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Sherlock Holmes

The world's foremost consulting detective, residing at 221B Baker Street, London. Holmes is brilliant, eccentric, and intensely analytical, employing close observation and logical deduction to unravel crimes that baffle conventional investigators. He is prone to long periods of solitary concentration, heavy tobacco use, and occasional flashes of dry wit directed at his companion Watson.

Dr. John H. Watson

Holmes's loyal friend, chronicler, and sometime assistant, a medical doctor who narrates the events of the case. Watson is observant but prone to incorrect deductions, which Holmes uses as a foil to sharpen his own reasoning. He is steady, brave, and socially adept where Holmes is aloof.

Dr. James Mortimer

A young country practitioner serving the parishes of Grimpen, Thorsley, and High Barrow on Dartmoor, and personal friend and medical attendant to the late Sir Charles Baskerville. Mortimer is thin, beak-nosed, absent-minded, and keenly interested in anthropology and comparative anatomy. He brings the Baskerville case to Holmes, carrying both the ancient family manuscript and private knowledge withheld from the coroner's inquest.

Sir Charles Baskerville

The recently deceased elder of the Baskerville family, a wealthy man who made his fortune in South African speculation and returned to restore Baskerville Hall and benefit the surrounding countryside. Sir Charles was kindly and generous but deeply fearful of the family curse, and died in the yew alley of Baskerville Hall under mysterious circumstances with an expression of extreme terror on his face. Gigantic hound-prints were found near his body.

Sir Henry Baskerville

The last surviving heir of the Baskerville line, a young man recently farming in Canada and arriving in England to claim the estate following Sir Charles's death. He is described as an excellent fellow in every way, and his safety upon taking up residence at Baskerville Hall is the central concern that drives Dr. Mortimer to seek Holmes's counsel.

Hugo Baskerville

The seventeenth-century ancestor whose wickedness and violence gave rise to the Baskerville curse. Hugo kidnapped a yeoman's daughter, made a pact with the Powers of Evil to recapture her, and was found dead on the moor with a great spectral hound tearing out his throat. His sin is considered the origin of the supernatural doom that has plagued the family ever since.

Barrymore

The butler of Baskerville Hall who served Sir Charles and was one of the first to discover his master's death. Barrymore's evidence at the inquest omitted the hound-prints noticed by Dr. Mortimer, and his behaviour surrounding the death is considered potentially significant by Holmes.

Mrs. Barrymore

Wife of Barrymore the butler, serving as housekeeper of Baskerville Hall. The married couple constituted the entirety of Sir Charles's indoor staff, giving them intimate knowledge of his habits and movements.

Mr. Stapleton

A naturalist living near Baskerville Hall on Dartmoor, described by Dr. Mortimer as one of the very few educated men within many miles and a mutual friend of Sir Charles. His residence is located on Holmes's ordnance map of the moor. His role in the mystery is implied to be significant.

Mr. Frankland

A resident of Lafter Hall on Dartmoor and one of the few educated neighbours of Sir Charles Baskerville. Mentioned briefly as part of the sparse local society around Baskerville Hall.

Rodger Baskerville (elder)

The youngest of Sir Charles's three brothers, described as the black sheep of the family and said to resemble the portrait of the wicked Hugo Baskerville. He fled England, went to Central America, and died of yellow fever in 1876, eliminating another branch of the Baskerville line.

221B Baker Street, London

The famous lodgings shared by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, where the case is first presented. The sitting room serves as Holmes's nerve centre for thinking and analysis, often thick with pipe-smoke during periods of intense concentration. It is here that Dr. Mortimer delivers the Baskerville manuscript and newspaper account.

Baskerville Hall

The ancestral seat of the Baskerville family, situated on Dartmoor in Devon and surrounded by woodland, with a famous yew alley stretching along one side abutting the open moor. The hall has a grim reputation tied to the family curse, and Sir Charles's death in the yew alley has deepened local fear of the place. Its tenancy is considered vital to the economic wellbeing of the surrounding countryside.

The Yew Alley

A long garden walk at Baskerville Hall flanked by twelve-foot-high impenetrable yew hedges, with a central path about eight feet wide and grass strips on either side. A wicket-gate at the midpoint leads onto the open moor. Sir Charles was found dead at the far end of the alley, and the change in his footprints—from walking to running on tiptoe—along with nearby hound-prints, are the chief physical clues of the mystery.

Dartmoor

A vast, desolate moorland in Devon characterised by bogs, tors, ancient standing stones, and sparse habitation, forming the brooding atmospheric backdrop of the case. The moor is considered dangerous, especially at night, and local witnesses have reported seeing a huge luminous spectral hound upon it. Nearby landmarks include Grimpen village, High Tor, Foulmire farmhouse, and the Princetown convict prison fourteen miles distant.

Grimpen

A small hamlet on Dartmoor where Dr. Mortimer has his medical headquarters and serves as practitioner for the surrounding parishes. It appears on Holmes's ordnance map as a small clump of buildings near Baskerville Hall.

Lafter Hall

The residence of Mr. Frankland, one of the few educated men living near Baskerville Hall on Dartmoor. Mentioned as a local landmark on Holmes's map of the moor.

Merripit House

The residence of the naturalist Stapleton, located on Dartmoor and visible on Holmes's ordnance map of the district. Stapleton was a mutual friend of Sir Charles and is one of the few men of education in the area.

Princetown Prison

A great convict prison located fourteen miles from Baskerville Hall on Dartmoor, noted by Holmes on his map as one of the few significant structures in the otherwise desolate moorland region.

Charing Cross Hospital, London

The London hospital where Dr. Mortimer served as house-surgeon from 1882 to 1884 before moving to country practice. His inscribed walking stick was presented to him by friends there on the occasion of his marriage and departure, and Holmes's deduction of its origins is the opening display of his detective method.

Dr. Mortimer's Walking Stick

A stout, bulbous-headed 'Penang lawyer' cane with a broad silver band engraved 'To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H., 1884.' The stick serves as the vehicle for the novel's opening demonstration of Holmes's deductive method, and its worn iron ferrule and dog-tooth marks allow Holmes to deduce Mortimer's profession, habits, and pet. Mortimer later corrects the deduction: it was a gift from hospital friends upon his marriage, not a hunt testimonial.

The Baskerville Manuscript

A handwritten family document dated 1742 and committed to Dr. Mortimer's care by Sir Charles Baskerville. It recounts in archaic prose the legend of Hugo Baskerville's wickedness, his pursuit of a kidnapped maiden across the moor, and the appearance of a gigantic supernatural hound that tore out his throat. The manuscript serves as the foundational text of the family curse and is offered as context for Sir Charles's death.

The Curse of the Baskervilles

An ancient familial doom originating in the seventeenth century when Hugo Baskerville pledged his soul to the Powers of Evil and was slain by a monstrous black hound on the moor. The curse is said to have caused many subsequent Baskervilles to meet sudden, bloody, and mysterious deaths. Local witnesses near the time of Sir Charles's death reported seeing a huge, luminous, spectral creature on the moor matching the description of the legendary hell-hound, and enormous hound-prints were found near Sir Charles's body.

The Spectral Hound

A gigantic black beast, larger than any natural hound, described in legend and by modern witnesses as luminous, ghastly, and spectral. In the original legend it appeared to tear out Hugo Baskerville's throat, and at least three credible witnesses reported seeing a similar creature on Dartmoor shortly before Sir Charles's death. Whether the hound is supernatural or a material agent of human villainy is the central question of the mystery.

Holmes's Deductive Method

Sherlock Holmes practises a systematic method of reasoning from physical evidence—wear patterns, engravings, dog-tooth marks, cigar ash, footprint changes—to reconstruct events and character with high confidence. The method is demonstrated at the opening of the story through analysis of Mortimer's stick and later applied to the crime scene evidence. Holmes distinguishes between a hypothesis being probable and being proven, and insists on exhausting natural explanations before conceding to supernatural ones.

The Moor at Night

Dartmoor is considered especially dangerous after dark, a belief reinforced by both local superstition and the Baskerville legend. The original manuscript warns sons never to cross the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted. Multiple witnesses corroborate a reign of terror in the district following sightings of the spectral hound, and hardy locals refuse to venture out onto the moor at night.

Key Events Timeline

1640s: Hugo Baskerville's wickedness and death on the moor; origin of the curse. 1742: Family manuscript written recounting the legend. 1882–1884: Dr. Mortimer serves at Charing Cross Hospital. 1884: Mortimer's stick presented upon his marriage. Two years before present: Sir Charles Baskerville returns from South Africa and takes up residence at Baskerville Hall. Three months before present: Sir Charles dies in the yew alley on the night of 4 May; inquest returns a verdict of natural causes. Present day: Dr. Mortimer consults Holmes; Sir Henry Baskerville arrives in England from Canada.