Collins

WILKIE COLLINS (1824 - 1889)

Collins, who originally met Charles Dickens (q.v.) in John Forster's (q.v.) rooms in London, travelled round the North East on a theatrical tour with him, and appeared at the Old Assembly Rooms in Newcastle on 27 August 1852. He also wrote numerous articles and stories for Dickens' magazines. In 1857 he accompanied Dickens on a walking tour in Cumbria and Ewanrigg Hall in Maryport (the home of Fletcher Christian's family) appears in The Woman in White as Limmeridge Park.

In 1861 he was in Whitby, accompanied by Caroline Graves, the inspiration for The Woman in White. He was actually working on his novel No Name, but was driven away by the noise of children and brass bands outside his hotel.

The setting for his famous mystery The Moonstone (1868) is 'high up on the Yorkshire coast', referring to the map rather than the altitude. Whether the genesis of the novel, with its fabulous diamond, mysterious Indians and Holmes-like detective Sergeant Cuff can be linked to the presence in the area of the Maharajah Duleepsingh is a matter of conjecture.

Duleep Singh, the last Sikh maharajah of the Punjab, had 'presented' the great Koh-i-Noor to Queen Victoria after being deposed by the British in India. He became a favourite of the queen, but life in Roehampton bored him. He spent time in Scotland and then took a lease on Mulgrave Castle near Whitby in 1858. He was a keen hunter (and cormorant-fisher) on the North York Moors, and was often to be seen there with his native retinue between 1858 and 1863.

The Maharajah eventually moved to Elveden Hall in Suffolk and turned the house into an oriental palace. He has always been regarded with veneration by the Sikhs in England, and a statue was unveiled to him near Elveden by Prince Charles in 1999. A bust of the maharajah was sold at Bonham's auction house in London in 2007 for £1.7 million.

Various guesses have been made as to the whereabouts of the Verinder house and lonely bay in The Moonstone, locating them anywhere between Whitby and Middlesbrough. Runswick Bay may be the most likely spot. T.S. Eliot called The Moonstone 'the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels.'

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
WILKIE COLLINS (1824 - 1889) Collins, who originally met Charles Dickens (q.v.) in John Forster's (q.v.) rooms in London, travelled round the North East on a theatrical tour with him, and appeared at the Old Assembly Rooms in Newcastle on 27 August 1852. He also wrote numerous articles and stories for Dickens' magazines. In 1857 he accompanied Dickens on a walking tour in Cumbria and Ewanrigg Hall in Maryport (the home of Fletcher Christian's family) appears in The Woman in White as Limmeridge Park. In 1861 he was in Whitby, accompanied by Caroline Graves, the inspiration for The Woman in White. He was actually working on his novel No Name, but was driven away by the noise of children and brass bands outside his hotel. The setting for his famous mystery The Moonstone (1868) is 'high up on the Yorkshire coast', referring to the map rather than the altitude. Whether the genesis of the novel, with its fabulous diamond, mysterious Indians and Holmes-like detective Sergeant Cuff can be linked to the presence in the area of the Maharajah Duleepsingh is a matter of conjecture. Duleep Singh, the last Sikh maharajah of the Punjab, had 'presented' the great Koh-i-Noor to Queen Victoria after being deposed by the British in India. He became a favourite of the queen, but life in Roehampton bored him. He spent time in Scotland and then took a lease on Mulgrave Castle near Whitby in 1858. He was a keen hunter (and cormorant-fisher) on the North York Moors, and was often to be seen there with his native retinue between 1858 and 1863. The Maharajah eventually moved to Elveden Hall in Suffolk and turned the house into an oriental palace. He has always been regarded with veneration by the Sikhs in England, and a statue was unveiled to him near Elveden by Prince Charles in 1999. A bust of the maharajah was sold at Bonham's auction house in London in 2007 for £1.7 million. Various guesses have been made as to the whereabouts of the Verinder house and lonely bay in The Moonstone, locating them anywhere between Whitby and Middlesbrough. Runswick Bay may be the most likely spot. T.S. Eliot called The Moonstone 'the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels.'
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