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And Then There Were None vocabulary

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Dartmoor: tags: [geography]

► definition

Definition:

an area of moorland in southern Devon, England. Protected by National Park status as Dartmoor National Park, it covers 954 km2 (368 sq mi).
[...]
Dartmoor is known for its myths and legends. It is reputedly the haunt of pixies, a headless horseman, a mysterious pack of "spectral hounds", and a large black dog, among others. During the Great Thunderstorm of 1638, the moorland village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor was even said to have been visited by the Devil.
[...]
Dartmoor has inspired a number of artists and writers, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventure of Silver Blaze, R. D. Blackmore, Eden Phillpotts, Beatrice Chase, Agatha Christie, Rosamunde Pilcher, and the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fictional 1994 Quidditch World Cup final between Ireland and Bulgaria was hosted on the moor.

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in literature the name is often used as a byword for the prison; built in 1809 and still in operation.

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► uses

Uses:

"that I who have a fair claim to nigh upon half a million of money should spend the first half of my life building a breakwater in the Andamans, and am like to spend the other half digging drains at Dartmoor. [...]"

Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of the Four

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"Landor got penal servitude for life and died in Dartmoor a year later. He was a delicate man."

Agatha Christie. And Then There Were None. p.47 (1939)