Richard Cabell

Richard Cabell (died 5 July 1677), of Brook Hall, in the parish of Buckfastleigh on the south-eastern edge of Dartmoor, in Devon, one of the central characters in Conan Doyle's novel The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901–2), the tale of a hellish hound and a cursed country squire. When asked in 1907 about his inspiration for this story, Conan Doyle wrote in reply: "My story was really based on nothing save a remark of my friend Fletcher Robinson's that there was a legend about a dog on the moor connected with some old family". Cabell's tomb survives in the village of Buckfastleigh.

Biography He was the son and heir of Richard Cabell of Buckfastleigh by his wife Mary Prestwood, a daughter of George Prestwood of Whetcombe. in the parish of Ugborough, Devon. Elizabeth is mentioned in his will dated 1671,

Mausoleum

In Methuen's Little Guide on Devonshire (1907), Sabine Baring-Gould wrote: "Before the S. porch [of Holy Trinity Church, Buckfastleigh] is the enclosed tomb of Richard Cabell of Brooke, who died in 1677. He was the last male of his race, and died with such an evil reputation that he was placed under a heavy stone, and a sort of penthouse was built over that with iron gratings to it to prevent his coming up and haunting the neighbourhood. When he died the story goes that fiends and black dogs breathing fire raced over Dartmoor and surrounded Brooke, howling."

The Cabell family's mausoleum (known locally as "The Sepulchre") contains the tombs of various members of the Cabell family. It is a grade II* listed building with pyramidal slate roof and three windowless walls, with the fourth closed by an iron railing providing a view of the chest tomb within. According to Sir Howard Colvin it is one of the first two free-standing mausoleums in England, the other being the Ailesbury Mausoleum in Bedfordshire. The names inscribed on the tomb inside are Richard Cabell (died 1612), his wife Susanna (died 1597) and their son Richard (died 1655). Richard, the subject of this article, is also reputed to be buried within. Several legends exist concerning the ghost of Richard Cabell connected with the structure.