Chapter 8: Kington

Kington and the Origins of The Hound of the Baskervilles

You wouldn't know it from walking through the sleepy little town of Kington with its 300-year-old black and white houses, its tall clock tower built to commemorate Queen Victoria's 1877 Golden Jubilee and its Norman church, but it is associated with one of the most notable characters in our literature. I'm talking about Conan Doyle's infamous sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, who, complete with deerstalker, magnifying glass, pipe and Dr. Watson, set about solving the mystery of The Hound of the Baskervilles in late Victorian times, little knowing that his creator got his inspiration here in Kington.

Now, as any keen Sherlockian (yes, that's what these particular anoraks call themselves) knows, the action in The Hound of the Baskervilles takes place on Dartmoor, not on the border between England and Wales. But therein lies, appropriately enough, the mystery. For, you see, Conan Doyle himself said that the idea for the Baskerville hound came from a golfing trip he made to Cromer in Norfolk with a friend. When a storm drove them indoors, the friend entertained Doyle with tales of a phantom dog called Black Shuck, which allegedly haunted the local countryside. Black Shuck was a terrifying creature: as big as a calf, and with eyes that bled fire and anyone unfortunate enough to meet him was sure to die. Conan Doyle and the friend, whose name was Fletcher Robinson, then worked into the night plotting the story. Shortly afterwards the writer went to stay at Robinson's house on the edge of Dartmoor to acquire further material for his story.

So what's all that got to do with Kington?

Well, you see there is a legend in Kington about Thomas "Black" Vaughan of Hergest whose ghost allegedly tormented the inhabitants of the town by taking the form of a fly in order to pester horses and upset farm wagons and then entering the church as a Hereford bull.

Sounds like a load of bull, doesn't it?

Anyway, according to this legend, Black Vaughan so terrified the local peasants that they stopped going to market and the town's prosperity dipped. Now if there's one thing that capitalism can't stand it's making a loss, so Black Vaughan was given the good old bell, book and candle treatment. And that should have been that, except for the fact that Black Vaughan's dog allegedly continued to haunt the territory its master had once operated in. And it is this Black Dog of Hergest which Conan Doyle was told about when he was staying at nearby Clyro Court with one Thomas Baskerville, whose family had lived there for centuries.

Now is that a coincidence or is it a load of cobblers? Make your own mind up.

And here's another neat little twist to this tale. When The Hound of the Baskervilles first appeared, it had a footnote on the title page that read:

"This story owes its inception to my friend Mr Fletcher Robinson, who has helped me both with the general plot and in the local details. ACD."

And it is certainly true that Robinson received £30 per 1000 words while Doyle got £100. All the more curious then that Robinson should have died suddenly at the young age of 36, apparently of typhoid. One theory is that he was poisoned by laudanum administered by Doyle, a qualified doctor.

Personally, I know that writers are notorious liars, so I put no credence on what any of them say, even under oath. Conan Doyle may have wanted us to believe that Fletcher Robinson's tale about Black Shuck was the origin of The Hound of the Baskervilles but I think he was just protecting his sources.

Trust me, I'm a writer.

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