Barrymore

Barrymore is the butler of Baskerville Hall, where his family has served the Baskervilles for generations. His loyalty to the household is real but not simple: he is deeply attached to the late Sir Charles, yet secretly helps his wife protect her fugitive brother, Selden. The signals that make him seem involved in a plot against Sir Henry Baskerville instead reveal a conflict between household duty and family devotion—and, later, Barrymore's willingness to exchange information about Sir Charles's death for the kindness shown to him and his wife.

Identity and Service

Barrymore belongs to a long-standing household connection: Sir Henry notes that the family has lived under the Baskervilles' roof for more than a hundred years. The arrangement is changing with the new baronet. Sir Charles had lived a retired life, and Barrymore explains that he and his wife could manage his needs; Sir Henry, by contrast, might want more company and a larger staff. Barrymore and his wife say they are willing to establish themselves in a business, with Sir Charles's generosity having given them the means to do so.

That prospect does not mean the old bond is easily severed. Barrymore tells Sir Henry that he and his wife were very attached to Sir Charles, and that the death left the surroundings painful and made them fear they would never again feel at ease at Baskerville Hall. The butler's service is therefore both an occupation and a relationship shaped by long familiarity with the family and its home.

Suspicion in the House

Dr. Watson's early account makes Barrymore's movements look ominous. Watson notices that Eliza Barrymore, usually reserved and respectable in his estimation, has been seen with tears on her face. He wonders whether she is troubled by guilt and even suspects that Barrymore might be a domestic tyrant. These are Watson's suspicions, not established facts; the household's private distress has not yet been explained to him.

One night, at about two o'clock, Watson hears a stealthy step and sees Barrymore moving barefoot along the corridor in shirt and trousers, carrying a candle. Watson follows him around the balcony to an empty room at the far end of the passage. Barrymore holds the candle at the window and watches the darkness over the moor. After waiting there, he puts the light out and returns along the corridor; Watson later hears a key turn but cannot locate the sound. A light at the window, an unoccupied room and a secretive journey give the household's ordinary spaces the appearance of a concealed operation. Watson and Sir Henry make a plan based on what they have observed.

Selden and the Night Signals

The explanation comes when Sir Henry confronts Barrymore. At first, Sir Henry believes that the butler has been plotting against him and is prepared to dismiss him. Eliza interrupts to say that the secret is hers: Selden is her younger brother, and Barrymore has acted at her request. She explains that, despite Selden's criminal past, she has continued to think of him as the boy she cared for as an elder sister. When he escaped from prison, exhausted and hungry, she and Barrymore took him in and fed him.

Once Sir Henry returned, Selden hid on the moor. Every second night, Barrymore and Eliza put a light in the window to learn whether he was still nearby; if he answered, Barrymore carried him bread and meat. They hoped Selden would leave, but did not want to abandon him while he remained in hiding. Eliza insists that Barrymore helped for her sake and that the responsibility was hers. The revelation reverses Watson's suspicion: Barrymore's furtive conduct was not evidence of a scheme against Sir Henry, but a means of maintaining secret contact with his wife's brother.

Sir Henry chooses not to hand Selden over, although he recognizes that doing so may amount to aiding a fugitive. Barrymore thanks him from the heart, saying that his wife's distress at Selden's capture would have been unbearable. The episode establishes the limits of Barrymore's formal service: confronted with a conflict between the household's new master and his wife's plea, he has already chosen to help her, but Sir Henry's compassion allows that loyalty to remain undiscovered by the authorities.

The Clue About Sir Charles

After Sir Henry lets him go, Barrymore offers information in return for the kindness shown to him and Eliza. He says that, long after the inquest, he discovered something concerning Sir Charles's death, which he has not told anyone. He does not claim to know how Sir Charles died. Rather, he has withheld what he knows because he thought disclosure might harm someone's reputation and bring no good; now he feels that silence would treat Sir Henry unfairly.

Barrymore's disclosure points Sir Henry and Watson toward the initials L. L. They conclude that finding the person behind them may clarify the case, and Sir Henry's information directs attention to Laura Lyons. Barrymore is thus a witness to a consequential clue, not the solver of the death: his knowledge is partial, but his decision to share it moves the investigation forward. His position in the household has given him access to information unavailable to its new master, while his concern about reputational harm helps explain why that information remained private.

Loss and Narrative Role

Barrymore's family loyalty has a painful aftermath. When Sherlock Holmes tells him and Eliza of Selden's death, Eliza weeps bitterly. To the world Selden was a violent criminal, but to her he remained the younger brother she had cared for; her grief confirms the attachment that had motivated the secret signals and food deliveries. Barrymore, who had helped keep Selden hidden and had feared his recapture, is present for the news that ends that effort.

In the mystery, Barrymore first functions as an unsettling figure observed through Watson's incomplete knowledge: a candle at a window, an unexplained key and a wife's tears seem to suggest danger within Baskerville Hall. The later explanation turns those signs into evidence of private kinship and concealment. His long service, attachment to Sir Charles, complicity in sheltering Selden and eventual disclosure about the death connect the household's intimate life to the investigation without making him either the criminal or an all-knowing witness.