On the Hay Road

The gallery has eight framed paintings by the artist, illustrating her travels around Europe in 1873. She was one of six children, like many young people of her time she went on the Grand Tour with her chaperone, in this case her aunt. On this tour we have this astonishing record of watercolours that she executed while travelling the south of France. The Grand Tour of Europe became increasingly popular among women in the late 18th century and early 19th century. For British upper-class young women travelling Europe was part of formal education as well as a form of entrance into elite society. When published, women’s letters and travel diaries about their experiences provided entertainment and vicarious travel for a less elite audience.

Gertrude Baskerville (1844 – 1895)

Gertrude Alice Elizabeth Mynors-Baskerville was born in 1844 at Cleirwy Court in Wales. Arthur Conan Doyle was a close family friend who often came to stay at the hall. During his many visits he learnt of the local legend of the hounds stalking nearby Hergest Ridge. He was inspired by the rumour and incorporated it into the fifth (and perhaps most famous) outing of his keen eyed, hawked nosed detective, Sherlock Holmes. However, at the request of his friends, the Baskervilles, he set the book in Devon “to ward off tourists”.