Mixing it up for the 4th JHWS Treasure Hunt warm up

Hi Watsonians–

Here we are a mere six weeks until the treasure hunt begins on August 1.  Since the posting of the first warm up question, I’ve heard from The Sherlock Holmes Society of India. The society will have a team in the competition. I’m so glad SHSI is joining in the fun.

As to the first warm up question, we had a few comments about it.  I’m guessing most of you solved it rather quickly; the answer is January 7th (VALL).  If you have your 1930 Doubleday Single Volume with the Christopher Morley introduction (Buttons’ beloved ‘W’), the quote is found on page 773.

As noted before, the theme this year is ”that mixture of imagination and reality which is the basis of my art” (Holmes,THOR).  With the first question, we talked about reality. For the second warm up question, we have a mixture:

Kitty+Porky+Birdy=common 4 letter location–where?

I look forward to your answers,

Margie

JHWS ‘Gwen’

2016 Treasure Hunt Master

On June 15th…

June 15, 1889: Holmes and Watson accompanied Hall Pycroft to Birmingham to see Arthur Harry Pinner (STOC)
June 15, 1889: Arthur Pinner attempted suicide (STOC)

On June 10th…

June 10, 1889: Hall Pycroft was supposed to start work with Mawson & Williams (STOC)
June 10, 1900: Beppo destroyed two more busts of Napoleon (SIXN)

On June 9th…

June 9, 1888: Jeremiah Hayling was killed by Colonel Lysander Stark (ENGI)
June 9, 1889: Hall Pycroft began marking off all of the hardware sellers in Paris (STOC)

“No Great Harm Was Done” [FINA]

Stutler's Drawing of 221B Baker Street
221B Baker Street, as imagined by Russell Stutler

 

Brad at Sherlock Peoria posted recently about the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to the fire at 221B Baker Street in “The Final Problem”.

“They set fire to our rooms last night. No great harm was done.”

So says Sherlock Holmes to Doctor Watson. It does indeed seem to have caused very little harm, since three years later, in “The Empty House”, Holmes says that “Mycroft preserved my rooms and my papers exactly as they had always been.” An impressive feat, considering how quickly paper burns.

That fire came up in a quiz a couple of years ago, and there was a discussion in the comments in which Ariana (“Carla”) suggested that Holmes set the fire himself.

What do you think? Did Moriarty (or his agents) set the fire? Did Holmes set it himself? Or perhaps Holmes fibbed, and there was no fire at all?

(Click on Russell Stutler’s illustration of the Baker Street rooms to see an enlarged version.  Be sure to visit his site for his annotations!)

On June 7th…

June 7, 1889: Arthur Pinner offered Hall Pycroft a job with Franco-Midland Hardware Company (STOC)
June 7, 1900: Beppo destroyed the first bust of Napoleon (SIXN)

On June 6th…

June 6, 1889: Hall Pycroft received a letter offering him a berth with Mawson & Williams (STOC)
June 6, 1890: Napoleon busts were sold to Morse Hudson and the Harding Brothers (SIXN)