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| Sidney Paget's Sir Hugo Baskerville |
For me, being asked to offer a toast at a Sherlockian
gathering is equal parts honor and pleasure. I had both last month when my friend Al
Shaw, “Sir Hugo” of Hugo’s Companions in Chicago, asked me to propose one of
the toasts at the group’s annual Birthday Dinner and Awards Celebration.
The Companions have odd notion that Sherlock Holmes was
born in May. This year they celebrated on May 25. Having the choice of subject
for my toast, I picked Sir Hugo Baskerville himself. A fine Sherlockian once
asked, “Why would you ever want to toast a villain?” I say, “Because it’s fun!”
Here was my toast to the evil Sir Hugo:
Companions and Fellow
Guests:
Every great novel demands
a great villain, and The Hound of the
Baskervilles has one. But it’s not the man responsible for the death of Sir
Charles Baskerville and the persecution of his nephew, Sir Henry. That feckless
butterfly collector inspires only our derision. No, the real villain of the
story is the “most wild, profane, and godless man” who met his much-deserved
fate at the time of the Great Rebellion.
Let us lift our glasses in
dishonor of one –
Who himself drained many glasses
during the long carouses that were his nightly custom;
Who surrounded himself
with idle and wicked companions (a tradition maintained by our own Sir Hugo to
this very day);
Who when in his cups
uttered such terrible oaths which as might blast the man which said them;
Whose “certain wanton and
cruel humor . . . made his name a byword throughout the West;”
Who, in the end, rendered
his body and soul to the Powers of Evil;
And without whom there
would be Baskerville curse, no Baskerville hound, and no adventure of The Hound
of the Baskervilles.
To Sir Hugo Baskerville – may his eternally damned spirit
stay right where it is!
That's clever!
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