The house had been untenanted for some years and was threatening to molder into a picturesque decay when the Douglases took possession of it. 1914 September – 1915 May, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Tragedy of Birlstone”, in The Valley of Fear: A Sherlock Holmes Novel, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 27 February 1915, →OCLC, part I (The Tragedy of Birlstone), pages 46–47:
The old book was left to molder until only the cover was left to show it had ever been written.