The Margin

Place Baker Street The London lodgings Sherlock Holmes shares with Watson, where they pore over the ordnance map of the moor and Holmes broods on the case in a fog of strong tobacco. Place Baskerville Hall The ancestral seat of the Baskervilles on Dartmoor, where the late Sir Charles lived and died. Person Beryl Stapleton Spoken of well before she is ever seen: the sister of the naturalist Stapleton of Merripit House, said among the moor folk to be a young lady of attractions. Person Cartwright A bright, keen-faced London lad of fourteen, one of the boys at a district messenger office whose manager Holmes had once helped. Place Coombe Tracey The nearest town off the moor, named by Dr. Mortimer as the home of Laura Lyons, the one woman of the district whose initials are L. Place Dartmoor The wild moorland district of Devonshire where Dr. Mortimer keeps his scattered country practice, named in his medical record as Grimpen, Dartmoor, Devon. Event Death on the Moor A terrible scream and the deep roar of a beast burst out of the night as Holmes and Watson sit in the moor hut. Person Dr. James Mortimer A young, amiable, absent-minded country doctor, M.R.C.S., who practises among the moorland parishes of Grimpen on Dartmoor. Person Dr. Watson The friend, fellow-lodger, and chronicler of Sherlock Holmes, a medical man who tries his own hand at his companion's methods of deduction. Place Grimpen The moorland village at the centre of Dr. Mortimer's country practice, listed in his medical record among the parishes he serves on Dartmoor. Person Hugo Baskerville The wild, profane, and godless ancestor at the head of the Baskerville line, whose tale fills the old family manuscript. Person Inspector Lestrade A Scotland Yard inspector, reckoned by Holmes the best of the professionals, who answers a summons by wiring that he is coming down with an unsigned warrant to assist. Person Jack Stapleton A naturalist settled on the moor, named by Dr. Mortimer as one of the only men of education for many miles and a friend of the late Sir Charles. Person James Desmond An elderly clergyman of Westmoreland, of venerable appearance and saintly life, named by Dr. Mortimer as the distant cousin who would inherit the entailed estate should anything… Place Lafter Hall The moorland home of Mr. Frankland, named by Dr. Mortimer alongside Stapleton as one of the only houses of educated men for many miles around the moor. Person Laura Lyons The one person on the moor whose initials are L. Place London The city where Sherlock Holmes keeps his consulting practice in Baker Street and where Dr. Mortimer trained as a young house-surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital. Place Merripit House The isolated moor home of the Stapletons, an old farmhouse put into repair, set among a stunted orchard with the moor stretching away on all sides. Person Mr. Barrymore The butler of Baskerville Hall, son of the old caretaker and one of a family that has served the Hall for four generations. Person Mr. Frankland An old gentleman of Lafter Hall, named by Dr. Mortimer alongside Stapleton as one of the only men of education living near the moor. Person Mrs. Barrymore The housekeeper of Baskerville Hall and wife of the butler Barrymore, one half of the married couple who were the only resident staff under the late Sir Charles. Place Northumberland Hotel The London hotel near Charing Cross where the newly arrived Sir Henry puts up, and to which an anonymous warning note is addressed, though he and Dr. Mortimer had told no one that… Place Princetown The moorland town with its great convict prison, marked on Holmes's map of the district some fourteen miles from Baskerville Hall across Dartmoor. Person Rodger Baskerville The youngest and black-sheep of the three Baskerville brothers, of whom Sir Charles was the eldest. Person Selden The escaped convict loose upon Dartmoor as Sir Henry's party drives in, broken out of the prison at Princetown. Person Sherlock Holmes The celebrated consulting detective of Baker Street, reckoned the foremost practical expert in the science of crime. Person Sir Charles Baskerville The late master of Baskerville Hall, a wealthy and generous squire who made a fortune in South African speculation and brought it home to restore his fallen line. Person Sir Henry Baskerville The next of kin and heir to Sir Charles Baskerville, named in the newspaper as the son of Sir Charles's younger brother and last heard of in America. Family The Baskervilles The ancient Devonshire family seated at Baskerville Hall, said since the days of the wild Hugo to lie under a curse, a spectral hound that dooms the line. Concept The Curse of the Baskervilles The family legend, set down in 1742 and read aloud by Dr. Mortimer: that since the wicked Hugo's death a spectral hound has haunted and doomed the Baskerville line, many of whom… Event The Death of Sir Charles Some three months before the story opens, the wealthy and generous Sir Charles was found dead at the far end of his yew alley after his nightly walk. Event The Figure on the Tor As the convict hunt ends, Watson sees, outlined black as a statue against the rising moon on a distant tor, the figure of a tall, thin man standing with folded arms, brooding over… Place The Grimpen Mire The great bog at the heart of the moor, shown to Watson by Stapleton, who watches a moor pony craning and writhing as it is sucked screaming under the bright green sedge. Object The Hound The monstrous black beast at the heart of the family legend, said in the old manuscript to have torn out the throat of the wicked Hugo on the moor and to have haunted and doomed… Event The London Cab Chase While shadowing Sir Henry and Dr. Mortimer through the streets after their morning interview, Holmes and Watson catch sight of a black-bearded man watching the pair from a hansom… Object The Missing Boots On his first morning at the Northumberland Hotel, Sir Henry finds that one of a brand-new pair of tan boots, set outside his door to be varnished, has vanished. Event The Moor Ambush Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade lie hidden among the rocks on the path from Merripit House, using Sir Henry as bait as he walks home alone. Object The Portrait of Hugo Baskerville The Baskerville Hall portrait of old Hugo Baskerville, recalled by Dr. Mortimer when he relates that the black-sheep Rodger Baskerville was said to be the very image of the family… Event The Sobbing in the Night On his first night at Baskerville Hall, Watson lies wakeful and hears, in the very dead of the night, the unmistakable sob of a woman somewhere within the house, the muffled gasp… Object The Warning Note An anonymous message that reaches Sir Henry at the Northumberland Hotel on his first London morning. Place The Yew Alley The famous hedged walk at Baskerville Hall where the late Sir Charles took his nightly stroll, and at the far end of which he was found dead.