{"id":176597,"date":"2023-11-29T04:18:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T03:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/candas365.es\/noticias\/?p=176597"},"modified":"2023-11-29T04:18:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T03:18:23","slug":"tailing-the-hound-of-the-baskervilles-on-dartmoor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/candas365.es\/noticias\/tailing-the-hound-of-the-baskervilles-on-dartmoor\/","title":{"rendered":"Tailing the Hound of the Baskervilles on Dartmoor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dartmoor, England\u00a0(dpa)<\/span>\u00a0–\u00a0<\/span>Dartmoor. The word is the epitome of eerie, evoking mist\u00a0swirling over thick gorse, forbidding prison walls and the most famous Sherlock Holmes story\u00a0of all: \u00abThe Hound of the Baskervilles.\u00bb<\/p>\n

\"Dartmoor\"
. Photo: Torsten Velden\/Westend61\/dpa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the novel, the London detective and his sidekick Dr. Watson must solve a mysterious death: Sir Charles Baskerville was found with an expression of utter horror on his face – with the paw prints of a gigantic hound close by.<\/p>\n

To research the idea, Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) travelled to the lonely expanses of Dartmoor in England’s southwestern county of Devon\u00a0in 1901. One of his main sources\u00a0was the local vicar and Dartmoor expert Robert Duins Cooke.<\/p>\n

Today, Cooke’s\u00a0great-grandson Alex Graeme takes tourists to the locations where the novel was inspired. His eight-hour\u00a0\u00abHound of the Baskervilles Tour,\u00bb offered by no one else, is also a\u00a0perfect Halloween adventure, with shivers guaranteed.<\/p>\n

It starts innocently\u00a0enough: Alex comes to the hotel with his car, which makes the tour a lot easier than in Doyle’s time, who had to roam mostly on foot across\u00a0the inaccessible heathlands.<\/p>\n

At Ashburton cemetery, one of the first stops, \u00abHenry Baskerville\u00bb is curiously inscribed on a\u00a0weathered tombstone. Doyle simply borrowed the resonant\u00a0surname from the coachman who drove him here over\u00a0120 years ago. Henry passed away peacefully in 1962, aged 81.<\/p>\n

The landscape in the Dartmoor\u00a0national park is dominated by brown and green tones, occasionally broken up by wild ponies that huddle by\u00a0parked cars for warmth. Landmarks on the horizon are the tors – towering rock formations\u00a0resembling collapsed building blocks.<\/p>\n

It’s still light, but beholding this gaunt natural beauty, one can almost hear the forbidding words that Charles Baskerville wrote before his death, read to Holmes by Dr. Mortimer:\u00a0\u00abI counsel you by way of caution to forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted.\u00bb<\/p>\n

In the distance, black clouds hang ominously over Dartmoor Prison. Built\u00a0in 1806 for French prisoners of war, its grim granite edifices still confine\u00a0almost 700 inmates today. In Doyle’s novel, an escaped convict creates\u00a0additional tension.<\/p>\n

However, the place most associated with the story is the ruins of Holy Trinity Church on the edge of the village of Buckfastleigh, now standing in forlorn solitude amid a sea of slate tombstones.<\/p>\n

In 1992, the church burned down after an act of\u00a0arson, possibly connected with black magic and Satanism said to have been practiced here. That it\u00a0attracted such people was likely due to the\u00a0massive burial chamber, which stands undamaged next to the church’s bare, roofless walls.<\/p>\n

Here rests the landowner Richard Cabell III, nicknamed \u00abDirty Dick,\u00bb\u00a0who was feared as being particularly cruel during his lifetime and who, legend has it, sold his soul to the devil. Since his death in 1677, the passionate huntsman is said to gallop across the moors on stormy nights as a phantom with his dogs.<\/p>\n

It is precisely this legend that Doyle wrapped into the heart\u00a0of his story: here, it is an evil 17th-century Baskerville who stalks young women on the moors\u00a0at night until he is finally hounded to death by a dog.<\/p>\n

Alex recounts\u00a0that the local population feared Cabell’s ghost so much that they locked his coffin in the burial house behind thick walls and iron bars,\u00a0under a mighty stone slab for good measure.<\/p>\n

According to an old tradition, if you walk around the chamber seven times and then put your hand through the bars, Cabell or even the devil himself will snap at your fingers.<\/p>\n

From the ruins\u00a0it is then on to the desolate bogland of\u00a0the Fox Tor Mires, believed to have been Doyle’s model for the fictional Grimpen Mire, where the hellhound wreaks havoc.<\/p>\n

And this is where it happens during the tour: right on the road, on a hilltop, a giant, inky\u00a0silhouette blocks\u00a0the way\u00a0ahead. Chills race through the passengers’ bones.\u00a0It is only after a second look that it proves\u00a0to be a large cow.<\/p>\n

Slowly, Alex starts up again, and the horned ruminant disappears behind the hill. When the car reaches the hill, there is nothing to see – the animal seems to have dissolved. All that can be heard is the whistling wind.<\/p>\n

This is the cue to seek something more contemplative and\u00a0calming. The cosy \u00abTwo Bridges\u00bb hotel restaurant near the moss-covered, twisted oaks of Wistman’s Wood, also on the tour program, seems ideal.<\/p>\n

But guess what\u00a0– it’s also haunted, this time by the spectre of the Wisht Hounds,\u00a0bloodthirsty dogs with burning red eyes\u00a0that prowl the vicinity.<\/p>\n

In the rustic pub, however, where many hikers take refreshments and rest, a fireplace crackles reassuringly as Devon\u00a0cream teas with scones, clotted cream and jam\u00a0are served.<\/p>\n

And the beasts of\u00a0the moors and the mind? Howl as they might –\u00a0they have to stay outside.<\/p>\n

The eight-hour \u00abThe Hound of Baskervilles Tour\u00bb with Alex Graeme is not cheap. It costs \u00a3450 ($550) for two people, \u00a3525 pounds for four, and \u00a3595 for a group of six.<\/p>\n

By Christoph Driessen, dpa<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dartmoor, England\u00a0(dpa)\u00a0–\u00a0Dartmoor. The word is the epitome of eerie, evoking mist\u00a0swirling over thick gorse, forbidding prison walls and the most famous Sherlock Holmes story\u00a0of all: \u00abThe Hound of the Baskervilles.\u00bb In the novel, the London detective and his sidekick Dr. Watson must solve a mysterious death: Sir Charles Baskerville was found with an expression of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":176598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[536],"tags":[427],"class_list":{"0":"post-176597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-candas-news","8":"tag-news"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t