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Literary Teign
Literary Teign
In 1818 the poet John Keats penned these fond words about the River Teign:
Here all the summer could I stay
For there's a Bishop's Teign, And King's Teign, And Coomb at the clear Teign's head;
Where, close by the stream,
You may have your cream,
All spread upon barley bread.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put a more gothic spin on the area with Sherlock Holmes' most famous case, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Set in the bleak reaches of Dartmoor, the evocative tale popularised the region for Victorian tourists and even today, the windswept tors and desolate moorland easily lend themselves to supernatural fantasy.
Over recent years there has been much interest in just how much of Conan Doyle's tale was based in actual Dartmoor legend. It is generally accepted that his inspiration came from visiting the area and from listening to local fables told by his friend, Fletcher Robinson. In particular, it is believed that Fox Tor Mires influenced the fictional Grimpen Mire, and that Baskerville Hall was based upon either Brook Manor or the nearby Hayford Hall. Sadly, it would probably take Sherlock Holmes himself to decide whether his most popular case was more fact than fiction.
