Entering the darker places: The lodge-gates in The Hound of the Baskervilles

Finally we’re at the last clause in this long sentence.

This is a tiny fragment but there is so much you can learn from it!

… and surmounted by the boars' heads of the Baskervilles.

These boars’ heads: are there really a couple of freshly-killed boars’ heads on top of the pillars? 

No, these are sculptures representing the Baskerville family crest. Persistent themes in gothic are time, age and death. The fact that the Baskervilles have a family crest tells us they are an old family, with a history, which is very gothic.

Doyle didn’t write:

Why boars’ heads?

A boar is a wild, dark, hairy, violent animal—and it’s male. Another persistent theme in gothic is that of wild, dark, hairy, violent men—so a boar is another resonant detail in the gothic world.

Puppies are not.

Why surmounted?

… and surmounted by the boars' heads of the Baskervilles.

The phrase surmounted puts the boars’ heads into action, making them seem especially dominant. The preposition by is also really important, even though it’s tiny: it reinforces the sense that the boars’ heads are doing something to the pillars. (If you don’t believe me, try using with instead. The effect changes slightly.)

Think about it this way: if you were going to write the same sentence without thinking you’d probably use the phrase “on top”.

Do you see how the second way makes it sound like the boars’ heads are doing something, even though they’re not?

That’s a lot of detail packed into a tiny clause.

This structure is simple:

… and surmounted by the boars' heads of the Baskervilles.

…conjunction action preposition thing preposition thing.

Writing something that fits this structure is pretty easy.

Those examples all fit the basic pattern, and the last one sounds suitably gothic.

But this time I’ll do some examples where I use exactly the same conjunctions and prepositions:

…and action by thing of thing.

If you want to find alternatives for surmounted you can start looking here: http://thesaurus.com/browse/surmounted

You can see how using the prepositions by and of in that order somehow forces what you write to sound more gothic.