The Hound of the Baskervilles tales claim that Conan Doyle was inspired by his time on holiday in North Norfolk, where the tale of Black Shuck is well known. The pre-Gothic Cromer Hall, where Conan Doyle stayed, also closely resembles Doyle's vivid descriptions of Baskerville Hall. James Lynam Molloy, a friend of Doyle's, and author of 'Love's Old Sweet Song', married Florence Baskerville, daughter of Henry Baskerville of Crowsley Park,Oxfordshire. The gates to the park had statues of hell hounds, spears through their mouths. Above the lintel there was another statue of a hell hound. In 1902, Doyle's original manuscript of the book was broken
The Hound of the Baskervilles and sole heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, who is the new master of Baskerville Hall. The death was attributed to a heart attack, but Mortimer is suspicious, because Sir Charles died with an expression of horror on his face, and Mortimer noticed "the footprints of a gigantic hound" about 50 yards from where Sir Charles lay dead. The Baskerville family has supposedly been under a curse since the era of the English Civil War when ancestor Hugo Baskerville allegedly offered his soul to the devil for help in abducting a woman and was reportedly killed by a giant spectral hound. Sir