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Did the Hound of the Baskervilles come from Brum ?

mikejee

mikejee

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Staff member
Not sure if this is the right section, but the following cutting suggests the idea for the book came from Aston. It is from the Ev Mail 10.12.71. I hope I am not repeating something that has already been put on the forum .
Mike

Hound_of_baskervilles_E_M_10_12_71.jpg
 
Mike,

Conan Doyle lived in Aston from about 1879 to 1882, living for part of each year in premises now more or less where the old ATV studios are on Lichfield Road. There's a Blue Plaque on the wall. He worked for a Dr Hoare, a local GP, but by 1902 he was long out of general practise. The Hound Of The Baskervilles was indeed published in 1902, but Doyle always said that the inspiration for the book came from an old Norfolk legend of a phantom hound. Whoever wrote that short newspaper article had obviously never read The Hound, because the book contains nothing at all about any strange baby. The only Sherlock Holmes story I can recall in which a baby is strongly featured is The Yellow Face, which is nothing to do with old legends of phantom hounds.

Big Gee
 
I thought the inspiration for this book was the legend of a wild dog on Dartmoor - I thought he (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) wrote it in a hotel in Princetown, Dartmoor.
Polly
 
Conan Doyle was inspired by the legend of the Black Shuck in Norfolk, but thought that Dartmoor was a much more romantic and ghostly location than flat Norfolk fens. Don't know where he wrote it, but it's a story I never get tired of reading.

Big Gee
 
Could well be, Pollypops. ACD was heavily into the supernatural, and although some of his stories were a bit suspect on fact, they were never short on atmosphere. If you've ever been to the more remore parts of Dartmoor, it's not difficult for the imagination to start working overtime...

Big Gee
 
There seems to be phantom black dogs all over the place we have one in Kington ,Herefordshire. Black Bob is supposed to appear around the church yard heralding the death of the Lord of the Manor. He has not been seen for a while. At least not by anyone sober.
 
Big Gee said:
Could well be, Pollypops. ACD was heavily into the supernatural, and although some of his stories were a bit suspect on fact, they were never short on atmosphere. If you've ever been to the more remore parts of Dartmoor, it's not difficult for the imagination to start working overtime...

Big Gee
Click to expand...
I stayed in Dartmoor a few years ago, in the middle of nowhere (or so it seemed). I visited Princetown which is how I heard that ACD wrote the book there - the hotel that he stayed in is now the Visitor centre.
Princetown is where the prison is - like you say the remoteness and sudden weather changes - mist. fog etc certainly gets the imagination going - the beautiful landscape can become quite bleak and scary very quickly!
 
It is thought that Conan Doyle took inspiration for the name of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" from John Baskerville.

He stayed at 69 Aston Road North (see Blue Plaque on the wall) https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=52...id=pMfMtxvC0OxSWJM5HKAHsg&cbp=12,86.13,,2,-10 for several months each year, from about Spring 1879 to early 1882. He was 19 at the beginning of that period, taking up a temporary medical assistantship, as a dispensing assistant (what we might call an assistant chemist or pharmacist) while studying at Edinburgh University. His employer and landlord in Birmingham was Dr Hoare, and Doyle developed a close friendship with his family, whom he visited more than once subsequently. Family members (but not Dr Hoare, who had died in 1898) joined such noted guests as J.M. Barrie, Jerome K. Jerome and Bram Stoker at Doyle's wedding at St Margaret's in Westminster in 1907.

Doyle wrote in his "Memories and Adventures" (p 28-9) of 1924 that: "Hoare was a fine fellow, stout, square, red-faced bushy - whiskered and dark-eyed. His wife was also a very kindly and gifted woman, and my position in the house was soon rather that of a son than of an assistant"

During his first stay in Birmingham, Doyle published both his first story, 'The Mystery of Sasassa Valley', in Chambers's Journal (6 September 1879) and his first non-fiction work, 'Gelseminum as a Poison', in the British Medical Journal (20 September 1879). The latter describes how he experimented upon himself with the drug, in the name of medical research.

Conan Doyle was cautioned by the Aston Police for sending out fake invitations to a Mayor's Ball, as a practical joke. He also indulged his musical talents, buying a violin from a shop in Sherlock Street. He left Birmingham when he graduated as a doctor, adding the letters MB, CM(Edin.) after his name.
 
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Aidan said:
It is thought that Conan Doyle took inspiration for the name of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" from John Baskerville.

He stayed at 69 Aston Road North (see Blue Plaque on the wall) https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=52...id=pMfMtxvC0OxSWJM5HKAHsg&cbp=12,86.13,,2,-10 for several months each year, from about Spring 1879 to early 1882. He was 19 at the beginning of that period, taking up a temporary medical assistantship, as a dispensing assistant (what we might call an assistant chemist or pharmacist) while studying at Edinburgh University. His employer and landlord in Birmingham was Dr Hoare, and Doyle developed a close friendship with his family, whom he visited more than once subsequently. Family members (but not Dr Hoare, who had died in 1898) joined such noted guests as J.M. Barrie, Jerome K. Jerome and Bram Stoker at Doyle's wedding at St Margaret's in Westminster in 1907.
Click to expand...

Well old buddy, it is most definitely a small world. He might have even stayed with my Great Uncle Ben at that address...if Aston Road was the same as Aston Road North...

See the census entry I have in my FH file...
 
I think Aston Road North was just Aston Road then so if it wasn't the same house (the plaque may be just on the nearest building) it would be in the same block and they would undoubtedly known each other and perhaps even drank together.

Unfortunately Arthur was back in Edinburgh with his family at the time of the 1881 census:
 
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You've started a great thread here, Mike!

I feel like I've always been a Sherlock Holmes fan. One of the first "grown up" books I ever read contained four "long stories" or novelettes by Conan Doyle, including "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and "A Study in Scarlet" (I can't recall the other two at the moment). I found these tales to be un-put-downable. I'm still a fan today. I don't read Conan Doyle so much, but I've watched with great interest just about every TV and movie adaptation ever produced. [Note added: this statement is a gross exaggeration as Wikipedia list 27 film adaptations of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" alone!] I love to see how well Victorian England is represented in all its features.

I was previously unaware of the Aston connection, which is just the "icing on the cake"!

That video clip you linked to, Aidan, was riveting. I presume Conan Doyle was speaking off the cuff: his command of the English language is admirable (as is his accent). What a fascinating man!
 
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As he lived in Aston for some time i wonder if The Hound of the Baskervilles was based on Taroni,s dog in Scolfield St.Dek
 
Looking through those fairy photographs I remember my aunt having one on her bedroom wall with fairies dancing around a young girl. Those photo's were very clever for those days weren't they?.
 
Taroni's Dog

I had a titter when I read Dek Carr's post. In the early 1970's I had a Hillman Minx and went down to Taroni's to see if I could get a new carburettor. They had several Minxes, right on the far side of the yard, and I got a carb + a few other bits and pieces which went into the pockets of my anorak. When I got back to the office they wanted me to show them everything I'd got. I said I'd just got the carb. The bloke introduced me to the dog, who was a huge hairy cross-breed Alsatian by the look of him and much, much meaner than the proverbial junk-yard dog..... I coughed up for everything. Crime doesn't pay!

Big Gee
 
Thanks Alf, Actually I'm quite widely read. It's just that Aston and Fairies seemed quite a logical connection to me...
 
Big Gee you do surprise me and less of the Aston Fairies Beamish!!!!!!!! I am enjoying reading this thread as I am learning as it goes on. Takes a lot of reading though.
 
G G Jean said:
Looking through those fairy photographs I remember my aunt having one on her bedroom wall with fairies dancing around a young girl. Those photo's were very clever for those days weren't they?.
Click to expand...

No offence intended Jean. Only it was you who put the idea in my mind...
 
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