A couple of years ago, I was watching Castle Secrets And Legends on the Travel Channel. One of the segments was about Cromer Hall in
England about 140 miles or so northeast of London. The Cabell family have been owner and
residents of Cromer Hall for the last 150 years.
A local legend told to a visiting Arthur Conan Doyle, along
with the physical description of the actual Cromer Hall built in 1829, are said
to have been Doyle's inspiration for The
Hound Of The Baskervilles published in 1902. Being a Sherlock Holmes fan, I
was pleased when they aired that episode again.
I augmented the information the show provided with a little research of
my own—starting by locating Cromer on a map.
According to a legend told to Doyle, on August 5, 1577, a
large black Hound of Hell materialized in a local church and brutally mauled
two people to death. The hound glared at
the other people in the church with red blazing eyes, then disappeared leaving
only a scorched claw mark on the stone wall to confirm its presence—a mark that
remains to this day. The beast was
called Black Shuk and blamed for all unexplained gruesome happenings that took
place after that.
Another legend tells of Richard Cabell, a 17th century
country squire. After seriously mistreating a village girl, he was chased by
wild hounds until he died of a heart attack.
Considered to have been an evil man and feared by the local villagers,
they entombed his body in a small building by the church and placed a heavy
stone slab on top of his grave so he couldn't escape.
The Cabell family has their own version of this legend. Richard Cabell believed his wife had been
unfaithful. He chased her out into the
night and viciously stabbed her to death.
Her loyal dog retaliated by tearing him to pieces.
Doyle took the basics of the the three legends along with a
detailed description of Cromer Hall, and transported it all to Dartmoor. And the name he gave to the family cursed
with the presence of a Hound From Hell due to an ancestor's misdeeds? The coachman who drove Arthur Conan Doyle to
Cromer Hall that fateful day for his visit was a man named…Henry Baskerville.
The huge popularity of the story continues today. Devotees of The Hound Of The Baskervilles often dress in period clothes,
including the infamous deerstalker cap, and search Dartmoor for the origins of
the story.
They do need to keep in mind that Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character. :)
14 comments:
VERY interesting, both the tales and how Doyle combined them all to create such a lasting story. Thanks for sharing.
I loved this story and continue to love all of Sherlock Holmes!
One of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. Interesting to learn the legend behind the story. Thanks.
Interesting and thanks for sharing. Aficionados of Sherlock might be interested in my article on Who Wrote the Hound of Baskervilles: https://herbtholeman.blogspot.com/ or http://www.herbertholeman.com/hound/
I enjoy all the Sherlock Holmes stories. The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the best. Thanks for this post about the origins of the story and the different legends it's based on. And interesting to learn how Doyle's mind worked to put the story together.
Wow! Did not know any of this - thanks for your research!
Delightful blog. Wonderful how the writer's imagination works. Cheers!
Linda: Glad you enjoyed my blog.
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Jennifer: I'm a fan of the character, too. That concept of 'pure deductive reasoning'.
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C.B.: Just finished reading Herb's article (the comment below yours) about Conan Doyle's authorship of The Hound Of The Baskervilles where he puts forth the interesting possibility that Doyle did not write the book on his own but it does go along with the locations and even the carriage driver named Baskerville.
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Herb: Read your interesting article about the authorship of the Hound story. Particularly noted your mention of something that grabbed my attention first time I encountered the Hound of the Baskervilles--the fact that the Holmes character is missing from the entire middle of the story. He starts it, then shows up towards the end alluding to having been there all along in disguise then presents all these 'facts' that he discerned during his absence from the story--something akin to pulling that miracle solution to the mystery out of thin air.
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