News – Page 25 – The John H Watson Society

30 May, 2017

Friend and Biographer Series: JHWS ‘Hyacinth’

Speaking of my old friend and biographer, I would take this opportunity to remark….Watson has some remarkable characteristics of his own, to which in his modesty he has given small attention…

Hello Watsonians,

Today we add to our series of brief biographic interviews with some of the members of JHWS. Our members, like the good Dr. Watson, have some remarkable characteristics of their own, and we would like to give some small attention to them.

Please welcome our Canadian friend Stephanie Thomas. I enjoyed her comments very much (especially that ‘soft spot’) and I think you will enjoy them too.

Thanks,

Margie

JHWS/’Mopsy’

Name and bull pup moniker –

Stephanie Thomas, JHWS “Hyacinth”

Current (city, state, country) location –

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

How long have you been a devotee of Dr. Watson?

I have been a devotee of the good doctor since I read the Hound of the Baskervilles in junior high. I have always had a soft spot for Dr. Watson because he is intelligent, brave and loyal, and not self-centred like Holmes.

Do you have a favorite canonical story?

My favorite story is ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ because it was the first Holmes story I read, Sir Henry Baskerville is Canadian, and Toronto is mentioned. It is also my favorite because Dr. Watson has an opportunity to work on his own solving the mystery, and readers get to see how intelligent Watson is. That is something we do not always get to see in the Canon because usually Watson focusses on Holmes’ work. Runners up are The Adventure of the Speckled Band and The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.

What is your favorite quote from the canon?

My favorite quote is from ‘The Adventure of the Three Garridebs’: “You’re not hurt, Watson? For God’s sake, say that you are not hurt!”

My heart melted when I first read this passage. Although it is obvious in the other stories that Holmes is fond of Watson, it is in the Three Garridebs where Holmes comes out and says how much he cares for his friend.

If you could speak directly to anyone in the canon, who would you choose and why?

Like Lily, I would choose to talk to Mrs. Hudson. She must have so many fascinating stories about having Holmes and Watson as lodgers, and she knows more about Dr. Watson than what he reveals to us in the Canon. In ‘A Study in Scarlet’, Watson mentions that he has another set of vices when he is well. Mrs. Hudson probably knows what those vices are, and she would know how many wives Watson had, and what happened to them. Number two on my list would be Dr. Watson. With his gift for story-telling, and his pawkish sense of humour, he would be an interesting and entertaining person to talk to.

Are you fond of any particular canon adaptations—pastiche, radio, or film?

My favorite adaption is the Granada series starring Jeremy Brett, David Burke, and Edward Hardwicke. The casting is spot on and I like that the series is true to the Canon. My favorite film is ‘Murder by Decree’, with Christopher Plumber as Holmes and James Mason as Watson, where Holmes and Watson are hunting Jack the Ripper. I also like Jude Law’s portrayal of Dr. Watson in the Guy Ritchie films.

Do you have a local Watsonian/Sherlockian/Holmesian group you meet with on a regular basis?

My local Sherlockian society is the Bootmakers of Toronto. I am also a member of the Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, Toronto Public Library (ACD Friends).

Do you have any recent Watsonian/Sherlockian/Holmesian projects/events you would like to tell us about?

I don’t have any Sherlockian projects on the go. In January I attended the BSI Weekend in New York City.

If you had a magic wand, allowing you to add, subtract, change one thing in your Watsonian/Sherlockian/Holmesian world, what would it be?

I would like to see more young fans joining Sherlockian societies instead of confining their interest in Holmes and Watson to social media. I have met so many great people and made many friends by attending Bootmakers of Toronto meetings and ACD Friends events, going to Holmes and Doyle themed conferences, and attending gatherings such as the BSI Weekend. It would be a shame if these opportunities to meet Sherlockians face-to-face died out because the next generation of Sherlockians only “meet” online. I would also like to see more fans of BBC’s Sherlock reading Dr. Watson’s original stories.

30 May, 201727 May, 2017

Dr Watson’s Finest Moment

[Note from Chips: I have the author’s permission to use this for our membership to enjoy. For a society that honors the contributions of Dr Watson, I think it is a fitting tribute to the Good Doctor.]

WATSON’S FINEST MOMENT

by Carl L Heifetz

Prepared for The Formulary, The Journal of the Friends of Doctor Watson

April 17, 2006

The “sacred” Canon reveals many excellent instances that may fulfill the object of this essay – to describe the finest moment in the life and career of John H. Watson, M.D.

Could it be the time that he stood bravely on the deck of the Aurora, revolver in hand, facing down the dangerous Tonga and his poisoned dart in The Sign of Four, or, in the same adventure, when he walked, alone and unprotected, late at night through a dangerous part of London seeking Toby? How about the time that he steadfastly acted as a British jury in “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange?” The list is virtually endless.

Although many other episodes could be cited as exemplifying the subject of this discourse, I maintain that the best exemplar was the occasion in which Dr. Watson agreed to shares Baker Street quarters with Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

Look at the circumstances that would have mitigated against this decision. Watson was weak and weary from his horrible experiences. His leg and shoulder ached constantly, forcing him towards excessive drink. His constitution had been weakened by a case of enteric fever. He was probably also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. And, no doubt, his nerves were very highly susceptible to anxiety, admitting later to “keeping a bull pup.” Yet, he agreed to share a suite with a man described as a very sinister companion; a man who greeted him with a mysterious statement concerning the fact that he had been in Afghanistan, a statement which could put most men’s nerve on edge, and then ran around yelling about some test for blood. It is indeed a tribute to Dr. Watson that he must have seen some very positive outcomes associated with a future relationship with the “mad scientist” whom he had just met.

Let us consider the serious consequences had Dr. Watson not decided that it would be in his best interests to share rooms with this eccentric gentleman. Just imagine, we might never have heard of Sherlock Holmes.

His personal reticence would have dimmed whatever other records there were of his accomplishment. Think of it: The world would never have been the same; we would all have been deprived of the main focus of our scholarly pursuits.

Let us all sing the praises of Dr. Watson, and his finest moment – the beginning of an adventurous life for Dr. Watson and all of us who relish Dr. Watson’s accounts.

29 May, 201727 May, 2017

From Limerick Corner

I have the author’s permission to publish this limerick, and I felt that there is such a great description here I wanted my fellow members to see and appreciate the quality. Tomorrow I have an article about Dr Watson’s finest moment by this same author that I think you will really
enjoy. My first love in Sherlockian research is limericks so this one is first. I hope you understand and allow me my passion. -Chips

SHERLOCK HOLMES LIMERICK
by Carl & Sandie Heifetz

(Presented at the Pleasant Places of Florida Sherlock Holmes Birthday Bash, January 17, 1998; Cité Grill: Dundin, Florida), Published in The Hounds Collection Vol. 4, p 70, Bill Barnes 1999.

Sherlock Holmes, a detective from London,
Could not tolerate puzzles too humdrum.
He looked at all trifles,
Butts, tracks, and air rifles,
And used Science to solve each conundrum.
He was the best London detective,
Who thought police methods defective,
He placed his reliance,
On methods of Science,
And used logic that was quite objective.
On all of the clues he would meditate,
While smoking his pipe would eliminate,
All items impossible,
But not the improbable,
And then his hypotheses validate.

28 May, 201718 September, 2018

Stephen Fry and Sherlock Holmes

If any fictional character can be said to be immortal, it is Sherlock Holmes.

So begins Simon Callow’s review of the new audio version of (most of) the Canon from Audible, read by Stephen Fry, in the New York Times Book Review: The Sound of Sherlock: Stephen Fry Voices the Master Sleuth.

After recounting a few of the many adaptations and pastiches that have appeared over the years – including The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, and House – he returns to the ongoing interest in the Canon since its original publication.

The reasons for Holmes’s enduring fascination are easy to understand. He restores logic to an unruly, disturbingly incomprehensible world. Initial chaos — the crime — appears to be without meaning. The great detective, inhumanly brilliant, makes sense of things again. […] We come to him like frightened children, in search of explanations. He will never fail us. At least in the realm of crime — though not in the territory of the human heart — he sheds light where there has previously only been darkness. He is clever Daddy, who leaves us reassured, able to sleep at night. But he is by no means perfect. Conan Doyle’s coup de maître, as Watson might say, is to make his hero a flawed man, prone to deep melancholia, liable to escape into cocaine- or opium-induced oblivion. He has the soul of an artist, as demonstrated in his violin playing: He is prepared to please Watson by knocking off some Mendelssohn or Wagner, but when left to himself, he “scrapes carelessly” at the fiddle thrown across his knee. Sometimes, Watson tells us, the chords were sonorous and melancholy, sometimes fantastic and cheery: obviously an avant-gardist at work. Holmes’s behavior, tut-tuts Watson, is bohemian: His papers are piled up higgledy-piggledy all over his rooms, he is entirely disorganized domestically, he is given to long bouts of brooding silence. Nothing that is not germane to his work as a consulting detective is allowed to clutter up his mind. He is indifferent to literature, knows little of history, and cosmology has no part in his intellectual framework. This, too, has endeared Holmes to his readers: The genius is vulnerable, his mental prowess bought at a cost.

“12 Scenes from Holmes’s Career” by Sidney Paget

The audio recording also includes some forewords from Fry himself, which Callow says “constitute one of the set’s major pleasures, illuminated by informed enthusiasm and personal revelation: In one he rather touchingly recounts how his first encounter with Holmes, at a very early age, changed his life, leading him on to truancy, expulsion from school and, finally, briefly, prison.” For Fry’s vocal performance, Callow has nothing but praise:

In the Holmes books, he reads just under a thousand pages in his wonderfully even and infallibly intelligent voice, touching the characters in deftly — the books field a very large number of well-educated middle-aged men, and it must have been difficult to differentiate one from another. Otherwise, he finds a variety of accents and tones for the many foreigners Holmes encounters; his American accents are lightly done, without attempting, for example, a Utah accent in “A Study in Scarlet.”

Callow concludes, “There are other complete recorded Holmeses (as it happens, the current collection omits the last book of all, presumably on copyright grounds), but none that sustains the course so buoyantly, and none with the added pleasure of the reader’s pithy commentary on each book.”

There is a “Definitive Edition” available in the UK that includes The Case-Book, but it is not available in the United States. Maybe that edition will be released this side of the pond when those stories (finally) roll into the US public domain.

Have you listened to the Stephen Fry audiobook, or any other audio version of the Canon?

27 May, 201722 September, 2018

A Bit on Tid Bits

I always meant the definition of Tid Bits to be as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it: “a small and particularly interesting item of gossip or information”.

So, from time to time I will be adding a small and, to me, particularly interesting item of gossip or information. I hope you find the tid bit interesting too. If not, please let me know. This is my baby, so Selena is not to be blamed, just me in this case for as long as it lasts.

Yours in Sherlockian fun and information, “Chips” aka “Tid Bits”

Tid Bit for Today

Are you looking for a dentist in the Denver metro area? You might give him a try. The tooth with the deerstalker looks a little loopy, maybe from the Novocaine?

26 May, 201718 September, 2018

On May 26th…

eter Cushing as Holmes and Nigel Stock as Watson (1964)

“Chips” writes that today marks the birth of his favorite actor to play Sherlock Holmes: he put an emotion into Holmes as one who could be aloof, standoffish because of his knowledge but underneath a warm caring human who loved Watson as a brother and cared for his clients.

Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913, in Kenley, Surrey, England. He played Sherlock Holmes many times, beginning with Hammer Films’ The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1959, which was the first Holmes adaptation filmed in color. He went on to play Holmes in 16 episodes of the BBC’s Sherlock Holmes series, though only six episodes have survived. Twenty years later, he portrayed an older Holmes in the television movie, Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death.

Cushing was a Sherlockian, and as such insisted on including lines from the stories into the TV episodes. He also included actions such as writing on his sleeve cuff in Study in Scarlet. Unfortunately, the series was underfunded and given no time to film quality episodes, so Cushing and the BBC parted company.

In Starring Sherlock Holmes: A Century of the Master Detective on Screen, film historian David Stuart Davies notes:

Cushing requested that the costumes for the series replicated those shown in the Paget illustrations. The BBC agreed, and in doing so exploded the myth of Holmes’s Inverness cape…

Sources: A Curious Collection of Dates: Through the Year with Sherlock Holmes by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”), IMDB.com, and the Peter Cushing Appreciation Society UK.

26 May, 201725 May, 2017

Start the Presses (Again)!

The Spring 2017 issue of the Watsonian is currently being printed and will soon be winging its way to mailboxes around the world. Digital subscribers will receive an email including a link to download the new issue.

Our publication schedule is now two issues per year: the Spring issue in May and the Fall issue in November.

This is the last issue in many members’ subscriptions. If your membership expires on June 30th, you will not receive the Fall issue unless you renew. Not sure when you’re due for renewal? Membership dates can be found on the Members Page, and mid-year renewals (through December 2018) are available in the Shop.

If you’ve been meaning to join, it’s not too late! Membership is available for the 2017 calendar year, and you will receive both the Spring and Fall 2017 issues of the Watsonian. Don’t miss out on the art, essays, fiction, and puzzles that make up each issue of our excellent journal!

25 May, 201723 May, 2017

On May 25th…

Readers all over the world endured the death of the great Sherlock Holmes, who had become so loved and popular to fans, in the last story in the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1893. A storm of protest could not change the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Even his Mother, according to stories passed around, could not bring Holmes back.

Then, on May 25th, 1901, Newnes’s weekly publication, Tit-Bits (sister publication to The Strand) announced, “Revival of Sherlock Holmes”.

Never mind that the story being published was to be an earlier case of Holmes’s before his fatal encounter at the Falls.

Holmes was coming back.

His most exciting case yet, The Hound of The Baskervilles began appearing in The Strand in August of 1901 and was published as a novel in 1902.

The hope of Holmes was back and hopefully would never go away.

This information comes from A Curious Collection of Dates: Through the Year with Sherlock Holmes by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”).

We’ll close with the dedication that appeared in the original book. [Interesting that now there are those scholars who do not believe that this was true in the creation of this tale. -Chips]

This story owes its inception to my friend, Mr. Fletcher Robinson, who has helped me both in the general plot and in the local details.

24 May, 201723 May, 2017

On May 24th…

“Chips” writes:
There is no activity recorded for May 24th in our Chronology. So, we are going to stray into one of my passions in the Sherlockian world.

From my Limerick Corner: I have a rather large collection of Sherlockian Limericks, and I am going to post a few on the case that our chronological dating just started on yesterday. The first limerick is by a rather well-known Sherlockian.

The Adventure of the Naval Treaty
by Isaac Asimov, BSI

Poor old Phelps faces prospects of doom
And yet all he can do is fume.
The pact’s gone — He was sentry —
There’s no sign of an entry
But our Holmes can decode the locked room

The next one was composed by a gentleman I had the pleasure of meeting and corresponding with on the first Sherlockian discussion forum on the Internet. The group is the Hounds of the Internet, which is still going, and I have the pleasure of being a member of it.

The gentleman I met was posting quite wonderful limericks of his own creation, one for every short story in the Canon. After talking about each limerick as he posted them, he asked for my email address as he had a little gift for me he wanted to send me. I received a copy of every one of his limericks with his permission to publish wherever I felt Sherlockians would enjoy them. I miss Don every day when I hear of or read a limerick… which is every day. I still wish I could have talked him into writing a limerick or two for each of the 4 novels. His answer was always the same, “I am too lazy to do that, It might take too much work.”

Rest in peace, Don.

The Adventure of the Naval Treaty
by Don Dillistone

Responding to Phelps’s entreaty
Holmes found the lost Naval Treaty
But the absconder
Was not from Yonder,
But brother to Phelps’s own Sweetie.
–Don Dillistone, April 2002

23 May, 201718 September, 2018

On May 23rd…

From A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes according to Zeisler and Christ compiled and edited by William S Dorn:

On May 23, 1889, the Naval Treaty was stolen. [NAVA]

Illustration by Sidney Paget for The Strand Magazine (1893)

The chamber into which we were shown was on the same floor as the drawing-room. It was furnished partly as a sitting and partly as a bedroom, with flowers arranged daintily in every nook and corner. A young man, very pale and worn, was lying upon a sofa near the open window, through which came the rich scent of the garden and the balmy summer air. A woman was sitting beside him, and rose as we entered.
“Shall I leave, Percy?” she asked.
He clutched her hand to detain her. “How are you, Watson?” said he, cordially, “I should never have known you under that moustache, and I daresay you would not be prepared to swear to me. This I presume is your celebrated friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes?”

This is one of the rare instances of a physical description of Watson in the Canon, and the one scholars use as proof that Watson had a moustache.

“A cold hand seemed to close round my heart. Someone, then, was in that room where my precious treaty lay upon the table. I ran frantically up the stairs and along the passage. There was no one in the corridors, Mr. Holmes. There was no one in the room. All was exactly as I left it, save only that the papers committed to my care had been taken from the desk on which they lay. The copy was there and the original was gone.”

Since Phelps was warned strongly about the need to keep the treaty safe, why did he leave it on the table in the first place? Why did he not put the original in his desk drawer and lock it up or lock the room before leaving the floor?

22 May, 201718 September, 2018

On May 22nd…

Photograph of Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle by Herbert Rose Barraud (1893)

We have no Canonical happening for today, but we celebrate a rather important event!

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born May 22, 1859 at Picardy Place, Edinburgh, to Charles Altamont Doyle and Mary Doyle (née Foley).

In honor of Dr Doyle’s 158th birthday, we’d like to share some fascinating facts from A Curious Collection of Dates: Through the Year with Sherlock Holmes by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”). We rely on this excellent volume for inspiration for many of our non-chronology entries. As a rule, we avoid posting such long extracts from published works; we hope that this small taste will inspire you to grab a copy of the book from Wessex Press for yourself!

Ten Facts about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle You Might not Know

from A Curious Collection of Dates: Through the Year with Sherlock Holmes by Leah Guinn and Jaime N Mahoney

He was six years old when he wrote his first story. An adventure story about a hunting party’s encounter with a Bengal tiger, it was, as is typical for little boys’ tales, realistic about its protagonist’s fate: the tiger went away filled.

He had a miniature monorail train built at Undershaw for his children and their friends.

He could be musical. In the early spring of 1898, he wrote to his mother that he was learning the banjo: “To hunt and to play a musical instrument would 2 years ago have been picked out as the two things in the world that I was least likely to do.” (We cannot tell if he stuck with it.)

He did not like corn on the cob. During his 1894 tour of the States, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that he “does not seem to be infatuated with ear corn.” Sweet potatoes and eggplant were apparently more palatable.

He seems to have been asked to join The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, whose alleged members included William Butler Yeats, Arthur Machen, and Sax Rohmer. He declined the invitation, from a “Dr. Brown,” claiming that he simply did not have the time. A month later, he encountered “Dr. Brown” again at a social gathering, and heard him and a friend discussing their experiences with astral projection. “…I remain under the impression that I brushed against something strange,” he wrote later, “and something which I am not sorry that I avoided.”

He could be a bit of a thrill seeker. In 1901, he excitedly reported to his mother that he had taken a ride in a hot air balloon, flying 25 miles from the Crystal Palace to Sevenoaks, “We went 1½ miles high,” he exulted, “It was a most extraordinary sensation and experience… […] I have always wanted to do this & am glad I have done it.”

If he were shipwrecked on a deserted island and could choose only one book to have with him, it would be Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This is, in fact, a multi-volume work, which might be considered cheating.

He showed remarkably poor judgment… when, on Christmas morning in 1892, he decided to dress as a monster and jump out to scare his family. Four year-old Mary was traumatized, and biographer Daniel Stashower tells us that Arthur was give nighttime comfort duty, a just and fitting punishment.

His name was valuable. In October of 1895, Conan Doyle felt obligated to write to a New York paper, The Critic, to alert readers that someone was publishing an anthology of stories under his name. He had only one story in Strange Secrets, he wrote, “a short one in the middle of the book.”

He owned property in Canada. During his trip to Canada with Jean in 1914, he bought land in Fort William, Ontario, as an investment, paying $15,000. In 1965, his heirs sold the lot at a loss for $14,000.

21 May, 201718 September, 2018

On May 21st…

From A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes according to Zeisler and Christ by William S Dorn:

Harrington Bird’s “Isinglass Winning the Derby”, from The Encyclopedia of Sport (1897)

On May 21, 1902, Shoscombe Prince won the Derby at Epsom. [SHOS]

It is generally known now that this singular episode ended upon a happier note than Sir Robert’s actions deserved. Shoscombe Prince did win the Derby, the sporting owner did net eighty thousand pounds in bets, and the creditors did hold their hand until the race was over, when they were paid in full, and enough was left to re-establish Sir Robert in a fair position in life. Both police and coroner took a lenient view of the transaction, and beyond a mild censure for the delay in registering the lady’s decease, the lucky owner got away scatheless from this strange incident in a career which has now outlived its shadows and ended in an honoured old age.

[Some of the prize money must’ve gone to grease some wheels, so Sir Robert got away with it. What a Cad and Bounder! –Chips]

20 May, 201718 September, 2018

On May 20th…

From A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes according to Zeisler and Christ by William S Dorn:

May 20, 1900, was Beppo’s last pay day at Gelder & Co. [SIXN]

“No, no,” cried Holmes, “not a word to the cousin – not a word, I beg you. The matter is very important, and the farther I go with it the more important it seems to grow. When you referred in your ledger to the sale of those casts I observed that the date was June 3rd of last year. Could you give me the date when Beppo was arrested?”
“I could tell you roughly by the pay-list,” the manager answered. “Yes,” he continued, after some turning over of pages, “he was paid last on May 20th.”

19 May, 201719 September, 2018

On May 19th…

From A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes according to Zeisler and Christ by William S Dorn:

Nissar Modi as Lord Arthur Saltire (Granada, 1986)

On May 19, 1900, Lord Saltire was rescued. [PRIO]

[Holmes said,] “I will help you, but on one condition only. It is that you ring for the footman and let me give such orders as I like.”
Without a word the Duke pressed the electric bell. A servant entered.
“You will be glad to hear,” said Holmes, “that your young master is found. It is the Duke’s desire that the carriage shall go at once to the Fighting Cock Inn to bring Lord Saltire home.”

Illustration by Sidney Paget for The Strand Magazine (1904)

Also on May 19, 1900, the Duke of Holdernesse wrote a cheque for £12,000 to Holmes. [PRIO]

The Duke took a pen in his quivering fingers and opened his cheque-book.”I shall be as good as my word, Mr. Holmes. I am about to write your cheque, however unwelcome the information which you have gained may be to me. When the offer was first made I little thought the turn which events might take. But you and your friend are men of discretion, Mr. Holmes?”

According to Nicolas Utechin’s Coin of the Canonical Realm, in 2013, that £12,000 would have been worth approximately £1,065,600 GBP ($1,715,616 USD). Small wonder Holmes said that cheque was the most interesting thing he had seen in the North!

18 May, 201719 September, 2018

On May 18th…

From A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes according to Zeisler and Christ by William S Dorn:

May 18, 1900: Heidegger’s body was discovered on lower Gil Moor. [PRIO]

Our search was not a very long one. The tracks of the tyre began to curve fantastically upon the wet and shining path. Suddenly, as I looked ahead, the gleam of metal caught my eye from amid the thick gorse bushes. Out of them we dragged a bicycle, Palmer-tyred, one pedal bent, and the whole front of it horribly smeared and slobbered with blood. On the other side of the bushes a shoe was projecting. We ran round, and there lay the unfortunate rider. He was a tall man, full bearded, with spectacles, one glass of which had been knocked out. The cause of his death was a frightful blow upon the head, which had crushed in part of his skull. That he could have gone on after receiving such an injury said much for the vitality and courage of the man. He wore shoes, but no socks, and his open coat disclosed a night-shirt beneath it. It was undoubtedly the German master.
Holmes turned the body over reverently, and examined it with great attention. He then sat in deep thought for a time, and I could see by his ruffled brow that this grim discovery had not, in his opinion, advanced us much in our inquiry.

May 18, 1900: Rueben Hayes was arrested in Chesterfield for murdering Heidegger. [PRIO]

As to Hayes I say nothing. The gallows awaits him, and I would do nothing to save him from it. What he will divulge I cannot tell, but I have no doubt that your Grace could make him understand that it is to his interest to be silent. From the police point of view he will have kidnapped the boy for the purpose of ransom.

17 May, 201719 September, 2018

On May 17th…

From A Day by Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes according to Zeisler and Christ by William S Dorn:

May 17, 1900: Dr Thorneycroft Huxtable fainted on the hearth rug at 221B Baker Street. [PRIO]

We have had some dramatic entrances and exits upon our small stage at Baker Street, but I cannot recollect anything more sudden and startling than the first appearance of Dr. Thorneycroft Huxtable, M.A., Ph.D., etc. His card, which seemed too small to carry the weight of his academic distinctions, preceded him by a few seconds, and then he entered himself – so large, so pompous, and so dignified that he was the very embodiment of self-possession and solidity. And yet his first action when the door had closed behind him was to stagger against the table, whence he slipped down upon the floor, and there was that majestic figure prostrate and insensible upon our bearskin hearthrug.
We had sprung to our feet, and for a few moments we stared in silent amazement at this ponderous piece of wreckage, which told of some sudden and fatal storm far out on the ocean of life. Then Holmes hurried with a cushion for his head and I with brandy for his lips.

Now here we have a sample of the famous Watson’s remedy. I think, in this case, from a non-medical point of view, the best medicine for the situation.

16 May, 20177 May, 2017

Msgr Knox and the Sherlock Holmes Story

Since there no points of interest listed in our Sherlockian Calendar for today, I had an idea for a change of pace. I have a friend, a retired teacher of special education, who made a presentation to a class of middle schoolers who were studying Sherlock Holmes in their literature class. Larry made his own copy of the points that Reverend Ronald Knox wrote up as being parts of a Sherlock Holmes story. Larry took out the Latin translations that were part of the fanciful article that Reverend Knox wrote as a basis for creating Sherlockian Scholarship. Larry listed the parts in such a clear way I wanted to pass it along to our group.

We hope you enjoy.

The Eleven Essential Parts of a Sherlock Holmes Story by Reverend Ronald Knox

As compiled by Larry Feldman, a retired Special Education teacher and Sherlockian Scholar

Part 1 – The Homely Baker Street Scene – implicit introductions.
a) “invaluable personal touches”
b) a lecture/demonstration by the detective.

Part 2 – Statement of the Case
a) Client’s statement
b) Newspaper account

Part 3 – Personal investigation
a) Scene of the crime
b) Famous “floor walk”

Part 4 – Refutation of Scotland Yard’s Theory of the Crime

Part 5 – Holmes gives a few stray hints to the police (and the reader)
that the police dismiss.

Part 6 – A partial sketch of the true course of the investigation –usually to Watson alone.

Part 7 – Further follow-up of the investigation
a) Cross questioning of witnesses/suspects/family
b) Examination of the corpse
c) Visit to the record office
d) Holmes assumes a character, disguise.

Part 8 – Criminal is caught, exposed revealed

Part 9 – Criminal’s confession or story

Part 10 – Holmes describes clues, his thought process, how he solved the case

Part 11 – Final thought
a) Quotation
b) Ironic observation
c) Sum up of experience

Note: Most Sherlock Holmes stories do not have all eleven sections, or necessarily in this order. Most have 5 to 6 parts. It is a list of the structural pieces of a Sherlock Holmes story.

15 May, 201715 May, 2017

Friend and Biographer Series: JHWS ‘Roxie’

Speaking of my old friend and biographer, I would take this opportunity to remark….Watson has some remarkable characteristics of his own, to which in his modesty he has given small attention…

Hello Watsonians,

We are happy to present this interview with Watsonian columnist Sandy Kozzin. Sandy, ASH ‘Esmerelda’, is a member of several societies and a regular contributor to Welcome Holmes and The Hounds of the Internet.

Enjoy!

Margie

JHWS/ ‘Mopsy’

Name and bull pup moniker—

Sandy Kozinn, Roxie

Current (city, state, country) location—

Demarest, NJ

How long have you been a devotee of Dr. Watson?

25 years

Do you have a favorite canonical story?

Not really, depends on my mood

5. What is your favorite quote from the canon?

“The game is afoot”

If you could speak directly to anyone in the canon, who would you choose and why?

Probably Watson. I’d want to know the reasons behind the clearly made up names, dates, places, trains, and so forth in so many of the cases — in other words, what was the real story?

Are you fond of any particular canon adaptations, pastiche, radio, or film?

I grew up with Rathbone and Bruce, and like both current TV series. I don’t really do “favorite” — there are so many variables.

Do you have a local Watsonian/Sherlockian/Holmesian group you meet with on a regular basis?

I try to make the ASH luncheons, Mrs. Hudson’s Cliffdwellers’ meetings, and the Priory Scholars’s and attend other area meetings as I can.

Do you have any recent Watsonian/Sherlockian/Holmesian projects/events you would like to tell us about?

Had a terrific time at the Gillete Luncheon during the Birthday Weekend.

If you had a magic wand, allowing you to add, subtract, change one thing in your Watsonian/Sherlockian/Holmesian world, what would it be?

Being able to get to even more local meetings.

15 May, 201719 September, 2018

On May 15th…

According to A Day-by-Day Chronology of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, according to Zeisler and Christ, compiled and edited by William S Dorn, the “gipsies” left the moor near the Priory School on May 15, 1900.

Francis William Topham, “Spanish Gypsies”

There was an agitated knock at the door, and an instant afterwards Dr. Huxtable was in the room. In his hand he held a blue cricket-cap, with a white chevron on the peak.
“At last we have a clue!” he cried. “Thank heaven, at last we are on the dear boy’s track! It is his cap.”
“Where was it found?”
“In the van of the gipsies who camped on the moor. They left on Tuesday. Today the police traced them down and examined their caravan. This was found.”
“How do they account for it?”
“They shuffled and lied – said that they found it on the moor on Tuesday morning. They know where he is, the rascals! Thank goodness, they are all safe under lock and key. Either the fear of the law or the Duke’s purse will certainly get out of them all that they know.”

14 May, 201721 September, 2018

On May 14th…

May 14, 1900: Lord Saltire disappeared. [PRIO]

” `Holdernesse, 6th Duke, K.G., P.C.’ – half the alphabet! `Baron Beverley, Earl of Carston’ – dear me, what a list! “Lord Lieutenant of Hallamshire since 1900. Married Edith, daughter of Sir Charles Appledore, 1888. Heir and only child, Lord Saltire. Owns about two hundred and fifty thousand acres. Minerals in Lancashire and Wales. Address: Carlton House Terrace; Holdernesse Hall, Hallamshire; Carston Castle, Bangor, Wales. Lord of the Admiralty, 1872; Chief Secretary of State for – ‘ Well, well, this man is certainly one of the greatest subjects of the Crown!”

“The greatest and perhaps the wealthiest. I am aware, Mr. Holmes, that you take a very high line in professional matters, and that you are prepared to work for the work’s sake. I may tell you, however, that his Grace has already intimated that a cheque for five thousand pounds will be handed over to the person who can tell him where his son is, and another thousand to him who can name the man, or men, who have taken him.”

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.

Category: News

Friend and Biographer Series: JHWS ‘Hyacinth’