with everything and there seems no doubt that October 1st will see us in possession. I shall be so glad to get into my own study & to work once more. I spent a couple of hundred pounds on furniture last week but it is all necessary and good. We must not spoil the ship &c. I want the place to be complete.
I have serious thoughts of a Sherlock Holmes play. There is no doubt that it would be a lucrative if a humble piece of work. It would sell so in America and the Colonies as well as here. If it came off I would pay for the whole house at one stroke. I should soon do it if I got to work, for I have the plot, and I see my way to treating him effectively. As the house and grounds & furniture stand they represent £6000 without any mortgage or charge of any kind upon it, so they constitute a valuable asset, come what may. I know it is your natural motherly anxiety which makes you worry over my finances, but really our position is very strong & sound. So dont you ever bother yourself about it. I am more likely to hurt myself by idleness than by work, for I am never so well as when I am doing my regular 3 or 4 hours. I never force myself. It is against my convictions.
These thoughts about Sherlock Holmes on stage were very different from how he had felt in the past. ‘I am well convinced,’ he had told a correspondent in the early 1890s, ‘that Holmes is not fitted for dramatic representation. His reasonings and deductions (which are the whole point of the character) would become an intolerable bore upon the stage. I would do both him and [you] an ill service by dramatizing him.’ Now, whether because of further reflection or greater necessity, he reconsidered. Though he would turn over responsibility for the script to an American actorplaywright, this was the first step toward a stage production that would influence the world’s perception of the character, and is still performed today.
to Mary Doyle ROYAL LINKS HOTEL, CROMER, SEPTEMBER 16, 1897
I have had some rare golf here & have enjoyed it very much. It is quite a place to come to. Tell Willie that I had a letter from Hall Caine asking me to lunch or dine that he might talk me over. I wrote back a letter which was civil personally but very stiff upon the subject of breaches of etiquette. I said that I had attacked him as being the chief transgressor. What a thankless task! And yet I am not sorry that I did it.
Newnes presented me with 500 Newnes Ltd preference shares—present value over £600. I thought it was very civil as it was done without conditions of any kind—otherwise I should not have taken them. Lottie seems to be working wonders at Hindhead. We had an oak hall settle from your Huddersfield woman & shall probably have a chest as well. We’ll send those things as soon as possible—the baby linen, I mean.
to Mary Doyle SEPTEMBER OR OCTOBER 1897
Tomorrow I go down to Undershaw to see all things. Such a nice little Dutch page, I have, speaks German & French but little English, very willing & good. He goes down with me tomorrow. I think we are going to have a very pleasant ménage & one that is likely to stay with us. Holden the Coachman is a jewel. I think of having him up now that Innes is here, and choosing a second horse which would be a spare saddlehorse and also make a pair with Brigadier. You see, dear, in so hilly a country with a Landau (which is the only possible vehicle for Touie) you must have a pair available. It is quite necessary. Don’t imagine that I am overrunning the mark. I shall be all right but I must start with a complete establishment. I must have a dogcart also, but I can get a cheap one. Innes & I have been down at Woking all day golfing.
to Mary Doyle OCTOBER 12, 1897
I have been down at Undershaw yesterday. There are a few things wrong, which could hardly be avoided, but on the whole things are wonderfully right. Lottie has done splendidly. We move in this day (Tuesday) week, come what may. It seems quite dry & cosy—but oh there is still plenty to be done. When it is finished it will represent from £6000 to £7000 as it stands, without mortgage or encumbrance of any kind, in one of the most rapidly improving districts in England. I think we have no cause to regret what we have done. Tell Will that that date will do splendidly, and that we shall keenly look forward to all—of course little Oscar & the nurse.
The Huddersfield oak furniture has turned out very well. I think you will like Undershaw. I wonder when you will come down—do let it be as soon as possible. So interested in all Willie’s news re book—he will strike the main reef again presently.
Hornung did score a big success the following June with the first of his tales about Raffles, the gentleman thief. The first collection of them, The Amateur Cracksman, was dedicated ‘To A.C.D., this form of flattery.’ ‘I think I may claim that his famous character Raffles was a kind of inversion of Sherlock Holmes,’ said A.C.D. ‘[Hornung] admits as much in his kindly dedication. I think there are few finer examples of short-story writing in our language than these, though I confess I think they are rather dangerous in their suggestion. I told him so before he put pen to paper, and the result has, I fear, borne me out. You must not make the criminal a hero.’
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, HINDHEAD, OCTOBER 1897
We accomplished our change very nicely, though Touie has had to acclimatize a little. The difference of 800 feet makes I am sure more change of climate in England than 4000 would do in Central Europe. You are living in an entirely new country to all intents.
Everything is working out very well. We have our little troubles & disappointments but they are nothing compared to our successes. All the essentials have turned out beautifully. The window, the billiard room, the maids, the men, the general effect is all most excellent. So is the water. We have had some little trouble with the light but nothing much. Mrs Corrie has been invaluable. Lottie has done wonders. She really has a quite remarkable aptitude for work & for organisation. I bought such a beautiful Landau & four wheeled dogcart when in London. The former (really second hand but no one could know it) was £105. The other £50, new & splendid. A new Landau is not to be had under £150 so really I have my dogcart for nothing. I am having the crest on the carriages & harness. One more horse and the establishment is complete—and then you must come down & consecrate it and be petted for it all grew out of my brain & that is part of yourself. As it stands the whole show lock stock & barrel cost me about £6000 or possibly a few hundred over—that is including furniture, stables, ground, lodge, electric lighting, well everything. I am sure that it will in very few years, if not now, be worth from £9000 to 10,000. It is without encumbrance of any kind, which is, I think, pretty good when you think that it was built in a time of commercial depression when I could not realise shares without a loss—and therefore refused as far as possible to realise them at all. I hardly know myself how I did it. It is very nearly all paid. You cant think how pretty & artistic it all is.
[P.S.] I was looking at some of my old books today. They take me back to you very much.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, OCTOBER 1897
So sorry you should be disappointed in not having Innes, but he cracked his collarbone today in the hunting field, but is none the worse as you will see from the enclosed postscript in his own hand. He had a nasty fall, but there is nothing else and he is as cheery as possible, and it is well set by Dr Butler and me. It will be a 6 weeks job, so the very best that Dodo & you can do is to come right away down & spend Xmas here. If we may put you both into one room we can manage excellently & we will have such a jolly Xmas all together for once. So come, my dears and—the expense!
&nbs
p; to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, NOVEMBER OR DECEMBER, 1897
Innes is doing very well & will be up again tomorrow, I hope, or next day at the latest. My Holmes play is finished & Tree is to have it for early production.* I think there is a fortune in it.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, DECEMBER 1897
I think it best when this engagement is announced for me to write to Angell and so break the ice, telling him how glad I shall be to see himwhen he can come down. That is, I am sure, the most natural & easiest way. I want to be exceedingly nice to him but it is a mistake to force the pace.*
All right about the Holmes play. If there is any money in it I get it. And there are bags of money in it, unless I am very much mistaken. My book of poems is working out remarkably well. I should not be surprised if it did some good.
I want now to write some short stories to raise the wind. Extras of different kinds in connection with the house run to about £2000, which I must pay off. That comes from about £650 extras of the builder, including drive-making, well sinking, engine house, internal changes &c. About as much for furniture. Some £200 for woodwork, gardening & outside changes, expense of stained glass windows, laying down cellar &c &c. The whole house & outbuildings with the carriages, electric light &c &c, are paid for & stand without encumbrance of any kind. To meet the balance I have lots & lots of assets but some of them cannot conveniently be realised without a loss, but the Korosko comes out on Feb 1st and that will at once put me on the right side once more. The house is an asset which I would not sell for £10,000 and the value of which will year by year increase, as all values are increasing in this place, so I am sure I am right to have the whole establishment to scale. It is all an excellent investment and a fortune in itself if anything were to happen to me.
[P.S.] Did I tell you that Sidney Paget was coming down to paint my picture for this years Academy. He comes on Friday. I rather thought of being taken in flannels.
Sidney Paget had illustrated the Sherlock Holmes stories for The Strand Magazine since their start, with his brother Walter as his model. Whatever the Mam’s reaction to the idea of Conan Doyle being painted for the Royal Academy of Art in cricket flannels, the painting, begun December 20th, turned out more conventionally.
Paget’s depiction of Holmes has stood the test of time, while Beerbohm Tree did not get the chance to influence the public’s idea of the great detective. Reportedly, Tree wanted to play both Sherlock Holmes and his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty, a notion tricky to bring off since they appeared in several scenes together. When asked how he intended to juggle the two roles, Tree indicated that perhaps he might play Holmes in a beard. Conan Doyle was not enthused.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW
Innes seems all right again & talks of returning to work this week. I had a letter from Wingate holding out some hopes of an Egyptian appointment. I have been disappointed by Tree wanting me to largely change ‘Sherlock Holmes’ which I have refused to do, so it must try elsewhere.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, DECEMBER 18, 1897
A hunting morning and the meet a long 8 miles off, but I am sending you this line before I start to be sure of being in time to wish you every Xmas greeting. May you be happy, dearest, in the year to come. All seems to be going well here. I have just finished a 2000 word story for the ‘Star’, which will be a help, and as to verses I pour out hunting songs & ballads. Some of them will be heard hereafter.
Give my love to the lovers. As to their future they probably know their own course better than anyone can teach it to them. They have youth and can wait if they want to. Cyril knows the conditions of his own profession better than anyone else can do. We look forward to seeing him whenever he can spare us a few days.
In 1898 the family began living a country life in their own home at last. While Conan Doyle speaks below of being without ideas for new books, his Sherlock Holmes play was much on his mind, despite his usual misgivings about drawing the public’s attention to the character at the expense of what he felt was more important literary work. He had now sent his script to Henry Irving. Irving might have made a great Sherlock Holmes but, like Tree, never played the part.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, JANUARY 1898
Many thanks for your long & interesting letter. You are more youthful than any of us in many ways & one sign of your youth is that you are very quick & fiery in your judgments as I have often remarked before. You may take the word of me, your elder, that you do Williams an injustice.* He is an exceedingly upright and good fellow, one of the very best that I have ever known, and that opinion of him is not mine alone but that of those like my friend Buchanan who have shared rooms with him for years. I have hardly ever had occasion to test his charges for the first two bills he got out of my adversaries. Only one did I get from him & that was quite moderate. When I asked him some weeks ago for my bill, although he had done several things he said that he had looked over his books & that there was nothing more than one friend would do for another. He saw the Milbournes through their trouble & they could not say enough in his praise. I dont understand this business of Willie’s so I can give no explanation. I have some recollection that Williams was out of town at the time, which would cause delay. What he did I dont know, but I am sure that he did nothing unjust & that one should not judge a friend so swiftly & so harshly. I dont mean you for you were not his friend particularly—but Connie.
I am so sorry about your illness. What a curious disease it is which flourishes in the wild country even more than in the crowded town. You understand that there is no half term holiday & that Cyril’s visit is simply an ordinary weekend just as valid one week as another. I have therefore suggested to him the last weekend before the Easter holidays—about April 1st or so. Dodo would come down for that, see him, have a week or so with us, & go north under his escort if she wants to. How about that? Meanwhile I will have him to dine with me in town. I think that would do well. But you—when are you coming down. The Foley Coat between the Vicars of Levally & the Scotts of Nurley adorns the stairs—so I can look you in the eyes again.* Touie & the children are well. I am barren, but it may be the lull before an outbreak.
Mind you cannot come amiss if ever you see a chance of coming down. Would you not come before Dodo and chaperone them up. Your eyesight & absorption in books would make you an ideal chaperone.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, JANUARY 1898
You must let me have the carriage bill at your convenience. I shall have some money on Feb 1st when the Korosko comes out.
Irving has the play, and he will need something soon for they tell me that ‘Peter the Great’ is a dead failure. I had grave doubts at Holmes on the stage at all—it is drawing attention to my weaker work which has unduly obscured my better—but rather than rewrite it on lines which would make a different Holmes to my Holmes I would without the slightest pang put it back in the drawer from which it emerged. I daresay that will be the end of it—and probably the best one.
I am very full of poetry just now two or three ballads a week. I think some of it may catch on—but it is best not to be too sanguine. It can do no harm anyhow.
When are you coming down to us? Innes returns on Friday. He is out now on Brigadier so you can imagine that he is doing well. We had a run of 31/2 hours yesterday & Brigadier had about as much as he wanted. Lottie goes on the bash to town tomorrow with the Butlers. My chestnut mare has strained her shoulder but the Vet hopes it wont be a very long business. I am deep in the Peninsular War where I hope to find some new material.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, LATE MARCH OR EARLY APRIL, 1898
Full of work for I want to get three of my new ‘Round the Fire Stories’ done for the Strand before I go. I shall do it for I am in the middle of the third. I am starting on Tuesday morning which will entail leaving here on Monday morning as I have several things to arrange in town. I am taking out a pound’s worth of trifles for the bazaar, so dont add to my baggage more than you can help. Still of course I will take anything you are keen on. Send stra
ight to the Reform Club and I shall get it. I shall spend 3 or 4 days in Rome and 3 or 4 in the Island. It comes in very well between the Hunting & the Cricket Season.
I have told Willie to get me some room near him. I like to do things simply when I am ‘en gar&c.edil;on’. Sir Wemyss Reid told me yesterday (at Payn’s funeral) that ‘Young Blood’ was going well. It is very good. We are already looking forward to your visit in May. Now you are not to distribute yourself over Tiney’s and Stables &c &c. Come to your own folk & stay with them.
Very busy over the banjo. To hunt and to play a musical instrument would 2 years ago have been picked out as the two things in the world that I was least likely to do.
James Payn’s death on March 25, 1898, even though not unexpected after years of ill health, hit hard. ‘Payn was greater than his books,’ Conan Doyle wrote in Memories and Adventures. ‘He had all that humorous view which Nature seems to give as a compensation to those whose strength is weak, [and] many of my generation of authors had reason to love him, for he was a human and kindly critic.’ Payn had encouraged Conan Doyle when he was young and unknown, and Conan Doyle moved ahead now with his play version of Payn’s story Halves (for a while retitled Brother Robert) for his widow’s sake.