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: "H
oare 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.