The first mention of the legend of the hound started when Dr.Mortimer reports, “there stood a foul thing, a great black beast shaped like a hound yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon.” This helps us understand everything about the legend and how it started.
Sherlock Holmes seems extremely intrigued with the whole situation and we expect him to go to Baskerville hall himself but instead he sends Watson and quotes “…it is impossible for me to be absent from London for an indefinite time”. Sherlock is a clever man as we can just tell by his detective skills, he knows what he’s doing but I didn’t think he would leave Watson on the case on his own because he would most probably fear for his safety and also Watson needed Holmes to help in the end anyway. So my point overall is that Holmes had the knowledge to solve this case and he’s always in the right place at the right time.
When Sir Henry, Dr.Mortimer and Watson first arrive at Baskerville hall we get our first glimpse of the moor “Over the green squares of fields the low curve of wood there rose in a distance a grey, melancholy hill, with a strange jagged summit, dim and vague in the distance, like some fantastic landscape in a dream.” This description sounds extremely dismal as the colours are so depressing but as the sentence finishes you get a visual image of a beautiful “dream”. This all contrasts with the next look we get at it “…and I walked far upon the soddon moor, full of dark imaginings, the rain beating upon my face and the wind whistling about my ears” this quote certainly doesn’t sound as correct as the first one as its not as pleasant, this adds suspense because if the weather was sunny and perfect it wouldn’t be a place for a killing.
Mr and Miss Stapleton ‘claim’ to be brother and sister and as they live in Merripit House. These are some of the prime suspects as they lived right near Sir Charles- or now sir Henry. At first they seem pleasant folk although when Watson first meets them Mr Stapleton becomes distracted at one point and Miss Stapleton thinking Watson is Sir Henry Baskerville warns him at there first introduction. “Go back Go straight back to London instantly” This obviously makes Watson of both of them. Even though Holmes knew all along Watson only found out near the end when Holmes told him that ‘Mr and Miss’ Stapleton weren’t brother and sister they were married, but Watson must have got the impression before hand because Sir Henry in the end fell in love with Miss Stapleton but every time they went to meet etc Mr Stapleton was always there. As we know Mr Stapleton killed Sir Charles with his hound and he nearly got away with it if it weren’t for Watson and Sherlock Holmes. Throughout this ‘Miss Stapleton’ was helpless because when she was going to try and stop the killing of Sir Henry, Mr Stapleton tied her up so she was totally helpless. This creates suspense throughout the novel, as no one knows if they really are what they say they are.
Mr and Mrs Barrymore were suspects in this as they were Sir Charles servants and Watson found out while he was staying with Sir Henry that Barrymore went to a room every few nights and gave a signal. In the end they followed Mr Barrymore and found out that the escaped convict on the moor was Mrs Barrymore’s brother and they were signalling to him so they could go out and give him food. Eventually the hound killed Seldon as he was mistaken for Sir Henry as he was wearing some of his old clothes Mrs Barrymore had given him.
Mrs Laura Lyons father is Mr frankland but because she married without his consent he wouldn’t have anything to do with her. Sir Charles and her were very close; he helped Laura and lent her money. Laura fell in love with Mr Stapleton though as she thought he wasn’t married, he tricked her into saying to sir Charles to meet her at 10 o’clock instead Mr Stapleton went there with the hound and Sir Charles died.
A few clues were Sherlock Holmes and Watson got all this information from is from a missing boot which was used by Mr Stapleton to find Sir Henry on the moor because it had his scent, Talking to Miss Laura Lyons a lot and obviously there general Knowledge.
In conclusion to Conan Doyle’s- Hound of the Baskervilles I think it was a good book with lots of ups and downs and a whole load of suspense and Dramatic Tension.
