Hi Watsonians,
The 17th deadline for submissions for the 1-question pop quiz has passed, and the result feels a bit like the scene from “Casablanca”: Time to round up the usual suspects. As before, Ron ‘Chips’ Lies and Sheila ‘Daisy’ Holtgrieve submitted perfect answers.
I hope a few more of you had some fun thinking about the possibilities. Work continues on TH6: Every Link Rings True, and the final draft will be finished in a few weeks. Having taken to heart the good response to the second TH warm up game, I am writing the hunt to closely match the style of the second game.
Time to get your teams ready!
Margie/ JHWS ‘Mopsy’
‘It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.’
TH6: Every Link Rings True 4th Warm Up Quiz: 1 Big Question
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?
Answer—
Holmes: Bathing Pool, beach at Sussex Downs/1907/Sea-birds
Watson: Moor/1889/Gull or Curlew
Holmes
Date: ‘ It occurred after my withdrawal to my little Sussex home …Towards the end of July 1907, there was a severe gale, the wind blowing up-Channel, heaping the seas to the base of the cliffs, and leaving a lagoon at the turn of the tide.’
Event: ‘From The Gables I walked down to the bathing pool. The sun had sunk and the shadow of the great cliff lay black across the water, which glimmered dully like a sheet of lead. The place was deserted and there was no sign of life save for two Sea-birds circling and screaming overhead. In the fading light I could dimly make out the little dog’s spoor upon the sand round the very rock on which his master’s towel had been laid. For a long time I stood in deep meditation while the shadows grew darker around me.’ (LION)
Watson
Date: ‘To James Mortimer, MRCS, from his friends of the CCH’, was engraved upon it, with the date ‘1884’…. What was he, then? If he was in the hospital and yet not on the staff, he could only have been a house-surgeon or a house-physician – little more than a senior student. And he left five years ago – the date is on the stick’ (1884 + 5 = 1889)*
(*We realize there is some disagreement among the chronologists with this dating but we are electing to believe Sherlock Holmes.)
Event: ‘The sun was already sinking when I reached the summit of the hill, and the long slopes beneath me were all golden-green on one side and gray shadow on the other. A haze lay low upon the farthest sky-line, out of which jutted the fantastic shapes of Belliver and Vixen Tor. Over the wide expanse there was no sound and no movement. One great grey bird, a gull or curlew, soared aloft in the blue heaven. He and I seemed to be the only living things between the huge arch of the sky and the desert beneath it. The barren scene, the sense of loneliness, and the mystery and urgency of my task all struck a chill into my heart.’ (HOUN)
Later this summer, the very first Holmes in the Heartland conference will take place in St. Louis, IL. It promises to be a welcoming gathering for all sorts of Holmes fans and lots of fun. A number of Watsonians are planning to attend; I wish I could be there, too!