Author: Margie Deck/JHWS "Mopsy"

Attenta! Attenta! The results have arrived from our esteemed Treasure Hunt Master, Rich Krisciunas (Hector):

“The 2022 John H. Watson Society Treasure Hunt is now over with a record 27 participants trying to solve a contest that was described as “a death quiz,” “diabolical” and “fun, fun, fun.”

The quiz had 72 questions based on our heroes in the Canon, some really horrible puns and a killer cipher. The fun thing was to review all of your answers and award points when deserved. My final answer sheet grew by an additional two pages. One of my questions had an extra four possible correct answers that I hadn’t thought of. Hats off to all of you for being so clever and knowledgeable about our hobby.

The individual champion was Steve Mason (Tex) of the Crew of the Barque Lone Star and the head of the Legion of Zoom who scored 182 of out a possible 200 points. Mason edged out sixty five time champion Michael Ellis (Lobo) who scored 177 points. The difference turned out to be that darn cipher as Mason correctly solved the phrase, “Good old Watson. You are the one fixed point in a changing age.” Our society is named after Watson so that was the first clue. The dreaded cipher used the first letter only in four letter words. Puzzlers who wondered about why words like “xray” and “iced” coffee appeared in the message figured out the solution. 

Paul Thomas Miller (Buck), sole member of The Shingle of Southsea, finished in third place with 173 points ahead of Todd Winegar 159, Enrico Solito (Devon) 155, Paul Hartnet (Scout) 140. Tom Campbell, of Cape Fear, North Carolina, Caitlyn Maughan and Ellie Lo rounded out the group.

The toughest competition in Treasure Hunt history took place in the team category as two teams tied for first place with 190 points and the champion was decided by date of entry. “The Sound of the Baskervilles”; Cameron Brandon, Margie Deck (Mopsy), Sunny Even, Nancy Holder (Diana) and Naching Kassa submitted their entry on August 12 and ended up edging the “Ineffable Twaddles”; Beth Gallego (Selena Buttons), Sandra Little (Harmless), Brad Keefauver (Calder), Crystal Noll, Madeline Quinones (Maddy), and Tatiana Sharapa who turned in their answers on August 28. 

The all French team, “La Fayette SSHF,” led by captain,Daniel Henocq and his assistants Léandre Helbecque, Nicolas Maurel-Lalague, Florence Turenne and Thierry Saint-Joanis (Tristan) finished in third place with 136 points edging out Ed and Elaine Lintzenich who battled Covid and the cipher to finish fourth.

Thanks to all who participated and I hope the hours you put into the Hunt were enjoyable. Until next year, best wishes to all who play ‘The Game.'”

2022 Treasure Hunt Answers

“But I did think that I had put the game in their hands.”

In keeping with the long-standing tradition of canonical quizzing among Sherlock Holmes societies around the world, The John H Watson Society invites all Sherlockians, Holmesians, and Watsonians to participate in the Annual John H Watson Society Canonical Treasure Hunt.

The goal of the Treasure Hunt is to bring together Watsonians, Sherlockians, and Holmesians on a global, collegial basis to further the scholarship and enjoyment of our mutual interest in all things 1895.  The JHWS hopes participants will find the Treasure Hunt to be the definitive — and the most enjoyable — canonical quiz.   The competition runs from August 1 through August 31 each year.

Returning Treasure Hunt Master Rich Krisciunas invites individuals and teams to this year’s 73-question hunt. You will find a link to download the questions below.

Requests for clarifications or other questions for the treasure hunt master may be asked by commenting on this post, or by emailing the master at treasurehunt@johnhwatsonsociety.com. If you ask a question in the comments, please do not post possible answers.

Your answers should be sent by email no later than midnight, EDT, August 31, 2022 to treasurehunt@johnhwatsonsociety.com.

The 2022 John H Watson Society Annual Treasure Hunt is fast approaching and Treasure Hunt Master Rich Krisciunas has a little teaser to warm up your hunting skills.

In keeping with JHWS tradition, the annual hunt will begin as midnight of July 31 passes to August 1. This year the posting will be made Pacific Time (PDT). As always, individuals and teams are encouraged to join in the fun. The hunt will run the full month of August, and results will be announced in September.

There is no need to submit your warmup work. Answers will be posted on July 29.

Happy Hunting!

TREASURE HUNT TEASER

As a preview of the 2022 John H. Watson Society Treasure Hunt, fill in the blanks:

(1 point for each correct answer unless noted.)

                                                IT ALL STARTED WITH OUR GOOD DOCTOR

(Easy details that you probably know from memory.)

1. Dr. John H. Watson received his medical degree from __________________________

• Subsequently, he trained to be a surgeon at __________________________________

• In India, he was attached to the _____________________________________________

• Upon reaching Candahar he subsequently was attached to ______________________

• Where he served in the battle of _____________________________________________

• Before he was injured after being struck by a __________________________________

• He was saved and carried off the battlefield by _________________________________

• He was transported home on the troopship ____________________________________

• Watson’s pension amount was _______________________________________________

CANONICAL ADDRESSES

(Harder addresses you’ll probably have to look up.)

1. The address of the woman engaged to a waiter.

1. Where the coffin was delivered.

1. Where the constable lived.

1. The address of the inspector invited to breakfast.

1. The addresses of three who were suspected. 3 pts

                                    DO YOU HAVE THE TIME?

(If you like this one, you’ll like the Treasure Hunt that starts July 31 at midnight.)

1. Five who were scheduled to arrive at noon. Who and where? 8 pts

An occasional feature about the places in the John H Watson Canon

It was twilight of a lovely spring evening, and even Little Ryder Street, one of the smaller offshoots from the Edgware Road, within a stone-cast of old Tyburn Tree of evil memory, looked golden and wonderful in the slanting rays of the setting sun. The particular house to which we were directed was a large, old-fashioned, Early Georgian edifice with a flat brick face broken only by two deep bay windows on the ground floor. It was on this ground floor that our client lived, and, indeed, the low windows proved to be the front of the huge room in which he spent his waking hours. Holmes pointed as we passed to the small brass plate which bore the curious name.

              —’The Adventure of the Three Garridebs’

Tyburn was the main place of public execution in London from at least 1388 until 1783, when it was replaced by Newgate. It takes its name from the Tyburn stream, which ran from Hampstead to the Thames near Vauxhall Bridge, and was so well know that the word became, for a time, synonymous with gallows. Tyburn gallows stood close to where Marble Arch is now, and the approximate site is marked by a stone in the traffic island at the junction of Edgware Road and Bayswater Road. An iron plaque is located about fifty yards west of Marble Arch.

From London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of the World’s Most Vibrant City by Steve Roud, Arrow Books, 2010, p. 80

An occasional feature of published pages about John Watson

Speaking of my old friend and biographer, I would take this opportunity to remark that if I burden myself with a companion in my various little inquiries it is not done out of sentiment or caprice, but it is that Watson has some remarkable characteristics of his own, to which in his modesty he has given small attention amid his exaggerated estimates of my own performances. A confederate who foresees your conclusions and course of action is always dangerous, but one to whom each development comes as a perpetual surprise, and to whom the future is always a closed book, is, indeed, an ideal helpmate.

–Sherlock Holmes, ‘The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier’

An occasional feature of published pages about John Watson

Several people have addressed the question of who wrote “His Last Bow”, “The Mazarine Stone” and the second half of A Study in Scarlet because they are written from an unusual third person perspective. For many, the obvious fact is they were written by someone other than Watson, and, therefore, they are not to be trusted. But there is nothing so deceptive as an obvious fact.

These stores were all written by Watson. However, he makes it clear when he is not reporting from personal experience by turning to the third person. It is his way of letting us know that while the facts are accurate to the best of his knowledge, that knowledge is second hand and may be liable to error.

From Watson Does Not Lie, Paul Thomas Miller, Wildside Press, 2019, p. 12

An occasional feature of published pages about John Watson

From A Sherlock Holmes Commentary, D. Martin Dakin, Drake Publishers Inc., 1972, p. 306.

An occasional feature about the places in the John H Watson Canon

My friend had no breakfast himself, for it was one of his peculiarities that in his more intense moments he would permit himself no food, and I have known him presume upon his iron strength until he has fainted from pure inanition. ‘At present I cannot spare energy and nerve force for digestion,’ he would say, in answer to my medical remonstrances. I was not surprised, therefore, when this morning he left his untouched meal behind him and started with me for Norwood.

“The Adventure of the Norwood Builder”

The formerly wild and desolate area of Norwood, named after the extensive North Wood that once covered the area, is where two counties, Surrey and Kent, and five modern London boroughs meet–Croydon, Bromley, Lambeth, Lewisham, and Southwark. Until the mid nineteenth century, when rapid development transformed the area, it contained not only extensive woods but also acres of open wasteland, and had a reputation of danger and mystery. For centuries it was famous for the Gypsies who lived there, and gave rise to numerous rumours and stories among the settled populations of the surrounding areas.

From London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of the World’s Most Vibrant City, Steve Roud, Arrow Books, 2010, p. 405

An occasional feature of published pages about John Watson

From The Complete Guide to Sherlock Holmes, Michael Hardwick, St. Martin’s Press, 1986, p.237

An occasional feature about the places in the John H Watson Canon

It was upon the 3rd of May that we reached the little village of Meiringen, where we put up at the Englischer Hof, then kept by Peter Steiler the elder.  Our landlord was an intelligent man, and spoke excellent English, having served for three years as waiter at the Grosvenor Hotel in London.  At his advice, upon the afternoon of the 4th we set off together with the intention of crossing the hills and spending the night at the hamlet of Rosenlaui.  We had strict injunctions, however, on no account to pass the falls of Reichenbach, which are about half-way up the hill, without making a small detour to see them.
 It is, indeed, a fearful place.

Rosenlaui Bad, a hamlet in the central part of Switzerland, on the right bank of the River Reichenbach. While it is just three miles from Meiringen, it is more than two thousand feet higher in elevation and the walk from Meiringen requires at least three hours via the Reichenbach Falls. Holmes and Watson set off for here from Meiringen.

From The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana, Jack Tracey, editor, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977, p.308.

Rosenlaui itself rates no mention in SWITZERLAND [Karl Baedeker in 1887, in his Switzerland and the Adjacent Portions of Italy, Savoy and the Tyroil hereinafter “SWITZERLAND”]; however, the “Baths of Rosenlaui, located at 4363., is recommended.

From The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edited, with Annotations by Leslie S. Klinger, “The Final Problem”, note 69, p. 266.

An occasional feature of published pages about John Watson

Yet Watson was not a stupid man. If I may mix my metaphors, Holmes, though he may have required a non-luminous conductor of light as a sounding board for his ideas, would never have tolerated an utter dolt as his companion. It is hard to conceive of a man such as Holmes conceiving a friendship (so eloquently expressed in 3GAR) with a man who was so far from being his intellectual equal, let alone maintaining such a close relationship for so long.

From “John H Watson–A Defense With Some Notes Concerning the ‘Blue Carbuncle'”, Hugh Ashton, The Watsonian, Vol 1, No 1, Fall 2013, p. 117

An occasional feature about the places in the John H Watson Canon

We had during this time been following the guidance of Toby down the half-rural villa-lined roads which lead to the Metropolis. Now, however, we were beginning to come among continuous streets, where labourers and dockmen were already astir, and slatternly women were taking down shutters and brushing door-steps. At the square-topped corner public-houses business was just beginning, and rough-looking men were emerging, rubbing their sleeves across their beards after their morning wet. Strange dogs sauntered up and stared wonderingly at us as we passed, but our inimitable Toby looked neither to the right nor to the left, but trotted onwards with his nose to the ground and an occasional eager whine which spoke of a hot scent. We had traversed Streatham, Brixton, Camberwell, and now found ourselves in Kennington Lane, having borne away through the side streets to the east of the Oval.– From The Sign of the Four

Streatham SW 16. Although there was believed to have been a small Roman settlement here during the construction of the road from London to the Sussex coast, the name Streatham is of Saxon origin, meaning ‘the dwellings by the street’. In the years preceding the Norman conquest, Streatham is mentioned in documents as being under the jurisdiction of the Abbey of Chertsey in Surrey. In Domesday Book the Saxon chapel was assessed at 8s.

After the Conquest, Streatham, together with Tooting, part of which lay within the former’s parish boundaries, was given to William’s cousin, Richard of Tonbridge, who later bestowed both estates on the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Mary of Bec in Normandy. Owners of Streatham land in following years included Eton College, Edward VI, Lord Thurlow, the Russells, Dukes of Bedford, and the Du Cane family.

From The London Ecyclopaedia, Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert, editors, Adler and Adler, 1983, p. 833

An occasional feature of published pages about John Watson

From Asimov’s Sherlockian Limericks, by Isaac Asimov, The Mysterious Press, 1978, p. 45.

As promised yesterday, answers for the 2021 Treasure Hunt can be accessed here:

https://www.johnhwatsonsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/JHWS-2021-Treasure-Hunt-w-Answers1.docx

Please direct any questions to Treasure Hunt Master Rich Krisciunas at treasurehunt@johnhwatsonsociety.com.

An occasional feature of published pages about John Watson

Holmes is encouraging Watson to give his analysis of Mortimer’s stick. Let me slip this thing away from Dr. Watson and pass it around. There you are.

You may recall that this type of walking stick is called a “Penang lawyer.” The island of Penang, from which these beauties come, can be found off the coast of Malaysia, not all that far from Sumatra. As with so many other British colonies, Penang started out as a penal colony, and these bulbous-headed sticks were probably the closest things the prisoners had to a lawyer. You can see how they might settle a disagreement rather swiftly.

This particular specimen also has an engraved silver band near the top, which seems to be attracting most of Watson’s attention…or it will as soon as I give it back to him. There you go, Doctor.

“To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H., 1884” is what the engraving reads. From this and the stick’s condition in general, Watson has deduced that Mortimer is a successful, elderly fellow, a country doctor who does a lot of walking, and is especially well liked by members of the local hunt club. He must assume they have a lot of gun-cleaning accidents and Mortimer is extremely skilled at removing buckshot.

Watson has given it his best shot. After studying Holmes’s methods for years, he thinks that this time he’s really captured it, done the trick himself. At moments like these, you really have to feel sorry for the guy. It’s like watching that basketball team that always plays the Harlem Globetrotters. They do a decent job of it, but you always know they’re about to be used to mop the floor. It’s the same with Watson.

From The Armchair Baskerville Tour by Brad Keefauver, Magico Magazine, 1995, p. 8.

An occasional feature about the places in the John H Watson Canon

‘But you, Watson,’ he stopped his work and took his old friend by the shoulders; ‘I’ve hardly seen you in the light yet. How have the years used you? You look the same blithe boy as ever.’
‘I feel twenty years younger, Holmes. I have seldom felt so happy as when I got your wire asking me to meet you at Harwich with the car. But you, Holmes – you have changed very little – save for that horrible goatee.’
‘These are the sacrifices one makes for one’s country, Watson,’ said Holmes, pulling at his little tuft. ‘To-morrow it will be but a dreadful memory. With my hair cut and a few other superficial changes I shall no doubt reappear at Claridge’s to-morrow as I was before this American stunt – I beg your pardon, Watson, my well of English seems to be permanently defiled – before this American job came my way.’

‘His Last Bow: An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes’

The East coast ports are Dutch. Mellow brick houses have stepped battlements, the prevailing colours are from sand and brick. The old town of Harwich is the best of them, with its narrow streets on the peninsula between the Orwell and the Stour.

From “English Cities and Small Towns” by John Betjeman, A Panorama of Rural England, W.J. Turner, Ed., Chanticleer Press, 1944, p. 130.

Harwich is not just any port. Not only is it the UK’s second busiest passenger ferry port, its harbour, which is the largest between the Humber, in the north of England, and London, was created by a storm surge in the 1100s, a quirk of fate that gave rise to the area’s long and fascinating seafaring history.

From Harwich & Dovercourt, visitessex.com.

In 885 ce Alfred the Great defeated Danish ships in a battle that took place in the harbour. Harwich’s seaborne trade developed steadily, notably in the 14th century, and shipbuilding was a significant industry in the 17th century. The town’s major development, however, awaited the coming of the railway. Harwich became, as an outport of London, a terminus for passenger ferries across the North Sea.

From Harwich, England, United Kingdom, www.britannica.com

Note: I realize the last two quotes about the harbour at Harwich are odd in the contrast in their dates. That is why I chose them. The contradiction in dates and events seems serendipitous when talking about the writings of John H Watson.–Mopsy

An occasional feature of published pages about John Watson

The date of Watson’s death is unknown, and those who dream of an immortal Sherlock Holmes long for Watson to remain by his side. Without Holmes’s aid, however, the “old campaigner”, as he styled himself in 1891, must have passed over those Reichenbach Falls in the sky not long after his friend and colleague Arthur Conan Doyle. “Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius,” Watson wrote of Inspector Macdonald in The Valley of Fear, but he might well have said the same of himself. Without the talents of John H. Watson, Holmes may well have laboured in obscurity.

From The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes Vol I by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edited with a Foreword and Notes by Leslie S. Klinger, pg. lii.

An occasional feature about the places in the John H Watson Canon

“What say you, Watson? Can you rise superior to the heat, and run down to Croydon with me on the off chance of a case for your annals?’ ‘I was longing for something to do.’ ‘You shall have it, then. Ring for our boots, and tell them to order a cab. I’ll be back in a moment, when I have changed my dressing-gown and filled my cigar-case.’ A shower of rain fell while we were in the train, and the heat was far less oppressive in Croydon than in town.

‘The Adventure of the Cardboard Box‘

“Nevertheless, up and down the country, since at least the mid sixteenth century, hundreds of real wife-sales have been reported, and there must have been many hundreds more which went unrecorded. Not every sale realised fifteen pounds, however, as can be seen in this article than appeared in the Hereford Journal on 17 March 1894:

SELLING A WIFE FOR FOUR PENCE

One of the few remaining common lodging-houses in Middle-Row, Croydon was on Sunday night the scene of a curious transaction, a labouring-man selling his wife for a pot of fourpenny-ale. The purchased adopted the precaution of taking a receipt for his money, and when the newly-mated couple adjourned to a neighbouring public house, the document was the object of much curiosity. It is said the husband and wife parted on very friendly terms.

From the extensive number of cases, it is clear that many of those involved genuinely believed that such transactions were a legal form of divorce, as long as certain rules were adhered to. The local market was the commonest place for the auction, and in some cases the wife was led in wearing a halter to emphasis the connection with a livestock sale. The husband would be careful to pay the toll he would normally pay for selling an animal, and be equally careful to get a receipt. The wife might be dressed on in her shift, which symbolised the fact that the purchaser took her as she stood, and could make no further claim on the husband. If all this sounds dreadful in our post-feminist age, it must be noted that in at least some of the cases we know that the wife had agreed to the proceedings and had, in fact, already arranged who was going to bid for her.”

From London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of the World’s Most Vibrant City by Steve Roud, p. 103.