Stapleton—Sir Henry Baskerville

Stapleton—Sir Henry Baskerville is a relationship built on a concealed conflict of inheritance: Stapleton presents himself as a neighbor and potential ally while arranging to remove Sir Henry, the rightful heir, from the succession. For Sir Henry, their dealings initially appear to involve local acquaintance and a dispute over Stapleton’s supposed sister. For Stapleton, they form part of a scheme to claim the Baskerville estate. The contrast between the two men’s understanding of their connection turns ordinary social contact into a means of concealment.

Inheritance and Hidden Motives

The stakes become clear when Sherlock Holmes learns that the estate is worth close to a million pounds. If Sir Henry died, the entailed property would pass to the Desmonds, distant cousins; Stapleton, however, was himself a Baskerville descendant whose identity and relationship to the family were concealed. Holmes later concludes that Stapleton had learned that only two lives stood between him and the valuable estate. His aim was not simply to frighten Sir Henry away: he meant, in the end, to possess the property.

Sir Henry has a different understanding of what inheritance entails. He has not yet made a will, but says that his uncle intended the money to remain with the title and estate. In his view, the house, land, and wealth should pass together so that the family’s position can be restored. That commitment makes him unlikely to relinquish his claim, while Stapleton’s plan depends on removing him rather than persuading him to withdraw.

Stapleton’s first method is to establish himself near the family home and cultivate a friendship with Sir Charles Baskerville and the neighbors. He learns about the family hound from Sir Charles and uses what he knows about the older man’s weak heart and belief in the family legend to arrange his death. After Sir Charles dies, Sir Henry’s arrival presents the next obstacle. Holmes considers the danger serious enough to insist that Sir Henry must not travel to Devonshire alone; Sir Henry nevertheless declares that no supernatural or human threat will prevent him from going to his family home.

Familiarity and the Courtship Dispute

Once in Devonshire, Sir Henry encounters Stapleton as a local acquaintance whose household appears to include an unmarried sister. Sir Henry becomes attached to her and, believing her to be Stapleton’s sister, seeks to court her. Stapleton responds with opposition so forceful that Sir Henry wonders whether Stapleton considers him unsuitable as a husband. He says he has never knowingly harmed anyone and cannot understand why Stapleton will not even allow him to touch the woman’s fingertips.

Stapleton later gives an explanation that makes his resistance seem personal rather than criminal. He presents himself as lonely and deeply attached to his sister, says he had not understood that Sir Henry’s feelings were serious, and apologizes for his conduct. He asks Sir Henry to let the matter rest for three months and to cultivate the woman’s friendship without claiming her love; Sir Henry agrees. The explanation temporarily settles the dispute. In retrospect, however, its premise is false: the woman is Stapleton’s wife, whom he has passed off as his sister. The apparent family protectiveness helps him manage Sir Henry’s access to her while concealing the household’s real relationships.

The Trap and Its Consequences

Stapleton’s deception also makes Sir Henry’s trust useful to the murder plot. Holmes’s later reconstruction identifies the hound as the instrument of the scheme and explains that Stapleton needed an article of Sir Henry’s clothing so the animal could be set on his track. In London, Stapleton follows Dr. Mortimer and Sir Henry while disguised, and Sir Henry receives an anonymous warning from Stapleton’s wife. These events reveal how far the supposed neighbor’s interest in Sir Henry extends beyond ordinary acquaintance.

The relationship reaches its decisive crisis at a dinner at Stapleton’s home. Watson watches the two men through an uncurtained window: Stapleton talks animatedly while Sir Henry appears pale and distracted, with the solitary walk across the moor still ahead of him. Stapleton leaves the room and briefly enters an outbuilding, where Watson hears a scuffling sound. Sir Henry remains behind, and the arrangement leaves him to cross the moor alone. What looks like hospitality and conversation is thus part of a carefully controlled encounter between the intended victim and the man directing the danger.

When the hound emerges from the fog and pursues Sir Henry, the concealed hostility becomes unmistakable. Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade shoot the animal; Holmes’s further shots kill it before it can kill Sir Henry. Sir Henry is found unconscious, but the rescue has come in time and he has no visible wound. Holmes withholds the truth about the hound from him before the ordeal, allowing him to believe that Selden’s death had occurred as Stapleton wanted others to think. The immediate attack therefore closes the relationship as a direct contest, even as the full explanation of Stapleton’s identity and inheritance scheme comes afterward.

What the Relationship Reveals

Stapleton’s advantage over Sir Henry depends on keeping appearances intact: a distant kinsman poses as a neighbor, a wife is presented as a sister, and a planned killing is made to resemble the working of a family curse. Sir Henry’s openness works against that concealment. He states plainly that he will go to his family home, accepts Watson’s companionship, and initially takes Stapleton’s apology at face value. His willingness to trust is not evidence that he understands the threat; it is precisely the gap between the relationship he believes he has and the one Stapleton is exploiting that allows the plot to advance.

The courtship dispute makes their conflict more than a simple contest over property. Stapleton interferes with Sir Henry’s growing attachment, inventing a family explanation that casts control as grief and eventual consent as generosity. Meanwhile, Sir Henry’s concern that the estate’s wealth should accompany its title underscores the material consequences of his survival. By the time the hound attacks, the neighborly connection has been exposed as a mask for a succession plot, and Sir Henry’s survival prevents Stapleton from securing the inheritance through the plan described by Holmes.