Devonshire is the setting of the Baskerville family’s ancestral property and the centre of the investigation into the danger facing Sir Henry Baskerville. The region is more than a destination: its estate, inheritance customs, and moorland geography shape both the motive for the crimes and the course of the inquiry.

Setting and Estate

Sherlock Holmes advises Sir Henry to travel to Devonshire without delay, but insists that he must not go alone. Sir Henry rejects the prospect of being kept from the home of his people, and Dr. Watson agrees to accompany him. The journey places the investigation within the family’s own territory, where the old inheritance and the threat surrounding it converge.

The estate is valued at close to a million pounds. Its land and property are entailed, while the money could be disposed of by the current owner’s will. Sir Henry has not yet made a will, but says that he believes the money should pass with the title and estate, as his uncle intended, so that the family property can be maintained. Devonshire therefore represents both an ancestral home and a valuable inheritance whose legal arrangements affect who might benefit from Sir Henry’s death.

Inheritance and Motive

If Sir Henry were to die, the entail would pass the estate to the Desmonds, distant cousins; James Desmond, an elderly clergyman in Westmoreland, is identified as the next heir. He had previously refused a settlement offered by Sir Charles Baskerville. The distinction between the entailed estate and money that might be redirected by a will leaves different possible routes through the succession, making the property’s legal structure central to Sherlock Holmes’s assessment of the danger.

The later inquiry establishes that Stapleton had discovered how few lives stood between him and the estate. He settled as near as possible to his ancestral home and cultivated a friendship with Sir Charles and the neighbours. Devonshire thus becomes the place where a concealed family claim is converted into a practical scheme: Stapleton’s proximity gives him access to the household and to the family legend that he uses in planning Sir Charles’s death.

The Region as an Investigative Ground

The investigation extends beyond the house into the surrounding area. Dr. Watson’s inquiries lead him to Coombe Tracey, where Laura Lyons lives and where he investigates her connection to the letter and appointment involving Sir Charles. The search for the hidden man on the moor points instead toward the stone huts on a hillside. These separate leads make the region legible through movement between settled communities and isolated ground.

Stapleton’s knowledge of the moor also has a direct bearing on the plot. He had learned during insect hunts to penetrate Grimpen Mire and found a hiding place there for the hound he brought down from London by the North Devon line. He walked it over the moor to avoid attracting notice, then concealed it in the mire. The landscape’s difficult passages and secluded spaces give his plan a refuge that could not be supplied by the house alone.

Narrative Significance

Devonshire gathers the novel’s competing explanations into one place. The family’s fear of a supernatural hound is tied to a valuable estate, while the investigation gradually connects the ancestral legend to human planning and local geography. The region’s scale also shapes the characters’ conduct: Dr. Watson is charged with remaining beside Sir Henry, who nevertheless insists on going out alone despite the danger.

The setting supports the mystery’s shift from suspicion to explanation. Coombe Tracey offers testimony and documentary leads; the moor and Grimpen Mire conceal people and the hound; and the ancestral property supplies the inheritance at stake. Devonshire is consequently both the scene of the investigation and the material structure of the conflict: land, distance, local knowledge, and succession all help determine how the threat can be carried out and understood.