Richard Cabell - Evil Squire of Buckfastleigh

I have chosen to research the man who inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Hound of the Baskervilles', Richard Cabell. Having died 5th July, 1677, there are various versions of this man's life and how he gained his evil reputation. For example, some of the versions suggest that he was an evil man and keen huntsman who sold his soul to the devil, or that he killed his wife, though other versions say that his wife outlived him by 14 years at least. Another version of the tale says that Richard Cabell beat his wife and accused her of infidelity, and chased her over the moor, catching her and stabbing her to death in a fit of rage, which is a version closely related to Doyle's Hugo Baskerville. It is said that her faithful hound tore out his throat in revenge, and that both fell to their deaths. Another version tells how on the night of his burial a pack of phantom hounds bayed across the moor and sat howling at his tomb. Some say he leads the hounds on hunts across the moors, sometimes with a headless horse and coach.

With so many different versions of Cabell's life it may be difficult for me to reconstruct the past with a certain degree of accuracy, however there are other elements of writing I can attempt to help reconstruct this man's life. In week 4 of our Telling True Stories lectures, we discussed effective ways in which to reconstruct the past, such as, recreating the atmosphere/experience, Dialogue, Emotion, Accuracy, having credibility, consistency and corroboration when using information from a source, and, of course, when quoting, every quote must have a source as it would not be true otherwise. This is something Kate Summerscale does extremely well in The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, which is shown by her extensive bibliography of sources. Some of these will be difficult, others I will be excited to research and discover which ways I can tell the story of Richard Cabell.

Love, Mythology or Evil?

I have three central concepts for which I want to research and eventually convey through a nonfiction piece. Firstly, I am considering telling the story of famous illustrator and author, Howard Pyle, but I wanted to particularly research the time of his life when he was writing The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903). I believe this would have great potential as an intriguing true story since, not only do the majority of people find British mythology fascinating, especially that of the Arthurian legend, but many would also be fascinated by the initial ideas of these stories and how they came to be in the writer's mind. Perhaps even, what life and cultural events occured that had further inspired him at the time. I personally would love to research the background of this man and this story since it's origin is right on my doorstep, even though Pyle is an American, the mythology is English. Just as Lee Gutkind says in his book, The Art of Creative Nonfiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality, "In searching for a topic for a book, article, or essay, begin in the most obvious places. Look around you, where you live…"

The second concept I am considering researching is in the form of recorded dialogue between a married couple, Phyllis and Werner, which can be found online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060brhw. Within this love story can be found great conflict since Werner is German, introducing cultural conflict as the two first met during the second World War. There is much research that could be uncovered about these two, how they met, their surroundings and how the war affected or contributed to their relationship. In addition, a story such as this usually excites the general public, however, with this being a true - and successful - story with, what we would consider, a 'happliy ever after', the effect of their love would be emphasised to the readers, giving this idea a lot of potential. Also, the amount of research that could be done on this particular story would further highlight the reality, for example, using actual dialogue that has occured in real life would contribute to this effect. Kate Summerscale does this successfully in, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, e.g., "he once told Dickens, 'I couldn't do better than have a drop of brandy-and-water to keep my courage up.'"

Last of all, I want to research and explore the life of Richard Cabell, the man who's life inspired the legendary story 'The Hound of the Baskervilles', by Arthur Conan Doyle. This would make such an interesting and chilling story since, not only was this man supposedly an evil squire who murdered his wife, but this man was a real person and real people had called him evil. There is much research that can be done since this is a popular legend in Dartmoor with many versions that I could explore, leaving a lot of potential for this story to chill and excite readers with it's sense of Gothic and, also, reality.