Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters Read online

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

  A Merry Xmas and happy new year to you both and many more of them. I only hope you got a goose like mine it was truly delicious. I suppose Papa has been to the pantomime and that you have had a nice rest, Mama! The babies made a large breach in the ‘Plum Pudding’. I got your letter on Friday, I think, how nicely Tottie writes. I am glad she is doing well in schools. I hope she is enjoying herself. she wrote me a very pretty note in French a few days ago. many thanks for the Box everything was jolly. only one of the jam pots broke, but it did not do any damage. I obeyed Papa’s injunctions to the letter and had considerable success in sucking the chocolates.

  I have pinned my Xmas and did not starve.* We 4 fellows had as provisions for a week and 4 days 2 turkeys, one very large goose 2 chickens one large ham and 2 pieces [sic] of ham. 2 large sausages. 7 boxes of sardines. 1 of lobster. a plate full of tarts and 7 pots of jam. in the way of drink we had 5 of sherry 5 of port 1 of claret & 2 of raspberry vinegar we had also 2 bottles of Pickles.Ÿ

  The festivities were as follows 1st night we had a concert with several very good comic songs. 2nd night we had ‘the road to ruin’ a comedy in 5 acts and an extract from a French play, and also ‘Waiting for an omnibus’ a farce in one act.

  3rd night we had ‘the Courier of Lyons’ or ‘The Attack on the Mail’ a melodrama and a jolly play (5 murders)

  4th night we had the same repeated

  5th night we had ‘McBeth’ It was jolly. There was none left out. The best scene was the banquet when the ghost of Banquo appears. when the Witches dance round the cauldron when McBeth comes to consult the witches.

  Next night we had the same.

  Next night we had another concert.

  Next night we had two farces ‘The wags of Windsor’ and ‘A Day at Boulougne’. yesterday we had the same.

  The vacation ended this morning, all my goods are finished except Bella’s cake—for which please thank her. I have given Ann the shawl—she was very profuse in her gratitude and said I would be the finest man in England when I was big & that I would have a spirit like yours.

  I will try to be very tidy and will study hard.

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST, APRIL 11, 1871

  As I have a little spare time, I take up my pen, which is a shockingly bad one, to write to you.

  I have been requested to ask you, Ma, if I may get another suit of clothes. I can get them very cheap & good here as the Rector has a private tailor, & if I get a suit they can do for my Sunday suit for the rest of this year & then for my ordinary suit next year. But I am not allowed to get them without leave from you. A great many boys are getting new suits now for the procession at Corpus Christi.

  I am improving in my lessons & am 13th instead of 19th in a school of 37 fellows.

  PS write soon please

  At the time above he was some six weeks short of his twelfth birthday. According to Stonyhurst records he was significantly younger than most of the other boys in his ‘school’ (grade, or form)—as much as three years younger. It is not clear why this was; by his account he was not considered advanced for his age at his earlier school in Edinburgh, nor by Stonyhurst for a long time. (The oldest boys in his form may have been held back.) But it limited his opportunities for friendship to be that much younger than most of his classmates, and only one of his lifelong friends came from his Stonyhurst days.

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

  you would have heard from me some time ago, only I lately got my finger hurt so that it rendered it very painful for me to write, it was the last football match this year, and everyone was playing very hard. I was rushing after the ball, when suddenly I tripped up, and fell with outstretched hands. before I could get up someone, not being able to stop himself, stood on my hand, with such violence that for every nail in his shoe, there was left a little hole in my hand, my forefinger also was hurt and the nail came off. I have however had a lot of remedies applied to my hand and it is much better now.*

  I send you a playbill, you will see my name at the bottom. I used up several burnt corks to make my face dirty enough. I got cheered greatly, not because I did well, but because the main point in my part was to look foolish, and I feel that I did that to perfection. both plays were relished extremely by the rest of the college. we had the good supper a week afterwards, and it fully justified it’s epithet. songs were sung as usual, I sang mine, everyone declared it was capital and that they must have another. I declared I did not know one, a master however brought me ‘the best of wives’ which I sang with the same success.

  The other day Mr Splaine read us a jolly story, translated from the German, perhaps you have read it, it was called ‘The Avenger’ about a lot of horrible murders.

  My lessons are getting on in first straight stile. I am much higher in my class now than last term.

  Excuse the blot at the beginning

  With stories like ‘The Avenger’, and plays like Macbeth and The Attack on the Mail, Conan Doyle was developing a robust taste for ‘jolly’ murder tales. The world of theatre, too, proved to be an enduring interest, and the youngster’s insistence on getting his face ‘dirty enough’ through the use of burnt corks showed a passion for realism.*

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

  I am getting on with my latin verse & am now learning 5 latin or Greek authors, namely Ovid, Cicero, Caesar, (all latin) Xenophon (Greek) & Telemachus (french) besides this we have Ovid & Cicero & English by Heart, Latin Syntax, Greek Grammar, Rules for verse, Catechism & Geography & Greek History. altogether I have to work like anything to get a prize, my marks last term were 765 and as there are 4 terms in the year if I get 765 each time I will have at the end of the year 3060 while I only require to get 2666 to get a prize, so in that case I will get one, but it all depends if I can do as well during the remaining terms as I did last.

  today is a half holiday. Football is finished now & there is no more this year but Hockey & Rounders have come in which are just as good. the Dominoes you sent me at Xmas are a great source of Amusement.

  I am so glad I read most of the books we have at home, because the English theme of last term for which 100 marks is given was taken from 1 of them called Blackwood Tales, the name of the story was the Iron Shroud.

  The Iron Shroud, William Mudford’s gothic tale published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine in 1830, featured a terrified prisoner held in a dungeon, the walls of which slowly close in to crush him to death:

  That is to be my fate! Yon roof will descend!—these walls will hem me round—and, slowly, slowly, crush me in their iron arms!

  The story may have lingered in Conan Doyle’s mind in 1891 as he wrote a Sherlock Holmes story in which the villain traps his victim in a hydraulic press:

  I saw that the black ceiling was coming down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a shapeless pulp.

  —‘The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb’

  For the present, though, with ‘Engineer’s Thumb’ many years in the future, twelve-year-old Arthur’s more immediate concern was the ‘Foot-baller’s Finger’.

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

  We had a long walk yesterday down the Ribble. it is a most beautiful stream with clear water, full of bright trout, while here and there, in the deep & dark places, some ripple on the water will show where a large salmon has come to the surface. after a long walk we came to a place where the Ribble meets the Hodder, another river of considerable size from which Hodder House derives it’s name. there is a beautiful scene here, and I wish Papa was with me to sketch it. we reached home late in the evening. My finger is getting better, but at present I have to write in this sloping way, otherwise I would rub the nail against the paper which would make it very feverish.

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

  My new clothes have made their appearance. they are knickerbockers of a dark grey, jolly thick & apparently very strong. they are pretty big & have tight
elastics which keep up my stockings much better than the others, I will have to get new elastics put into my old pair during the vacation for they dont keep up my stockings at all.

  I got your 3d letter today. The envelopes & stamps also came in the nick of time. I am now using the little elastic band which was round the letter as a garter.

  I got the neckties & pair of gloves last night, I will use the dark blue necktie for week days & the other with my new clothes, gloves, shirts, collars, & stockings for sundays. I am quite a swell. I will tell you if the things fit me whenever I have tried them on.

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

  I have not been able to write to you for some time, on account of the approach of the examens, which occupied all my attention. They are now over. I was very glad to hear that I have got such a good report, I will try to get better still next time.

  There is a very nice practise here, during our Lady’s month of May, of each boy, immediately after washing, going to a small basket before our Lady’s statue, in which are arranged a multitude of little papers, with all sorts of little penances or virtues written upon them. each boy draws a paper out of this basket, and whatever virtue or penance is written on it, he is obliged to practise it for that day. Thus, this morning I got one telling me to dedicate my studies this day to the Mother of God, and study particularly hard. sometimes you get a paper telling you to give 1d of your weekly money to the poor, but there are no more severe penances than that.

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

  I have good news for you, namely that Uncle Conan’s letter has gone a week ago. I thought I would never finish it. I sent him a playbill and I slily changed the A. DOYLE on the bill into A. C. DOYLE to gratify him. I hoped Aunt Susan was well several times, and I sent her an indefinite number of kisses. I send you the photograph. I am awfully sorry about that blotch behind, the truth of the matter is that having bought it during recreation I had no place to put it, so I tied it up in my handkerchief, but wishing to blow my nose soon after, I pulled out my handkerchief and the photograph tumbled out, and the back of it got dirtied. I am sure your ingenuity will soon take the dirt away.

  The 3rd term has just begun. I have been extremely successful last term, but I was more successful in Arithmetic than in anything else, fancy I got the 2nd highest marks in the school in Arithmetic. The 6th highest in lessons and the 7th highest in History.

  My finger is much better and I never felt more jolly. Football, which you reasonably observed to be a rough game, is abolished, and we are to begin ‘Stonyhurst Cricket’ tomorrow. I am Head of a match in cricket and am considered the best player of my size in the Lower Line.

  My love to everybody yourself included. since you neglected the Pancakes at Shrovetide I hope you will not forget the hot X buns.

  After the close of the school year Conan Doyle found the situation at home increasingly shaky, but his mother determined that he should continue at Stonyhurst. ‘Early in my career there, an offer had been made to my mother that my school fees would be remitted if I were dedicated to the Church,’ he recalled. ‘She refused this, so both the church and I had an escape. When I think, however, of her small income and great struggle to keep up appearances and make both ends meet, it was a fine example of her independence of character, for it meant some £50 a year which might have been avoided by a word of assent.’ Both she and he had also begun to fall away from the Roman Catholicism in which they were raised. In time she left the church to become an Anglican, while Conan Doyle privately renounced Catholicism before leaving school. It was the beginning of a pilgrimage that would end, forty-five years later, in his public commitment to Spiritualism.

  Charles Doyle’s decline continued, meanwhile. At one point during the summer his father, who loved the outdoors, went off on an excursion with the head of the Office of Works, Robert Matheson, with Mary Doyle clearly welcoming the effect upon her husband’s increasingly fragile nerves.

  to Charles Doyle SCIENNES HILL PLACE, EDINBURGH, AUGUST 30, 1871

  Dearest Pa,

  I hope you are enjoying yourself very much. bring the Snipe home and shoot some more. Cony was very sick this morning, but is better now. I spent Sunday and Monday at Mrs Smith’s. yesterday Ma and I were invited to a grand Picnic by Mrs Burton.* I started from Granton, she from here. She got in time but I was late so I had to walk home again and as I had no key I got in from the next people’s window. on last Saturday Ma sent me to Granton to get a package from the Ostrich Steamboat, the Mate of which did me the honour of calling me ‘a lazy lubber’. I have got a real palm tree seed from the Botanical gardens, for my museum. and now GoodbyeŸ FROM MARY DOYLE My dearest, I do beg that you will try and get all the enjoyment you can out of your little trip. The only thing I regret is that you did not take more changes of clothes with you. You must be uncomfortable on that score, I fear. Just a line and I will send you shirts, socks, collars, hanks by the train. I am very pleased that you are getting the change and do not come home an hour sooner than you can help. Seldom enough you get away, without us the least you may get is a little peace. I hope Mr Matheson will also benefit by his trip. I am making all my preparations for the great event, but I am wonderfully well & as you wd say ‘jolly’.

  Ever yr loving M

  Conan Doyle returned to Stonyhurst the autumn of 1871 determined to excel. Although parting from his family was always difficult, he looked forward to his school friends, including his travelling companions the Guibara brothers and Jimmy Ryan.

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

  I will tell you now all my adventures. I went as far as Carstairs with a nice lady who was going to Chester. an awful shock announced the arrival of the Glasgow train. I looked everywhere for Guibara, but could not see him on account of a bend of the line when suddenly in ran a guard to know if I was going to Stonyhurst. I answered yes, so he bundled me out of that carriage into another where I found the 2 Guibaras and Ryan. they had lots of grub and we had a jolly tuckout, and so we travelled until we got within a short distance of Preston without ever changing at all when suddenly Guibara’s [hat] blew out of the window luckily he had another in his trunk which was in the carriage. At last we arrived at Preston and were just going to hire a cab when suddenly one of the Fathers came up and told us there was no use getting a cab for there were 40 boys at the Red Lion Inn who were going in two large busses that night he then took us off to the Red lion and gave us a good dinner. we were then informed that the luggage could not be sent yet, but would be sent by the next Coal carts so we went off in the busses without paying a penny and got here by 6.

  I am quite a Stonyhurst boy again and am quite at home.

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST, OCTOBER 10, 1871

  As next Thursday is a holiday I will just show you the order of the day. 6 rise, from 6 to 1/2 past, ‘wash’, from 1/2 past 6 to 1/4 past 7 Mass & prayers from 1/4 past 7 to 1/4 past 8 Studies, from 1/4 past 8 till 1/4 to 9 breakfast, from 1/4 to 9 till 1/2 past 10 we play games from 1/2 past 10 till 12 we play a grand football match from 12 till 1/2 past 12 ‘wash’ from 1/2 past 12 till 1 dinner from 1 till 1/2 past 5 we go out for walks or do what we like from 1/2 past 5 till 1/2 past 7 we have something in the theatre. Pepper’s Ghosts or something of that sort.* From 1/2 past 7 till 8 we have supper from 8 till 9 we have playing cards or chess or any inside game and then we go to bed. so you see I am to be envied rather than pitied

  to Charles Doyle STONYHURST, OCTOBER 1871

  Dearest Papa

  You remember that little picture of St Michaels Mount with Sir Kennelworth on it which you drew in my little red book. Well! The Fathers say it is a most wonderful work of art and have taken it from me they are so delighted with it.

  Stonyhurst, you must know is divided into 2 parts. The higher line for the big boys and the lower line for the little boys. In the lower line there are 5 classes and I don’t mean by little small in the way of age for there are many over 6 feet in the lower line but small in lessons. In the Higher line there are 8 sc
hools. Now I am in the highest of the five lower line schools and I am about the smallest boy in the class (with regard to size). So next year I will be quite a man being in the higher line.

  Our School has to provide some person to read during supper to the fathers and I am proud to say that I am nearly almost chosen.

  to Mary Doyle STONYHURST, OCTOBER 31, 1871

  You have not written to me for a very long time. I am awfully uneasy. Tell me if anything is wrong and don’t conceal it. I have been to the Master for a letter every day for a fortnight. I hope you will write soon.

  I am getting on famously, am in the extraordinary and I don’t know what all. Those boys who do the ordinary lessons very well are called ‘the extraordinary’.

  Old Father Christmas is again come in sight and is rapidly approaching with his escort of Plum Pudding, Roast Goose, etc, etc.

  My love to Papa, Lottie, Cony and Jeannie. I am writing a long piece of Poetry on the subject of the war.

  Agreat deal of war-related poetry lay in Conan Doyle’s future, ranging from ‘The Song of the Bow’, an idealistic tribute to the English long-bowmen of the fourteenth century, to the ascerbic ‘H.M.S. Foudroyant: Being a humble address to Her Majesty’s Naval advisers, who sold Nelson’s old flagship to the Germans for a thousand pounds.’ First published in the London Daily Chronicle in September 1892, it began:

  Who says the Nation’s purse is lean,