TH6: Every Link Rings True 1-Question Pop Quiz

Hello Watsonians,

I know I promised to be quiet for awhile, but while working on TH6 I came across an interesting serendipity.  While my happy discovery ultimately proved unworkable as part of the actual treasure hunt, it is perfect for a one-(big)-question pop quiz.  I hope you will agree, and decide to give this one a go.

Answers should be submitted to treasurehunt@johnhwatsonsociety.com no later than May 17.

Now, back to it…

Margie/  JHWS ‘Mopsy’

‘It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.’

Holmes and Watson once had very similar solo experiences—many years apart. Their descriptions of their individual experiences were marked by eerily similar loneliness, mystery, shadows, sundown, and fauna.

Where was Watson? What year was Watson there?

Where was Holmes? What year was Holmes there?

What fauna?

Helpful hint: Sherlock Holmes once told Dr. Watson: “We are moving in exalted circles.” Do not let the circles go over your head.

On April 30th…

April 30, 1895: Violet Smith was kidnapped. [SOLI]

Holmes threw the reins into my lap and sprang down from the cart.
“You’re the man we want to see. Where is Miss Violet Smith?” he said, in his quick, clear way.

“That’s what I am asking you. You’re in her dogcart. You ought to know where she is.”

“We met the dogcart on the road. There was no one in it. We drove back to help the young lady.”

“Good Lord! Good Lord! What shall I do?” cried the stranger, in an ecstasy of despair. “They’ve got her, that hellhound Woodley and the blackguard parson. Come, man, come, if you really are her friend. Stand by me and we’ll save her, if I have to leave my carcass in Charlington Wood.”

April 30, 1895: Bob Carruthers shot Jack Woodley. [SOLI]

His revolver cracked, and I saw the blood spurt from the front of Woodley’s waistcoat. He spun round with a scream and fell upon his back, his hideous red face turning suddenly to a dreadful mottled pallor. The old man, still clad in his surplice, burst into such a string of foul oaths as I have never heard, and pulled out a revolver of his own, but before he could raise it he was looking down the barrel of Holmes’s weapon.

 

Some date information provided by the volume A Day-by-Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, according to Zeisler and Christ, compiled and edited by William S Dorn.

On April 29th…

April 29, 1902 (or thereabouts): Sir Robert Norberton gave away his sister’s pet spaniel. [SHOS]

“Jasper” in Granada’s “Shoscombe Old Place”

“When did Sir Robert give away his sister’s dog?”

“It was just a week ago today. The creature was howling outside the old well-house, and Sir Robert was in one of his tantrums that morning. He caught it up, and I thought he would have killed it. Then he gave it to Sandy Bain, the jockey, and told him to take the dog to old Barnes at the Green Dragon, for he never wished to see it again.”

Date information provided by the volume A Day-by-Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, according to Zeisler and Christ, compiled and edited by William S Dorn.

On April 28th…

April 28, 1895: Holmes received a note from Violet Smith saying that she was leaving her job. [SOLI]

The Thursday brought us another letter from our client. “You will not be surprised, Mr. Holmes”, said she, “to hear that I am leaving Mr. Carruthers’ employment. Even the high pay cannot reconcile me to the discomforts of my situation. On Saturday I come up to town, and I do not intend to return. Mr. Carruthers has got a trap, and so the dangers of the lonely road, if there ever were any dangers, are now over.

Some date information provided by the volume A Day-by-Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, according to Zeisler and Christ, compiled and edited by William S Dorn.

TH6: Every Link Rings True 3rd Warm Up Game Results and Answers

Hello Watsonians,

The 3rd TH6 warm-up game proved to be quite challenging.  Two of our intrepid quiz masters managed to correctly answer all five questions after a few strategy discussions. Congratulations to Sheila ‘Daisy’ Holtgrieve and Ron ‘Chips’ Lies for a job well done.

I want to thank all of you who took the time to participate in the three warm up games.  Each game helped me to better understand which puzzle types work best; my goal is to write a hunt that is challenging and fun. If time permits, we might have one more warm up game closer to the August hunt.

As always, I appreciate your participation and enthusiasm.

Margie/ JHWS ‘Mopsy’

‘It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.’

  1. According to Holmes, these prevent the world from being dull. What?

Answer: lunatics

‘I was wondering whether he could have buried something. Of course, when people bury treasure nowadays they do it in the Post Office bank. But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.’ (3GAB)

2.Probably a (answer to number one) broke it to atoms. What?

Answer: bust of Napoleon

‘’In Kennington Road, and within a few hundred yards of Morse Hudson’s shop, there lives a well-known medical practitioner, named Dr Barnicot,..Some little time ago he purchased from Morse Hudson two duplicate plaster casts of the famous head of Napoleon by the French sculptor Devine. One of these he placed in his hall in the house at Kennington Road, and the other on the mantelpiece of the surgery at Lower Brixton.…Dr Barnicot was due at his surgery at twelve o’clock, and you can imagine his amazement when, on arriving there, he found that the window had been opened in the night, and that the broken pieces of his second bust were strewn all over the room.  It had been smashed to atoms where it stood.  In neither case were there any signs which could give us a clue as to the criminal or lunatic who had done the mischief.’ (SIXN)

  1. With the (answer to number two) in mind, count the pieces in the container. How many?

Answer: two thousand

‘We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources, and borrowed, for that purpose, thirty thousand Napoleons from the Bank of France.  It has become known that we have never had occasion to unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar.  The crate upon which I sit contains two thousand Napoleons packed between layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the directors have had misgivings upon the subject.’ (REDH)

  1. Value (the answer to number three) times a hundred to determine who proposed a bribe which Holmes found amusing. Who?

Answer:  Killer Evans

‘Yes, sir,’ said our prisoner, staggering slowly to his feet and then sinking into the chair.  ‘The greatest counterfeiter London ever saw. That’s Prescott’s machine, and those bundles on the table are two thousand of Prescott’s notes worth a hundred each and fit to pass anywhere. Help yourselves, gentlemen. Call it a deal and let me beat it. ‘Holmes laughed. ‘We don’t do things like that, Mr Evans.’…So those are the facts about Killer Evans and his remarkable invention of the three Garridebs. (3GAR)

  1. Someone with the same surname as (answer to number four) and someone else sailed together on at least two different vessels. The life of the someone else was defined by two sets of initials. Who? What initials?

Answer: Old Trevor, J.P., J.A.

‘Old Trevor was evidently a man of some wealth and consideration, a J.P. and a landed proprietor… ‘”And you have been most intimately associated with someone whose initials were J.A., and whom you afterwards were eager to entirely forget.’

‘My name, dear lad, is not Trevor. I was James Armitage in my younger days, and you can understand now the shock that it was to me a few weeks ago when your college friend addressed me in words which seemed to imply that he had surmised my secret…’

‘I did so, and found my other neighbour to be a young fellow in much the same position as myself, whose crime had been forgery. His name was Evans but he afterwards changed it, like myself, and he is now a rich and prosperous man in the South of England.’

‘Next day we were picked up by the brig Hotspur, bound for Australia, whose captain found no difficulty in believing that we were the survivors of a passenger ship which had foundered.  The transport ship, Gloria Scott, was set down by the Admiralty as being lost at sea, and no word has ever leaked out as to her true fate. After an excellent voyage the Hotspur landed us at Sydney, where Evans and I changed our names and made our way to the diggings, where among the crowds who were gathered from all nations, we had no difficulty in losing our former identities.  (GLOR)

Helpful Hint— Sherlock Holmes said, “Education never ends, Watson.”  See where it leads the party.

‘Our boat lay, rising and falling, upon the long, smooth rollers, and Evans and I, who were the most educated of the party, were sitting in the sheets working out our position and planning what coast we should make for…’ (GLOR)

On April 13th…

… or thereabouts; the canonical date is “the early spring”.

Friedrich illustration of Violet sitting in front of the window.
Illustration by Josef Friedrich

April 13, 1890: Violet Hunter sat in the window seat for the second time [COPP]

“Two days later this same performance was gone through under exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny stories of which my employer had an immense repertoire, and which he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and, moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and change my dress.”

Source
A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes according to Ziesler and Christ by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI.

On April 11th…

… or thereabouts, the canonical date is in “the early spring”.

April 11, 1890: Violet Hunter in window seat for the first time. [COPP]

Friedrich illustration of Violet Hunter sitting in front of the window.
Illustration by Josef Friedrich

“A chair had been placed close to the central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humor, never so much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the day, and that I might change my dress, and go to little Edward in the nursery.”

Source
A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes according to Ziesler and Christ by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI.

On April 8th…

April 8, 1897: Holmes and Watson arrived in Poldu Bay, Cornwall. [DEVI]

“Cove and Point” © Copyright Jonathan Billinger and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

It was, then, in the spring of the year 1897 that Holmes’s iron constitution showed some symptoms of giving way in the face of constant hard work of a most exacting kind, aggravated, perhaps, by occasional indiscretions of his own. In March of that year Dr. Moore Agar, of Harley Street, whose dramatic introduction to Holmes I may some day recount, gave positive injunctions that the famous private agent would lay aside all his cases and surrender himself to complete rest if he wished to avert an absolute breakdown. The state of his health was not a matter in which he himself took the faintest interest, for his mental detachment was absolute, but he was induced at last, on the threat of being permanently disqualified from work, to give himself a complete change of scene and air. Thus it was that in the early spring of that year we found ourselves together in a small cottage near Poldhu Bay, at the farther extremity of the Cornish peninsula.

Date information provided by the volume A Day-by-Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, according to Zeisler and Christ, compiled and edited by William S Dorn.

Clarification for TH6: Every Link Rings True 3rd Warm Up Game

Hi Watsonians–

I have heard the 3rd TH6 Warm-Up Game may be a bit too….ambiguous. To help correct the situation, I have added four words to the game.  These four words should make solving the thing much easier.

Since a change is being made, the deadline to submit answers is changed as well.  Please send your answers to treasurehunt@johnhwatsonsociety.com no later than April 15.

Your obedient servant,

Margie/ ‘Mopsy’

‘It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.’

1. According to Holmes, these prevent the world from being dull. What?

2. Probably a (answer to number one) broke it to atoms. What?

3. With the (answer to number two) in mind, count the pieces in the container. How many?

4. Value (the answer to number three) times a hundred to determine who proposed a bribe which Holmes found amusing.  Who?

5. A person with the same surname as (answer to number four) and ‘someone else’ sailed together on at least two different vessels.  The life of the’ someone else’ was defined by two sets of initials.  Who is ‘someone else’?  What initials?

Helpful Hint— Sherlock Holmes said, “Education never ends, Watson.”  See where it leads the party.

TH6: Every Link Rings True 3rd Warm Up Game

Hello Watsonians!

Last month, we had some fun with a practice game in anticipation of the annual Treasure Hunt.  Participation was good, and I received some nice comments.  Want to try another one?

You will find below five questions for the 3rd practice  round for TH6:Every Link Rings True .  Please do not post any answers here; send answers to treasurehunt@johnhwatsonsociety.com.  Answers are due no later than April 11th.

Good luck!

Margie/JHWS ‘Mopsy’

‘It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.’

1. According to Holmes, these prevent the world from being dull. What?

2. Probably a (answer to number one) broke it. What?

3. With the (answer to number two) in mind, count the pieces in the container. How many?

4. Value (the answer to number three) times a hundred to determine who proposed a bribe which Holmes found amusing.  Who?

5. A person with the same surname as (answer to number four) and ‘someone else’ sailed together on at least two different vessels.  The life of the’ someone else’ was defined by two sets of initials.  Who is ‘someone else’?  What initials?

Helpful Hint— Sherlock Holmes said, “Education never ends, Watson.”  See where it leads.

TH6: Every Link Rings True 2nd Warm Up Game Answers

Hi All–

‘Roxie’ (Sandy Kozinn) kindly reminded me that I failed to post the answers to the game when I posted the results last week.  Sorry about that.  Please see below.

Thank for the interest!

Margie/ JHWS ‘Mopsy’

1. According to Watson, Holmes never stood here. Where?

Answer: the dock

Such extenuating circumstances came out in the trial that the sentence, as will be remembered, was the lowest that was possible for such an offence. Sherlock Holmes was threatened with a prosecution for burglary, but when an object is good and a client is sufficiently illustrious, even the rigid British law becomes human and elastic. My friend has not yet stood in the dock. (ILLU)

2. Find the slip of a girl who prevented her friend from standing where Holmes never stood. Who?

Answer: Miss Morrison

It was not easy to pick one’s steps, but on the whole I was inclined to dismiss the idea that there had been anything between the Colonel and Miss Morrison, but more than ever convinced that the young lady held the clue as to what it was which had turned Mrs Barclay to hatred of her husband.  I took the obvious course, therefore, of calling upon Miss Morrison, of explaining to her that I was perfectly certain that she held the facts in her possession, and of assuring her that her friend, Mrs Barclay, might find herself in the dock upon a capital charge unless the matter were cleared up. Miss Morrison is a little, ethereal slip of a girl, with timid eyes and blonde hair, but I found her by no means wanting in shrewdness and common sense. She sat thinking for some time after I had spoken, and then turning to me with a brisk air of resolution, she broke into a remarkable statement, which I will condense for your benefit. (CROO)

3. A lady with an identical surname to [the answer to question two] was mentioned only once as part of a well-baited trap. Who?

Answer: Annie Morrison

‘It is very much the sort of thing that I expected,’ said he. ‘Of course, we do not yet know what the relations may have been between Alec Cunningham, William Kirwan, and Annie Morrison. The result shows that the trap was skillfully baited. (REIG)

Tracey, Encyclopedia Sherlockiana, p. 248: Morrison, Annie, a woman mentioned in the note from the Cunninghams to William Kirwin, though her role in the case is uncertain.

4. A lady with the same first name as [the answer to question three] had a brother who did not think Holmes was very clever after all. Which brother?

Answer: Joseph Harrison

‘Of course you saw the “J. H.” monogram on my locket,’ said he.  ‘For a moment I thought you had done something clever.  Joseph Harrison is my name, and as Percy is to marry my sister Annie, I shall at least be a relation by marriage.  You will find my sister in his room, for she has nursed him hand-and-foot these two months back.  Perhaps we had better go in at once, for I know how impatient he is.’ (NAVA)

5. With the first name of [the answer to question four] in mind, look in the pocket and find the poet. Who?

Answer: Giovanni Boccaccio

‘’You’re sure it doesn’t simplify them?’ observed Holmes.  ‘There’s nothing to be learned by staring at it. What did you find in his pockets?’ ‘We have it all here,’ said Gregson, pointing to a litter of objects upon one of the bottom steps of the stairs ‘A gold watch, No. 97163, by Barraud, of London. ..No purse, but loose money to the extent of seven pounds thirteen. Pocket edition of Boccaccio’s Decameron, with name of Joseph Stangerson upon the fly-leaf. Two letters – one addressed to E. J. Drebber and one to Joseph Stangerson.’ (STUD)

Wikipedia: Giovanni Boccaccio (/boʊˈkɑːtʃioʊ, bə-, -tʃoʊ/; Italian: [dʒoˈvanni bokˈkattʃo]; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375)[1] was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Boccaccio wrote a number of notable works, including The Decameron and On Famous Women. He wrote his imaginative literature mostly in the Italian vernacular, as well as other works in Latin, and is particularly noted for his realistic dialogue which differed from that of his contemporaries, medieval writers who usually followed formulaic models for character and plot.

Helpful hint: Do not look in Holmes’s pocket

‘No, sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be there in twenty minutes.’ (BOSC)

 

 

TH6: Every Link Rings True 2nd Warm Up Game Results

Hello Watsonians,

The time has passed to submit answers for our second TH6:Every Link Rings True warm-up game.  Responses to this game came quickly, with our ‘Calder’ /Brad Keefauver sending the answers almost before I posted the questions.  He was fast and 100% accurate.

Several others quickly followed with correct answers as well: Roger Johnson/ ‘Count’, Richard Olken/ ‘Palmer’, Denny Dobry, Paul Harnett/ ‘Scout’, Sheila Holtgrieve/ ‘Daisy’, Beth Gallego/ ‘Selena’, Ron Lies/ ‘Chips’, and Michele Lopez/ ‘Reggie’

Congratulations to all of you for a game well-played!  You are all in fine form for the 2018 Treasure Hunt.  I will be back soon with another small warm-up challenge.

Many thanks for playing!

Margie/ JHWS ‘Mopsy’

‘It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.’

On March 8th…

‘I’ve had bad news — terrible news, Mr. Holmes’ [illustration by Frank Wiles for The Strand magazine, 1915]
March 8, 1888: Holmes learned that Jack Douglas had been lost at sea. [VALL]

“No, I don’t say that,” said Holmes, and his eyes seemed to be looking far into the future. “I don’t say that he can’t be beat. But you must give me time – you must give me time!” We all sat in silence for some minutes, while those fateful eyes still strained to pierce the veil.

Source
A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI

On March 7th…

Illustration by Richard Gutschmidt (1902)

March 7, 1881: Jefferson Hope’s body was found in his cell. [STUD]

He had gone to the final judgment and reunion with Lucy. One can hope that mercy ruled determination of their case. Their suffering and pain on earth was enough. -Chips

Source
A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI

On March 6th…

Illustration by Richard Gutschmidt (1902)

March 6, 1881: Holmes tested some pills on the landlady’s dying dog. [STUD]

As he spoke he turned the contents of the wine-glass into a saucer and placed it in front of the terrier, who speedily licked it dry. Sherlock Holmes’s earnest demeanour had so far convinced us that we all sat in silence, watching the animal intently, and expecting some startling effect. None such appeared, however. The dog continued to lie stretched upon the cushion, breathing in a laboured way, but apparently neither the better nor the worse for its draught.

As we know, the second pill had a rather different effect.

March 6, 1881: Jefferson Hope was captured. [STUD]

Illustration by George Hutchinson for A Study in Scarlet (1891)

The whole thing occurred in a moment – so quickly that I had no time to realize it. I have a vivid recollection of that instant, of Holmes’s triumphant expression and the ring of his voice, of the cabman’s dazed, savage face, as he glared at the glittering handcuffs, which had appeared as if by magic upon his wrists. For a second or two we might have been a group of statues. Then with an inarticulate roar of fury, the prisoner wrenched himself free from Holmes’s grasp, and hurled himself through the window. Woodwork and glass gave way before him; but before he got quite through, Gregson, Lestrade, and Holmes sprang upon him like so many staghounds. He was dragged back into the room, and then commenced a terrific conflict. So powerful and so fierce was he that the four of us were shaken off again and again. He appeared to have the convulsive strength of a man in an epileptic fit. His face and hands were terribly mangled by his passage through the glass, but the loss of blood had no effect in diminishing his resistance. It was not until Lestrade succeeded in getting his hand inside his neckcloth and half-strangling him that we made him realize that his struggles were of no avail; and even then we felt no security until we had pinioned his feet as well as his hands. That done, we rose to our feet breathless and panting.

On March 5th…

Illustration by Richard Gutschmidt (1902)

March 5, 1881: Stangerson found stabbed to death at Halliday’s Private Hotel. [STUD]

He stood in the centre of the room, fumbling nervously with his hat and uncertain what to do.

“This is a most extraordinary case,” he said at last – “a most incomprehensible affair.”

“Ah, you find it so, Mr. Lestrade!” cried Gregson, triumphantly. “I thought you would come to that conclusion. Have you managed to find the secretary, Mr. Joseph Stangerson?”

“The secretary, Mr. Joseph Stangerson,” said Lestrade gravely, “was murdered at Halliday’s Private Hotel about six o’clock this morning.”

Illustration by Richard Gutschmidt (1906)

March 5, 1881: An old “crone” retrieved the woman’s wedding ring advertised as “found” in the ad placed by Holmes. [STUD]

At my summons, instead of the man of violence whom we expected, a very old and wrinkled woman hobbled into the apartment. She appeared to be dazzled by the sudden blaze of light, and after dropping a curtsy, she stood blinking at us with her bleared eyes and fumbling in her pocket with nervous shaky fingers. I glanced at my companion, and his face had assumed such a disconsolate expression that it was all I could do to keep my countenance.

By Hope’s own admission, this person was not Jefferson Hope, so who was she or he? Hope took the secret with him to the hereafter. Any ideas out there?

Source: A Day by Day Chronology of Sherlock Holmes by William S Dorn DWNP, BSI

Membership Renewals for 2018

Renewal notices have been going out in email for memberships that expired at the end of December. If your membership has expired, though, you don’t have to wait for the email; you can head over to the shop to purchase a Membership for 2018.

Not sure when your membership expires? Take a peek at our Members Page! If it says you are a member through 12/17, it’s time to renew. (If it’s any other date, it’s not time yet. Memberships ending 6/18 will be notified about how to renew through the end of 2019 later in the year.) While you’re there, if you notice our information for you is incorrect or incomplete, please let me know!

TH6: Every Link Rings True 2nd Warm Up Game

Hello Watsonians!

Last month, we had a little fun with an introductory practice game in anticipation of the annual Treasure Hunt.  This month we continue the practice for TH6:Every Link Rings True with a second warm up game.

You will find the five questions for the practice posted below.  Please do not post any answers here; send answers to treasurehunt@johnhwatsonsociety.com.  Answers are due no later than March 11th.

Won’t you play along?

Margie/JHWS ‘Mopsy’

‘It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.’

1. According to Watson, Holmes never stood here.  Where?

2. Find the slip of a girl who prevented her friend from standing where Holmes never stood.  Who?

3. A lady with an identical surname to [the answer to question two] was mentioned only once as part of a well-baited trap.  Who?

4. A lady with the same first name as [the answer to question three] had a brother who did not think Holmes was very clever after all.  Which brother?

5. With the first name of [the answer to question four] in mind, look in the pocket and find the poet. Which poet?

Helpful hint: Do not look in Holmes’s pocket.

Poison in Princeton (via Pop Goes the Page)

Illustration by Sidney Paget for The Strand Magazine (1903)

Escape rooms are all the rage, and I’ve heard more than one person speculate on the possible fun to be had with a Holmes-themed room. Some very clever folks at Princeton did more than speculate: they created a Sherlock Holmes Escape Room challenge. Over the course of 5 hours, 180 kids worked in teams of 6 to solve the puzzles.

This sounds amazing. I appreciate the tips at the end of the post, since I just might have to try to put one of these together for a library program sometime!