Travel and Adventure by Various Travel Authors

By Sharon Whitley Larsen

DARTMOOR, England —The eerie, wailing moan and loud banging outside caused my fellow diners and me to jump. What was that? Could it be the recently escaped felon from nearby Dartmoor Prison?

At once Perkins, the butler, ran to the window and pulled open the velvet curtains. A huge hound with glowing yellow-red eyes stared in at us.

And we all laughed.

We had been transformed back in time to 1900 and were partaking in "The Baskerville Dining Experience" at Laughter Hole House with the hostess, Lady Frankland, and none other than Sherlock Holmes himself. The setting was a Victorian-style cottage in the desolate, misty, foggy moors of southwest England — the haunting scene of "The Hound of the Baskervilles," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most popular work. In the book, the house is referred to as Lafter Hall. Solicitous Tilly the maid served a five-course dinner that had been lovingly prepared by Mrs. Hudson, the housekeeper for Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. John Watson.

She had accompanied them to Dartmoor on the two-hour train ride from their comfortable London townhouse at 221b Baker St. — "one of the most famous addresses in English literature," noted Russell Miller, author of the recent biography, "The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle." A popular tourist attraction, it's where many Sherlock Holmes stories begin and end, and letters are still sent there, addressed to the world's most well-known fictional detective.

Holmes is honored today with a statue in Edinburgh, Conan Doyle's native city —as well as at the entrance of London's Baker Street Station, where his famous profile —with the deerstalker hat and pipe — decorates the Underground's ceramic tiles.

"Only Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus rival Sherlock Holmes for worldwide recognition," points out Miller. "Holmes inspires a cultlike devotion among his fans. " He's known to most visitors to Britain and especially popular with the Japanese. There are more than 400 Sherlock Holmes societies worldwide. The Baker Street Irregulars, started in New York City in 1934, included such fans as Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Issac Asimov.

Holmes, described as "an honorable, brave, scientific, sensible detective" by Dr. Andrew Norman in his 2007 book, "Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Sherlock Holmes," was created by Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, one of 10 children, who was born in Edinburgh on May 22, 1859. A prolific writer, Conan Doyle wrote his first story at age 6, sold his first magazine article at age 20, and wrote some 1,500 letters to his devoted storytelling mother. His work includes medical articles, war commentaries, plays, political crusades, poems, historical novels — and 56 short stories and four novels starring Holmes and Watson.

"A Study in Scarlet," his first story about Holmes, was published in 1887 in "Beeton's Christmas Annual." (A torn, creased original copy sold at Sotheby's in 2007 for $156,000.) In July 1891 the Holmes stories began appearing in Strand Magazine, nearly doubling the circulation. The next year the first 12 stories were published in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes."

In 1893, when Conan Doyle grew weary of Holmes and killed him off in "The Final Problem, " some 20,000 readers canceled their Strand subscriptions and he was forced to creatively resurrect his character ("fortunately as no coroner had pronounced his remains," he later explained). In 1927 the last 12 Holmes stories were published in "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes."

The popular detective stories have been translated into more than 50 languages and have never been out of print. Today several libraries house the work of Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes material, including London's Marylebone Library; the British Library, with more than 2,000 items; and the University of Minnesota Library, which has the world's largest collection — more than 15,000 items.

The witty, observant, pipe-smoking detective has been portrayed by some 70 actors in more than 200 films. Another one, opening Christmas Day, stars Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. It's directed by Guy Ritchie, a longtime Holmes fan, who fondly recalled hearing the bedtime stories as a child at an English boarding school.

"I suppose I've had an affection for Sherlock Holmes ever since then," he recently observed.

The film was shot on location in Manchester, Liverpool and the London area, including Greenwich's Royal Naval College, St.

Paul's Cathedral, Brompton Cemetery and St. Bartholomew the Great Church.

The popular stories take place in many well-known London sites frequented by Conan Doyle, including the British Museum, Covent Garden, Simpson's on the Strand, the Langham Hotel, Criterion Bar, and various train and tube stations and theaters.

Conan Doyle, raised in a large Roman Catholic family (with an alcoholic artist father who died in a mental hospital), later became agnostic and then a fervent spiritualist (especially after the death of his oldest son). For a time he was a friend of Harry Houdini's, and he was later ridiculed for stating his belief in fairies.

He didn't start out to be a writer and wanted to be a civil engineer. Then, in 1881, he earned his medical degree (later basing Holmes on one of his astute, intuitive professors, the legendary Dr. Joseph Bell). For his medical school graduation, he sketched a drawing of himself holding his diploma, the caption reading, with black humor, "Licensed to Kill." He gave up his medical practice in 1891 to write full time since he could make more money and it was his true passion.

A sportsman who loved to travel, Conan Doyle also had a stint on a whaler, sailing to the Arctic; served as a medical officer on a steamer to Africa; was a war correspondent in the 1896 Sudan War; and also served as a medical volunteer in the Boer War, 1899-1902. He was knighted at Buckingham Palace for his war service in 1902, and King Edward VII, a big Sherlock Holmes fan, invited him to dinner.

In 1885 Conan Doyle met his first wife, Louise ("Touie") Hawkins, when her brother, his patient, died suddenly of meningitis. They were engaged within a month and married four months later; he was 26, she nearly 28. They had a compatible 21-year marriage and two children.

"But she was not the love of his life," noted British biographer Andrew Lycett, author of the 2007 book, "The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." In 1893, Touie was diagnosed with tuberculosis and given three months to live. But she hung on. During her illness, four years later, in 1897, Conan Doyle, then 38, met singer Jean Leckie, 22. They immediately fell madly in love. Torn between devotion to his seriously ill wife, yet feeling passionate love for Leckie, Conan Doyle remained loyal to Touie until her death nine years later, at age 49, while Leckie patiently waited on the sidelines. In 1907 he and Leckie wed and had three children. They remained married until his death at age 71 on July 7, 1930.

It's an irony that Conan Doyle, who has provided millions of fans with entertainment by reading his richly detailed and clever detective stories, sometimes hated Holmes, believing that the sleuth's vast popularity interfered with the reading public's appreciating his more serious work.

Incidentally, that famous quote often attributed to Sherlock Holmes' quote, "Elementary, my dear Watson," is not found in any of the stories but is instead credited to Hollywood.

IF YOU GO

Baskerville Dining Experience, www.baskervillecarriages.co.uk

Discover Dartmoor, www.dartmoor.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221b Baker St., www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes Pub: www.sherlockholmespub.com

Walking tour of Sherlock Holmes' London, Original Walks (type in Sherlock Holmes), www.walks.com

Sherlock Holmes Collection at Marylebone Library, by appointment only,

www.westminster.gov.uk/libraries/findalibrary/marylebone.cfm

British Library, www.bl.uk

The Sherlock Holmes Collections, University of Minnesota Library

http://special.lib.umn.edu/rare/holmes.phtml

Sherlock Holmes Literary Estate, www.sherlockholmesonline.org

Baker Street Journal, www.bakerstreetjournal.com

BritRail, www.britrail.com

VisitBritain, www.visitbritain.com

Sharon Whitley Larsen is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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