Conan Doyle's Home Life
Conan Doyle's Home Life is an article written by D. A. Willey published in The Salt Lake Herald on 24 december 1899.
This article offers a vivid journalistic portrait of Arthur Conan Doyle's domestic life at Undershaw, describing his home, habits, family, sporting interests, and working environment. It also presents him as a vigorous man whose travel, medical practice, and observation of people and places fed directly into the range and realism of his fiction.
Conan Doyle's Home Life
Where the Famous Novelist Lives and Works — Something shaw. About Mrs. Doyle — Where the Author Obtained His Literary Material.
(Copyright, 1899, by the Author.)
The presentation of Sherlock Holmes as a play has revived interest in Dr. Conan Doyle to a remarkable degree. Sherlock Holmes is unquestionably the greatest detective in fiction, and his impersonation by Mr. Gillett has set critics to thinking again about Dr. Doyle's newer work and his work ways. I had the pleasure of visiting Dr. Doyle recently in his English home. He is as far removed from civilization as is Kipling in his home at Rottingdean. He lives fully four miles from the nearest railroad-at Hindhead. It is one of the charming English residence towns, free from most of the unpleasant features of city life, yet with urbane advantages. A person of means and tastes who desires both country and city existence should feel satisfied in this part of the queen's domain unless over fastidious. Along the range of hills can be found the homes of some of England's most noted writers and scientists, past and present. Tennyson lived here. Professor Tyndall was also one of the Halsemere colony, living next door to Dr. Doyle. The natural beauties of the surroundings impress themselves on the mind at once. From his rear or perhaps front veranda — for the house seems to have a front where the rear should be-the owner can look directly down the valley to its foot, five miles away. Both sides contain thickly wooded groves divided by wide patches of heather, with here and there a cultivated field or a strip of pasture land. Six hundred feet above the sea, it is high enough to get the invigorating air of such altitudes, while from the English channel, but twenty miles away, comes the pleasant sea breeze.
A glance at Doyle indicates how well this country is suited to his tastes and habits. He might be 45-he might be 40. It is hard to say, as he stands over six feet, a fine specimen of the vigorous, hardy manhood native to Great Britain. His strong, resolute features are tanned by exposure in the cricket field, on the tennis court and by the. season after season of bird and rabbit shooting. It can be seen at once that he needs no tonics for nervousness or dyspepsia. Apparently he has nerves, for whether handling a cricket bat in a decisive play or sighting his gun in a supreme moment, one cannot trace a tremor of the muscle or a quiver of the eyelids. Indoor and outdoor exercises have given him muscles of steel and the suppleness and agility of a youth in his teens.
As one turns the pages of such books as "The White Company," "Micah Clark" and "Brigadier Gerard," he is struck with the rugged manliness of the principal characters, while throughout each work a tone of vigor and virility prevails which is original with the writer. Talk with him even for a half hour and you realize that they are the product of a mind not enfeebled by over-exertion, but nourished and strengthened from a superb physical system. In a word, he has not developed his mental faculties at the expense of the others, but has kept both well balanced with the result that today he seems as capable of accomplishing as much in the literary field as he has already accomplished — and perhaps more.
He has built up his constitution so that today he is capable of enduring any amount of fatigue without being the worse for it. The four miles from Hindhead to Halsemere is a short walk for him and many times a year does he cover it. Probably everyone for ten miles around knows him by sight, for his figure is familiar to the country folk.
Naturally of a peaceable disposition, the author is not to be trifled with any more than some of the characters in his writings. He is a great believer in fair play, and on more than one occasion has stood up for the weaker man in trouble to the cost of his assailant. They tell a story about Halsemere of a little adventure in which he took part at Southsea near Portsmouth, his former home. Many of the cart drivers at Southsea have boys to help deliever their loads. One morning, as the doctor was getting a little exercise to whet his appetite for breakfast, one of these carts came along. The driver, a heavily built man, had been drinking until he was in an ugly mood. For some reason he became angry with the boy, and stopping his horse, began beating the lad with the handle of his whip. He was so busily engaged that he did not know anyone else was interested until a hand grasped him by the shoulder and pulled him headlong into the street. "I think you've done about enough of this, my man."
"It's no business of such gentry as you to interfere when the young rascal needs a beating," and the enraged driver, who had struggled to his feet, drew back his whip to strike the new comer. The doctor's right fist landed on his face and he went down like a log. When he arose it was to aplogize. The fight had been to use a slang phrase, "knocked out of him."
They call him "Kenn'n Doyle" in the neighborhood. The word "Conan," seems to be difficult to use and is so commonly mispronounced and misspelled, as the writer has indicated, that at the time of his visit he saw a box from London directed to "Mr. Canon Doyle, Hindhead," and probably no one relished the joke conveyed in that religious title more than the author himself.
But little sign of literary work is to be found about the house. Even his library is made the receptacle for cricket and tennis kits, guns and trout tackle are spread all over the place, for while the family in Hindhead is small, excluding the six servants, more or less friends from London or nearby are being entertained. The doctor is a member of one of the best amateur cricket teams in the country, and during his week every year as host it is an open house to all lovers of the sport. Nothing is reserved from them. The players generally have a contest daily and are driven to it in the brake, a vehicle very essential to English country life, which will carry the entire eleven with room to spare. On the return to evening tea, the table is illuminated by a banquet lamp shaded by a design in salmon silk. This is called the Victory shade, as it is considered a sign of good luck and is always brought out by Mrs. Doyle during "Cricket Week." Through its influence several trophies are supposed to have been won. The hostess is as enthusiastic as her husband over the sport, and if necessary to afford room, will "bundle" the children off to some relative's to remain until the guests have departed. As the cricket season occupies nearly two months, it may be surmised that very little literary work is done about "Undershaw" until its close or between spring and autumn. In addition to cricket, however, a spring trap and the fragments of numerous clay pigeons scattered about the grounds attest his fondness for shooting. The six horses in the stable include two fine saddle mares, one of which has a record as a jumper. At the side of the house is a grass tennis court bearing the indications of frequent usage, while one of the largest rooms — in fact, that apartment opposite the drawing room-is given up to billiard and pool tables for indoor sport in inclement weather, although the rain must fall fast or the snow be deep to keep the author-sportsman from enjoying some outdoor pastime if he feels thus inclined.
"Undershaw" is very much of today — like its host. It cannot boast of anything historical, as it was built but two years ago. The exterior is that of the modern villa so popular in Surrey. All of the decorations are in light tints. The drawing room and chambers are also furnished in light design, and with the numerous windows it may very properly be called a sunny home. The front door opens into a square hall large enough to accommodate a sofa and numerous chairs. A generous fire-place as to size suggests to the attractiveness of this part of the home during the long, cold evenings of winter, and as a gathering place for the family and friends. Opening into it are the billiard room, drawing room, library and dining room. Probably the good wife selected for the author the location of the library, which is one of the pleasantest in the house. From it he can look away down the valley with its ever varying hues upon a picture which nothing enters to mar its peaceful beauty. Near at hand he can see his own grounds, partly level and partly hillside, the latter covered with gorse and heather and alive with rabbits. The long writing table of oak, upholstered in leather, contains the necessary room for writing material, also for a box of tobacco and an assortment of pipes, as well as a dictionary and one or two other reference books. Each of the two cases against the wall holds perhaps a hundred books of poetry, history, travel, biography and fiction, including several of his own works; also an elaborate edition of Scott. But the selection is very miscellaneous and is principally for family reading.
Perhaps the most notable feature of Dr. Doyle's library is a bust of Sherlock Holmes, the detective whose marvelous performances as depicted by the author have been the wonder of the English reading world. It has been questioned whether Holmes was a true personage, or whether he was a myth conjured up to play his part in the novelist's several dramas, such as "The Sign of the Four," etc. It was well known that Holmes' friend, "Dr. Watson," was none other than the author, but the identity of Holmes himself was questioned. The writer can positively state that he did exist, although the name of Holmes was naturally fictitious. The man, whose right name was Dr. Belden, was a Scotchman residing in Edinborough. His study of human nature led him to play the part of detective, and he met with success in hunting down several noted criminals who had eluded the professional detective force of the kingdom. Dr. Doyle chanced to make his acquaintance, and an intimacy sprang up between the two men which resulted in the production of the "detective stories" which have been so interesting because the reader was forced by narration to believe that they were true. The famous character was a man of medium height, and though delicate in appearance, very wiry and muscular. He was what Americans would call a "dead" shot with a revolver, and the knowledge of his skill among the criminal classes undoubtedly saved his life on several occasions when tracing out the perpetrators of crimes.
Throughout the home the evidences of woman's presence are numerous-in the dainty rosettes and other ornaments on the furniture, in the tasteful arrangements, in the touches here and there to convert the commonplace into the ornamental-al! indications of woman's pride in her house. And the mistress of Undershaw is truly what one imagines after seeing her hand! — work. She is decidedly petite in contrast to her big, athletic husband, and her delicate appearance is an indication of her health. For years she has suffered from weak lungs. The climate of the greater part of Britain is not helpful to pulmonary troubles, and the doctor has taken his wife to various places on the continent recommended by specialists. The south of France has been as beneficial as elsewhere, but has not entirely relieved her. Through friends the author heard of the Haslemere valley, with its combination of sea and mountain air, with the result that his wife has found at last a place which affords her permanent relief, while it is especially suited to his taste and mode of life. Her illness has not in any way affected the spirits of the lady in question, who has the rare faculty of making those who cross its threshold feel that at least for the time they are a part of the household. There are no traits which prominently distinguish Mrs. Doyle from other women in her rank of life. She is naturally proud of her husband, and as interested in his work as though she herself were performing it She has been his companion, both at home and on his travels, except when he visited the States in 1895. The lectures he delivered at that time she was obliged to read at a distance, as the physicians deemed it unwise for her to cross the Atlantic on account of her health. While the cares of the home and the entertainment of the numerous visitors occupy much of her time, she has some leisure in which to employ herself in fancy work. Like her husband she is very fond of music, especially light compositions, such as selections from Gilbert and Sullivan and the popular concert hall songs. In addition to the pianoforte, a graphophone also entertains the family, and such melodies as "Way Down Upon the Suwannee River" and Sousa's marches are among the airs which are received with greatest applause so much for the Anglo-American feeling at Undershaw.
One of the author's most faithful friends and an important personage at his home in Row. He only exhibits his appreciation of what is done for him by showing his teeth or wagging his tail, but visitors prefer the latter, as Row is a bull dog of high degree. He is as ugly as any similar member of the canine race who ever wore a blue ribbon, and one of the largest species in Great Britain. He is of a very affectionate disposition and is a great pet with the children.
Dr. Doyle's workshop is always ready with an abundance of paper, pens and pencils, while the box of smoking mixtures always contains a good supply for the favorite stumpy black pipe. How many thrilling descriptions have been written with that pipe clenched between the author's teeth will probably never be known, but its appearance indicates that it has done yeoman service.
Considering his experience it is not strange that the doctor has secured material for such a variety of fiction — if it can be called fiction — which he has prepared. It scarcely seems credible that the same hand which retailed the career of an adventurer of the Richelieu regime could with equal faithfulness portray the lives of the miserly London merchant and his villainous son — in "The Firm of Girdlestone," but he has visited the most historic sections of France and no detail of scene which would assist in forming the plot of a story has escaped his notice. He is as familiar with the ins and outs of the world's greatest city as though a life-long resident, and has traversed about every part of England offering matter for his line of work. The time spent as a medical practitioner at Southsea and elsewhere gave him an additional fund to draw from which the great majority of writers have never, possessed. He can detail the work in hospitals and use casualties and crimes that came under his observation to strengthen his descriptions. Everyone at all familiar with the routine of a surgeon can appreciate the opportunities he has had to observe life from a point of view hidden to the layman. This has been the good fortune of Dr. Doyle, but he has abandoned the use of the scalpel and phial except as emergencies require his skill in his own household and intends to devote himself entirely to literary work. He has practically followed this plan for several years.
Just what we may next expect from the library in Haslemere valley cannot be answered in this article, as on that success of his play, "Halves," in London theatres may decide him to soon complete another or he may produce a point the author's lips are sealed. The new creation in fiction.
D. A. WILLEY.
