Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. Daniel Stashower

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СКАЧАТЬ the seal off or pull myself on.’

       ‘Look here,’ he continued; ‘it’s a dangerous place this, even at its best—a treacherous, dangerous place. I have known men cut off very suddenly in a land like this. A slip would do it sometimes—a single slip, and down you go through a crack, and only a bubble on the green water to show where it was that you sank.’

      —‘The Captain of the Polestar’

      Less than a week later, he saw for the first time a patient of his (an elderly seaman named Andrew Milne) die—‘died in my arms literally’, his diary noted: ‘Poor old man. They were kind to him forwards during his illness, and certainly I did my best for him.’

      The Hope returned to Scotland on August 10th. ‘The green grass on shore looks very cool and refreshing to me after nearly 6 months never seeing it,’ his diary admitted, ‘but the houses look revolting. I hate the vulgar hum of men and would like to be back at the floes again.’ He returned to Dr Hoare’s, and began the division between medicine and writing that would characterize his life for the next dozen years.

      to Mary Doyle BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 16, 1880

      On receipt of your letter I pulled on a decent pair of trousers, sprang into a surtout, rushed up to Broad Street and fell upon Gamgee’s neck, saying ‘Behold your long lost visitor’—at least I would have, only he was out and so was his better half, so I performed a Can-Can of delight on the doorstep and left my cards to the astonished slavey. Its his turn now, thank the Lord. Why don’t you write? You have no excuse. I have no news to give & thats my reason. We are working away night and day in our usual humdrum style, and as happy and cheerful as sandboys. I am grinding too as well as the work will permit; I think I will run down to Budd’s somewhere about March and have a good read there before I come home. He has a lot of notes and things which I can get nowhere else.

No word from London Society yet. I suppose a magazine of that calibre is above bilking one. I am much pleased by what you say of Blackwood. I always thought that was a good story.* I am going to write a case for the British Medical. I will tell you when it appears.

      You are right about the suit. I can pull along nicely without but why don’t you send the collars and skates. My gloves are worn out but I can hardly afford another pair just now. I have only £3/6 in the bank. My trip to Herefordshire cost me money & I have had other expenses.

      The Doctor and I are teatotal up to the 28^th of this month. I don’t sleep quite so well but I am fresher in the mornings. He is as good a fellow as ever & Mrs Hoare is charming. Hoare is the only man I ever met who has no fault in his character—a plain straightforward jolly fellow without pride, affectation or anything else. A difficult man to abuse as Johnson said of Reynolds.

       Yes, Horton is a real right-down good fellow. His heart is broad and kind and generous. There is nothing petty in the man. He loves to see those around him happy; and the sight of his sturdy figure and jolly red face goes far to make them so. Nature meant him to be a healer; for he brightens up a sick room as he did the Merton station when first I set eyes upon him.

      —The Stark Munro Letters

      to Mary Doyle BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 1880

You are as bad as me for not answering questions. I want Letty’s address, also Annette’s, also Lottie’s permanent one. You never told me if James was thro’ though you once remarked that you were pleased about him, from which I infer he is. By all means keep the clothes until Easter, but send the skates as soon as you like. I am going to teach Mrs H. We will see what can be done for Xmas, my dear, I hope you may spend your old age in a house where there shall be money and to spare. We are to have fireworks tonight in Aspinal’s house out of town, and I am to be master of the revels, an office which always seems to fall to my lot, so I have to spend my leisure time punching eyes in a turnip instead of improving my mind. No word from London Society. I have another yarn on the stocks. I am going to write to Leigh Smith of the Eira today and ask him for a photo of my noble self. I was taken you know with a distinguished group on the quarterdeck.*

This mornings post brings letters from Budd and from Mrs Gray. Mrs Budd’s cousin is going to marry the brother of the Marquis of Lorne and there is going to be a great revel. Budd grumbles muchly over the price he’ll have to pay for a present. Mrs Hoare made me solemnly promise the evening I came that I wouldn’t make advances to the Governess who is rather a pretty girl, so I am very good. I am also good in the matter of the other more unsavoury subject. ; I got a telegram a few days ago from Porter to say that he was dying. I took a train and got down to Herefordshire by 9 in the evening, sat up all night by him poulticing his chest and filling him with drugs, and after seeing him turn the corner I was back in Birmingham in time to do a hard day’s work. That wasn’t bad. I enclose a letter I got from him yesterday to show how much better he is. ;

      to Mary Doyle BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 1880

      A hearty Merry Xmas to you and to Conny and the young ones and to all friends. I am very busy & can hardly find time to write this scrawl. I can only lay my hands on £4/10 at the present moment but send them with all my heart in lieu of a Xmas card. I only wish it were double the amount. I shall sift the Budd evidence very carefully before deciding either way. Goodbye, my darling, and all the compliments of the season to you. These hearty Aston people get sick at all times and places so we are very hard worked.

      to Mary Doyle BIRMINGHAM, JANUARY 1881

      The reason that I have not written has been that I have been worked right off my legs since Xmas. I have hardly opened a medical book or sat down save when I have been so fagged as to be unable to do anything. We have had a most confounded hard time of it—I have been at 3 confinements in one day, with a long list of patients to see, and 60 bottles of Physic to make—and then been up all night after it.

      I see the force of what you say about holding on here as long as possible, and I like the work, but anything like systematic reading is simply ludicrous. I have made good use of my time, so far, when I had any, but now there is simply none. Find out exactly when the final begins and when the certificate must be in. If I stay here until about the third week of March I will be running it very close. It is risky to go up for such an exam on six weeks real reading—We must manage to save up the fees by hook or by crook.

      Whatever you may say against the Budds there is one thing I can aver and that is that of all my family & relatives & friends & the whole gang of them, I only got two letters on New Years Day, one was from Budd and the other was from a servant girl and I value them both. I sent 9 letters off myself but got no return from any of them.

       Aboard the Eira, with Conan Doyle between the ship’s master, Leigh Smith (left with top hat) and Captain Gray of the Hope (right of Conan Doyle)

       Crabbe took his degree a year before I did, and went down to a large port in England with the intention of setting up there. A brilliant career seemed to lie before him, for besides his deep knowledge of medicine, acquired in the most practical school in the world, he had that indescribable manner which gains a patient’s СКАЧАТЬ