Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. Daniel Stashower

skate backwards—cut rolls—cut outsiders—and do other feats only to be appreciated by Papa.

      The Actors are learning their parts in the Plays. every person is trying to find out what is the name of the tragedy—for this is always kept a great secret—some say it is ‘McBeth’ others say it is ‘King Lear’ which Papa read to me during the vacation, there are some 30 actors some of them having parts in all the plays there are 8 plays one each night and they last two hours and a half each but I don’t think we ever produced anything so good as ‘Rob Roy’.

      to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

      many thanks to you for sending me such a nice box. Everything in it came quite safe, no breakage. I am enjoying myself very much. there are 69 boys staying, 10 higher line ones. we have great fun during the long evenings, telling ghost stories round the fire. we have got a play up called ‘The Box of Mischeif’ [sic]. I have two short parts in it. First as a Town Crier, secondly as the captain of an east Indiaman. I hope it will come off well.

      to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

      last thursday was the rectors day the following was the order of the day We got up at 6 and had washing till ¹/₂ past 6 then mass till 7 then studies till 8 & breakfast of bread & milk till ¹/₂ past 8 then we took our skates and went to a recevoir [sic] near, and skated till 12 we then had some tarts & other refreshments & went out skating till 5 o’clock we then went home & had dinner of pork & apple sauce & potatoes & then tarts & oranges till ¹/₂ past 5 we then went to the playroom & played games till 7 we then said night prayers and had supper of bread & milk we then again took our skates & went to the pond and there we found it all illuminated with Chinese lanterns & torches & blue & red lights so that it was as light as day & there was a band on the side of the pond playing Rule britania and other popular songs we then began skating after being all provided with cigars & matches we had scarcely begun to skate when the masters on the sides began throwing jumping crackers & squibs among us & letting off rockets & Roman Candles & so we enjoyed ourselves till 11 o’clock & then we all got a tumbler of punch to drink the Rector’s health with & then we took off our skates & went to bed.

      to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

      many thanks to Papa for his funny note and to lottie and cony for the cake I wish I could get some little gift for them here.

      my cricket costume is not quite finished, a coat is dispensable as we always take off our coats in the cricket field.

      I hope you are all well. the vacations are coming rolling towards us again. I am trying to keep up my French reading in order to be able to read the ‘Du Monde’ to you during the holidays.

      P.S. I am cocksure of a prize.

      to Mary Doyle STONYHURST, MAY 1872

      I enjoyed your last letter very much, thank you for the leave. I have already been measured and I will appear in them in the course of a week. this is my cricketing costume, a small peaked white flannel cap (provided by the College for all), a bulging out light yellow flannel shirt, loose trousers of the same description, & white shoes with long sharp spikes sticking out of the soles, to prevent me from slipping when bowling. The sight of 250 boys all dressed like this, and all laughing and running about, is a very imposing one.

      The Rector came into the studyplace yesterday and gave us a lecture which he finished by saying that last year several parents had been annoyed at his sending their boys back in their usual dress, and had said that they had expected him to get their boys vacation suits, so he told each boy to write home & ask whether they are to get clothes or not. of course I don’t care whether I get them or not.

      to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

      This is my last letter this year. I will be at Edinburgh on Wednesday at quarter past five. I will take care of everything. I will get my trunk and get a cab and drive to you. don’t let Lottie and Cony go to bed till I come, please!

      I have arranged everything about my clothes I am to take two suits home with me the suit I got some time ago and my old grey clothes. my brown ones are completely worn out. I will, I think have to get some more clothes for next year. All the schoolbooks are taken up now I’m as happy as a lark. I hope I will find you all well and comfortable when I return I also hope that Papa will get some vacation and then we will go walks together. won’t I pitch into Walter Scott’s novels.

      Conan Doyle’s liking for Sir Walter Scott had been growing for months, fanned by early exposure to Ivanhoe and Rob Roy. Over the summer, as he ‘pitched into’ the rest of Scott, Conan Doyle felt a powerful stirring of the imagination. ‘They were the first books I ever owned,’ he said, ‘long before I could appreciate or even understand them. But at last I realized what a treasure they were.’ Just as future generations of schoolboys would read Sherlock Holmes by the glow of flashlights, Conan Doyle found himself huddling up among the ‘glorious brotherhood’ of the Waverley novels: ‘I read them by surreptitious candle-ends in the dead of the night, when the sense of crime added a new zest to the story.’

      When he returned to Stonyhurst in the autumn he had a new respect and passion for history. There was little sign of this new studiousness on the return journey, however, as he and Jimmy Ryan set off firecrackers in the train carriage.

      to Mary Doyle STONYHURST, AUGUST 1872

      I have not told you the events which happened on my journey yet. So I will tell you them now.

      Ryan and I let off crackers and romped till we came to Carstairs. There we waited 45 minutes for the perth train.

      we then went on a long, long way without anything happening, when suddenly a man said Oh Look at the Chinaman. there sure enough was one of the Burmese puffing and blowing like a steam engine, they had a splendidly filled out saloon at the end of the train, but they left us near Carlisle. we then bowled on quickly till we came to Preston so I and Ryan ran and looked in all the vans for our luggage, but no luggage appeared, I was quite frightened. I asked several guards but none of them knew anything about it. at last an old fellow suggested that it might be in the next train. so I sat & waited and in ¹/₄ of an hour up came the train, the very first thing taken out was my trunk. I then drove to the Red Lion, here I met one of the fathers the first thing he said to me was, I dispense you from eating fish today (an ember day) so I got some meat soup I found the stockport bus, and drive here. the driver killed a hedgehog running across the road.

      to Mary Doyle STONYHURST

      there is tremendous bustle going on here. all who are not going home at Xmas, being mostly foreigners are writing to the rector for Xmas boxes, and those who are going are eager to know all the arrangements there are about 50 of the Lower Line stopping here, but only 6 or 7 of the higher line, which is very jolly, as we can all be taken out fishing or anything.

      I must tell you about my box now. as it is twice as long vacation, I will require a rather larger box to keep me in good. well in the way of meat you may send what you think will do me, the usual thing is a turkey or goose, a piece of ham a German sausage, a piece of tongue or a chicken, and then one or two boxes of sardines for fast days. please don’t send any of that potted lobster, it is very nice, but very little of it gives me Diarhoea. then there is a cake (a small one will do) & piece of shortbread, then a box of figs, and a few buns or small cakes.

      1 doz apples. 2 doz oranges and ¹/₂ a dozen pears. then ¹/₂ lb of London mixture, a packet of Butter Scotch and a packet of Furgusson’s Edinburgh rock then a Bottle of Clarat (don’t put water in for it will be diluted here) and some raspberry Vinegar, and anything you find expedient…

      After making