# Haviland Burdock — Lord Peter Views the Body character guide

> Haviland Burdock in Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** old Mr. Burdock, Haviland, the Burdock, Burdock, Mr. Haviland Burdock

**First appearance:** 0002-the-fascinating-problem-of-uncle-meleager-s-will

## Snapshot

A spiteful, bad-tempered old squire whose posthumous return to Little Doddering stirs up more scandal than grief.

## Who they are

Haviland Burdock was the local squire of Little Doddering, a man whose last scandal drove him out of England to New York, where he died three weeks before the story opens. His body is being shipped home for burial among generations of Burdocks, and the village turns out for a funeral that is less mourning than event. Mr. Frobisher-Pym calls him a spiteful, bad-tempered, dirty-living old blackguard the world is well rid of, and the dispute over how to bury him — candles, trestles, and all — exposes the resentments he left behind.

## In the story

### [The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lord_peter_views_the_body_se/chapters/the-undignified-melodrama-of-the-bone-of-contention)

Angry executor of the will, confronts his brother Martin about the body theft.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lord_peter_views_the_body_se/characters/old_mr_burdock
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lord_peter_views_the_body_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/lord_peter_views_the_body_se/characters