The Hound of the Baskervilles
Is an old family legend being used as a cover for a very modern murder?
1901
Is an old family legend being used as a cover for a very modern murder?
1901
Local superstition about a family legend going back to the English Civil War (1642-1651) blames the death of Charles Baskerville on a giant, ghostly hound, but Sherlock Holmes doesn’t seem to be able to take it seriously.
THE sudden death of Sir Charles Baskerville brought his nephew Henry from Canada to Baskerville Hall, on the edge of Dartmoor.
Rumours that Sir Charles had died of fright on seeing the Baskerville hound, the terror of a family ghost-story going back to the 17th century, Sir Henry brushed aside as legend.
But anonymous threats and a stolen boot seemed quite real, so Sir Henry’s doctor consulted Sherlock Holmes. Declaring himself too busy to attend in person, Holmes despatched his friend Dr Watson to Devonshire, with strict instructions to report back everything he saw.
Watson found much that was suspicious. Sir Henry’s own butler, Barrymore, was signalling to someone out on the moor after dark; on the night he died, Sir Charles had had an assignation with a woman named Laura Lyons; and Watson himself had heard the chilling howl of a hound.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why didn’t Sir Henry take the rumours about Sir Charles’s death seriously?
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Dr Mortimer was a man of science. Dr Mortimer took the legend seriously.