Edited by Peter H&ining

with a Foreword by Peter Cushing

 The i m i 'i '
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Sherlock Holmes ,—\ * /Zs.

Scrapbook r
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Edited by Peter Haining

with a Foreword by Peter Cushing

Since the day an impoverished Southsea doctor

named Arthur Conan Doyle first put pen to paper
and created Sherlock Holmes, the congenial detective
has become acclaimed as one of the legendary figures
in world literature.
Read from one side of the world to the other for
nearly one hundred years, attracted more
Holmes has
detailed study and inquiry than perhaps any other
single character in fiction and has also raised a band
of enthusiasts whose numbers now run into millions.
Over the past century, the "Great Detective," as
he is popularly known, has been the subject of count-
less articles, newspaper reports, memoirs, letters to

the press, and illustrations— not to mention libraries

of books. These reflect not only the man, his cases,
and his faithful assistant Dr. Watson, but also the
people to whom he is not just a fictitious character-
but a criminal investigator to be analyzed, explained,
and compared. A far-ranging collection of such di-
verse material has been brought together in a unique
souvenir of the making of a legend. Herein the reader
will find some of the best, the most illuminating and
frequently most amusing items to appear about the
famous detective partnership.
The contributors include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
his wife, Lady Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers,
Frank Swinnerton, Edmund Pearson, Wyndham
Lewis, Irving Wallace, Ronald Knox, and Christo-
pher Morley.
The book will prove a delight to Sherlockian and
general reader alike, mirroring as it does one of the
most extraordinary literary phenomena of all time.

Peter Haining is a well-known anthologist and writer

whose work has appeared in the United States, Brit-
ain, Europe, and throughout much of the rest of the
world. His wide-ranging interests have led him to a
deep fascination with the phenomenon of Sherlock
Holmes. .**
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lerlock Holme*
craobook
 Fifty years of occasional articles, newspaper cuttings, letters,
memoirs, anecdotes, pictures, photographs and drawings relating
to the great detective

EDITED BY PETER HAINING

Editorial Consultant G. Ken Chapman

FOREWORD BY PETER CUSHING

<& ?f

Bramhall House • New York

Foreword

"Everything comes in circles . . .

The old wheel turns and the same

spoke comes up. It has all been
'."
done before and will be again . .

Thus spake the Master to Inspector

Alec MacDonald in "The Valley of
Fear". Such a lot has been written
already about Sherlock Holmes
that some may be inclined to say —
surely not another volume? But the
old axiom "You cannot have too
much of a good thing" can be
applied with emphasis in this
particular case.
Peter Haining's "Scrapbook" is
a sheer delight for aficionados and
novices alike, and the uninitiated
(if, indeed, there are any) will soon
become enthusiasts once they clap
eyes upon this enchanting
compilation.
PETER CUSHING, apart from being an expert on Sherlock Holmes, is

With the vast wealth of material also widely recognised as the finest modern portrayer of the Master on
films and television. Indeed experts voted his recent performance in the
at his disposal it might be thought film of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" as the second best of all time,
closely following that of the legendary Eille Norwood. Mr. Cushing has
been an enthusiastic devotee of the Great Detective since his youth and
that Mr. Haining's task has been an now owns over sixty books on the subject, including many copies of the
rare "Strand Magazine" containing the original Holmes' serialisation.
easy one; all he had to do was dip

Copyright © MCMLXXIV by Peter Haining

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-81590
All rightsreserved.
This edition is published by Bramhall House
a division of Clarkson N. Potter
a b c d e f g h
Manufactured in the United States of America

Inquiries should be addressed to Clarkson N. Potter, Inc.,

419 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016.

in with both hands, as it were, and 'The Sherlock
Peter Haining
scatter his findings haphazardly Holmes Scrapbook" will do much
upon the following pages. But like to perpetuate this belief, bringing
all things well done, the loving care pleasure to all who read it, and may
he has taken in selection and I hope that they will cling, as I do,
connotation gives little indication to the sentiment expressed by
of the enormous amount of Vincent Starrett —
research
and hard work that has gone into ". there can be no grave for
. .

this collection, and it leaves the Sherlock Holmes or Watson . . .

reader hungry for more, which is Shall they not always live in Baker
always the best way to leave the Street? Are they not there this
table, looking forward to the next instant as one writes? Outside, . . .

meal after due digestion. the hansoms rattle through the rain,
E. V. Knox once wrote an and Moriarty plans his latest devilry.
Obituary Notice on the passing Within, the sea-coal flames upon the
of Sherlock Holmes, which was hearth, and Holmes and Watson
originally published in the "Strand take their well-won ease ... So
Magazine", while his brother Father they still live for all that love them
Ronald A. Knox, suggested in his well: in a romantic chamber of the
"Essays in Satire", that one might heart: in a nostalgic country of the
some day look about for Holmes mind: where it is always 1 895."
in Heaven, forgetting that he was

only a character in a book.

Be that as it may, the great
detective is immortal. Thanks to
Peter Cushing
Whitstable, Kent
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LONDON 'NEW*YORK
AND MELBOURNE'
;
 Introduction

"Holmes was a drug addict without a single amiable

trait." George Bernard Shaw

"Sherlock Holmes is the W.G. Grace of the Detective

story." Julian Symons

Sherlock Holmes is without doubt the most famous

character in the literature of crime. He is the epitomy
of the man of reason, the archetypal investigator and
the master of detectives. It has been argued, with some
justification, that he stands with only two other
fictional characters — Hamlet and Robinson Crusoe —
in being familiar to readers all over the world.
Holmes is a true phenomenon; a man whose
adventures have delighted generation after generation
of readers, and whose modus operandi has become the
standard of achievement for perhaps the most widely
read genre in contemporary fiction. The novelist
Norman Collins has provided what is for me the most
succinct description of this amazing development:
"It is generally agreed that the detective story was
invented by an American, Edgar Allan Poe. But it was
an Englishman, (or rather an Irishman of Scottish birth)
Arthur Conan Doyle, who borrowed the formula,
mixed in a little Frenchman, Gaboriau, and set the
pattern for a whole host of imitators. What Conan
Doyle did was simply tremendous; he made his
principal character, Sherlock Holmes, into that
extraordinary thing, a household word. And indeed,
the fame of his character haunted him: throughout his
long life, Conan Doyle was in the strange position of
being a man pursued by his own detective."
The basis for this legend lies in the fifty-six short
stories and four novels which Doyle wrote about
Holmes and his faithful assistant and chronicler, Dr.
Watson, between 1 881 and the advent of the First
Sherlock Holmes makes his debut.
World War. The cult of Holmes, for such it soon was
Left: The cover of the now extremely rare edition of "Beeton's and still is, was not long in developing; for no sooner
Christmas Annual" for December 1887 which contained the first
adventure of the Great Detective. A copy of the magazine was
had the disenchanted author attempted to 'rid himself
recently sold at Sotheby's for £480, but Conan Doyle himself only of the troublesome detective' over the Reichenbach
received an outright payment of £25 for the story!
Falls in 1893, than he was assaulted with such a
Above: This illustration from the "Annual" is the very first to depict
Holmes in action. It shows the Master examining a clue with Inspectors barrage of complaints that he was forced to restore
Lestrade and Gregson - Watson is the top-hatted figure at the rear.
The artist was D.H. Friston.
him to life.
The actual study of Holmes and his cases from an
analytical point of view followed not long after this
with an essay written by Father Ronald Knox in 1911.
A veritable library of papers, articles and treatises have
filled the intervening years until the present time,
when there would seem to be few obscure points in
any of the cases or debatable statements made by the
two men in conversation, which have not been probed
and analysed from every viewpoint. (Such is the
 A collection of Turf Cigarette Cards featuring Conan Doyle characters

magnetism of Holmes, however, that there will contain material relevent to every tiny detail of the
probably be found still more!) adventures. It is merely an attempt to bring together a

Not every Doyle reader has been swept along in this wide-ranging amount of popular material from the
tide of adulation, though. Christopher Isherwood, for great years of a developing phenomenon which, if
one, found Holmes "one of the truly great comic anything, seems to be gaining still more strength today.

characters of our literature ... he is the classic Pictorial matter has been given especial prominence
caricature of the Amateur Detective in whose person in the book, for this seems to me to have received least
the whole art of detection is made ridiculous." The attention in most other works on Holmes. (The
Sherlockian expert, Bernard Darwin, (how appropriate exception, of course, being the classic "Annotated
a name!) was less scathing when writing in 1 959, but Sherlock Holmes" compiled by William S.
still found himself "tired of these ingenious games Baring-Gould which contains all the illustrations from
clever people play with one another over Holmes." He the original publication of the stories and novels.) We
wrote simply, "I have had enough of this great Holmes have also dug deeply to find forgotten news items,
joke. want to go back to the simple and sublime jokes
I obscure letters and amusing anecdotes to round out
which are the stories themselves." the picture. This has, inevitably, led to the omission of
Whichever approach to the canon is to your taste, one or two of the noted Sherlockian writers, but may I

there can be no denying that 'The Great Detective' plead justification on the grounds that this is a book
figure emerged in this country in the shape of Sherlock aimed at the general reader as much, if not more, than
Holmes and having flourished until the 1930s, the devotee?
declined with the Second World War. "It is a I feel it is also important to mention here to the
remarkable fact," the crime writer and critic, J ulian expert that have tried not to unduly duplicate the
I

Symons has noted, "that in the work of the British articles and illustrations already widely reprinted, and
crime novelists who have come into prominence since to this end you will find only a handful of Sydney
the war there is not a single Great Detective to be from the "Strand Magazine"
Paget's classic illustrations
found." and anything from the English "Sherlock
little if

So what is the magic of this man who has attracted Holmes Journal" or the American "Baker Street
such fervent and continuing admiration on a world- Journal."
wide scale? Who has been the subject of innumerable then, this book is an attempt to show
In a nutshell,
films, stage plays, television serials, radio broadcasts, something of the extent of the Legend of Sherlock
records, advertisements, competitions, games, Holmes. It has drawn on the popular media
crossword puzzles and even posthumous sequels? Is it, (newspapers, magazines, journals and the broadcasting
as Edgar Smith, an American admirer and editor of the publications) and it is my hope that for those who are
"Baker Street journal" has put it, "the appeal of the new to the Adventures, it will serve both as an
half-remembered, half-forgotten times of smug introduction to them and guide to those authorities
Victorian illusion, of gaslit comfort and contentment, who can interpret their intricacies and dramas in still
of perfect dignity and grace"? Or much more simply more detail. For those who are already familiar with
the involvement with a kind of absorbing, the "wonder world", hope it will prove an interesting
I

unselfconcious storytelling now sadly no longer and, in the main, fresh look at Holmes and Dr. Watson.
produced? Again, the answer is not a simple one and Finally, may close with a message by Ben
I

writers of the stature of A.A. Milne, Anthony Abramson, the revered New York bookseller and
Boucher, Frank Swinnerton, Dorothy L. Sayers, John doyen among Sherlockians, which seems so appositely
Dickson Carr and Irving Wallace are just a few of those to sum up the cordiality have found among the'lovers
I

who have attempted solutions. of Conan Doyle's works: "My Irregular and sincere
Perhaps may venture to suggest that at least part of
I greetings and best wishes that this will be for you a
the answer rests in what has been written about Happy Holmesian year; that Dukes of Holdernesse will
Holmes and in those to whom he has become, in truth, pay you fat fees; that you will always find the missing
a real person. With this in mind, THE SHERLOCK three-quarter and that there will always be both a Mary
HOLMES SCRAPBOOK has been assembled to mirror Morstan and a Doctor Watson for you."
the fascination with, and the fantastic appeal of, The
Great Detective of Baker Street. PETER HAINING
This book, it should be stressed right from the Birch Green, Essex
outset, does not pretend to be exhaustive nor to
CONAN DOYLE CHARACTERS

MISS VIOLET HUNTER |w»or«Mc«»o«i»«T-.

[Link] WILSON
Sherlock Holmes
a short biography
HOLMES, Sherlock, private consulting detective; b.
Jan. 854, of family of English country squires; g.g.s.
1

of Carle Vernet, French painter. Educ: public school;

Cambridge University; St. Bartholomew's Hospital,
London. Discovered new test for bloodstains,
superseding old guaiacum test; in private consultative
practice from 1 886, disappeared and erroneously
reported killed, Reichenbach Falls, Switzerland, 4 May
1 891 explored Tibet, under the name of Sigerson,
;

1 891 —92, also the Far and Near East; returned to

professional practice in London, April 1894, and
completed destruction of Professor Moriarty's criminal
organisation; retired to small farm near Eastbourne,
Sussex, 1 903, devoting himself to bee-keeping and
philosophy; confidential mission to Shantung for the
Admiralty, 1914; undertook (under the name of
Altamont) a German espionage case, 1 91 2—14,
instrumental in the capture of the international spy,
Von Bork; accounts of more celebrated cases edited by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the historical novelist, q.v.
from notes by Dr. John H. Watson: A Study in Scarlet,
1 887; The Sign of the Four, 1 890; The Adventures of

Sherlock Holmes, 1905; The Valley of Fear, 1915; His

Last Bow, 1 91 7; The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,
1927. Publications: The Blanched Soldier, The Lion's
Mane (accounts of cases); Practical Handbook of Bee
Culture with Some Observations on the Segregation of
the Queen; numerous technical monographs relating to
criminology, music, and scientific subjects; has been
working for many years upon a work to focus the
whole art of detection into one volume. Recreations:
criminology, sensational literature, chemistry, music,
the violin, boxing, fencing, baritsu, philosophy,
bee-keeping. Address: 221 B Baker Street, NW1 . Club:
Diogenes.

This entry for Who's Who appears with the kind collaboration of the
publishers, Messrs. Adam & Charles Black, and the Library Committee
for the Borough of St. Marylebone.

Sherlock Holmes as played on the stage by William Gillette and drawn in

1901 by "Spry" for "Vanity Fair". Right: A composite picture of Holmes
and some of his most famous cases by Sidney Paget, his most famous illus-
trator, for "The Strand Magazine".
 How S rl k H s solved
the Great Face Mystery.
" My clear Watson," said S--rl--k H—
-s, holding up
the little instrument with which he had shaved in less
than three minutes, " you know I have received valuable
presents from reigning Sovereigns. But from one of
the principals in that case which you chronicled as
'The Sprinkled Napkin' I obtained a present which is
more useful and in some senses more valuable than any-
thing else I possess. With its help I have reduced my
shaving time from a quarter of an hour to three minutes,
and have changed a most troublesome and painful
business into as simple and pleasant an operation as
brushing one's teeth.
"And it has been the key to a mystery that
baffled me ever since I dealt with that Stock
Exchange case. You will remember we
noticed that the men we dealt with were not
Only well dressed, but that their faces were
well shaven and were free from those scratches
and cuts which so frequently disfigure the man
who shaves himself. I wondered how they
managed. Of course, I thought of safety
razors,, but the only kind I knew were old-
fashioned and unsatisfactory —
indeed, they
were just as bad as an ordinary razor because
it was impossible— or at least difficult —
to strop
them properly. But this clever little Auto-
Strop Razor explains everything. The blade
of wafer steel is marvellously sharp, and the
automatic stropping device enables anyone to keep
it in perfect condition without the slightest trouble.

Morning after morning I shave myself with the

AutoStrop Razor —
quickly, comfortably —never
cutting myself, never irritating my face or neck.
The man who perfected the AutoStrop Safety
Razor," said my friend, with a smile, "has
rendered a service to his fellow men which can
scarcely be over-estimated.
" In going about I have observed that the Auto-

Strop Safety Razor, with one dozen AutoStrop

blades, special horse-hide strop, all fitted in neat
leather case, is on sale in all the shops at the price
of £i is. — a price which puts it within the reach
of every man who has occasion to shave himself
or be shaved. I came across it also on the occasion
of my recent visit to the Franco-British
Exhibition at Stand No. 65, which, as
you no doubt know, is opposite the
Stadium. I was given to under-
stand also that it was to be seen in
the Canadian Building. The Auto-
Strop Safety Razor Co., Ltd., are
prepared to send their illustrated
booklet to anyone, giving full parti-
culars of a special free trial offer
they make, so I would suggest,"
he concluded, " that you send a
postcard for a copy, addressing
Dept. R., AutoStrop Safety
Razor Co., Ltd., 61, New
Oxford Street, London, W."
1908

12
John O'London's February 19 1954 BY FRANK SWINNERTON

Sherlock Holmes-world figure

Ido not remember the first appearance of Sherlock lashing at the speckled band with his stick, together
Holmes. When A Study in Scarlet was published in with dozens of others. They are as immortal as the
Beeton's Christmas Annual was only three years old,
I stories themselves.
and was not six at the time The Sign of the Four (as it It was Paget's pictures which gave Holmes visual
was then called) appeared in Lippincott's Magazine. In which carried him through the world
reality for all,
July, 1 891 when A Scandal in Bohemia, the first of
, until he became the most universally familiar
Holmes's Adventures, made the Strand Magazine imaginary figure in two hemispheres. Perhaps John
men, was just in sight of
essential reading for civilized I Bull and Uncle Sam, as national emblems, are as
and knew nothing of the furore.
a seventh birthday ; recognizable in China; but not Shakespeare, not
How soon Holmes did knock me silly cannot say; I Dickens, hardly even Cervantes, produced a man who
probably The Hound of the Baskervilles was the would be acclaimed at sight by so many people. He is
beginning of a lifelong enthusiasm. Nevertheless, known all over the United States. He is known in
William Gillette's play, and what believe to have been
I Russia. Only the other day found in a Swiss
I

a parody of it at Terry's Theatre, seem again to blaze newspaper which came wrapped round some books a
in electric lights inthe Strand. There was somebody in story about Holmes solving a mystery — perhaps a
a boys' paper called "Sheerluck Jones"; somebody else political mystery — in Prague; and the drawings
called "Chubblock Holmes" and think a third
; I illustrating although they caricatured the great
it,

monster named something Gnomes. All helped in their detective were all based upon Paget's portrait.

depraved way to advertise the original, despite rivalry, So much is Holmes the man depicted by Paget that
as the eighteen nineties advanced, from Arthur when a plaque to celebrate the meeting of Watson and
Morrison's Martin Hewitt, Robert Barr's Eugene Stamford in the Criterion Bar (see A Study in Scarlet)
Valmond, and — swamping in wide advertisement was recently unveiled, and Mr. Carleton Hobbs, the
every other fictional character of the hour — Guy actor impersonating Holmes, stepped in costume from
Boothby's Dr. Nikola. a hansom cab, two strangers who happened to be
Dr. Nikola and his golden-eyed black cat could be passing glanced at him with interest, and one, quite
seen all over London, the cat giving its name to a brand casually, as if he remarked "There's Winston," said
of popular cigarettes, and a long wisp of smoke "Oh, it's Sherlock Holmes."
stretching upward past the doctor's head across every There was no incongruity in this. The man whose
hoarding. Outwardly, then, Dr. Nikola was the great words, "You know my methods, Watson," or "Let me
invention; Sherlock Holmes only an occasion of recommend your attention ... to the curious incident
parody. How wrong this was, we now know; at the of the dog in the night," have passed into current
time was unaware of its wrongness. The Strand
I
speech with an aura of magic, was, in fact, more than
Magazine must have been in innumerable houses; it was life size. Doyle never fussed to produce an air of
not in ours. On the one side Chums and the Aldine strength or inscrutability. The strength, the skill, the
boys' publications; on the other Stead's Penny Poets vanity were integral to his conception of Holmes. He
and Novelists. It is probable that through a circulating took from Dr. Edinburgh professor, that
Bell, the
library, Iread The Refugees and Micah Clarke before relish in mystification which was salt to Holmes's
attaining the heights of The Man with the Twisted Lip. analysis. He made Holmes say, now and again, that it
Doyle's romances, indeed, were part of the age, along might be well for Watson to bring his revolver; thereby
with The Prisoner of Zenda, A Gentleman of France, revealing his own ineffable courage. He boldly
and Gilbert Parker's When Valmond came to Pontiac. attributed to Holmes statements and pamphlets which
Every boy from twelve to ninety revelled in Rodney besides being scientific were also amusing and
Stone and The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard. stimulating to the amateur. He was brief, direct, and a
Yet what thrilling memories of delight return to me story-teller. He created Holmes and Watson without
at the thought of Sidney Paget's illustrations to the ever blurring either of them.
Holmes stories! That picture, recently so much It is this fact of creation, rather than the novelty of
discussed because nobody can comprehend its Holmes, which accounts for those raging outcries of
geography, which shows Holmes and Watson the public over the lamentable affair of the
recognizing the bearded villain in the hansom cab, is Reichenbach Falls, and the siege of the book-stalls
ever in the mind's eye. So are the scenes of Watson when The Empty House brought Holmes to life again.
shooting the hound in The Mystery of the Copper Plots as ingenious as those of the inferior Holmes
Beeches, of Holmes in his dressing-gown, of Holmes stories had been invented and have been invented ever

13
since. What has not been equalled is the confident not thriftily re-read his old yarns. He did not care how
originality shown by such opening sentences as "It was many wives or wounds Watson might have had. He was
in the spring of the year 1 894" or "I had called upon after big game.
my friend Sherlock Holmes." These openings at once The game, fundamentally, was adventure. You can
announce that the two are embarked upon another see that in The Hound of the Baskervilles. It is
investigation. All the discussion about what part of sometimes said that Holmes had predecessors, that his
Watson's body was damaged, or the number of times methods had been forestalled in the Apocrypha, by
he married, merely emphasizes the fact of creation. An Voltaire in Zadig, by D'Artagnan in Le Vicomte de
inferior writer would have been scrupulously exact in Bragelonne, and by Edgar Allan Poe in The Murders in
such details. Doyle, with the wealth of a maker, did the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, and The
Mystery of Marie Roget. No doubt Doyle had read all of Dr. Bell, in Edinburgh, who when Doyle was a
these instances of deduction, as he had read The medical student enjoyed startling his pupils by
Moonstone and the tales of Gaboriau. announcing at sight the trades of incoming patients. He
have read Gaboriau 's Lecoq the Detective, The
I had also longed for a life of activity, which the need of
Gilded Clique, and a story concerning the murder of an earning money had forced him to limit to the football
old woman, the name of which forget. [It was The
I and cricket fields. Finally, he had an interest in
Lerouge Case}. All very good. Wilkie Collins, but more criminology and a grand natural gift for story-telling.
so.
Take of these elements all that is fusible,
But his first inspirations had occurred long before.
Melt them all down in a pipkin of crucible.
He had been impressed and tickled by the "method"
Set them to simmer and take off the scum;
And our great Sherlock Holmes is the residuum
"Elementary, my dear Watson," as Holmes did not
say.
What Holmes really said to Watson was "You see;
but you do not observe." Watson did not know how
many stairs led up from Baker Street to their rooms.
Holmes knew. The minutiae which Watson and (as a
man) Doyle missed were his joy. Holmes remarked
what Doyle scribbled hastily in an old notebook:
'The coat-sleeves, the trouser-knee, the callosities of
the forefinger and thumb, the boot — any one of these
might but that all united should fail to
tell us;

enlighten the trained observation is incredible.'

If it is true that Doyle himself was not observant,

the fact illustrates his genius in imagining himself

Holmes. This genius caused him to create, and not
merely invent, one who was destined to become a
world figure. Just so did Cervantes create Don
Quixote, or Dumas the three musketeers.
I learned from Mr. Hesketh Pearson's book on Doyle
something which confirms the point. Where more
ingenious modern writers, of great talent, invent
idiosyncrasies for their great detectives,sometimes
small clownings, sometimes facetious mannerisms of
speech, Doyle, the originator, told us little but what
seemed to arise naturally from unlimited knowledge of
Holmes. Mr. Pearson quotes from an unpublished story
one more detail of a night journey by train which
proves this:
'It was one of Holmes characteristics that he could
command sleep at will. Unfortunately he could resist it

at will also,and often and often have had to I

remonstrate with him on the harm he must be doing

himself when deeply engrossed in one of his strange or
baffling problems he would go for several consecutive
days and nights without one wink of sleep. He put the
shades over the lamps, leant back in his corner, and in
less than two minutes his regular breathing told me he
was fast asleep. Not being blessed with the same gift
myself, lay back in my corner for some time nodding
I

to the rhythmical throb of the express as it hurled

itselfforward through the darkness. Now and again as
we shot through some brilliantly illuminated station or
past a line of flaming furnaces, caught for an instant a
I

glimpse of Holmes' figure coiled up snugly in the far

corner with his head sunk upon his breast.'
Do you not see the scene? The anxious exasperation
of Watson at his friend's willpower? The secret of his
loyalty? It is all in that description, so bare, so
undistinguished in style, yet so free from fanciful
adulteration. Having created Holmes, Doyle could not
go wrong. As for ourselves, that is why we cannot have
enough of him.

15
The Fortnightly Review May 1 1931 BY J.S. COLTART

The many facets of [Link]

" 'A middle-sized, strongly built man — square jaw — Berkshires, with whom he was wounded? And why
thick neck. A mask
over his eyes.' John? In The Man with the Twisted Lip. Mrs. Watson,
" That's rather vague,' said Sherlock Holmes. 'Why, addressing an old school friend, said—
it might be a description of Watson.' "... now you will have some wine and water, and
" 'It's true,' said the Inspector. 'It might be a sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or would
"
description of Watson.' you rather that sent James off to bed?"
I

And so itwas, as a perusal of 7776 Six Napoleons will "James" was the Watson vve know: how can he
show. The unfolding of the inner man, the Watson explain this?
behind the mask, was only finished with the Sir A. Conan Doyle was guilty of two errors of
completion of the series, and as a work of art it far judgement, not only in attempting to finish off Holmes
excelled the creation of Sherlock Holmes himself. at the Reichenbach Fall on 4th May, 1 891 but also in
,

What a trustv old creature he was — Watson, who kept letting Watson get married. This was mere carelessness,

a bull pup, who smoked ships' tobacco, who enjoved of course. Watson should not have been allowed to
Beaune with his lunch, who disliked getting up in the entangle himself with a young woman when all his
morning, who used to play Rugby for Blackheath, time was dedicated to Holmes; the author should have
whom Holmes — in The Abbey Grange - summed up been much more firm with the young man. The only
with that ruthless terseness which is one of his chief excuse that can be made is that it was not then clear
claims for our regard: how firm a hold the pair had taken on the public mind.
"See here, Captain Croker, we'll do this in due form The attempted disposal of Holmes down the
of law. You are prisoner. Watson, you are a British Reichenbach was a serious and deliberate attempt by
jury, and never met a man who was more eminently
I
his creator to rid himself of a fellow who had become a

fitted to represent one." menace to him, as well as being a frightful bore. But
Yes, we know almost everything that there is to when Holmes proved too slippery for his maker, and
know about Watson. How he took his degree of Doctor the author decided to extricate him from the perilous
of Medicine of the University of London, how he foothold on which he was lodged, Sir Arthur also
became an Army Surgeon, how he was wounded in decided to be thoroughly ruthless and put Mrs. Watson
Afghanistan and invalided out of the Army on pension, out of the way. It was brutal murder, but it had to be
and how there now lies "somewhere in the vaults of done. It was no good pretending that Mrs. Watson
the bank of Cox and Co., at Charing Cross, a would sit by and see John — or James, as she called
travel-worn battered tin despatch box bearing the him, poor woman — set out light-heartedly with his
name John H. Watson, M.D., late Indian Army." But Army revolver in his pocket, at any hour of the day or
the fact that there was also a Mrs. Watson is not so night. This, for example, was a sample of what went
widely realised, though Holmes commented on her on, an extract from a conversation in a Portsmouth
existence somewhat acidly: train between Holmes and Watson, who was then a
"The good Watson had at that time deserted me for practitioner in Paddington.
" 'To-day must be a day of enquiries.'
a wife, the only selfish action
association.
And
I was alone."
I can recall in our
" 'My practice
" 'Oh,
— began.
'
I

it is in this that we begin to suspect less if you find your own cases more interesting

transparent parts in the good doctor: that same than mine,' said Holmes, with some asperity.
despatch box one of the causes of our uneasiness.
is " 'I was going to say, my practice could get along
"
Watson was the sort of person who would work the very well for a day or two.'
"travel-worn battered tin despatch box" for all it was And succeeding my marriage"!
this "in the July
worth: his service abroad was very short, and it is Things got worse, of course, after such a beginning.
extremely unlikely that he took the despatch box with "One Sunday morning received one of Holmes'
I

him to Afghanistan: one voyage to India and back laconic messages: 'Come if convenient — if
should not have made it so very travel-worn or inconvenient come all the same. — S.H.'
battered. He gave the information about it in Thor No woman, not even one who could marry Watson,
Bridge, and, we ask, why "Indian Army"? For in A would put up with that. It was a choice between
Study in Scarlet he described himself as "late of the Watson's wife and Holmes, and Holmes, after all, was
Army Medical Department," and states that he was the breadwinner, so poor Mrs. Watson had to go. We
attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as are not told the details of her going. Watson was not
Assistant Surgeon, and afterwards was posted to the the kind to parade his grief in public: the only

16
 —
reference to the matter is in April, 1 894, when Holmes doctor, 7776 Sign of Four tells all is known of his
that
reappeared (The Empty House). wife. Watson met Mary Morstan 888. She was then
in 1

"In some manner he nad learned of my own sad twenty-seven, an orphan, the daughter of a captain in
bereavement, and his sympathy was shown in his the Indian Army, she had been educated in Edinburgh,
manner rather than in his words. and was then governess for the children of a Mrs. Cecil
" 'Work is the best antidote for sorrow, my dear Forrester; they appear to have been married in the
Watson, and have a piece of work for both of us spring of 889. Watson had shared the rooms at 221 B
— I 1
"
to-night '
Baker Street with Holmes from 1 888, but shortly
The man was incorrigible. So the partnership was before his marriage he bought a practice in Paddington
resumed without let or hindrance, and Holmes gave an from "old Mr. Farquhar" who, suffering from St. Vitus
unexpected sign of generosity. Dance, had let the receipts drop from about £1 ,500 to
"At the time of which speak Holmes had been
I
£300 a year; another doctor named Anstruther lived

back some months and I, at his request, had sold my next door to the Watsons. There is some doubt about
practice and returned to share the old quarters at Watson's income during his residence with Holmes, for
Baker Street. A young doctor named Verner had he seems to have had no means apart from his half-pay
purchased my small Kensington practice, and given He emphasises the fact that Holmes frequently worked
with astonishingly little demur the highest price I for no remuneration, but some rich prizes are
ventured to ask — an incident which only explained recorded - he received one thousand pounds from the
itself some years later, when found that Verner was a
I King of Bohemia (£300 in gold, £700 in notes), six
distant relation of Holmes', and that it was my friend thousand pounds from the Duke of Holdernesse, and
who found the money.
really ." . . five hundred pounds from von Bork. Other large sums
How long the second partnership lasted we are not must also have come to him by the nature of his cases,
told, nor what finally became of Watson. In The Lion's though Watson omits to mention them; probably he
Mane, Holmes, then a bee-farmer, records was not told: but no part of this spoil comes to the
"... my withdrawal to my Sussex home, when I
good Watson. Of course, if it is to be understood tnat
had given myself up entirely to that soothing life of the profits of his memoirs are to be calculated at the
Nature for which had so often yearned during the
I ordinary rates, his financial position would be
long years spent in the gloom of London. At the satisfactory, and as a writer Watson took himself
present period of my life, July, 1907, the good Watson seriously. The unexpected touchiness he displays at
had passed almost beyond my ken. An occasional any criticism of his literary efforts was the legitimate
week-end visit was the most ever saw of him."
I pride of an artist, for from the Study in Scarlet to the
After this brief outline of history we may turn back Case Book the writing in the memoirs is on a
for more details of the Watsons. While A Study in uniformly high standard. It is this quality, added to the
Scarlet gives most of the biographical details about the skilful revelation of the character of the narrator, that

17
 — — —
has made through a revolution in the
the series live nose — that proved to be the correct solution. How can
"
science of the detection of crime and an ever-increasing you build on such a quicksand?'
avalanche of detective fiction. Of these, the two Some suspicion of Watson's ideas for the home will
outstanding character-figures which the literature of have been formed on realising that he was the kind of
our time has produced, the personality of Watson man who would be really pleased to see his wife's old
becomes all the more permanent as some of the gloss school friends about the place; but he spares us
from the figure of his patron. "Good old
falls nothing.
Watson!" Holmes cried in his last recorded "As we drove away stole a glance back and still
I I

words — August, 1 91 4 — "You are the one fixed point seem to see that little group on the step — the two
in achanging age." graceful clinging figures, the half-opened door, the hall
But Watson had much to suffer from Holmes before light shining through the stained glass, the barometer,
he heard that compliment. There was an explosion in and the bright stair rods. It was soothing to catch even
The Copper Beeches about this matter of Watson's that passing glimpse of a tranquil English home."
literary efforts. The appeal of the stained glass and the barometer
" seems to me have done you full justice in the
'It I must have been almost irresistible to Watson. And the
matter,' remarked with some coldness, for was
I I reality of connubial bliss quite came up to his
repelled by the egotism which had more than once
I expectations
observed to be a strong factor in my friend's singular "One - it was June, '89 - there came a ring to
night
character." my bell,about the hour when a man gives his first
In The Sign of Four he had already had much to yawn and glances at the clock."
bear This is all the undiluted Watson, but we fail to trace
"
'You have attempted to tinge it with any sign of the influence of Mrs. Watson in the
romanticism,' Holmes had said, referring to an earlier menage. Writing of this time, he says
memoir, 'which produces much the same effect as if "I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had
you had worked a love-story or an elopement into the drifted us away from each other. My own complete
fifth proposition of Euclid.' happiness and the home-centered interests which rise
"I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which up around a man who finds himself master of his own
had been specially designed to please him. confess, I
establishment were sufficient to absorb all my
too, that was irritated by the egotism which seemed
I attention.
to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be " 'Wedlock suits you,'
Holmes noted too. 'I think,
devoted to his special doings." Watson, you have put on seven-and-a-half pounds since
"
Holmes once remarked: "Watson's reports are most Isaw you.'
incriminating documents"; but the final note in this These are tributes to home and domesticity rather
minor discord was struck when Holmes took up the than to Mrs. Watson personally; Conan Doyle must
pen and wrote The Blanched Soldier. take rank with Scott, Dickens, and many another, who
"The ideas of my friend Watson, though limited, are have been incapable of drawing real live women. The
extremely pertinacious. For a long time he has worried slaying of Mrs. Watson is not a tragedy like Sinclair
me to write an experience of my own. Perhaps have I Lewis' cruel murder of Leora in Martin Arrowsmith, a
rather invited this persecution, since have often had
I murder which was all the more wanton because it was
occasion to point out to him how superficial are his a purposeless crime, but when Mrs. Watson was so little
own accounts and to accuse him of pandering to alive her death cannot have made very much difference
popular taste instead of confining himself rigidly to to her. It is for her life rather than for her death that
facts and figures. one would lament. The tragedy of a wife whose home
" 'Try it yourself, Holmes,' he has retorted, and I and happiness is wrecked by the drunkenness or
am compelled to admit that, having taken my pen in gambling of her husband is well known, but the plight
hand, do begin to realise that the matter must be
I of a woman who pines at home while her always
presented in such a way as may interest the reader." devoted and respectable husband goes out on the tiles
In dealing with femininity Watson, of course, was at night with a six-shooter in his pocket, and in
the tried and practised hand. company with a man whose influence with him is
"In an experience of women which extends over stronger than her own, is forlorn indeed.
many nations and three separate continents, have I But at least one mark of Mrs. Watson remains. In
never looked on a face that gave clearer promise of a The Man with the Twisted Lip, John (or James) H.
refined and sensitive nature." Watson, M.D., utters the following astounding words:
This refers to his future wife, and he further "A little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad in
describes her as "a blonde young lady, small, dainty, some sort of light mousseline-de-soie, with a touch of
well-gloved, and dressed in the most perfect taste." fluffy pink chiffon at her neck and wrists."
Holmes, being a misanthropist, was quite willing to "Holmes looked at me thoughtfully and shook his
encourage Watson in this pet conceit. head.
" 'Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department,' " never get your limits, Watson,' he said. 'There are
'
I

said Sherlock Holmes with a smile. 'You saw how she untold possibilities about you. Take a wire down, like
"
manoeuvred to have the light on her back.' a good fellow.'
" 'Yes, she chose the one chair in the room.' This is a later comment, but it applies. Mrs. Watson,
" 'And yet the motives of women are inscrutable. her personality and her influence fade out of the
You remember the woman at Margate whom I picture, and Watson after the fleeting exhibition of
suspected for the same cause? No powder on her individuality which the married state gave him,

18
 '

Illustration: Sidney Paget 1890

becomes more and more the willing puppet of Holmes. " 'You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?'
'"I
" 'I
am inclined to think,' said
should do
I.

Holmes remarked impatiently.

so,' crooks as
—
" 'The famous scientific criminal as famous among

"I believe I am one of the most long-suffering of "'My blushes, Watson,' Holmes murmured in a
mortals, but I admit was annoyed at the sardonic
I deprecating voice.
interruption. " 'I was about to say, as unknown to the public'

" 'Really, Holmes,' I said severely, 'you are a little " 'A touch!" cried Holmes. 'A distinct touch! You
"
trying at times.' are developing an unexpected pawky humour, Watson,
"
Yet Holmes, to do the fellow justice, knew his against which must learn to guard myself.'
I

Watson, and how far he could go with him. Holmes's wit resembled that of judges and
"Speaking of my old friend and biographer," he schoolmasters; it was tried when there was little chance
says, in The Blanched Soldier, "I would take this of repartee: a person of whom his friend said, "I have
opportunity to remark that if burden myself with aI not heard him laugh often, and it always boded ill for
companion on any of my various little enquiries, it is somebody," is better fitted for the company of bees
not done out of sentiment or caprice, but it is that on the Sussex Downs than for the worthy Doctor, who
Watson has some remarkable characteristics of his own, was really well quit of him. Poor old Watson! He had
to which, in his modesty, he has given little attention to make many sacrifices for Holmes, he had to give up
amid exaggerated estimates of my own performances. wife and home, not to mention the bull pup, and what
A confederate who foresees your conclusions and more can be required of any man? But one suspects that
course of action is always dangerous, but one to whom the thrills of the chase in the company of his hero, or
each development is a perpetual surprise, and to whom the pleasant evenings spent lounging over the fire, with
the future is a closed book, is indeed, an ideal his pipe in his mouth, a decanter at his side, and his
helpmate." feet in some favourite slippers of which an helpmeet
One of the few checks he got appears in The Valley
of Fear — might disapprove, were greater rewards than home or
kindred had in their power to bestow on him.

19
The Captain 1902

Villains:
Professor
Moriarty
BY WILLIAM VAUGHAN

It is somewhat difficult to decide

upon a character in which are ade-

quately displayed the qualities a
person must possess in order to
occupy the position of being a dis-
tinguished villain. First of all,

villains may be divided into two

classes — violent or brutal villains
being assigned to one, intellectual
or clever villains to the other; and
obviously in the latter class the
greatest villain will be found.
The villain in my opinion,
who,
is the greatesthave read of is
I

Professor Moriarty, the person who

brought the career of Sherlock
Holmes, when in its zenith, to an
abrupt and deplorable end. A
character such as is depicted in the
last of those fascinating "Memoirs"
forms really a splendid end to an
entrancing series of absorbing tales,
the only fault of which is that this
character might have been deve-
loped a little more, and have been
the centre of other adventures.
Professor Moriarty was an extra-
ordinary man, being naturally
clever and with great faculties, and
it was only to be expected that the
education he received should have
developed them and have qualified
him for the highest position in

whatever career he followed.

However, when we find in him
hereditary tendencies to crime, the
diabolicalness of which increased as
his mental powers were unfolded
and extended, he becomes an
object capable of the most fearful
transgressions of all that is right or
lawful.
His career is indeed difficult to
describe, since he was never the
actor in the crimes he planned, but
was the centre of numerous
agencies, upon whom, if the crime
were unravelled, the punishment
was visited.
Until the investigations and
marvellous powers of Sherlock
Holmes were brought to bear upon

20
Left: Professor Moriarty, Holmes' great
the matter, the existence of such a
adversary, as depicted by Sidney Paget in 1893.
Above: The arch-villain in one of his many person as this professor was never
screen appearances as played by Gustav von /X**^ -
thought of, which shows his genius.
Seyffertitz in "Moriarty" (1922). The
dashingly handsome Holmes is none other He compared to a spider in its
is
than John Barrymore! Right: This picture of
the Professor was drawn in 1902 by Walker
web, the numerous quivers and
Hodgson to accompany William Vaughan's mP %t vibrations of which are each known
article.
and understood by that insect: but
a more appropriate comparison is, I

think, formed in likening him to

fc i
IBs fv^k A^U the brain of a man; like that he was
unseen, unheard and, in fact, un-
known, until the actions of the
various parts of the body show
that there must exist a central
^^aft^- governing force, and in this force
we find the greatest villain in
fiction — Professor Moriarty.

21
The Strand Magazine December 1917

Some personalia
about
Sherlock Holmes
BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

->^^^c^^<5^aW

At the request of the Editor have spent some days in

I

looking over an old letter-box in which from time to

time have placed letters referring directly or
I

indirectly to the notorious Mr. Holmes. wish now I

that had been more careful in preserving the

I

references to this gentleman and his little problems. A

great many have been lost or mislaid. His biographer
has been fortunate enough to find readers in many
lands, and the reading has elicited the same sort of
response, though in many cases that response has been
in a tongue difficult to comprehend. Very often my
distant correspondent could neither spell my own
name nor that of my imaginary hero, as in a good
number of recent instances. Many such letters have
been from Russians. Where the Russian letters have
been in have been compelled, am
the vernacular I I

afraid, to take them but when they have been

as read,
in English they have been among the most curious in
my collection. There was one young lady who began
all her epistles with the words "Good Lord." Another

had a large amount of guile underlying her simplicity.

Writing from Warsaw she stated that she had been
bedridden for two years, and that my novels had been
her only, etc., etc. So touched was by this flatteringI

statement that at once prepared an autographed

I

parcel of them to complete" the fair invalid's collection.

By good luck, however, met a brother author upon
I

the same day to whom recounted the touching

I

incident. With a cynical smile he drew an identical

letter out of his pocket. His novels also had been for
two years her only, etc., etc. do not know how many
I

more the lady had written to, but if, as imagine, her I

correspondence had extended to several countries, she

must have amassed a rather interesting library.
The young Russian's habit of addressing me as
"Good Lord" had an even stranger parallel at home,
which links it up with the subject of this article.

22
 Wk

m®

'<•<

:-,• :;•::•-;

^Wii: :
;:
;

A'tv

''"•'•
''[Link];.-

,:Ǥ
 Shortly afterreceived a knighthood
I had a bill from I when it was thought that had killed him. "You I

a tradesman which was quite correct and businesslike brute!" was the promising opening of one lady's
in every detail save that it was made out to Sir epistle. The most trenchant criticism of the stories as a
Sherlock Holmes. hope that can stand a joke as well
I I series came from a Cornish boatman, who remarked to
as my
neighbours, but this particular piece of humour me: "When Mr. Holmes had that fall he may not have
seemed rather misapplied, and wrote sharply upon
I been killed, but he was certainly injured, for he was
the subject. In response to my letter there arrived at never the same man afterwards." hope the allegation I

my hotel a very repentant clerk, who expressed his is not true — and, indeed, those who have read the
sorrow at the incident, but kept on repeating the stories backward, from the latest to the first, assure me
phrase, "I assure you, sir, that it was bona fide." that it is not so — but it was a shrewd thrust none the

"What do you mean by bona fide?" asked. "Well, I sir, less.

my mates in the shop told me that you had been One of the quaintest proofs of his reality to many
people is that have frequently received autograph
I

books by post, asking me to procure his signature.

vT When it was announced that he was retiring from
~C practice and intended to keep bees on the South
Downs had several letters offering to help him in his
I

project. Two of them lie before me as write. One I

says: "Will Mr. Sherlock Holmes require a housekeeper

for his country cottage at Christmas? know someone I

who loves a quiet country life, and bees especially — an

old-fashioned, quiet woman." The other, which is
addressed to Holmes himself, says: "I see by some of
Y?l *& CJwfiJcf Cher/tots the morning papers that you are about to retire and
take up bee-keeping. If correct shall be pleased to I

vc^Vv^S-C/'v
L, render you service by giving any advice you may
require. trust you will read this letter in the same
I

/W^jjhUM%X^^ spirit in which it is written, for make this offer in I

return formany pleasant hours." Many other letters

have reached me in which have been implored to put I

knighted, and that when a man was

knighted he my correspondents in touch with Mr. Holmes, in order
changed his name, and that you had taken that one." I that he might elucidate some point in their private
need not say that my annoyance vanished, and that I affairs.
laughed as heartily as his pals were probably doing Occasionally have been so far confused with my
I

round the corner. own character that have been asked to take up
I

There are certain problems which are continually professional work upon these lines. had, remember, I I

recurring in these Sherlock Holmes letters. One of one offer, in the case of an aristocratic murder trial in
them has exercised men's minds in the most Poland some years ago, to go across and look into the
out-of-the-way places, from Labrador to Tibet; indeed, matter upon my own terms. need not say that I I

if a matter needs thought it is just the men in these would not do such a thing for money, since am I

outlying stations who have the time and solitude for it. diffident as to how far my own services would be of
I dare say have had twenty letters upon the one point
I any value; but have several times as an amateur been
I

alone. It arises in "The Adventure of the Priory happy to have been of some assistance to people in
School," where Holmes, glancing at the track of a distress. can say, though touch wood as say it, that
I I I

bicycle, says, "It is evidently going from us, not I have never entirely failed in any attempt which have I

towards us." He did not give his reasoning, which my made to reduce Holmes's methods to practical use,
correspondents resent, and all assert that the deduction save in one instance to which allude later. For the I

is impossible. As a matter of fact it is simple enough case of Mr. Edalji can claim little credit, for it did not
I

upon soft undulating ground such as the moor in take any elaborate deduction to come to the
question. The weight of the rider falls most upon the conclusion that a man who is practically blind did not
hind wheel, and in soft soil it makes a perceptibly make a journey at night which involved crossing a main
deeper track. Where the machine goes up a slope this line of railway, and would have tested a trained athlete
hind mark would be very much deeper; where it goes had he been called upon to do it in the time. The man
down a slope rapidly it would be hardly deeper at all. was obviously innocent, and it is a disgrace to this
Thus the depth of the mark of the hind wheel would country that he has never received a penny of
show which way the bike was travelling. compensation for the three years which he spent in
never realized what an actual living personality Mr.
I jail. A more complex case is that of Oscar Slater, who
Holmes was to many people until heard the very I working out his sentence as a convict. have
is still I

pleasing story of the char-a-banc of French schoolboys examined the evidence carefully, including the
on a tour to London, who, when asked what they supplementary evidence given at the very limited and
wanted to see first, replied unanimously that they unsatisfactory commission appointed to inquire into
wanted to see Mr. Holmes's lodgings in Baker Street. the matter, and have not the faintest doubt that the
I

Rather less pleasing, though flattering in their way, man is innocent. When the judge asked him at the trial
were the letters of abuse which showered upon me whether he had anything to say why the sentence of

24
death for the murder of Miss Gilchrist should not be The first thing was to look at the facts and separate
pronounced upon him, he cried aloud, "My Lord, did I what was certain from what was conjecture. It waso//
not know there was such a woman in the world." am I certain except the statement of the person who heard
convinced that this was the literal truth. However, it is the missing man in the night. How could he tell such a
proverbially impossible to prove a negative, so there sound from any other sound in a large hotel? That point

the matter must stand until the people of Scotland could be disregarded if it traversed the general
insist upon a real investigation into all the conclusions. The first clear deduction was that the man
circumstances which surround this deplorable case. had meant to disappear. Why else should he draw all
A few of the problems which have come my way his money? He had got out of the hotel during the
have been very similar to some which had invented I night. But there a night-porter in all hotels, and it is
is

for the exhibition of the reasoning of Mr. Holmes. I impossible to get out without his knowledge when the
might perhaps quote one in which that gentleman's door is once shut. The door is shut after the
theatre-goers return — say at twelve o'clock. Therefore
the man left the hotel before twelve o'clock. He had
come from the music-hall at ten, had changed his
clothes, and had departed with his bag. No one had
seen him do so. The inference is that he had done it at
r
3 x
> 1
(

CD
the moment when the hall was full of the returning
guests, which is from eleven to eleven-thirty. After that

/ /
_ /x hour, even if the door were still open, there are few
people coming and going; so that he with his bag
would certainly have been seen.
<*-

Having got so far upon firm ground we now ask

ourselves why a man who desires to hide himself
% V
'
" y^\ should go out at such an hour. If he intended to
conceal himself in London he need never have gone to
the hotel at all. Clearly, then, he was going to catch a
train which would carry him away. But a man who is

deposited by a train in any provincial station during

the night is likely to be noticed, and he might be sure
method of thought was copied with complete success. that when the alarm was raised and his description
The case was as follows. A gentleman had disappeared. given some guard or porter would remember him.
He had drawn a bank balance of forty pounds, which Therefore his destination would be some large town,
was known to be on him. It was feared that he had which he would reach in daylight hours, as a terminus,
been murdered for the sake of the money. He had last where all his fellow-passengers would disembark and
been heard of stopping at a large hotel in London, where he would lose himself in the crowd. When one
having come from the country that day. In the evening turns up the time-table and sees that the great Scotch
he went to a music-hall performance, came out of it expresses bound for Edinburgh and Glasgow start
about ten o'clock, returned to his hotel, changed his about midnight, the goal is reached. As for his
evening clothes, which were found in his room next dress-suit, the fact that he abandoned it proved that he
day, and disappeared utterly. No one saw him leave the intended to adopt a line of life where there were no
hotel, but a man occupying a neighbouring room social amenities. This deduction also proved to be
declared that he had heard him moving during the correct.
night. A week had elapsed at the time that was I I quote such a case in order to show that the general
consulted, but the police had discovered nothing. lines of reasoning advocated by Holmes have a real
Where was the man? practical application to life. In another case where a
These were the whole of the facts as communicated girl had become engaged to a young foreigner who

to me by his relatives in the country. Endeavouring to suddenly disappeared was able by a similar process of
I

see the matter through the eyes of Mr. Holmes, I deduction to show her very clearly both whither he
answered by return of post that he was evidently either had gone and how unworthy he was of her affections.
in Glasgow or in Edinburgh. It proved later that he had On the other hand, these semi-scientific methods are
as a fact gone to Edinburgh, though in the week that occasionally laboured and slow as compared with the
had passed he had moved to another part of Scotland. results of the rough-and-ready practical man. Lest I

There should leave the matter, for, as Dr. Watson

I should seem to have been throwing bouquets either to
has often shown, a solution explained is a mystery myself or to Mr. Holmes, let me state that on the
spoiled. However, at this state the reader can lay down occasion of a burglary of the village inn, within a
the book and show how simple it all is by working stone-throw of my house, the village constable, with
out the problem for himself. He has all the data which no theories at all, had seized the culprit, while had I

were ever given to me. For the sake of those, however, got no farther than that he was a left-handed man with
who have no turn for such conundrums will try to I nails in his boots.
indicate the links which make the chain. The one The unusual or dramatic effects which lead to the
advantage which possessed was that was familiar
I I invocation of Mr. Holmes in fiction are, of course,
with the routine of London hotels — though, fancy, I great aids to him in reaching a conclusion. It is the case
it differs little from that of hotels elsewhere. where there is nothing to get hold of which is the

25
deadly one. heard of such a one in America which
I given a curious second-hand ring, snake-shaped, and of
would certainly have presented a formidable problem. dull gold. This she took from her finger at night. One
A gentleman of blameless life, starting off for a Sunday night she slept init, and had a fearsome dream in

evening walk with his family, suddenly observed that which she seemed to be pushing off some furious
he had forgotten his stick. He went back into the creature which fastened its teeth into her arm. On
house, the door of which was still open, and he left his awakening the pain in the arm continued, and next day
people waiting for him outside. He never reappeared, the imprint of a double set of teeth appeared upon the
and from that day to this there has been no clue as to arm, with one tooth of the lower jaw missing. The
what befell him. This was certainly one of the strangest marks were in the shape of blue-black bruises which
cases of which have ever heard in real life.
I
had not broken the skin. "I do not know," says my
Another very singular case came within my own correspondent, "what made me think the ring had
observation. It was sent to me by an eminent London anything to do with the matter, but took a dislike to
I

publisher. This gentleman had in his employment a the thing and did not wear it for some months, when,
head of department whose name we shall take as being on a visit, took to wearing it again." To make a
I

Musgrave. He was a hard-working person with no long story short, the same thing happened, and the
special feature in his character. Mr. Musgrave died, and lady settled the matter for ever by dropping her ring
several years after his death a letter was received into the hottest corner of the kitchen-range. This
addressed to him, care of his employers. It bore the curious story, which believe to be genuine, may not
I

postmark of a tourist resort in the West of Canada, and be as supernatural as it seems. It is well known that in
had the note "Conf 1 films" upon the outside of the some subjects a strong mental impression does produce
envelope, with the words "Report Sy" in one corner. a physical effect. Thus a very vivid nightmare-dream
The publishers opened the envelope, as they
naturally with the impression of a bite might conceivably
had no note of the dead man's relatives. Inside were produce the mark of a bite. Such cases are well
two blank sheets of paper. The letter, may add, was I attested in medical annals. The second incident would,
registered. The publisher, being unable to make of course, arise by unconscious suggestion from the
anything of this, sent it on to me, and submitted the I first. None the less, it is a very interesting little

blank sheets to every possible chemical and heat test, problem, whether psychic or material.
with no result whatever. Beyond the fact that the Buried treasures are naturally among the problems
writing appeared to be that of a woman, there is which have come to Mr. Holmes. One genuine case was
nothing to add to this account. The matter was, and accompanied by the diagram here reproduced, rt refers
remains, an insoluble mystery. How the correspondent to an Indiaman which was wrecked upon the South
could have something so secret to say to Mr. Musgrave African coast in the year 1 782. If were a younger
I

and yet not be aware that this person had been dead man should be seriously inclined to go personally and
I

for several years is very hard to understand — or why look into that matter. The ship contained a remarkable
blank sheets should be so carefully registered through treasure, including, believe, the old crown regalia of
I

the post. may add that did not trust the sheets to
I I Delhi. It is surmised that they buried these near the
my own chemical tests, but had the best expert advice, coast and that this chart is a note of the'spot. Each
without getting any result. Considered as a case it was Indiaman in those days had its own semaphore code,
a failure — and a very tantalizing one. and it is conjectured that the three marks upon the left
Mr. Sherlock Holmes has always been a fair mark for are signals from a three-armed semaphore. Some record
practical jokers, and have had numerous bogus cases
I of their meaning might perhaps even now be found in
of various degrees of ingenuity, marked cards, the old papers of the India Office. The circle upon the
mysterious warnings, cipher messages, and other right gives the compass bearings. The larger semicircle
curious communications. Upon one occasion, as was I may be the curved edge of a reef or of a rock. The
entering the hall to take part in an amateur billiard figures above are the indications how to reach the X
competition, was handed a small packet which had
I which marks the treasure. Possibly they may give the
been left for me. Upon opening it found a piece of I bearings as 1 86 feet from the 4 upon the semicircle.
ordinary green chalk such as is used in billiards. was I The scene of the wreck is a lonely part of the country,
amused by the put the chalk into my
incident, and I but shall be surprised if sooner or later someone does
I

waistcoat pocket and used it during the game. not seriously set to work to solve the mystery.
Afterwards continued to use it until one day, some
I One last word before close these jottings about my
I

months later, as rubbed the tip of my cue, the face of

I imaginary character. It is not given to every man to see
the chalk crumpled in, and found it was hollow.
I the child of his brain endowed with life through the
From the recess thus exposed drew out a small slip of I genius of a great sympathetic artist, but that was my
paper with the words, "From Arsene Lupin to good fortune when Mr. Gillette turned his mind and
Sherlock Holmes." Imagine the state of mind of the his great talents to putting Holmes upon the stage. I

joker who took such trouble to accomplish such a cannot end my remarks more fittingly than by my
result! thanks to the man who changed a creature of thin air
One of the mysteries submitted to Mr. Holmes was into an absolutely convincing human being.
rather upon the psychic plane, and therefore beyond
his powers. The facts as alleged are most remarkable,
though have no proof of their truth save that the lady
I

wrote earnestly and gave both her name and address.

The person, whom we will call Mrs. Seagrave, had been

26
 "A wild-eyed and frantic young man burst into
the room" ran the caption to the picture below:
in "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder'"
What the man saw - and indeed all the others
who came to Holmes' residence — has been
exactly recreated from the text of the stories by
the theatre critic and Sherlockian, Ernest Short.
The two lay-outs here, and that of Baker Street
overleaf, were published in the last issue of
the "Strand Magazine" in March 1950. 0.

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PADOiNGTON ST
Pearsons Magazine December 1 934 BY LADY CONAN DOYLE

Conan Doyle was Sherlock Holmes

My husband was so versatile in his literary work that it personalities to him, and that is why, in the minds of
is difficult in a short space to describe the various sides so many of his readers also, they are like familiar
of his genius, and it would take many pages to tell at friends.
all adequately of his remarkably noble and wonderful have sometimes felt that one of the reasons why he
I

character —
each facet so striking that whoever came was able to make his characters so very real was that he
near him at once sensed the inner greatness both of his was able to imbue them, all unknown to himself, with
soul and mind. parts of his own character and personality.
He never believed in shoddy work, but was intensely Take, for instance, Sherlock Holmes and my
thorough in anything he undertook. He told me that husband's own extraordinary powers of deduction and
before he began to write "The White Company" (his analysis! The public does not realise that my husband
favourite book of all he ever wrote) he read over sixty had the Sherlock Holmes brain, and that sometimes he
books all dealing with that period — books on privately solved mysteries that had non-plussed the
heraldry, falconry, armour, etc. He absorbed so much police. He was able, through his remarkable powers of
knowledge of those days that he might actually have deduction and inference, to locate missing people
them, so true an atmosphere, so living a spirit
lived in whose relatives had given them up as lost or murdered.
in his romantic and finely-coloured story
did he create My husband often used the Sherlock Holmes line of
"The White Company" — a virile, living tale of those deduction in a most interesting way in determining the
days. profession or circumstances of people whom he
My husband trained himself to write when the flow observed in public. On every occasion when the
of inspiration came, anywhere and in any opportunity arose, and we checked up with his
circumstances. He had that rare faculty of being able theories, we invariably found them to be correct.
entirely to isolate his mind, as it were, from his Take, again, one of his other creations, Challenger,
surroundings. He had no settled hours for work. that splendid brave scientist who had the courage of his
Sometimes he would be in the study before the opinions, and who was in knowledge ahead of his time,
servants were up, or he would go in and write after a as my husband was in his psychic knowledge. Then Sir
game of golf. He would never force the work. He only Nigel, that most chivalrous old knight — no knight of
wrote when the inspiration was upon him, and when it old was more full of the most perfect chivalry and
just flowed from his pen, so that he could hardly set it nobility of character than my husband, and a wife
down quickly enough. He was a tremendously hard knows better than all others the true character of a
worker. The following must surely be a record. He man. Rodney Stone portrays the spirit of clean,
wrote and produced his play The Speckled Band in fearless English sport. My husband was full of it, and
three weeks, as well as dealing with an enormous sport in all directions was his great relaxation from the
correspondence and many other matters during the responsibilities of life. Also the humorous Brigadier
time! Gerard — my husband's sense of humour was boyish as
He sometimes wrote his Sherlock Holmes stories in a well as fine and scintillating.
room full of people talking! He would write in a train His booklet "The Boer War, Its Cause and
with the humof conversation around him, or in a Conduct," changed the antagonistic attitude of nations
cricket pavilion during the match, while waiting for the against us into a clearer understanding of the justice of
rain to stop. England's cause. In the composition of his
He used to feel that Sherlock Holmes tended to monumental work — "The History of the Great War,"
obscure his other higher literary works, such as his his great spirit laboured against every conceivable
historical novels. difficulty in obtaining correct information regarding
He had that rare gift of making a character so real the part played by the British Army, in order that he
and human and so living a personality. Think of might hand down a record to posterity of the
Challenger, that great, gruff, lovable character with his magnificent bravery and sacrifice made by the men of
super-brain. Then the conceited but delightful the Empire. The writing of the "History of the Boer
Brigadier Gerard; Sir Nigel, the chivalrous, adventurous War," and the colossal task that he undertook in
knight, the embodiment of all that is splendid in a writing his "History of the Great War," reflected the
man; Sherlock Holmes with his rapier-like brain. patriotic soul of my husband and his intense love of his
He loved building up his fictional characters with all country. That same spirit of his shows itself in the
their little idiosyncrasies, their strengths and characters of the tenacious fighters depicted in his
weaknesses, so that they became like living historical novels.

29
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 It was his deep sense of justice which made him take praise and encouragement. He had great sympathy for
up the cudgels so indefatigably on behalf of Edalji and the struggles of young writers and did all he could to
Slater, in which he was instrumental in reversing two help them. He used his genius to its highest in every
serious miscarriages of justice. At all times he was a direction. In all his many and numerous writings on
fearless fighter on behalf of the oppressed and the varied subjects there is not one word which could leave
victims of injustice. the tiniest smudge upon the mind or soul of any
His style was wonderful in its simplicity — with reader, and the ideals and spirit of honesty, chivalry,
never a redundant word — surely the highest form of nobility and human loveliness running through his
art. People should write as they talk. An involved style books could only leave a subconscious desire in the
is not indicative of a profound mind, but rather of a minds of the readers to be a better man or woman.
confused one.
Like all truly great men, my husband was innately
modest. never heard a conceited word pass his lips; he
I Left: Arthur Conan Doyle at his desk with a specimen of his signature
and an extract in his own handwriting from the manuscript of one of the
was also Utterly without jealousy, and he loved to hear stories. Below: Doyle was a keen sportsman among his many interests
of the success of others, and was the first to give his and is shown here about to set off for a ride with his wife.

31
The Sunday Times June 10 1934 fall between two stools; it is not 'In innumerable ways throughout
quite explanatory enough for the his life of extraordinary service, the
beginner, or advanced enough for British novelist demonstrated the
SHERLOCK HOLMES SAGA: HIS
the expert. truth of the assertion. From first to
"PRIVATE LIFE"
last — as student, physician, writer,
The Private Life of Sherlock Literary detection
and prophet of war —
spiritualist,
Holmes by Vincent Starrett (Ivor Itmay, however, tempt the he was always the private detective,
Nicholson and Watson.) former to play the detective for the seeker after hidden truth, the
BY J. M. BULLOCH himself. Thus, though Mr. Starrett
fathomer of obscure mysteries, the
inventories 90 miscellaneous items
hound of justice upon the trail of
When, after trying to fill up his about Sherlock Holmes, he remarks injustice and official apathy.'
time and his empty purse by that the list does not attempt to
writing magazine stories, Dr. Arthur include "one-hundredth part" of Conan Doyle's indifference

Conan Doyle produced "A Study in the many books, pamphlets, Sir Arthur's indifference to his

Scarlet," he had not the slightest articles, burlesques, and other detective displayed itself when
idea that he was creating one of the writings about him. Similarly, in William Gillette, who made a
great figures of fiction. Indeed, half the bibliography of the editions of fortune by dramatising the stories
a dozen publishers turned it down, Sherlock Holmes himself, a rough in an "absurd and preposterous

and when at last Ward Lock attempt might have been made to melodrama," wired him, "May I

offered him £25 for it, lock, stock, enumerate translations into foreign marry Holmes?" Doyle, then
and barrel for "Beeton's Christmas languages. immensely preoccupied with the
Annual" in 1 887, he took the fee Certainly, more might have been South African war, wired back,
without hesitation, for he had to given about Dr. Joseph Bell "You may marry or murder him or
live. To-day that copy of the annual (1837-1911), the prototype of do what you like with him." Amid
is a collector's prize. Sherlock, all the more as, strange to the olla — podrida of curious facts
What Mr. Starrett, a devoted say, he not in such books of
is collected by Mr. Starrett, we are
(Chicago) disciple, who has been reference as the Dictionary of reminded that Professor Moriarty,
writing on the subject for nearly 20 National Biography and the popular who gets the name of Robert in the
years, hasdone is to compile a encyclopaedias. Mr. Starrett has no play and nowhere else, was
rough-and-ready guide to the doubt that "the real Holmes was modelled on Adam Worth, who
Sherlockian saga. It is not a very Conan Doyle himself." He scores a stole the Gainsborough Duchess in
satisfactory book, for it appears to point when he says: — 1876.

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self as an old horse and his doctors as vets!

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The Bookman August 1932 BY EDMUND PEARSON

Holmes among the illustrators

Conan Doyle imagined Sherlock Holmes as a man with

a thin hawk-like nose, piercing eyes, and so excessively
lean that he seemed even taller than his actual six feet.
Thus the author described him in the first Holmes
story. A Study in Scarlet.
Later, Doyle emphasized his idea that Holmes had a
"razor-like face; a great hawk's-bill of a nose; two small
eyes set close together" and that he was powerful but
ugly. His first important illustrator, Sidney Paget,
made Holmes who was tall, but not extremely tall,
a
and who was far from "ugly". Dr. Doyle thought that
this was because Paget had used his brother Walter as a
model. He more comely detective was
believed that the
perhaps fortunately drawn to please the ladies. The
writer of the sketch of Paget in the Dictionary of
National Biography, however, denies that the artist
used his brother or anyone else as a model. He leaves
you to suppose that Paget drew Holmes from his own
fancy, based on Doyle's description as given in the
stories comprised in the Adventures.
One or two preceded Paget. Sherlock Holmes
artists
appeared for the time in print in 1 887, when A
first
Study in Scarlet was published in that queer-looking
periodical, Beeton's Christmas Annual. Despite many
excellencies, and one surprise never bettered in any of
the tales, this novel attracted little notice. For the
initial appearance of a detective whose exploits were to

be recorded for nearly forty years, a veteran illustrator

of that day, D. H. Friston, was called upon.
This first picture of Holmes would distress the
devotees. Friston's Sherlock is neither handsome nor Holmes and Watson in Regent Street — one of the most famous of
intellectual; he wears undertaker's side-whiskers, an Sidney Paget's illustrations for "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1 901 ).

ulster with a cape, and a hat like nothing on sea or

land — a sort of bastard child of a bowler out of a around the world, the Adventures, began in the Strand
sombrero. With a magnifying glass as big as a Magazine, July, 1891. For these the already mentioned
sunflower, he is examining the word RACHE written Sidney Edward Paget, a young illustrator of about
in blood upon the wall. About him, in grotesque thirty, began to draw the Holmes whose features
attitudes, standWatson — with a walrus's became familiar throughout the British Empire and to
moustache —
and the Scotland Yarders, Gregson and some early enthusiasts in the United States. His
Lestrade. Mr. Friston seems to have thought that the Holmes had a long nose, high forehead, rather bald
scene was macabre, and that the characters should look temples, and, when at home in Baker Street, usually
like gargoyles. wore a frock coat.
In the second edition of the story, in book form, One of the actors who impersonated Holmes in our
there are said to be six illustrations by the novelist's own time — Arthur Wontner, in the screen play,
father, Charles Doyle. They should be interesting; Sherlock Holmes's Fatal Hour — closely resembled the
Conan Doyle thought his father the greatest and most detective of Paget's pictures.
original of a family of artists. There is an impression that Mr. William Gillette, in
The next Holmes story, another short novel, The his play, first put Holmes in a deer-stalker's cap with
Sign of the Four, appeared in Lippincott's Magazine, visors foreand aft. In one of the early Strand stories,
February, 1 890. There is one illustration, a scene in however, The Boscombe Valley Mystery, Dr. Doyle
India, in which Holmes does not appear. says that Holmes wore a "close-fitting cloth cap", and
Ten short stories which carried Holmes's fame Paget shows him with a fore-and-after. Watson, even in

33
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the country, sticks to his bowler. Mr. Gillette played
Holmes in one of these caps, on one evening in London
when he was headed for the Stepney gas chamber and
rough work.
American editors, in 1893, began to be interested in

Holmes, and the second series, the Memoirs, ran in

Harper's Weekly, in addition to their English
publication in the Strand. The American artist, Mr. W.
H. Hyde, adorned the stories in Harper's with some
striking pictures, but preferred to draw the actors in

the criminal events rather than Holmes and Watson.

The detective seldom appears, and when he does he is

Mr. Hyde's own conception. One recognizes with

difficulty, in this youth of the nineties with his short,
light overcoat, either the cocaine addict of Baker
Street or the expert boxer who twice knocked down
Joseph Harrison, the thief of the Naval Treaty.
The Memoirs closed with The Final Problem and the
"death" of Sherlock Holmes, who went over the cliffs
of the Reichenbach, along with his enemy, Professor
Moriarty. Nevertheless, in the autumn of 1901 the ,
thousands of playgoers he had become the perfect
Strand began publication of the serial, The Hound of embodiment of the detective. They had never seen any
the Baskervilles, with Mr. Paget again illustrating the other representation, and could not imagine one. The
Doyle wisely made no reference to the fact Steele pictures had in their turn an influence on the
text. Dr.
stage, or upon the screen, for it seems probable that
that for six or seven years we had supposed Holmes to
the enormous number of properties assembled for the
be lying on the Alpine mountains cold, but went on
with his hero as if nothing had happened. The novel
Baker Street scene in John Barrymore's film play
ran in both the English and American editions of the (1922) originated in Mr. Steele's fascinating pictures of
Strand — the American always one instalment behind Holmes's rooms and their accessories. Mr. Steele was
the first illustrator to suggest that Dr. Watson was a
the English. This caused one reader, who began the
simple Simon: he gave the Doctor an extremely blonde
serial in London and carried on in this country, the
agonizing experience of waiting two months for the
moustache, and a good-natured face which verges on
silliness.
next instalment, after perusing the blood-curdling
words: "Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a
It was Mr. Arthur I. Keller, in the American edition
gigantic hound!" of The Valley of Fear (1915), who dealt the crudest

During the progress of this novel, and while blow at Watson. From merely the innocent Johnny of
everyone was guessing at its plot, THE BOOKMAN Mr. Steele's drawings, Watson emerges in Mr. Keller's
published some ingenious solutions contributed by picture as boobus Britannicus. The Valley of Fear had

excited readers, of whom was one. They were all far

I

Above: The most famous American illustrator of the adventures,

astray. Mr. Arthur Bartlett Maurice told me that they Frederic Dorr Steele, shows Holmes arresting Colonel Moran in "The
Adventure of the Empty House", "Collier's Magazine", 1903.
were read by Dr. Doyle, who intimated that they were
Below: One of six pictures executed by Conan Doyle's father, Charles
worthy of Gregson and Lestrade. Doyle, for "A Study In Scarlet" in 1888. Note the bearded Holmes!
In this story, Paget presented Holmes and Watson in
their best-tailored moments. Look at them in their
glossy toppers, hot on the trail of the mysterious man
in the hansom cab. The people, the omnibus, and the
background of the Quadrant of Regent Street make it
redolent of London, and full of the spirit of these
tales.
Two years later, in 1903, Holmes's loyal followers
were given satisfaction with a full explanation of his
supposed death, and an account of where he had been
and what he had been doing. On both sides of the
ocean he re-appeared in the series called The Return of
Sherlock Holmes, and in America, in Collier's Weekly,
with the most interesting decorations of all time. Old
Sherlockians will always be fond of the Paget drawings,
but they must admit that the pictures made for this
new series, by Frederic Dorr Steele, were not only
satisfactory as portraits, but extremely attractive in
detail.
The Holmes as drawn by Mr. Steele were
features of
done under the William Gillette influence. Since
clearly
1899 Mr. Gillette had been playing Holmes, and to

35
Left: Holmes and Inspector Lestrade arresting Jefferson Hope in George 1905. Right: The much criticised Holmes and Watson picture by
Hutchinson's illustration for the Ward Lock edition of "A Study In Arthur I. Keller for the "American Associated Saturday Magazine's"
Scarlet" (1891). Centre: Charles R. Macauley's Holmes from "The "The Valley of Fear" in 1914.
Return of Sherlock Holmes" published by McClure, Phillips & Co. in

been illustrated in the Strand by Frank Wiles; it is a England, H. A. Saintsbury played Sherlock over 1400
story of the Molly Maguires in Pennsylvania, and is one times. Other English actors, chiefly in the cinema, who
of the lesser items of Sherlockiana. have impersonated Holmes include Eille Norwood,
When the stories in The Return were published as a whose Hound of the Baskervilles was given here in
book America, Mr. C. R. Macauley drew a few
in 1922; Clive Brook; Arthur Wontner, whose screen play
pictures of Holmes. One of these, a curiously feathery was one of the best; Raymond Massey; and Dennis
person, with some resemblance to William Gillette, is Neilson-Terry. Mr. Massey brought Holmes up-to-date
reproduced here. and gave him an office with stenographers,
Paget continued his pictures in the Strand until his dictaphones, radio, and typewriters. This was much like
death in 1 908; four or five different artists followed showing Washington crossing the Delaware in an
him in his work on the Holmes stories, which went on, airplane — very pleasing to those who love to shatter
often at long intervals, for about seventeen years more. tradition into bits.
H. M. Brock is probably the best known of these John Barrymore's film (1922) was based on the
illustrators, although he seems to have worked on one Gillette stage play and had a remarkable cast which
story only. The last of the Strand illustrators was included Roland Young as Dr. Watson; Gustav von
Howard Elcock, who drew some vigorous pictures. He Seyffertitz as Professor Moriarty; William Powell as
followed the Paget tradition as to Holmes's face. Forman Wells; and Louis Wolheim as Craigin.
Altogether, even in this incomplete record, have I Recalling these pictorial representations of the lean
found the names of fifteen artists who have drawn detective brings back happy memories, and makes the
Sherlock Holmes. ancient Sherlockian murmur, in the words of Old
The stories afterwards collected in His Last Bow English: "Great Days! Great Days!"
(1917) and The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes (1 927) Once more Holmes and Watson sit by the fire in the
came out in various periodicals, illustrated by different rooms of that patient landlady: Mrs. Hudson. Once
artists. "It is with a heavy heart", as Dr. Watson said in more the dense yellow fog swirls around the window
beginning 777e Final Problem, that record my opinion
I
panes, until Holmes chafes at his enforced inactivity.
that in these stories the old fire was flickering; Then Mrs. Hudson is heard toiling up the stairs; she
although, as in The Bruce-Partington Plans, it taps on the door, to announce — what mysterious
sometimes blazed up with the warmth of the early personage? The King of Bohemia, in his black mask? Mr.
days. Jabez Wilson, with his red hair and his curious story?
was chiefly in the stories contained in The Case
It Brother Mycroft, puffing and wheezing, to say that the
Book that Dr. Doyle made the contradictory Prime Minister is quite agitated, and that Sherlock
staiements, and committed himself to the must come at once? Or some beautiful and distressed
anachronisms about his two heroes, which have given lady, to of an unexplained and terrible death at
tell

Father Ronald Knox, Mr. S. C. Roberts, and other midnight? Perhaps this time they are really going to find
serio-comic investigators the basis for their amusing out what in Heaven's name were the Singular
monographs on the early life of Dr. Watson, his Adventures of the Grice Paterson in the Island of Uffa!
mysterious second marriage, and other esoteric Anyhow, they will soon be in a hansom together;
matters. Watson with his old service revolver in his pocket, and
Mentioning William Gillette's early appearance on the thrill of adventure in his heart.
the stage as Holmes (revived in 1929) recalls that, in Great Days! Great Days!

36
The Sunday Times October 30 1932 BY DESMOND MacCARTHY

The world of books: Sherlock sums! i

"Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson." By H.W. Bell. the Watson Problem" (Cambridge University Press,
(Constable.) 1929); they carry reproof not less formidable for being
"Sherlock Holmes." By Thomas Blakeney. (Murray.) temperate in expression: "Trifles such as these (he
writes of 'Studies in the Literature of Sherlock
Holmes') may be of some interest to the amateur of
In no department of research have so many high apocrypha, but it is to be hoped that serious students
reputations been lost and won as in Sherlockology, will rather devote their energies to the elucidation of

The fierce light of investigation which has been the major problems of Watsonian chronology, the
directed upon No. 221 B, Baker Street, during the complexity of which we have sought but to
present century, and upon the lives of the two friends adumbrate .
." There speaks the true scholar; clear,
.

inhabiting it, has revealed problems nigh insoluable, simple, manly, rational, striking conviction in every
and of such intricacy as earlier readers of Dr. Watson's word, unlike the refined and fantastic nonsense of one
annals, even the most assiduous of them, never dreamt who, while pretending to be a friend to free-inquiry,
of. The state of Watsonian scholarship today, when would lead us into the pathless wilds of conjecture and
compared with that of ten years ago is — it must be keep us suspended over the bottomless gulfs of critical
admitted — bewildering to laymen. The investigations scepticism.
of Knox, of Roberts, of "Evoe," and of others whose
The above books compared
names are less widely known, though hardly less
respected, of Vernon Rendall, Behrens of Corpus
To tamper with the canon is only to sow strife among
Christi College, Cambridge, Alan Parsons, A. A. Milne
scholars and scatter the seeds of discord (though I

(whose plays and verses are unknown in the world hesitate to say with wanton irresponsibility. Let us
it)

where he won his real laurels) have unfortunately face "the major problems" — heaven knows they
bristle with difficulties! — together. They can only
raised almost as many questions as they have laid to
yield to collaboration and mutual help. It is in this
rest.
spirit that we welcome the work of extraordinarily
The chronology of the incidents recorded in the
patient and minute research which stands first of the
various books which constitute the canon from "The
Study in Scarlet" onwards, is at many points still as
books mentioned at the head of this column. Mr. H. W.
doubtful as the order of some of Shakespeare's plays. Bell's "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson" leads us
Moreover, the misguided acumen of Knox has even straight to the heart of these difficulties; while that of

thrown doubt upon the authenticity of the latter Mr. Thomas Blakeney, though admirably sound as a
books of the canon itself. In "The Case Book" and whole, is comparatively elementary. It is calculated to
"His Last Bow"
he professed to have seen evidences of
whet the appetite of the public — if such
the hand of a deutero- and — possibly — of a encouragement is necessary — for further investigation,
trito-Watson. Whether in doing so he only yielded to
and it might very properly be placed in the hands of a
lad on leaving school who knows his texts well, but
those fickle humours which sometimes prompt men to
literary frolics on the gravest subjects, or whether we whose studies have halted at the figure of the great
detective himself, and is as yet unaware of the deeper
must impute tohim those rankling jealousies and that
significance and interest of Watson. Compared with
restless vanity which, alas, scholars of the brightest
Mr. H. W. Bell's book it is not an important
intelligence have been known to indulge, I leave others
to decide.
contribution to what the Germans denominate
"Watsonischechronologieprobleme. " Yet, on the
A temperate reproof whole, it is the work of a more balanced judgment;
Lack of space prevents me here from grappling with though where the young reader is concerned must I

Knox and giving him a fall, and, for my part, will I

enter one caveat with regard to it.
never assert where cannot persuade. Let it suffice to
I The general review of the character, opinions and
say that such conclusions could have only been habits of Sherlock Holmes is painstaking and complete;
reached by one deliberately bent on upsetting the and high praise must be accorded to Mr. Blakeney for
tranquillity of the public mind, and by employing to the thorough way in which he has given his references
that end a powerful intellect polluted by prejudice or a for every statement in it. But (and here comes what
wayward temperament which naturally delights in the Americans call the knock of regret) he has inclined
giving an air of importance to trifles. Let me quote the to an error too common in such surveys, namely, that
concluding words of Roberts' rare pamphlet: "Note on of supposing that the characteristics which were so

38
marked Sherlock Holmes in 1 881 when first he
in ,

shared "diggings" with his friend, necessarily persisted.

We have evidence that age and success considerably
tempered the Bohemianism of Holmes's habits, while
long association with the commonplace culture of
Watson inevitably widened his interests. The surprising
list of the lacunae education given
in his "A us in
Study in Scarlet" does not apply to the later Holmes,
as is shown by his constant if never striking references
to literature. will not go so far as to say that Mr.
I

Blakeney ignores this obvious truth, but wish to I

caution the beginner against the tendency to present

Sherlock Holmes as a static character even more
noticeable in other scholars.

The finances of Baker Street

And thereanother point. In a popular but thorough
is

book of this description, in my opinion the finances of

Baker Street should have received more systematic
attention. For such treatment the student can be
referred to Behrens's privately circulated monograph.
As everyone knows, it was economy that first
compelled the two men to keep house together.
Watson, with what may be called his superb normality,
had found it impossible to live independently on his
military pension of £209. 6s. a year. It was impossible,
that is to say, for a man of his habits, which included a
taste for betting, club-life, Turkish baths, and the Holmes effects a dramatic arrest in "The Adventure of the Dancing Man"
Criterion bar. When he arrived in London he was still (1903).

suffering from the effects of the Jezail bullet which at

Priory School Case") but we know that he was able
;

the Battle of Maiwand had shattered his shoulder bone,

after his "Return" to buy Watson's practice in
and the enteric fever which had laid him low in the Kensington on behalf of his cousin Verner (or Vernet?)
Base Hospital at Peshawar. The modern tendency in for a handsome sum. Nor could he have retired to his
biography to emphasise the regrettable side of human bee-keeping in Sussex had he not accumulated a
nature may tempt many to read more than is
private fortune. The conclusion is inevitable: the most
justifiable into that violent phrase which Watson
lucrative of his cases were those Watson never
employs in describing London — he speaks of it as chronicled; those in which large financial interests were
"that great cesspool into which all the loungers and
at stake, such as in '87 the problem of the
idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained" — but
"Netherland-Sumatra Company and the colossal
there can be little doubt that during the first two
schemes of Baron Maupertuis." Mr. Blakeney in a
months of 1 880, for the last time in his life, Watson footnote ingeniously argues that Holmes might have
sowed a few wild oats.
kept the £1 ,000 handed to him by the King of
Economy was equally necessary in the case of the Bohemia for expenses, but such a suggestion surely
young Sherlock Holmes. We know that Mrs. Hudson's rests upon a grave misapprehension of character.
charges were extremely moderate, but it seems scarcely As every schoolboy ought by this time to know
possible that with food, light, and fuel they could there is a curious difficulty connected with the date of
hardly, even in the eighties, have been less than £5 a
Watson's first marriage. Was it 1 886, '87, or '88? This
week. We know that Holmes's clientele was at first by
has led to the wildest surmises, even to the reckless-
no means wealthy, and that his artist's devotion to his
suggestion that during one period he was keeping two
profession often induced him to undertake cases which
establishments. Apart from the necessity of clearing
left him out of pocket. However, fame came rapidly,
the character of one of whom we are sure that
while Watson succeeded in placing his literary work.
whatever record leaps to light he never will be shamed,
By 1888, Behrens thinks, all financial troubles were
it is of the first importance to establish the date of
over.
Watson's marriage, because, characteristically, he used
Prosperity at Last that date as a sort of B.C. or A.D. in recording the
By that time Holmes, as is shown in "The Scandal in cases of his friend. Yet he often appears as a bachelor
Bohemia," had already been of service to several of the in Baker Street when he might have been expected to

crowned heads of Europe; and Behrens is convinced be living with his wife. It is, therefore, to the pages
that, in spite of Holmes's quixotism where money was dealing with "The Sign of Four," which gives us the
concerned ("My charges are on a fixed scale, do not I circumstances of Watson's first marriage, that we
vary them except to remit them altogether"), Holmes instinctively turn first on opening a new book on
must have made by 1 890 a considerable fortune. The Sherlockology. rejoice to say that am in agreement
I I

largest sum that we know him to have received is the with Mr. Bell: the marriage took place in October of
£6,000 cheque from the Duke of Holderness ("The 1887.

39
 "

Radio Times December 26 1952 BY S. C. ROBERTS President, Sherlock Holmes Society

The love story of The Great Detective

In the Strand Magazine for December 1 893, tens of But Alice is not interested in reasons. She gently
thousands of readers read with sorrow and places her right hand on Holmes' breast and is shortly
exasperation of the death of Sherlock Holmes at the resting in his arms. And so, with lights fading and
foot of the Reichenbach Falls. Conan Doyle, his music swelling, the curtain falls.
creator, had grown weary of him and had determined At the end of the first performance Gillette had a
to make an end. Four years later, however, his desire tumultuous reception, marred by some interruptions
to write a really successful play led his thoughts back from the gallery in protest against the imperfect
to the famous detective and the script was submitted audibility of the players.
to Beerbohm Tree. Unwilling make the alterations
to The critic of The Times, presumably A. B. Walkley,
that the actor-manager wanted, Conan Doyle might wrote a gay and amusing column about the play.
well have dropped the project altogether. But the script Fundamentally, he declared, it was all wrong — no
had found its way to Charles Frohman in New York playhouse was large enough to hold the colossal figure
and Frohman accepted it. Again, re-writing was of Sherlock Holmes and it was absurd to make him fall
demanded by William Gillette, who was anxious to play in love; the slight disturbance in the gallery he
the lead. This time Conan Doyle made no protest and attributed to the myrmidons of Professor Moriarty.
when Gillette cabled: 'May marry Holmes?' he replied
I At the time of this first production, was just I

that he could marry him or murder him or do anything preparing to enter a public shook But the play lived
else he liked. In the end, he came to feel that Gillette on. Round about 1908 or 1909 saw it played (and I

had made a fine play of it and certainly it had a well played) by a touring company at Cambridge. That
fine reception and along run in America. was long before had begun to face the problems of
I

In 1901 Gillette brought the play to England. Its

, Holmesian scholarship; just enjoyed the evening with
I

premiere was given at Liverpool in the first week of the zest proper of an undergraduate.
September 1901 and on September 9 it was produced
in London at the Lyceum. Gillette had quite frankly
plunged Holmes into the melodramatic atmosphere
with which patrons of the Lyceum were familiar. One
critic, indeed, expressed surprise that Irving himself
was not playing the principal role and the management
was careful to issue a special notice urging the
A BAKER STREET FOLIO *
spectators to be in their seats at eight o'clock precisely,
About Sherlock Holmes
5 Letters
since the interest of the play commenced with the
By Franklin Delano Roosevelt
rising of the curtain.
(U.S. President)
The drama was described as 'a hitherto unpublished
episode in the career of the great detective and
showing connection with the Strange Case of Miss
his
Faulkner.' How
far it resembles Conan Doyle's original
draft we do not know. All that can be said is that the
main plot recalls, in a general way, the Scandal in
Bohemia, and that the interview between Holmes and
Summit, N.J. 1945 Privately Printed
Moriarty deliberately reproduces some of the earlier
passages in The Final Problem; but from beginning to Edition limited to 150 copies of which 75
end it is melodrama that matters, as the stage were sent to the original Baker Street Irregulars.

directions show. Here is a sample: Music, For some years copies have been unavailable and
Melodramatic, Danger, Keep down pp. Agitato. No despite persistent advertising we have, until now,
melodrama is complete without a love-interest of some been unable to raise a single copy. This is

poignancy and the most striking innovation is Holmes' because not only Holmesians but F.D.R.
final surrender to Alice Faulkner: collectors also want this tremendous trifle.

"I suppose - indeed know - that love you. love

I I I $15.00 per copy
you. But know as well what am — and what you are
I I

— know that no such person as should ever dream ot

I I BEN ABRAMSON, ARGUS BOOKS INC, WEST 46 STREET,
being a part of your sweet life! It would be a crime for NEW YORK 19, N.Y.

me to think of such a thing. There is every reason — 1949

41
The Sunday Times August 26 1934 discovered in Holmes's busy year, at a very early age,may very well
1 895, at "one of our great Uni- have met with little encouragement
versity towns" was traced by a with the college authorities.
THE EDUCATION OF HOLMES pellet of the peculiar mixture with
Sir H. MACNAGHTEN
which Watts used to fill the long-
Lyminster, Sussex
Sir.— I submit that Sherlock jump pit at Fenners. believe this
I

Holmes was almost certainly a was a secret composition of his

member of Magdalene College, own, which he only allowed to be
Cambridge. His behaviour is hardly used elsewhere for the University
consistent with membership of a sports at Queens', and which was
large college,and his only two not available at Oxford.
friends, Trevor and Musgrave, were It is clear from the story of the

throughly representative of the three students that Holmes recog-

sporting and aristocratic under- nised the nature of the pellet as
graduates of Magdalene in the soon as he saw it, and it is probable
seventies. that, besides his boxing and
Moreover, while the presence of fencing, Holmes did some running
a bulldog inside Trinity was no and jumping while he was an under-
doubt always unthinkable, the graduate.
discipline of Magdalene was not as Why Holmes did not mention the
keen as hear it is to-day.
I fact of his familiarity with
There is a difficulty in the fact Cambridge to Watson is not
that in the three adventures of apparent. But undergraduates who
Holmes at Cambridge, Watson have terminated their career after
appears not to know that he was on two years are not always anxious to
familiar ground. But the identity of mention the fact, and Holmes, who
Dr. Joseph Bell, the real-life original of Sherlock
the guilty student which was was certainly an addict of cocaine Holmes.

* DCV0«5KIM ST

I? nil >lk<9 »CYMOUTH ST „

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42
John O'London's Weekly levelof ordinary people." Hamilton every English county, from
September 15 1934 was a fellow student with Conan Scotland and from Wales.
Doyle at Edinburgh For the varied and fascinating
information given me am deeply I

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND POE COLOPHON grateful. You will have noted,

A correspondent, Mr. W. j. Young, though, from the letters you have

in the British Medical Journal for printed, that there is a slight diver-
August 25th, writes to suggest a Daily Telegraph July 30 1937 gence of opinion. have as Mr.
I

new origin for Sherlock Holmes. It Holmes's residence 221 b, 111,

has often been stated that Conan 281 b and 1 1 2a, Baker-street. The
SHERLOCK'S HOME
Doyle got the idea of his creature first-named number, however,
American inquirer's thanks
from a medical man of Edinburgh, seems established as that mentioned
Dr. Joseph Bell, and that the Sir,— I am delighted to find my by Dr. Watson, while 1 1 1 is Mr.
methods used by Sherlock Holmes interest in Sherlock Holmes Vincent Starrett's deduction. My
in detection were those of Dr. Bell adequately shared in England. chief regret is that the house no
in diagnosis. Mr. Young reports that In asking your readers for the longer exists, wherever it may have
he was told in the 'nineties by number of his Baker-street quarters stood.
George Hamilton (then assistant I did not explain I was an American
J.S. POPE,
honorary surgeon to Mitchell Banks) visitor, and several replies have
33, Netherhall Gardens, N.W.3.
that Conan Doyle, at the same time taken me to task rather sharply for
he was a medical student in having to put the question at all.
Edinburgh, "was deeply interested But all of my numerous corres-
in Poe's detective works, and told pondents are most obliging, and
Hamilton that he had the idea of many reveal a truly noble zeal in
writing detective fiction according their acquisition of Sherlock
to the system of Poe, but greatly Holmes lore. have letters not only
I Two maps by the Sherlockian expert, Dr. Julian
Wolff, which graphically illustrate the adventures
simplified and brought down to the from London, but from almost both at home and abroad.

43
Punch April 22 1942 BYEVOE

Tears, idle tears

When had read in my evening paper "The Ministry of

I been locked up in a small safe, the key of which she
Food have appointed their own Big Three from kept under her pillow. No one but her ninety-year-old
Scotland Yard to deal with the Black Market, " how maid knew the secret. The key had not been taken, but
hard it was to prevent my thoughts from wandering to the safe was rifled, there were marks on the
that April evening long ago in Baker Street when the window-sill, footprints on the drive and on the
blurred lamp-light was reflected from the puddles, and carrot-bed, and lettuce-shoots were trampled down.
only a single four-wheeled cab could be seen in the far "And the gate and the railings?"
distance driving furiously up the deserted "They have been turned into Hurricanes."
thoroughfare! How hard, did I say? It was so hard that I "You have informed Scotland Yard?"
made no' effort. I permitted my thoughts to wander as "I did so immediately, but so far they have been
they would. unable to assist me."
There they sat, the long lithe figure of the detective She left, still weeping.
leaning back in his arm-chair, complaining with some Holmes (I think) rose quietly and went to the
bitterness to his friend and biographer that only the bookcase, took down a fat red volume and studied it
most sensational cases were admitted to the chronicles, intently.
while many a more brilliant triumph of deduction (like "We deep waters, Watson, very deep. But
are in
the Mysterious Affair of the Tattooed Wharfinger) had hullo, whomhave we here?"
never been revealed to the most importunate patron of Lestrade? Of course it was Lestrade. Confident, but
the Strand Magazine. not over confident. Gifted, but alas! uninspired.
And the flustered client . . . "I think we shall soon lay our man by the heels, Mr.
Very beautiful she was when, pushing up her thick Holmes."
black veil she revealed her features stained with What have you done so far?"
weeping, haggard with an anxiety which gave place of "We have interviewed the managers of every large
indignation and bewilderment when Holmes observed hotel in London and
the provinces, and drawn a
quietly: "And what has brought you to see me, Lady cordon round Soho. Every well-known fruiterer is
Blottingham?" being watched night and day. Shoulders of mutton are
She bridled. being shadowed by officials of the Ministry of Food."
"How can you possibly know who am, Mr. I "You suspect the Black Market?"
Holmes?" The great man put the tips of his fingers together
"Madam, if you wished to conceal your identity you and slowly shook his head.
should have removed your family crest from your "Come, come, Mr. Holmes, you are trifling with
pocket handkerchief." me.
She blushed. "I was never more serious in my life."
"A happened, Mr. Holmes! The
terrible thing has He goes away downhearted. The two friends are left
Blottingham onions have been stolen." together. Holmes borrows a match. The room grows
"The famous rope?" poisonous with the fumes of shag.
"None other." "Have you any ideas, Watson?"
"Renowned among all the cognescenti of Belgravia?" "None whatever."
"It is indeed." "Yet to me the case seems remarkably simple. Are
"Coveted by all the gourmets of Bloomsbury?" you prepared for a little expedition?"
She nodded. He is.
"They were bequeathed to me by my father, the "Do need my revolver, Holmes?"
I

Duke of Matlock, just before he died of a chill last "An assegai will be ample."
autumn. He grew them on his own allotment in They set out.
Hanover Square. As you know, they are almost Need continue? The briefest summary will surely
I

irreplaceable at the present moment, for the new crop suffice. The
visit to the great mansion, occupied except
has only recently been planted. was to wear them at I for one small wing by the Ministry of Integral
the Free Bulgarian Ball at the Grosvenor Hotel. They Complications and Co-ordinated Affairs; the interview
would then have been raffled and we hoped to raise a with Lord Blottingham, aristocratic to his finger-tips
thousand pounds for the cause." and a former Secretary of State for War; the sudden
"Kindly narrate the circumstances." fainting-fit which overcame the great detective; the
She narrated them. Every night the vegetables had pulling away of a curtain as he staggers wildly, to

44
 THE OLD TIN BOX
by Jay Finlay Christ

In the vaults of Cox was an old

tin box
With Watson's name on its lid.

What wouldn't we pay for that box

today
And the secret notes there hid?

Old Russian dame, Ricoletti the

lame,
The famous aluminium crutch;
For Alicia, the cutter, the parsley
in butter,
What would you give for such?

Story of Randall, Darlington scandal,

The Coptic patriarchs,
The opal tiara, the Addleton barrow-
Dollars? or francs? or marks?

The tale of the pinch of Victor

Lynch,
The furniture warehouse mob,
The case at the Hague, the murder
at Prague
The powderless Margate job.

The giant rat, the cardinal's hat,

The Patersons (first name Grice),
The cormorant's bill, the Hammer-
ford will —
We'd take 'em at any price.

The Phillimore fella who sought an

umbrella,
The steamer Friesland (Dutch);
For Col. Carruthers or Atkinson
brothers
One never could give too much.

reveal an unsuspected door; the fury of Lord The Vatican case and its cameo face,
Blottingham, who snatches a knobkerrie from the wall; The slithering, unknown worm,
the brief fight; the triumph of Watson; the little room The Abergavenny were none too
redolent of savoury suppers with its improvised many —
kitchen apparatus; the discovery of all that is left of Where is this Cox's firm?
the famous Blottingham rope; the copy of Mrs.
Oh, wonderful box in the vaults of
Beeton's book open at the words "Take two large
Cox!
onions"; the confession of the humiliated nobleman;
You come with a touch of salt!
the byves, the prison van; all these things will be
But I offer two blocks of choicest
guessed immediately by every student of the old
stocks
magician's ways.
For the treasure of Cox's vault.
And Watson's naive perplexity ....
"The footprints, Holmes, and the scratches on the New York, 1946
window-sill?"
"A mere blind, Watson. And a very obvious one.
Not in the least difficult for a man of athletic build
who has been a big-game hunter as well as a politician.
Besides suspected him immediately. Amongst the list
I

of clubs to which Lord Blottingham belongs note The I

Gastronomic Circle in Pall Mall and The Epicures in

St. James's Square. They were both, think, bombed a
I

year ago. And now, if you care to accompany me, I

believe there is an excellent concert at the Boeotian

Hall."
But they are both crying a little as they go away.
Leader August 23 1947 BY JOHN MONTGOMERY

Eille Norwood-there goes the master

hours in front of a mirror, testing make-up. Then he

shaved the hair from his temples and reported to the
studios at Cricklewood.
At first Director Maurice Elvey disagreed with Eille
Norwood's interpretation of the role. But Norwood
was insistent. "Let's film your way first, then mine,"
he suggested. So they took several shots of each scene,
and next day went to the studio theatre to see their
first day's work on the screen. Elvey readily agreed
that Norwood was right. "I'll never tell you to do
anything again," he said. "You're perfect."
Studying the first script at home, Norwood had
been horrified to read the words: "Enter Sherlock
Holmes, in a white beard." He protested strongly. "But
Holmes would never have done that," he said.
It was obvious that the film executives had little

idea what Holmes would have done, and when

Norwood outlined his plans for disguises, they were
dubious. Jeffrey Bernard, production chief of Stolls,
told him he would never be able to disguise his height
and appearance.
The Master in drag! Eille Norwood as Holmes disguised as an old lady Visitors were not allowed in the studios, so next day
in "The Greek Interpreter."
iterpreter
when Jeffrey Bernard noticed a little taxi driver
Over eighty years old, he sits in a beautiful sunlit standing on the studio set, he at once sent someone to
room, looking out over a green lawn, pleasantly fringed remove him. The taxi driver insisted, in the best
with fine trees and bright flowers. Cockney, that his taxi was outside, and that he was
His real name is Brett, but to tens of thousands who only watching. For several minutes technicians argued,
saw him on the stage and screen before, during, and with him, then he drew himself up to his full height,
after the first world war, he is best known as Eille and revealed himself as Eille Norwood.
Norwood — or Sherlock Holmes. After that they grew used to his masterly make-up,
Twenty-six years after he starred in the first of but never knew what disguise he would adopt next. In
nearly fifty Holmes films, he looks remarkably like the the scripts it still said "In a white beard," but
great detective in retirement. A finely cut profile and Norwood adopted the identical disguises worn by
magnetic eyes add to the deception. And in a cupboard Holmes in the stories. When he appeared as a bald
in his room hangs the same dressing-gown which he headed little Japanese opium addict, the studio
wore as Holmes on both stage and screen. doorman refused to allow him inside. He wouldn't
Although there have been many other Sherlocks — believe it was Eille Norwood.
Saintsbury, Gillette, Arthur Wontner, Clive Brook, Other disguises followed thick and fast, in true Holmes
Basil Rathbone — no one else has ever played the part tradition, and the actor began to delight in surprising
in both plays and films. He modelled his performance people — even his family — in unusual make-up. For A
on Sidney Paget's famous illustrations and Sir Arthur Scandal in Bohemia he donned a round bald head,
Conan Doyle was so delighted that he revealed to the bushy white eyebrows and glasses. In The Greek
actor a secret which he entrusted to no one else, it was Interpreter he became an old woman. For Black Peter
the simple story of how Holmes got his name. He was he was a skipper. In The Sign of Four he appeared as a
named, it appears, after two cricketers — Sherlock and one-eyed organ grinder. Nose wax, twisted lips, padded
Holmes. cheeks, and the artful use of grease paint and
When, in 1 921 the Stoll company decided to
, eye-shadow assisted him. He made-up quickly, altered
produce a film series of the famous adventures, his height, his breathing, his gestures, his walk, and his
Norwood was at once invited to play the leading role. whole personality. Audiences might guess, but they
Into the early hours of the morning he studied each could never be sure which was Holmes and which
story, memorising the habits and behaviour of Holmes. wasn't, until the great moment in each adventure when
By day he learned how to handle a violin, and sat for some unlikely character whipped off his disguise and

46
revealed the familiar beaked nose and clear-cut profile grown-ups present, he gave a good performance, to the
of the great detective. delight of his youthful audience.
The late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has revealed that Like Holmes, Eille Norwood has always been keenly
Holmes often proved an embarrassment to him. People observant and interested in unusual things. A bird
began to think that he had written no other books. So lover, he can imitate the call or song of almost every
it was with Eille Norwood. For although he had been a bird. And his ingenuity as a West End stage producer is
West End theatre star for some years, the pictures apparent today, when many of the effects used are still
brought him a fresh and greater public who knew him the original ones which he devised. And also like
only as Holmes — with the dressing-gown, the pipe, the Holmes, he has always loved the unusual problem —
violinand the untidy Baker Street rooms. the mysteries of life which take some solving.

Outside the giant Capitol Cinema on Broadway they To himgoes the crediffor having introduced the
pasted up an immense coloured poster of him, more difficult, or "twisted" type of crossword puzzle
clue. For twelve years he never failed to compose three
puzzles a week for the Daily Express, and only illness
prevents him from doing them now, for Holmes
himself had no more agile a brain. Holmes, one feels
sure, would have delighted in dashing off tricky
crosswords in the Norwood manner, and calling them
'elementary.'
Today Eille Norwood sits puffing his pipe, recalling
a life of remarkable achievement. He has not seen the
more modern Holmes films, for he no longer goes out.
But somehow one feels that he might not approve of
them, for the mysteries and adventures which the great
detective solved lie in a byegone age of hansom cabs,
flickering gaslight, wing collars, and dog carts, and the
new Holmes might seem strangely out of place in an
atom-conscious world.

Punch October 17 1923

AT THE PLAY
The Master in disguise again. In "His Last Bow" Norwood appeared as
Holmes playing an Irish-American spy. "The Return of Sherlock Holmes"
(Princes Theatre)
heralding the success of the films America. These
in
were the days before James Mason's pictures invaded
New York, when Eille Norwood's films were shown Mr. J.E. Harold Terry and Mr. Arthur Rose have made
not only in America, but in nearly every foreign a play out of material drawn fromArthur Conan
Sir
country. Doyle's later Sherlock Holmes' stories, and have done
In Britain, cinema owners rushed to book the their patchwork in a neat and lively manner, providing
Holmes series. And soon Eille Norwood himself a quite sound entertainment even for the sophisticated.
became Sherlock Holmes to millions of people. They Perhaps they have rather piled it on. Poor Holmes
wrote him hundreds of letters, some of them asking looking an older and sadder man, and regret to say I

him to solve their problems, others congratulating him having recourse to the morphine needle to keep his
on his performance. They told him how to outwit immense brain in first-rate working order, and still
Moriarty, what sort of disguises he should adopt, they handicapped by the egregious Watson, has no fewer
asked him to tea, and they sent him letters written in than fourteen criminals to deal with out of the cast of
invisible ink. twenty two.
From all over the world the letters poured in, Mr. Ellie Norwood's performance as Holmes seemed
addressed not only to Holmes and Norwood, but
Eille to me admirable, and the whole production, for which
to I. N. Norwood, I. Lee Norwood, Pillo Norwood, and he was responsible, ingenious and* competent. This
even on one occasion to Ellinor Wood. And when he kind depends more, think, upon production than
I

walked down the took a stroll in the

street, or upon any very great subtlety of acting.
direction of the Savage Club or the Garrick, people Mr. H.G. Stoker's Watson seemed well-done, .with
pointed him out and said: "Look — there goes the right degree of affectionate, admiring stupidity.
Sherlock Holmes!" Mr. Lauderdale Maitland's Colonel Moran was
One day he entered a crowded railway carriage and immense, while Mr. Stafford Hilliard (Profennis), Mr.
had hardly sat down before the whisper went round. Eric Stanley (Milverton) and Miss Molly Kerr (Lady
He fled, and dived quickly into the next compartment, Frances) all seemed to me adequate.
only to discover that it was full of small boys. From Colonel Moran's gang alone seemed rather tiresome
them there was no escape, for now he had to be and unconvincing.
Holmes himself, and no mere actor. But Norwood says Of its kind, "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" is
he enjoyed the journey, and as there were no certainly a good thing.

47
 £

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*&%$£ v*<' *^**

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Eille Norwood as The Master in "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" at

the Prince's Theatre in 1923. He is having a wax model made of himself
to fool Colonel Moran.
 wfy?A?/<#pym'/ j'
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The Strand Magazine December 1948 BY E.V. KNOX Editor, Punch

The passing of Sherlock Holmes

His obituary as it might have appeared in "The Times"

The death is announced at North Friston, near his contemporaries and made few friends; but those
Eastbourne, of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the eminent whom he did know never forgot him and lived to be
Criminologist and Investigator, President of the South thankful for the fact. Two of the most eminent were
Sussex Apiarist Society, and Corresponding Secretary the late Colonel Reginald Musgrave, M.F.H., of
to the National Beekeepers' Union. He was in his Hurlston, and Admiral Victor Trevor, K.C.B., both of
ninety-third year; and there is little doubt that but for whom he had assisted at critical junctures in their
his characteristic disregard of the occupational risks of youth, and it is safe to say that but for these early
this last hobby he would have lived to become a acquaintanceships neither the whereabouts of the lost
centenarian. crown of Charles nor the log-book of the Gloria Scott
I

"The creatures know my

methods," he would often would ever have been made known to the public. It
observe to visitors as he walked without veil or gloves was, indeed, Admiral Trevor's father who actually
between the orderly rows of his hives. Yet he suggested to Holmes in his early days the vocation
overestimated their obedience, and it was an irritant which he afterwards so brilliantly followed, using the
poison caused by one of these dangerous insects, following remarkable prophetic words: "I don't know
possibly an Italian Queen, that undermined his iron how you managed this, Mr. Holmes, but it seems to me
constitution in the end, and was the immediate that all the detectives of fact and of fancy would be
occasion of his demise. children in your hands. That's your line of life, sir; and
His white hair and only slightly stooping figure had you may take the word of a man who has seen
long been objects of veneration both to the passing something of the world."
motorist and to all residents of the countryside He spoke no more than the truth. Dying a few
between Birling Gap and Newhaven. months later, with little more time than to say that the
He was particularly interested in the formation and papers were in the back drawer of the Japanese
history of dew ponds, and might often have been seen cabinet, Mr. Trevor could not foresee that his son's
returning to his little farmhouse with a bundle of friend was destined to become almost a legendary
fossils taken from the chalk or a nosegay of downland figure, the hero and idol of two generations of
flowers. mankind, and the scourge of evil-doers throughout
His later years were but little disturbed by what was once called the civilised globe.
occurrences either terrible or bizarre, but we must
except from this statement the sudden appearance Wanderings abroad
(narrated by himself) of Cyanea Capillata, the giant No detective can have travelled more widely than the
jellyfish, which, at the foot of the Seven Sisters, stung late Mr. Holmes, nor on errands so mysterious, not to
to death Mr. Fitzroy Macpherson, and came very near say sinister, and verging on the grotesque. Summoned
to baffling the old Investigator's deductive powers. to Odessa to unravel the Trepoff murder, he was
Otherwise, his closing years were passed in quietitude. equally successful in solving the tragedy of the
Every evening he was accustomed to listen to the Third Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee. Rome knew him at
or the Home Programme of the B.B.C., especially the the enquiry into the sudden death of Count Tosca;
musical portions. For Light Programmes, and Lyons, when he had penetrated the collosal scandals of
especially for the feature entitled "Dick Barton," he Baron Maupertins in connection with the Netherland
was wont to express a profound contempt. Sumatra Company. In the interval between his
supposed death in Switzerland and his reappearance in
Birth, parentage, and education
London he made journeys through Persia, looked in at
Sherlock Spencer Tracy Holmes was born in 1 854, the Mecca, rendered assistance to the Khalifa of
second son of Sir Stateleight Holmes of Carshalton in Khartoum, visited Lhasa, and spent some time with the
Surrey. The family was descended from a long line of Grand Lama of Tibet. It is a pity that the details of
country squires, and Sir Stateleigh's mother was the these expeditions are for most part wrapped in a veil of
sister of Vernet the French artist. Sherlock himself was
impenetrable secrecy, which, unless the great tin box
educated at St. Peter's School and Pembridge College, bequeathed to the British Museum is opened by Mr.
Camford, where the rooms he occupied (now held by Attlee or some future Prime Minister, may never be
the Director of Theological Studies in that College) are lifted.
often pointed out with pride and gratification by the
present Master. Work at home
He took little part in the academic or sporting life of But in spite of these foreign pilgrimages, Holmes was

50
able to undertake in this country a series of Blackmail and forgery were rife. The robbery of the
investigations which made him for more than twenty most famous piece of jewellery in the world was an
years, and later at intervals, the terror of the almost hourly occurrence. Agents of mysterious secret
metropolitan underworld, the knighterrant of societies, thirsting for revenge, haunted the docks and
suburban London, and the constant corrector of the the purlieus of Soho. Wills and the plans of submarines
stupidities of Scotland Yard. were constantly disappearing, and no treaty with a
This department, especially during the middle foreign power was safe for more than a moment in its
appears to have had only two consistent
'nineties, desk.
policies, of which the was complacent error and
first
The new order
the second unutterable bewilderment. Holmes
revolutionised its procedure, and we may note as
To all these manifestations of the villainous and the

Illustrated by Wyndham Robinson

evidence of this that the old daguerreotypes of macabre, Holmes opposed a technique, entirely novel
Athelney Jones, Gregson, and Lestrade, which once and entirely his own. It may be sub-divided and
adorned its portrait galley, have long ago had their tabulated as follows:
faces turned to the wall. It is a pity that the projected 1 Chemical Analysis; 2. Analytical Deduction; 3.
.

work by Assistant Commissioner Stanley Hopkins, Tobacco; 4. Bouts of Contemplation; 5. Feverish

O.B.E., entitled "My Master's Voice" remained Energy; 6. The Minute Examination of Scratches; 7.
uncompleted at the time of the Nether Wallop Omniscience; 8. Cocaine.
Mystery, when that able officer met his end after a And to these should possibly be added the
dastardly assault from the blow-pipe of a Nicaraguan cross-indexing of important cases, the music of the
dwarf. violin, the employment of a hoard of street Arabs as
If ever a man was called for to meet the hour, agents, and the constant use of the Agony Columns of
Sherlock Holmes, in the heyday of his triumphs, was the Daily Press. The result was a purer air in the streets
that man. For England, during the last decade of the of London, a sense of relief in the suburbs from
19th century, was in danger of submersion beneath an Kensington to Whitechapel, from Hampstead to
almost unprecedented wave of crime. Criminals of Norwood, and the rescue of many an ill-used girl from
Herculean strength and stature, gifted with a well-nigh death or worse than death in the Home Counties and
superhuman cunning, had spread a network of the more distant provinces.
villainy throughout the land. Repeatedly also the Government of the day was

51
 "

saved from ruin. We need only mention in this watch, or a boot. There are many who say that Lord
connection the temporary loss of the Bruce Partington Watson was an inaccurate historian. There are cavillers
Submarine plans in 1 895, and the fear that they might (and Holmes himself was one of them) who have
have been sold to a Foreign Power. "You may take it suggested that he embellished fact with fiction, and
from me," said Mr. Holmes's brother in speaking of dipped his brush in melodrama instead of depicting the
them, "that naval warfare becomes impossible when in portrait of a living man. It is impossible to pursue all
the radius of a Bruce Partington's operation." Happily these charges in detail. Yet one or two comments are
for the future of this country, Mr. Holmes succeeded not out of place.
in recovering the plans.
Holmes on the trail
By the which he
close of the century, the agency
Curiously enough, his biographer's presentation does
established had become world-famous. Many were the
not always redound to the advantage of Holmes. Lord
nights when the feet of a flustered client would patter
along the flagstones of Baker Street, or the spirited
Watson was bemused by metaphors. His mind was
influenced beyond all reason by images of the chase.
horse of some hastily driven four-wheeler would be
reined to its haunches at his door.
Time after time, for instance, he seems to have been
obsessed with the idea that Mr. Holmes was a kind of
The sound of his violin would float out into the
dog.
foggy atmosphere, punctuated by the pistol shots with
which he pock-marked the pattern V.R. from his sofa "As watched him was irresistibly reminded ot a
I I

on the opposite wall of his sitting-room. pure-blooded well-trained foxhound as it dashes

A bundle of letters from the sister of his landlady backwards and forwards through the covert, whining
(recently discovered on a bomb site) is ample evidence
in its eagerness until it comes across the lost scent . .
."

of the admiration not unmingled with awe which he "His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal
inspired in the whole of her family. lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely

The influence of Lord Watson

But it is impossible to deal adequately with the great
detective's achievements unless we acknowledge the
peculiar debt that he owed during the greater part of
his active career to his old friendand colleague, the
late Lord Watson of Staines. Lord Watson, it will be
remembered, died suddenly last year, after a
particularly violent attack in the House of Lords upon
certain provisions of the National Health Bill. Eminent

alike as a physician and an orator, he is none the less

even more likely to incur the gratitude of posterity as
the constant companion and intermittent (though
mystified) biographer of Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
"How do you know that?"
"Ifollowed you." concentrated upon the matter before him that a
"I saw no one." question or remark fell unheeded upon his ears, or at
"That is what you may expect to see when I follow the most only provoked a quick impatient snarl in
you. reply . .
."

Yet indeed it was Lord Watson himself, wondering, "He was out on the lawn, in through the window,
shadowy, yet observant, who followed Holmes. round the room, and up into the bedroom, for all the
Without him, Holmes would have remained a world like a dashing foxhound drawing a cover ." . .

mysterious, almost a visionary character: known to the "Like an old hound who hears the View Holloa ." . .

police forces of the world, familiar to the Courts and Hard indeed it is to reconcile these phrases with the
the aristocracies of Europe, the condescending patron picture of the tall, dignified, sombrely-attired figure
of Prime Ministers, and of the humbler clients whom whom we know so well from his portraits
in the Strand
he chose to assist, yet occult from the observation of Magazine, dressed frock coat or ulster; the finely
in

the public at large. For publicity was a thing he chiselled features, the pale intellectual forehead
disdained, and only in the case of Lord Watson, surmounted by the silk or Derby hat. Even the
especially in the privacy of the rooms which they deerstalker of his more rustic peregrinations does not
shared, did he throw off the mantle of obscurity that warrant the perpetual comparison of Mr. Holmes to a
screened his personal habits from the eyes of men. denizen of the hunting kennel: and we can only feel
Never, we think, has so great a privilege been so the idolatry has here overstepped its bounds, and
enthusiastically enjoyed. Lord Watson was par trespassed on the realm of caricature.
excellence a hero-worshipper. He had nothing to learn On the other hand, Holmes (as stated in a previous
of Plato or Boswell in this respect. To be baffled was paragraph) was omniscient. Lord Watson must have
his glory, to be astounded his perennial delight. Sitting known this. Yet he denies it. He makes Holmes
with his medical dictionary just out of the line of attribute this particular gift (or "specialism" as he
pistol fire, he revelled in the deductive processes by called it) to Sir Mycroft, the detective's elder brother,

which the great detective inferred the whole of a but Sherlock (as a hundred instances will testify) had
visiting client's character from a button, a whisker, a it, too. Let a single example suffice.

52
Knowledge of literature A dramatic moment from "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" by
one of the later "Strand Magazine" illustrators, Howard K. Elcock
From what motive one cannot guess, whether from (January 1925).
envy or for the sake of whimsical exaggeration, Lord
Watson in one memoir states that Sherlock's
knowledge of Literature was nil. In another he makes
Holmes quote Goethe twice, discuss miracle plays,
comment on Richter, Hafiz, and Horace, and remark
of Athelney Nones: "He has occasional glimmerings of
reason. 'II n'y a pas des sots si incommodes que ceux
"
qui ont de Pespritl'
It has even been conjectured, though wrongly, from

this evidence of wide culture that Mr. Holmes was

attracted by the decadent aesthetic movement of the
'nineties. But a careful search through the pages of the
Yellow Book fails to reveal any poem or prose
contribution from his pen, and the whole tenor of his
life seems to remove him entirely from the world in

which Dowson, Symons, and Aubrey Beardsley and

the other ghosts of the old Cafe Royal lived and
moved. He is never mentioned by Sir William
Rothenstein or Six Max Beerbohm in any of their
reminiscences of the period. As a literary figure he
remains enigmatic and aloof. Yet from Lord Watson's
narrative, however melodramatic, however inaccurate,
there does emerge the definite picture of a man; and (if
we are prepared to make allowances for the occasional
eccentricities of the writer) a man who must be very
like the real Holmes. The Sunday Graphic October 10 1943

A Great Englishman
SHERLOCK HOLMES HIS CREATOR'S SECRET
To continue the actual narrative of his known career,
BY JOHN BROPHY
Sherlock Holmes was offered a knighthood in 1902
but refused it. He took up Government work in the Of all Conan Doyle thought most highly of
his writing,
period immediately preceding the first World War, and the historical romances like"The White Company". He
was instrumental in foiling the notorious Von Bork, also put an immense amount of effort and goodwill
one of the most devoted agents of the Kaiser. For this into redressing miscarriages of justice, such as the
he was again offered a knighthood which he again conviction of Oscar Slater, and the last years of his life

refused. were devoted to spiritualism.

He hadprofound knowledge of chemistry, and a
a But there is no doubt that his name survives, and
grip of iron,was an expert boxer and swordsman, and will survive, as the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
a voluminous writer. His most popular and widely-read Now, it is well-known that Conan Doyle developed
works are those on The Polyphonic Motets of Lassus, the Sherlock Holmes method from the inductive
his two short Monographs on Ears, originally published reasoning used by a surgeon, Dr. Joseph Bell, in his
inthe Antropological Journal, his brochures on The lectures at Edinburgh Infirmary. But Mr. Hesketh
Tracing of Footsteps, with some Remarks upon the Pearson and sensible biography ("Conan
in his lively
Uses of Plaster as a Preserver of Impresses, his Doyle " Methuen), us that there was another and
tells
Influence of a Trade on the Form of a Hand, his Essay much more unusual real-life original of Sherlock
on the Distinction of the Ashes of Various Tobaccos, Holmes.
and his Handbook of Bee Culture, with some This was George Budd, a medical student with
Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen. Doyle who afterwards worked with him in practice.
It is one of fate's ironies that a failure to observe Budd was a man of ideas, an inventor, half-inspired,
some of his own precepts, laid down in the last book, half-crazy. He played rugby, and apparently the only
may have brought about the close of a life ever reason he was not capped was "the savage fury of his
devoted to his country's good. His form and game."
lineaments, together with those of Lord Watson, have Budd lacked the philosophic calm of Sherlock
long been familiar in waxen effigy at Madam Tussaud's Holmes, whose first name, by the way, was originally
Exhibition, not far from his old lodgings. A sturdy drafted as "Shillingford" and "Sherington" and whose
moralist, not a devout Churchman, he was also an
if surname came from admiration for Oliver Wendell
ardent Democrat, a believer in the close union of the Holmes.
English-speaking races, a hater of the colour bar, and a Conan Doyle himself seems to have been imaginative
despiser of the trappings of pomp and power. He may only within strict limits. Wholly Irish in ancestry, born
well have been said, in the words of Kipling, to have and educated in Scotland, he was a typical nineteenth
walked with Kings nor lost the common touch. He was century 'Englishman', tall, strong, athletic and rather
unmarried. simple in character.

53
 The Friends of the Baker Street Irregulars
and Affiliated Scion Societies

This is to certify that JIkJ^x^^^J^J.^^^:^.

a subscriber to The Baker Street Journal in good and ac-
cepted standing, is one of The Friends of the Baker Street
Irregulars and Affiliated Scion Societies throughout the

land, and, as such, is entitled to "go everywhere, see every-

thing, overhear everyone" in the doings of these organiza-

tions devoted to the perpetuation and magnification of the

name and fame of Sherlock Holmes, subject only to the tests

and qualifications imposed, respectively, as to due erudition

and scholarship in the Law and the Canon.

Attested, for The Baker Street Journal, this 4J day of J'ytii. 19„^y

"irqswcp'sr
J^Jll Publisher Editor

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR ENTRY IN THE

ILLUSTRIOUS CLIENTS SHERLOCK HOLMES
SOCIETY of Indianapolis, Ind; USA
1 What do you consider is the middle name of Dr. 5 Who was Sherlock Holmes's brother? Junior or
John H. Watson? Why? elder? By how many years?

2 Write an original paper on Holmes. It may be any 6 What was the name of the 1st Holmes Tale, where
type but parody. was it published, in what and when?

3 In what part, anatomically and locally, was Dr. 7 Name as many of the Holmes-Watson emulators

Watson wounded? When? With What? from memory as possible?

4 Who is or was?: 8 Where were the unrecorded Tales kept? In what?

a. Irene Adler?
9 Name some of the unrecorded Tales? From
b. Godfrey Norton ?
c. Culverton Smith? memory.
d. Professor Moriarty (in detail)?
10 Are you prepared to spend a certain amount of
e. Colonel Moran (in detail)?

f. Mrs. Cecil Forrester? time and money in the name of Sherlock Holmes?
g. Sherlock Holmes ? April 5 1948
The Times February 6 1949 That is why his
substantial vitality. years that there were queues at the
most triumphant success in this sort railway bookstalls for each new
is the "Brigadier Gerard" series, number. With no motor cars, no
CONAN DOYLE: CRUSADER with the bravura which he found cinemas, no radio, when the tele-
BY DOROTHY L. SAYERS in his French original. phone was still a novelty and
It cannot be helped. For all the income tax was 6d in the £, the
world, and probably for all time, sixpenny Strand magazine was
the fame of Conan Doyle must selling 350,000 copies.
stand coupled with the name of Macdonald Hastings, its editor,
Sherlock Holmes. That Doyle said last night: "But the Strand
resented this, that he came to Daily Express December 14, 1949 could not keep up with the quicker
loathe Holmes, that he pushed him tempo of a new age."
over the Reichenbach Falls in the
vain hope of getting rid of him, is
A MAGAZINE DIES - AND A
FIFTY YEAR SECRET COMES
sad but true, and is only super-
ficially inconsistent with Mr.
OUT Time January 2, 1950
Dickson Carr's assertion that, in a
very real sense, "Sherlock Holmes DEATH OF A TRADITION
was Conan Doyle."
Even without Doyle's own Before the publishing house of
convincing detective work in the George Newnes Ltd., just off
Edalji and Slater cases, we should London's Strand, a hansom cab
know that any character so vital as stopped and out stepped an elegant
this must have been vitalised from
young man in top-hat and frock
coat. He was Arthur Conan Doyle,
within, not founded on external
observation only. But the creator is come to deliver the manuscript of a
short story entitled A Scandal in
the whole of his creation and more;
Bohemia. Published in the six-
he cannot be identified with any
one part of it. And if, while he is month-old Strand magazine, in July
1 891 the story's hero was a sleuth
,
intent on exploring and expressing
some new part of his creative
named Sherlock Holmes. He was an
instant hit and so was the Strand.
personality, he is badgered into

returning to that earlier thing which

For 36 years, Conan Doyle wrote
exclusively for the Strand, in a
he has for the time being happily
written out of his system, spon- literary company that has seldom

taneity is hampered, zest destroyed,

been equalled by any periodical.
and delight turned into weariness. Shrewd, mustached Herbert
One cannot but regret that Doyle's Greenough Smith, the Strand's
editor for four decades, gave his
enjoyment of his greatest creation
readers the best in Britain to
was thus poisoned for him, because
provide "wholesome and harmless
he was a man who liked to throw Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote on
himself with generous enthusiasm
entertainment to hard-working
the back of this picture of Sherlock
people."
into whatever he undertook. His Holmes: "This comes nearest to my
It was the Strand that first
story, from its struggling and conception of what Holmes really
impecunious beginnings to its published Rudyard Kipling's Puck
looks like."
wealthy and honoured close, is the The sketch, by artist Frank
ofPook's Hill, H. G. Wells's The
First Men in the Moon and W. W.
adventure of an eager, chivalrous Wiles, was found last night in the
and courageous nature, accepting files of the Strand Magazine, which Jacobs' "Night Watchman" stories;
it gave a head start to such other
life in all its manifestations with an is down next February.
to close
enormous gusto. It was this gusto When Sherlock Holmes first up-&-coming writers and illustrators
which roared out superabundantly appeared in the new sixpenny as P. G. Wodehouse, Agatha
Christie, A. E. W. Mason, George
in "Professor Challenger," and Strand Magazine in 1 891 , Conan
which caused such historical novels Doyle was paid £35 a story. Bernard Shaw, Max Beerbohm,
as "Micah Clarke" and "The White By the time the last of the Osbert Lancaster and Sidney Paget.
Company" to be taken, (greatly to Holmes adventures appeared in
his annoyance) as ebullient cloak- 1927, the Strand was paying more
and-sword romances, rather than as than £800 for the British rights
the sober period-evocations which only.
he intended them to be. With illustrations on nearly every
However conscientiously he page, and highly paid short stories
steeped himself in his source- (Kipling was paid £100 for one
material, he could never be dry-as- thousand words), the Strand was
dust; what 'got across' was not the the first of the modern magazines.
accidents of study but his own It was so popular in its early

55
 WW
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The Sunday Times February 26
1950

BUJITSU IN BAKER STREET

BY RICHARD HUGHES

Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts

around the world will doubtless
be excited to know that the first
Oriental branch of the Baker Street
Irregulars, The Baritsu Chapter, has
been formed in Tokyo under the
Occupation.
As the Nipponese chapter in-
cluded leading Japanese, it can be
said that a common devotion to the
memory of The Master of Baker
Street was the means, peace treaty
or no, of first restoring Japan cul-
turally to the comity of nations.
The late Count Makino, one of
Japan's distinguished Elder States-
men, who was her representative at
Versaillesand narrowly escaped
assassination by the militarists in
the 1 936 Tokyo army mutiny, was
one of the foundation members of
Carleton Hobbs, Radio's Sherlock Holmes, and Chief Inspector Robert
the Baritsu chapter. He had a pro- Fabian of Scotland Yard, unveiling a plaque presented by the Baritsu
Chapter of the Baker Street Irregulars of Tokyo. The event, at the
found knowledge of the Holmes- Criterion Long Bar in London, took place in January 1953 and was
Watson saga, and his scholarly arranged by Richard Hughes.

56

^1
grandson, Kenichi Yoshida, son of dead pig in Allardyce's butcher
the present Prime Minister, a Cam- shop. We know also that he was 'a
bridge graduate and another mem-
ber of the Baritsu chapter, testifies
bit of a single-stick expert,' while
some of his early adventures among Colliers
Household Number for November
to his late grandfather's angry the medieval moats, turrets and
rejection of modern Western detec- drawbridges of the English aristo-
TMt
tive mysteries and intense re- cracy would naturally have at-
ADVENTURE
reading of the original Holmes tracted him to a study in military «/ llw

stories. fortifications.
GOLDEN
PINCE-NEZ
On his death-bed last year, the "Only in Japan," concluded
ailing Count Makino wrote a Count Makino, "do we find one
learned paper for the opening meet- comprehensive science which in-
ing of the Baritsu chapter. He clari- cludes all these studies. Only in
fied the doubts of Holmesian Sherlock Holmes do we find a
students over the use of the curious Westerner who combines a notable
word "baritsu," from which the skill in all of them. For us Japanese
Tokyo chapter takes its name, by there is intense satisfaction in the
Holmes in the "Adventure of the foundation of this first Tokyo
Empty House." Students will re- chapter of the Baker Street
An outstanding magazine cover featuring
member that Holmes, explaining his Irregulars, under a name per-
Sherlock Holmes. The artist for this issue of
miraculous return from the dead to petuating that complex and subtle "Collier's" was Frederic Dorr Steele.

the shaken Watson, credited his Japanese art which saved the hero
escape from the long, murderous of the West and of the East for
arms of Professor Moriarty to his further unforgettable adventures."
"knowledge of baritsu, or the The Church Times May 1910
East and West
Japanese system of wrestling,"
which enabled him to hurl the Other members of the Baritsu
chapter include Edogawa Rampo (a
MISTAKEN FOR HOLMES !

arch-criminal into the Reichenbach

Falls.
pseudonym transliterated from In 1908 I travelled down the rivers
The word has been loosely ac- Edgar Allan Poe), Japan's leading Volga and Kama into Kazan. I had
cepted by students as an alternative mystery writer; George F. Blewett, a job as tutor to the two sons of the
Phildelphia defence attorney for Marshal of Nobility of that
Japanese term for "jujitsu." But, as
Count Makino pointed out, there is the late General Hideki Tojo; your province.

no such word as "baritsu" in the own representative: and Walter found all Russia crazy about
I

Japanese language. He suggested in Simmons, founder of the chapter, Sherlock Holmes. Even the peasants
his brilliant paper, that its ap-
member of the parent Baker Street (those who could read) had got
pearance in the Holmes saga was Irregulars and distinguished Far hold of copies, cheaply printed and,
justanother of Dr. Watson's Eastern correspondent for Colonel no doubt, pirated. But evidently
numerous errors as chronicler. McCormick's Chicago "Tribune," the Paget pictures had arrived, too,
which, despite its frenetic anti- and they knew what he looked like.
"What Holmes actually said,"
British policy, prints regularly the This was evident when my two
wrote Count Makino, "was: 'I have
most graceful and erudite re- youngsters, seeing that was tall, I

some knowledge of which

bujitsu,
ferences to Holmes and Watson in lean, clean-shaven and pipe-
includes the Japanese system of
Vincent Starrett's celebrated smoking, insisted that was the I

wrestling.' Bujitsu is the Japanese

"Books Alive" column. living image of S.H. and begged that
word for the martial arts, which in
Truly Holmes — now in his they might take me over to a
addition to jujitsu embrace the
ninety-sixth year and living in nearby village and show me off as
study of archery, fencing, spear-
contented and immortal retirement the genuine article!
manship, pike-thrusting, long and
among his Sussex beehives — has have always regretted that did
I I

short swordsmanship, military

succeeded in bringing the East and not undertake that hoax!
and the firing of
fortification
the West together, irrespective of
cannon, muskets and small arms.
race, colour and political ideology.
REVEREND GERALD HERRING,
Parys Hotel, Parys, South Africa
Holmes as Specialist The philosophic observer may well
"Sherlock Holme's proficiency in all speculate on the significance in

these highly specialised arts is well current international affairs of the

known We know
. his weakness for continued absence of any branch of
pock-marking the walls of his apart- the Baker Street Irregulars in
ment with patriotic initials; his Moscow and of the stubborn refusal
knowledge of airguns was at least of Joseph Stalin to read any of the
equal to that of Colonel Sebastian Sherlock Holmes adventures.
Moran; we have a glimpse of his
acquaintance with pike and spear in
the 'Adventure of Black Peter,' in
which he attempted to harpoon the

57
The Strand Magazine February 1947 BY RONALD A. KNOX after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Apocryphal Sherlock Holmes

The Adventure of the First Class
Carriage
The general encouragement extended to my efforts by moment or two, if I mistake not, we shall know what
the public is my
excuse were needed, for
excuse, if Mrs. Hennessy, of the Cottage, Guiseborough St.
continuing to act as chronicler of my friend Sherlock Martin, wants of Sherlock Holmes."
Holmes. But even if confine myself to those cases in
I There was nothing in the appearance of the old
which have had the honour of being personally
I dame who was shown up, a few minutes later, by the
associated with him, find it difficult to make a
I faithful Mrs. Hudson to justify Holmes's estimate. To
selection among the large amount of matter at my the outward view she was a typical representative of
disposal. her class; from the bugles on her bonnet to her
As I turn over my records, I find that some of them elastic-sided boots everything suggested the
deal with events of national or even international old-fashioned caretaker such as you may see polishing
importance; but the time has not yet come when it the front doorsteps of a hundred office buildings any
would be safe to disclose (for instance) the true facts spring morning in the city of London. Her voice, when
about the recent change of government in Paraguay. she spoke, was articulated with unnecessary care, as
Others (like the case of the Missing Omnibus) would that of the respectable working-class woman is apt to
do more to gratify the modern craving for sensation; be. But there was something precise and business-like
but am well aware that my friend himself is the first
I about the statement of her case which made you feel
to deplore it when indulge what is, in his own view, a
I that this was a mind which could easily have profited
weakness. by greater educational advantages.
My preference is for recording incidents whose "I have read of you, Mr. Holmes," she began, "and
bizarre features gave special opportunity for the when things began to go wrong up at the Hall it wasn't
exercise of that analytical talent which he possessed in long before thought to myself, If there's one man in
I

such a marked degree. Of these, the case of the England who will be able to see light here, it's Mr.
Tattooed Nurseryman and that of the Luminous Sherlock Holmes. My husband was in good
Cigar-Box naturally suggest themselves to the mind. employment, till lately, on the railway at Chester; but
But perhaps my friend's gifts were even more signally the time came when the rheumatism got hold of him,
displayed when he had' occasion to investigate the and after that nothing seemed to go well with us until
disappearance of Mr. Nathaniel Swithinbank, which he had thrown up his job, and we went to live in a
provoked so much speculation in the early days of country village not far from Banbury, looking out for
September, five years back. any odd work that might come our way. x: , .

Mr. Sherlock Holmes was, of all men, the least

influenced by what are called class distinctions. To him
the rank was but the guinea stamp; a client was a
client. And it did not surprise me, one evening when I

was sitting over the familiar fire in Baker Street — the

days were sunny but the evenings were already falling
chill — to be told that he was expecting a visit from a
domestic servant, a woman who "did" for a well-to-do,
childless couple in the southern Midlands. "My last
visit," he explained, "was from a countess. Her mind
was uninteresting, and she had no great regard for the
truth; the problem she brought was quite elementary. I

fancy Mrs. John Hennessy will have something more

important to communicate."
"You have met her already, then?"
"No, have not had the privilege. But anyone who is
I

inthe habit of receiving letters from strangers will tell

you the same — handwriting is often a better form of
introduction than hand-shaking. You will find Mrs.
Hennessy's letter on the mantelpiece; and if you care
to look at her j's and her w's, in particular, think you I

will agree that it is no ordinary woman we have to deal

with. Dear me, there is the bell ringing already; in a

58
 "We had only been living there a week when a Mr. "That is suggestive. You state your case with
Swithinbank and his wife took the old Hall, that had admirable clearness. Pray proceed."
long been standing empty. They were newcomers to "All this was no longer ago than last July. Since
the district, and their needs were not great, having then they have once been away in London, but for the
neither chick nor child to fend for; so they engaged me most part they have lived at Guiseborough, seeing very
and Mr. Hennessy to come and live in the lodge, close little of the folk round about. Parson called, but he is

by the house, and do all the work of it for them. The not a man to put his nose in where he is not wanted,
pay was good and the duties light, so we were glad and think they must have made it clear they would
I

enough to get the billet." sooner have his room than his company. So there was
"One moment!" said Holmes. "Did they advertise, more guessing than gossiping about them in the
or were you indebted to some private recommendation country-side. But, sir, you can't be in domestic
for the appointment?" employment without finding out a good deal about
"They came at short notice, Mr. Holmes, and were how the land lies; and it wasn't long before my
directed to us for temporary help. But they soon saw husband and were certain of two things. One was that
I

that our ways suited them, and they kept us on. They Mr. and Mrs. Swithinbank were deep in debt. And the
were people who kept very much to themselves, and other was that they got on badly together."
perhaps they did not want a set of maids who would "Debts have a way of reflecting themselves in a
have followers, and spread gossip in the village." man's correspondence," said Holmes, "and whoever
has the clearing of his waste-paper basket will
necessarily be conscious of them. But the relations
between man and wife? Surely they must have gone
very wrong indeed before there is quarrelling in
public."
"That's as may be, Mr. Holmes, but quarrel in public
they did. Why, it was only last week came in with the I

blanc-mange, and he was saying, The fact is, no one

would be better pleased than you to see me in my
coffin. To be sure, he held his tongue after that, and
looked a bit confused; and she tried to put a brave face
on it. But I've lived long enough, Mr. HoJmes, to know
when a woman's been crying. Then last Monday, when
I'd been in drawing the curtains, he burst out just

before I'd closed the door behind me, The world isn't
big enough for both of us. That was all I heard, and
right glad I'd have been to hear less. But I've not come
round here just to repeat servants'-hall gossip.
"To-day, when was cleaning out the waste-paper
I

basket, I cameacross a scrap of a letter that tells the

same story, in his own handwriting. Cast youreye over
that, Mr. Holmes, and tell me whether a Christian
woman has the right to sit by and do nothing about
it."

She had dived her hand into a capacious reticule and

brought out, with a triumphant flourish, her
documentary evidence. Holmes knitted his brow over
it, and then passed it on to me. It ran: "Being of sound

mind, whatever the numbskulls on the jury may say of

it."
"Can you identify the writing?" my friend said.
"It was my master's/'replied Mrs. Hennessy "I know
it well enough; the bank, am sure, will tell you the
I

same."
"Mrs. Hennessy, let us make no bones about it.
Curiosity is a well-marked instinct of the human

species. Your eye having lighted on this document, no

doubt inadvertently, will wager you took a look
I

round the basket for any other fragments it might

contain."
"That I did, sir; my
went through it
husband and I

This was the last Holmes story to be published

carefully together, for who knew
but the life of a
in the "Strand" before its demise. Father Knox fellow-creature might depend on it? But only one other
was perhaps the greatest of all Sherlockian piece could we find written by the same hand, and on
experts.
the same note-paper. Here it is." And she smoothed
Illustrated by Tom Purvis out on her knee a second fragment, to all appearances

59
part of the same sheet, yet strangely different in its precious. I will drive straight to your cottage, and you
tenor. seemed to have been torn away from the
It or your husband shall escort me on my visit to this
middle of a sentence; nothing survived but the words desirable country residence and its mysterious tenant."
"in the reeds by the lake, taking a bearing at the point With a wave of his hand, he cut short her protestations
where the old tower hides both the middle first-floor of gratitude.
windows." "Well, Watson, what did you make of her?" asked
"Come," said, "this at least gives us something to
I my companion when the door had closed on our
go upon. Mrs. Hennessy will surely be able to tell us visitor.
whether there are any landmarks in Guiseborough "She seemed typical of that noble army of women
answering to this description." whose hard scrubbing makes life easy for the leisured
"Indeed there are, sir; the directions are plain as a classes. I could not see her well because she sat
pikestaff. There is an old ruined building which juts between us and the window, and her veil was lowered
out upon the little lake at the bottom of the garden, over her eyes. But her manner was enough to convince
and it would be easy enough to hit on the place me that she was telling us the truth, and that she is
mentioned. daresay you gentlemen are wondering
I sincere in her anxiety to avert what may be an
why we haven't been down to the lake-side ourselves appalling tragedy. As to its nature, I confess I am in

to see what we could find there. Well, the plain fact is, the dark. Like yourself, was particularly struck by
I

we were scared. My master is a quiet-spoken man the reference to the reeds by the lake-side. What can it

enough at ordinary times, but there's a wild look in his mean? An assignation?"
eye when he's roused, and for one should be sorry to
I "Hardly, my dear Watson. At this time of the year a
cross him. So thought I'd come to you, Mr. Holmes,
I man runs enough risk of cold without standing about
and put the whole thing in your hands." in a reed-bed. A hiding-place, more probably, but for
"I shall be interested to look into your little what? And why should a man take the trouble to hide
difficulty. To speak frankly, Mrs. Hennessy, the story something, and then obligingly litter his waste-paper
you have told me runs on such familiar lines that I basket with clues to its whereabouts? No, these are deep
should have been tempted to dismiss the whole case waters, Watson, and we must have more data before we
from my mind. Dr. Watson here will tell you that am I begin to theorise. You will come with me?"
a busy man, and the affairs of the Bank of Mauritius "Certainly, if may. Shall bring my revolver?"
I I

urgently require my presence in London. But this last "I do not apprehend any danger, but perhaps it is as
detail about the reeds by the lake-side is piquant, well to be on the safe side. Mr. Swithinbank seems to
decidely piquant, and the whole matter shall be gone strike his neighbours as a formidable person. And now,
into. The only difficulty is a practical one. How are we if you will be good enough to hand me the more

to explain my presence at Guiseborough without peaceful instrument which hangs beside you, will try I

betraying to your employers the fact that you and out that air of Scarlatti's, and leave the affairs of
your husband have been intruding on their family Guiseborough St. Martin to look after themselves."
affairs?" I often had occasion to deprecate Sherlock Holmes's
"I have thought of that, sir," replied the old dame, habit of catching trains with just half a minute to
"and think we can find a way out. slipped away
I I spare. But on the morning after our interview with
to-day easily enough because my mistress is going Mrs. Hennessy we arrived at Paddington station no
abroad to visit her aunt, near Dieppe, and Mr. later than ten o'clock — to find a stranger, with a
Swithinbank has come up to Town with her to see her pronounced scar on the left side of his chin, gazing out
off. must go back by the evening train, and had half
I at us languidly from the window of a first-class
thought of asking you to accompany me. But no, he carriage.
would get to hear of it if a stranger visited the place in "Do you mean to travel with him?" I asked, when we
his absence. It would be better if you came down by were out of earshot.
the quarter-past ten train to-morrow, and passed "Scarcely feasible, think. If he is the man take
I I

yourself off for a stranger who was coming to look at him for, he has secured solitude all the way to Banbury
the house. They have taken it on a short lease, and by the simple process of slipping half a crown into the
plenty of folks come to see it without troubling to guard's hand." a few minutes later
And, sure enough,
obtain an order-to-view." we saw that functionary shepherd a fussy-looking
Will your employer be back so early?" gentleman, who had been vigorously assaulting the
"That is the very train he means to take; and to locked door, to a compartment farther on. For
speak truth, sir, should be the better for knowing
I ourselves, we took up our post in the carriage next but
that he was being watched. This wicked talk of making one behind Mr. Swithinbank. This, like the other
away with himself is enough to make anyone anxious first-class compartments, was duly locked when we had
about him. You cannot mistake him, Mr. Holmes," she entered it; behind us the less fortunate passengers
went on; "what chiefly marks him out is a scar on the accommodated themselves in seconds.
left-hand side of his chin, where a dog bit him when he The case is not without its interest," observed
was a youngster." Holmes, laying down his paper as we steamed through
"Excellent, Mrs. Hennessy; you have thought of Burnham Beeches. "It presents features which recall
everything. To-morrow, then, on the quarter-past ten the affairs of James Phillimore, whose disappearance
for Banbury without fail. You will oblige me by (though your loyalty may tempt you to forget it) we
ordering the station fly to be in readiness. Country investigated without success. But this Swithinbank
walks may be good for health, but time is more mystery, if mistake not, cuts even deeper. Why, for
I

60
 1

^mm-i. "^ 0%p

/.

:*
>«*-'
example, is the man so anxious to parade his intention master's disappearance. Mr. Hennessy, it seemed, had
of suicide, or fictitious suicide, in the presence of his gone off to a neighbouring farm upon some errand,
domestic staff? It can hardly fail to strike you that he and it was the old dame herself who escorted us up to
chose the moment when the good Mrs. Hennessy was the Hall.
just entering the room, or just leaving it, to make those "There's a gentleman there already, Mr. Holmes,"
remarkable confidences to his wife. Not content with she informed us. "Arrived early this morning and
that, he must leave evidence of his intentions lying would take no denial; and not a word to say what
about in the waste-paper basket. And yet this involved business he came on."
the risk of having his plans foiled by good-natured "That is unfortunate," said Holmes. "I particularly
interference. Time enough for his disappearance to wanted a free field to make some investigations. Let u:
become public when it became effective! And why, in hope that he will be good enough to clear off when he
thename of fortune, does he hide something only to is told that there is no chance of an interview with Mr.

tell us where he has hidden it?" Swithinbank."

Amid a maze of railway-tracks, we came to a Guiseborough Hall stands in its own grounds a little
Reading. Holmes craned his neck out of
standstill at way outside the village, the residence of a squire
the window, but reported that all the doors had been unmistakably, but with no airs of baronial grandeur.
left locked. We were not destined to learn anything The old, rough walls have been refaced with pointed
about our elusive travelling-companion until, just as we stone, the mullioned windows exchanged for a
were passing the pretty hamlet of Tilehurst, a little generous expanse of plate-glass, to suit a more recent
shower of paper fragments fluttered past the window taste, and a portico has been thrown out from the
on the right-hand side of the compartment, and two of front door to welcome the traveller with its shelter.
them actually sailed in through the space we had The garden descends at a precipitous slope from the
dedicated to ventilation on that bright morning of main terrace, and a little lake fringes it at the bottom,
autumn. It may easily be guessed with what avidity we dominated by a ruined eminence that serves the
had pounced on them. modern owner for a gazebo.
The messages were in the same handwriting with Within the house, furniture was of the scantiest, the
which Mrs. Hennessy's find had made us familiar; they Swithinbanks having evidently rented it with what
ran, respectively, "Mean to make an end of it all" and fittings it had, and introduced little of their own. As
"This is the only way out." Holmes sat over them with Mrs. Hennessy ushered us into the drawing-room, we
knitted brows, till fairly danced with impatience.
I were not a little surprised to be greeted by the wiry
"Should we not pull the communication-cord?" figure and melancholy features of our old rival,
I asked. Inspector Lestrade.
"Hardly," answered my companion, "unless "I knew you were quick off the mark, Mr. Holmes,"
five-pound notes are more plentiful with you than they he said, "but it beats me how you ever heard of Mr.
used to be. will even anticipate your next suggestion,
I Swithinbank's little goings-on; let alone that didn't
i

which is that we should look out of the windows on think you took much stock in cases of common fraud
either side of the carriage. Either we have a lunatic two like this."
doors which case there is no use in trying to
off, in "Common fraud?" repeated my companion. "Why,
foresee his next move, or he intends suicide, in which what has he been up to?"
case he will not be deterred by the presence of "Drawing cheques, and big ones, Mr. Holmes, when
spectators, or he is a man with a scheming brain who is he knew that his bank wouldn't honour them; only
sending us these messages in order to make us behave little things of that sort. But if you're on his track I

in a particular way. Quite possibly, he wants to make don't suppose he's far off, and I'll be grateful for any
us lean out of the windows, which seems to me an help you can give me to lay my hands on him."
excellent reason for not leaning out of the windows. "My dear Lestrade, if you follow out your usual
At Oxford we shall be able to read the guard a lesson systematic methods, you will have to patrol the Great
on the danger of locking passengers in." Western Line all the way from Reading to Oxford. I

So indeed it proved; for when the train stopped at trust you have brought a drag-net with you, for the
Oxford there was no passenger to be found in Mr. line crossed the river no less than four times in the
Swithinbank's carriage. His overcoat remained, and his course of the journey." And he regaled the astonished
wide-brimmed hat; his portmanteau was duly identified inspector with a brief summary of our investigations.
in the guard's van. The door on the right-hand side of Our information worked like a charm on the little
the compartment, away from the platform, had not detective. He was off in a moment to find the nearest
swung open; nor did Holmes's lens bring to light any telegraph office and put himself in touch with
details about the way in which the elusive passenger Scotland Yard, with the Great Western Railway
had made his exit. authorities, with the Thames Conservancy. He
It was an impatient horse and an injured cabman promised, however, a speedy return, and fancy
I

that awaited us at Banbury, when we drove through Holmes cursed himself for not having dismissed the
golden woodlands to the little village of Guiseborough jarvey who had brought us from the station, an
St. Martin, nestling under the shadow of Edge Hill. undeserved windfall for our rival.
Mrs. Hennessy met us at the door of her cottage, "Now Watson!" he cried as the sound of the wheels
dropping an old-fashioned curtsy; and it may easily be faded away into the distance.
imagined what wringing of hands, what wiping of eyes "Our way lies to the lake-side, presume."
I

with her apron, greeted the announcement of her "How often am to remind you that the place
I

62
 where the criminal tells you to look is the place not to It was a copy of an Australian paper, issued some

look? No, the clue to the mystery lies, somehow, in the weeks previously. The paragraph to which Holmes had
house, and we must hurry up if we are to find it." drawn my attention ran thus:
Quick as a thought, he began turning out shelves,
cupboards, escritoires, while I, at his direction, went Romance of rich man's will
through the various rooms of the house to ascertain The recent lamented death of Mr. John Macready,
whether all was in order, and whether anything the well-known sheep-farming magnate, has had an
suggested the anticipation of a hasty flight. By the unexpected sequel in the circumstance that the dead
time returned to him, having found nothing amiss, he
I
man, apparently, left no will. His son, Mr. Alexander
was seated in the most comfortable of the Macready, left for England some years back, owing to
drawing-room armchairs, reading a book he had picked a misunderstanding with his father — it was said —
out of the shelves — it dealt, if remember right, with
I
because he announced his intention of marrying a lady
the aborigines of Borneo. from the stage. The young man has completely
"The mystery, Holmes!" cried. I
disappeared, and energetic steps are being taken by the
"I have solved it. If you will look on the bureau lawyers to trace his whereabouts. It is estimated that
yonder, you will find the household books which Mrs. the fortunate heirs, whoever they be, will be the richer
Swithinbank has obligingly left behind. Extraordinary by not far short of a hundred thousand pounds
how these people always make some elementary sterling.
mistake. You are a man of the world, Watson; take a
look at them and tell me what strikes you as curious."
It was not long before the salient feature occurred

to me. "Why, Holmes," exclaimed, "there is no

I

record of the Hennessys being paid any wages at all!"

"Bravo, Watson! And if you will go into the figures
a little more closely, you will find that the Hennessys
apparently lived on air. So now the whole facts of the
story are plain to you."
"I confess," I replied, somewhat crestfallen, "that
the whole case is as dark to me as ever."
"Why, then, take a look at that newspaper I have
left on the occasional table; I have marked the ./;.^;/.vv>>/

important paragraph in blue pencil."

HP
 Horse-hoofs echoed under the archway, and in John O'London's March 26 1954
another minute Lestrade was again of our party.
Seldom have seen the little detective looking so
I

THE FINAL PROBLEM

baffled and ill at ease. "They'll have the laugh of me at
the Yard over this," he said. "We had word that Some years ago I read the life of that once best-selling
Swithinbank was in London, but made sure it was
I author, Silas K. Hocking (1850-1935), in which he
only a feint, and came racing up here by the early
I described a holiday sight-seeing in Switzerland shared
train, instead of catching the quarter-past ten and my by his friend Dr. Conan Doyle, when the latter
man in it. He's a slippery devil, and he may be half-way confessed he would finally like to dispose of Sherlock
to the Continent by this time." Holmes; to which Silas Hocking replied that there and
"Don't be down-hearted about it, Lestrade. Come then he had a most excellent and dramatic opportunity
and interview Mr. and Mrs. Hennessy, at the lodge; we of doing so, by dropping him down the abyss into
may get news of your man down there." the raging torrent at the bottom of the Reichenbach
A coarse-looking fellow in a bushy red beard sat Falls.

sharing his tea with our friend of the evening before.

This is the only mention have come across as to
I how
His greasy waistcoat and corduroy trousers proclaimed
the plot for Holmes' supposed death originated.
him a manual worker. He rose to meet us with
something of a defiant air; his wife was all affability. Louisa L. Richardson,
"Have you heard any news of the poor gentleman?" Kitale, Kenya.

she asked.
"We may have some before long," answered Holmes.
"Lestrade, you might arrest John Hennessy for stealing
that porter's cap you see on the dresser, the property
of the Great Western Railway Company. Or, if you
The Motor August 27 1952
prefer an alternative charge, you might arrest him as
Alexander Macready,o//os Nathaniel Swithinbank." Deer-stalker, Deasy and All
And while we stood there literally thunder-struck, he
Sherlock Holmes used to "hail a hansom" when he was
tore off the red beard from a chin marked with a scar
in a hurry, often taking Watson with him; he did not
on the left-hand side.
"keep a carriage". often wonder whether, had he lived
I

somewhat later, Holmes would have driven a car him-

"The case was difficult," he said to me afterwards,
self; somehow do not think he would.
I

"only because we had no clue to the motive.

Dr. Watson, of course, would quickly have succumbed
Swithinbank's debts would almost have swallowed up
to the "new locomotion" and bought himself a De Dion
Macready's legacy; it was necessary for the couple to
on the recommendation of a colleague, a used one, in
disappear, and take up the claim under a fresh alias.
somewhat questionable condition, which Holmes would
This meant a duplication of personalities, but it was
be apt to scorn.
not really difficult. She had been an actress; he had
"Thank you," I picture him saying. "But time presses.
really been a railway porter in his hard-up days. When
'The Case of the Missing Cylinder' is one which we may
he got out at Reading, and passed along the six-foot
well leave to our good friend Inspector Lestrade."
way to take his place in a third-class carriage, nobody
Holmes himself would have hired, when motoring
marked the circumstance, because on the way from
became a necessity, from the father of one of his Baker
London he had changed into a porter's clothes; he had
Street Irregulars who had set up a garage in Marylebone;
the cap, no doubt, in his pocket. On the sill of the
a Siddeley-Deasy, perhaps. It would go so well with his
door he open, he had made a little pile of
left
hat.
suicide-messages, hoping that when it swung open
"King-Pin"
these would be shaken out and flutter into the carriages
Footnote: Sherlock Holmes only once travelled by car
behind."
during all his adventures, when he emerged from retire-
"But why the visit to London? And, above all, why
" ment during World War to serve in "His Last Bow"
I

the visit to Baker Street 7

(1917), and then Dr. Watson was the driver!
"That is the most amusing part of the story; we
should have seen through it at once. He wanted
Nathaniel Swithinbank to disappear finally, beyond all
hope of tracing him. And who would hope to trace jsr***
him, when Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was travelling
only two carriages behind, had given up the attempt?
Their only fear was that should find the case
I

uninteresting; hence the random reference to a

hiding-place among the reeds, which so intrigued you.
Come to think of it, they nearly had Inspector
Lestrade in the same train as well. hear he has won
I

golden opinions with his superiors by cornering his

man so neatly. Sic vos non vobis, as Virgil said of the
bees; only they tell us nowadays the lines are not by
Virgil."

64
 'Museum Robbery . . . Home Guard Revival . . . Elementary, My Dear Watson!'

The Great Detective in caricature: Moon cartoon from "The Sunday

Dispatch" of November 1950; Hewison providing transport for Holmes
and Watson in "Punch" in 1953.
The Times October 27 1950 The Times October 28 1950 The Times November 2 1950

Case against Sherlock Holmes The curious case of Sherlock Holmes and his "gifted guesswork"
Holmes
Councillors of St. Marylebone have Sir.— Long years of retirement have
opposed a suggestion by the Sir.— doubtful whether Mr.
It is failed to break the professional
borough library committee for a Sherlock Holmes will have seen the habit of careful examination of the
Sherlock Holmes exhibition in the paragraph in THE TIMES to-day Personal columns of The Times
public library as a contribution to recording the singular decision of newspaper and a necessarily hastier
the Festival of Britain. Councillor the councillors of St. Marylebone perusal of other contents. Thus
its I

Tom Vernon (Lab.) said: "It would to oppose the proposal for an have learned with no little surprise
be more constructive to show the exhibition of materiae of my old of the proposal to stage an
world the great progress this friend and mentor for the benefit exnibition perpetuating the perfor-
borough has made in clearing away of visitors to the Festival of Britain. mances of my old acquaintance,
the noxious slums of 1 00 years Engrossed as he is in bee-keeping in Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Surely in this
ago." Alderman F. W. Dean (Con.) Sussex, he is unlikely to rally to his correspondence to-day's letter from
leader of the council said for once own defence, and you will perhaps Mrs. Hudson, his worthy landlady,
he agreed with the other side: St. allow me, as a humble chronicler of places the abilities of Mr. Holmes in

Marylebone had "many things to some of his cases and as a former their right perspective. A place of
show off about without Sherlock resident in the borough, to express amusement, such as Madame
Holmes." indignation at this decision. Tussaud's, is surely the proper
There is much housing in the setting for a record of Holmes's
Metropolis but there is but one Mr. amateur achievements. It would be
Sherlock Holmes, and venture to I
ungenerous of me to deny that on
from across the
assert that visitors occasion the gifted guesswork of
Atlantic (who cannot as yet have Mr. Holmes has jumped a stage in
forgotten my old friend's remark- the final solution of a crime. It may
able work in clearing up the dark not be inappropriate to remind
mystery of the Valley of Fear in your readers, however, of the fable
the grotesque affair of the Study in of the tortoise and the hare, and
Scarlet) would find such an exhibi- the true student of criminology will
tion of [Link] the council- continue to regard'as the only true
lorsof St. Marylebone, in their source the so-called "Black
anxiety to display their work on Museum" of that institution on the
the clearing of slums, should deny Victoria Embankment which for so
honour to my old friend I find it many years had the honour to
I

hard to understand. Perhaps this is serve.

time's revenge for the exposure of
G. LESTRADE, ex-Inspector,
Mr. Sherlock Holmes for the evil
Metropolitan Police,
machinations of the Norwood
Laburnum Road, Tooting, S.W.,
Builder. Whatever the reason, I

trust that second and better

thoughts may prevail, and in the
meantime subscribe myself,
Your humble but indignant servant,
JOHN H. WATSON, M.D. late of
the Indian Army.
October 27

Holmes congratulating his sometime associate,

Inspector Lestrade, in "The Adventure of the
Norwood Builder" (1903).

66
 The Times November 2 1950

The curious case of Sherlock

Holmes
Sir.— To-day I visited Mr. Sherlock
Holmes and conveyed to him the
welcome news that St. Marylebone
will hold an exhibition in his

honour during the Festival of

Britain. I could see he was deeply
moved by this tribute, as also by
the correspondence in which your
readers have so warmly supported
my plea. Several of those letters
raise the subject of commemorative
material to be placed on exhibition.
Alas, but little remains, for a
mysterious and disastrous fire at
my old friend's Sussex home some
years ago (the details of which are
not yet ready to be given to the
"But how did you know young Bromley world) destroyed the greater part of
the relics of his cases. St.
murdered the haberdasher, Holmes?" Marylebone, fear, will have to
I

manage without his help.

Holme** Very simple, my dear Watson. Young Bromley is known May trespass a little further on
I

as a fanatic fashion plate. And yet there he stood, pro-

testing his innocence, in a shirt that fitted him badly all
your indulgence to reply to two of
around. your correspondents? Mycroft
Wataont Of course, Holmes. Young Bromley always wears ARROW Holmes is, of course, technically
shirts. Perfect style at the collar. Exact sleeve length. correct in stating that I was not in
"Sanforized". Tapered arrowfit. the Indian Army, though I did in

Holme* > Quite so. Obviously our haberdasher had talked Bromley fact so describe myselfon the
into trying a different shirt. It fitted atrociously. And in battered tin dispatch-box which
a rage, Bromley struck him down.
until recently lay in the vaults of
Bromley i He told me it was an ARROW. Hetoldme..., Cox's Bank in Pall Mall. But it was

Hohneat Poor devil. I can't help but believe there was strong the custom in 1 878, when I was
provocation, Watson.
wounded at Maiwand, for those in

whatever regiment in India they

served, to describe themselves as
"of the Indian Army," a point of

ARROW which Mycroft in his omniscience

will be well aware. As for Mrs.

The shirt for Britain-6^^^£^k^e«#*c, Whitney, am surprised that, in

I

spite of her close friendship, she is

"SANFOUZEB" FABRICS. AraiUfcfe U wythtui any-dry fahfcw. apparently unaware that my dear
frice* range trot 33/i.
first wife used "James" as a pet

Cluett, Peabody * Co., Ltd., 24 New Bond Street, London W.t name for him who remains,
Bolmti mud Walton oopoar by agr—mtnt with Tnatet of Ik* EsiaU of Sir Arthur Cotton Doyh
Yours faithfully,

1959
JOHN [Link], M.D.

67
The Times November 2 1950 It is too early to indicate the scope
of the exhibition, but there are
enough. Hundreds of
possibilities
A HOLMES EXHIBITION FOR articlesand dozens of books have
FESTIVAL been published on Sherlock Holmes
Doubts removed in St. Marylebone
and Dr. Watson. There is a scholarly
A sense of relief will be spread in bibliography of books about them.
surprisingly wide circles by the A selection from these will doubt-
news that last night's meeting of less be included in the exhibition. It

the library committee of St. may well contain records of the

Marylebone confirmed its proposal lives of Conan Doyle and Dr.
to hold a Sherlock Holmes exhi- Joseph Bell, under whom Doyle Sherlock Holmes's Deerstalker
bition during the Festival of Britain studied medicine and who is said to
As the daughter of Sidney Paget,
next year. have shared many of the traits of
the illustrator of 'Sherlock Holmes'
Nor is there any reason to fear Sherlock Holmes. It is hoped to
in the Strand Magazine, was very I

that the project will encounter have on view original manuscripts

interested to read your article
further criticism in the borough of some of the stories, and perhaps
entitled 'The Return of Sherlock
council. There seems, indeed, to to borrow (if it still exists) a leaf of
Holmes' and think perhaps some of
have been a little misunderstanding a notebook on which was set out
your readers might be interested to
about the significance of some the original idea of A Study in
know what became of the famous
observations that Mr. T. Vernon Scarlet, with the detective mis-
deerstalker hat.
feltmoved to offer in the council named, regrettably, Sherinford
My father lived in the country
meeting last Thursday. His Holmes.
and like most artists, followed
explanation of his attitude in The Records and minutes of the
many do not think
pursuits, but I

Times yesterday is in harmony with various Sherlock Holmes societies

that deer-stalking was one of them!
the statement made after last might be assembled.
imagine that he chose this type of
America, incidentally, more than
I

night's meeting of the library

hat for himself as being suitable and
committee by Miss L. F. Nettlefold, makes up for the relative scarcity of
comfortable for tramping round the
its chairman. She pointed out that British societies. The Marylebone
countryside, which fact possibly
the proposal was accepted by the library files the journal of the Baker
Street Irregulars of America. This
inspired him to depict Holmes
borough council on Thursday and
wearing a deerstalker on similar
would now go forward. records the names of "scion
occasions. It seems to me to be a
The exhibition will be held in the societies" and their progress. Most
fittingheadgear for the great
St. Marylebone public library. If of them set exceedingly stiff exami-
detective out on the man-hunt!
anyone doubts whether material nation papers for would-be
members, and some specimens
Little did my father know that this
exists for such a commemoration in
hat would still be talked about half
the unaccountable absence of would be an interesting addition to
a century after it first appeared in
authentic relics of the great detec- the exhibition. Some of their names
the pages of the Strand.
tive, the answer is that there is a deserve to be mentioned. — "The
Many years after my father's
great deal. Much literary material is Seventeen Steps of Los Angeles,"
death, at the early age of 47, the
already in the library itself, and a "The Speckled Band of Boston,"
deerstalker was savagely attacked
rich store of informed enthusiasm "The Scandalous Bohemians of
by moths who apparently are no
waits to be drawn upon among the Akron," "The Amateur Mendicant
respecters of ancient relics and
library staff, it is, of course, one of Society of Detroit," "The Dancing
reluctantly my mother consigned it
the chief glories of Marylebone that Men of Providence," "The
to the dustbin, so I fear there is an
Holmes had lodgings for many Canadian Baskervilles," and "The
empty peg beside that on which
years at 221 B, Baker Street. It may Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis."
one hopes Watson's bowler still
be less commonly known that One must not forget the society
hangs on 221 B Baker Street, unless,
Conan Doyle, his chronicler, lived known as "The Solitary Cyclist of
this too has suffered the same fate!
at 2, Devonshire Street. Washington, D.C.," consisting of
one (woman) member. WINIFRED PAGET,
Oxhey Road, Watford.

70
 " 1

The Birmingham Post August 15 1951 MIDLAND DIARY

Not so elementary, my dear Watson

/fill!
'y~Y\
w* ,:.:'.. ii : •m i l; =BC
l

->r f*tt% NAME APD&ESS REMARKS

I.1....J 1 1 r =a 7

&

apPfqri

A mystery worthy of the attention of Sherlock Holmes Holmes and Watson studying a clue in "The Problem of Thor Bridge" by
another of the later "Strand Magazine" illustrators, A. Gilbert (1922).
himself has developed in Shrewsbury — around the
affairs of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Rev. Sidney Austerberry, rector of St.
Alkmund's Church, has found a visitors' book for
1915. Beneath an entry by "Nellie Gwinnell" - itself a
name to conjure with — who describes herself as
"leading lady of the Company" and who
Dandy Fifth
was "much touched by the beautiful window,"
appears, against the date J
uly 1 3, the signature "Conan
Doyle (novelist)" and the note: "Have thought out a
Sherlock Holmes story here."
Seeking confirmation that the signature is genuine, Mr.
J. L. Hobbs, Shrewsbury librarian, turned up

newspaper files in an attempt to discover whether the

novelist was in Shrewsbury at this time.
He was unable to do so — but Miss A. E. Corbett, of
Coton Crescent, Shrewsbury, was able to confirm that
on March 1 3 the same year she was taken to a literary
society meeting in the town to hear the novelist speak.
Afterwards, she asked for — and was given — his
autograph, which she still preserves.
After comparing the autograph with the signature
in the visitors' book, Mr. Hobbs is satisfied tnat they
were not written by the same person.
The two specimens are "quite different," and the
signature Sir Arthur gave Corbett reads: "Arthur
Conan Doyle.

72
The Times October 31 1950 visitors would naturally be pleased to dismiss their effectiveness in
to see Abe Slaney too. certain circumstances. On the con-
Naturally, gruesome relics will be trary, he held very strong beliefs on
OH, NO JOHN (WATSON), NO! required. Dr. Watson has several the subject, and when I had com-
When I calledon Dr. Watson for his which Mr. Holmes gave him pleted the wax bust to his entire
help in the search for my husband (Including Mr. Culverton Smith's satisfaction he asked me to ensure
(you will remember the un- black and white ivory box), and I that at no time should a wax
paralleled horror of the expect Mr. Holmes still has that portrait of himself be placed on
denouement in the Case of the Man large tin box full of papers and display.
with the Twisted Lip) distinctly I souvenirs. Perhaps the present Duke Although Holmes has now
heard his wife address him as of Holdernesse could be prevailed retiredand is devoting his life to
James. It is, therefore, with no little upon to lend his set of cow-like the study of bees, I am quite cer-
perturbation and distress that read I horses' shoes, and will lend theI
tain that he would oppose any
still

in today's issue of The Times a wax bust of Mr. Holmes which suggestion that he, Dr. Watson, or
letter purporting to have been Monsieur Oscar Meunier made and indeed any of the men he brought
written by the good doctor and Colonel Moran spoilt with an airgun to justice should be perpetrated by
signed by the obviously fictitious bullet. waxen images which he held in such
name of John. Please forgive an uneducated distrust.
person writing to so important a
KATE WHITNEY, OSCAR MEUNIER
newspaper as The Times.
London. late of Grenoble.
MRS. HUDSON Curthwaite Gardens, Enfield.
221 B, Baker Street, W.1.

The Times November 1 1950

The Times November 4 1950

THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF MY
LODGER
HOLMES AND THE OCCULT
As am still a ratepayer in the
I

Borough of St. Marylebone, may I I read Mrs. Hudson's letter with

suggest that the obvious place for great interest, and I think I am in a

an exhibition devoted to the you information

position to give
achievements of my former lodger, which has an important bearing
Mr. Sherlock Holmes, is Madam upon her suggestion.
Tussaud's, whose premises are Your readers may not know that
situated only a few yards from my at the time I madethe wax bust of
house and are also, of course, in the Mr. Holmes I was in the employ of
Borough of Marylebone.
St. Madame Tussaud and Sons Limited.
They could take this opportunity Holmes gave me many sittings so
of rectifying a long-standing that could obtain a perfect like-
I

omission by placing models of Mr. ness and, like somany people with
Holmes and Dr. Watson upstairs, whom he came into contact. was I

and of many of the criminals whom entranced by his powers as a

Mr. Holmes arrested, downstairs. conversationalist.
For many years have been a I As we are well aware, his know-
regular visitor to Madame ledge of the occult, and particularly
Tussaud's, but have never yet
I the practice of the black arts, was
noticed Professor Moriarty, Dr. phenomenal. Quite naturally, we
Grimesby Roylott, "Mr. discussed at considerable length the
Stapleton", or any of the others in use of wax figures in image magic,
that famous basement. American and it did not come as a surprise to
me to learn that he was disinclined

73
 : .

The Sunday Times April 1 1951 substance was not a scheduled from internal evidence, was "the
poison in the Pharmacy Act of most distinguished pharmacologist"
1 868, nor is it today. Nevertheless, to whom A. E. W. Mason makes
A HOLMES EXPERIMENT - I
it was effective in this case, which acknowledgement in the preface to
Sir.— St. Marylebone Borough was an ordinary affair of a work- the collected Hanaud stories.)
Council is arranging a Sherlock man in a chemical factory who We were driven to the conclusion
Holmes Exhibition as a contri- abstracted the poison to do away either that the Master had dis-
bution to the Festival of Britain. with a wife he could no longer covered some oriental drug
The exhibition will include a tolerate. The man put dose
a large unknown to science that could be
section dealing with some of the of acetonitrile in a cup of tea and detected by acidity of the distillate
scientific aspects of Holmes's work, somehow induced her to drink it (a proposition abhorrent to any

and we are anxious to illustrate, if quickly. A director of the manu- good addict of detection) or that he
possible, what appears to have been facturing firm, who had been up at was pulling Dr. Watson's leg.
one of his more important investi- Cambridge with my brother, asked The suggestion that Dr. Watson
gations. Unfortunately, Watson was for his help when the husband was invented the incident is made
not himself particularly interested suspected. The police allowed unlikely by a corroborative detail.
in chemistry, and we have failed to Sherlock to examine the viscera. Holmes sent off several telegrams.
reconstruct the experiment from My brother soon identified the We know month was July,
that the
the meagre data provided. The poison. His final confirmatory test and those telegrams no doubt
relevant passage (from "The Naval is as well described by Watson as referred to bets on the coming
Treaty," dated by Bell as 1 888) is could be expected. Sherlock used a Goodwood meeting. Holmes
as follows: retort for the hydrolysis of the probably kept these activities quiet
A large curved retort was boiling nitrile and for the distillation of the from Watson — especially after the
furiously in the bluish flame of a product, as there was no water "Silver Blaze" affair, for
which he
Bunsen burner, and the distilled supply in the sitting-room and no was lucky not have been warned off
drops were condensing into a two- sink. He used dilute sulphuric acid the Turf for life!
litre measure ... He dipped into for the hydrolysis, but the two-litre
measure was faute de mieux. Since
F. W. WATKYN-THOMAS,
this bottle or that, drawing out a
United University Club.
few drops of each with his glass he was using a retort, there was
pipette, and finally brought a test- some possibility of the sulphuric
tube containing a solution over to acid splashing over, and he accord-
the table. In his right hand he had a ingly tested a separate portion of The Sunday Times April 15 1951
slip of litmus-paper. the distillate for sulphate; but his
"You come at a crisis, Watson," technique of dipping a pipette into
A HOLMES EXPERIMENT - IV
said he, "If this paper remains blue, the hydrochloric acid and barium
all is well. If it turns red, it means a chloride reagent bottles was not Sir.— My attention has been
man's life." He dipped it into the ideal. When he knew that the distil- directed to Mycroft's unnecessarily
test-tube, and it flushed at once late was free from sulphuric acid he detailed account of a case Holmes
into a dull, dirty crimson . . He relied on litmus to show the never considered worthy of descri-
turned to his desk and scribbled off presence of acetic acid. The small bing to me. cannot accept the
I

several telegrams. ..."A very amount of acid he obtained turned implied criticism of Holmes's
commonplace little murder," said the litmus a dull, dirty crimson. methods.
he. This provided the confirmation of It is absurd to suppose that the
We should be grateful if any his chain of deductions and he was author of the Holmes haemoglobin
reader could suggest what precisely able to proceed with the reaction, and one whose name will
this experiment can have been; any apprehension of the criminal. always be associated with research
solution should be chemically into the coal-tar derivatives and
sound, and of such a nature that it
MYCROFT HOLMES,
analysis of the acetones, would be
Diogenes Club, S.W.1.
would enable Holmes to deduce faulty in his elementary technique.
that a murder had been committed. As Mycroft must well know, what
GEOFFREY B. STEPHENS, has happened here is that the
The Sunday Times April 1 5 1 951 printer or (just possibly, perhaps)
Borough Librarian,
St. Marylebone, N.W.1. my own notes carelessly omitted
the of pipettes.
A HOLMES EXPERIMENT- III
s

Holmes would certainly not risk

Sir.— With reference to "The contaminating his reagents in this
The Sunday Times April 8 1951 Adventure of the Red Litmus way when so often — as in this case
Paper" (Mr. Sherlock Holmes's — "it means a man's life."
experiment in the Naval Treaty
A HOLMES EXPERIMENT - II [Link],
Case)
Queen Anne Street, W.1
Sir.— I well remember Sherlock Forty years ago we discussed this
telling me that in 1 888 he had had notorious experiment during the
the only case then on record of lunch interval in Professor Dixon's
poisoning by methyl cyanide. This laboratory at Cambridge. (Dixon

74
 1952

ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON!

A man of the Hon. Charles

Stewart's taste and discern-
ment would not have partaken
of cheese and butter without
cream crackers. Moreover,
it was obvious to me from the
meritorious flavour of the
small portion left on the plate
that the biscuits were of the

brand known as Crawford's

Cream Crackers.
The Sunday Times May 27, 1951 our windows — almost obscuring yet permit Watson to lay one day
the plaque to the actress, .Mrs. before the public.
Sarah Siddons, on the wall I have been particularly happy to
BAKER STREET REVISITED opposite, which Watson failed to receive messages of good will from
BY SHERLOCK HOLMES notice in thirty years — the street the Baker Street Irregulars in the
(In an interview with HENRY
cries, the clip-clop of the horses' United States and as their patron, I

LONGHURST) hooves, and the itinerant musician return greetings both to them and
still repeating the same discordant to such scion societies as the
I should be obliged if, through the
medium of your admirable journal, song almost as though on a gramo- Musgrave Ritualists of New York,
I might express my appreciation of phone record, all sent my mind the Dancing Men of Providence, the

the St. Marylebone Borough

racing back to what has well been Speckled Band of Boston and the
Council's assistance to me in laving called "a world where it is always Hounds of the Baskerville in
open to the public, in common 1895." Chicago.
with owners of other premises of Those were, we are now assured, It is always a joy to me to meet

historic interest, the chambers so the bad old days. That they were an American, as told Mr. Francis
I

long occupied by Dr. John H. more violent days was reminded

I Hay Moulton, and continue to I

Watson and myself in Baker Street. as my eye fell again on the harpoon believe, sir, that the folly of a

The rooms, together with my in the corner (I wonder whether Monarch and the blundering of a

papers, had as usual, through the Allardyce's would have a whole pig Minister fargone years will not
in

supervision ofmy brother Mycroft for me to practise upon nowa- prevent our children from being
and the immediate care of Mrs. days?), the knuckle-dusters and some day citizens of the same
Hudson, been preserved unchanged handcuffs, Colonel Moran's bullet- world-wide country.
during my retirement. Only an mark beside the door, to say As certain members of the public
unwonted tidiness betrayed my nothing of the VI R so light-
I have during the past week
own long absence. How long this heartedly shot in the wall, and all addressed problems to me at Baker
absence had indeed lasted was the miscellaneous firearms, in- Street, may add that advancing
I

brought home to me on hearing a cluding not only Von Herder's cele- years — will not say advanced, for
I

newspaper photographer inquire brated airgun but also the superb I am only seven years senior to
which of the items were "real" — gold-damascened Adams muzzle- Dean Inge, who preached such an
thatis, had in fact belonged to me!
loading revolver presented by the excellent sermon at Oxford only
The familiar interior, together Duke of Montrose, for my services two Sundays ago — advancing years
with the yellow fog swirling outside in a matter which His Grace may
keep me in retirement in Sussex, The Tatler and Bystander August 8 Park keeper as to whether the
where, as President of the British 1951 moon was full or "gibbous" at the
Beekeepers' Association, apply to I time when the women were
apiarian problems the same great mangled in the Park by Watson,
powers which I so long turned to
THE SECRET WATSON then in wolf-shape, led to a severe
the detection of crime.
BY D. B. WYNDHAM LEWIS rebuke for the keeper by the judge,
Though did, it is true, emerge
I
One trusts that the Sherlock if you remember.
from seclusion during the recent Holmes Society of London, just His Lordship: This well-groomed
hostilities to assist the department formed to "encourage the pursuit gentleman (the Astronomer-Royal)
now known as MI5, this was only of knowledge of the public and gets £1 500 a year for knowing
on occasions when Mycroft had private lives of Holmes and about the moon, which is sucks-boo

convinced me that continued Watson," devote especial

will to you, I think? — I don't care, I

failure on their part would imperil attention to the last phase of the got my job to do.
the entire outcome of the war. In career of Watson, of which only the His Lordship: When you saw
peacetime my retirement remains more known.
sinister facts are what looked wolf mangling
like a

complete. It was in 1904 that Watson was

these did you do? —
women, what I

I do not, of course, rate as an struck off the medical register. At shouted "Hoi! Stop that!"
exception the not unexpected visit the Old Bailey in 1 905 his daughter His Lordship: You took no
of an agitated successor of Dinty deposed that he stopped further action? — I got my job to
Lestrade's in connection with the, drinking heavily and his practice do. was picking up orange-peel.
I I

to him, mysterious episode in got to keep my grass tidy.

picked up a little soon after Holmes
Westminster Abbey — partly was thrown off the Reichenbach by His Lordship: You flinty-hearted
because was able in any case to set rotter.
I
Moriarty. "Papa seemed a new
him upon the track without leaving It is for the Sherlock Holmes
man," said Miss Dinty Watson.
my villa and partly because, as Society to discover what actually
I
"Unfortunately that so-and-so
more than once told Lestrade him- drove Watson to lycanthropy, and
turned up again later, and Papa was
self, Icare only to be associated soon the stooge as per usual. whether a Mrs. M. Gidlake of
with those cases which present Mumsie was heartbroken. Of course Bayswater was, as he alleged, the
some little difficulty in their we never dreamed, till after Mrs. witch who changed his shape at full
solution. Scattermole's dinner-party, that moon. A man almost continuously
Papa was a lycanthrope." stinko may easily have confused

The argument between the Mrs. Gidlake with some other lady.

Astronomer-Royal and the Hyde

justice of the Peace and Local Government Review September 1 1951

Baker Street reflections

This is the season of exhibitions, and the most in the intellectual mastery of his deductive methods.
attractive are byno means confined to the South Bank Not for him the fanciful weaving of ingenious theories,
of the Thames. It was a happy inspiration that guided miscalled "intuition," nor the blind acceptance of
the pens of those distinguished correspondents who circumstantial evidence untested by the searching light
mooted, in the pages of The Times, the idea of a
first of cross-examination. " The net is drawn pretty close
Sherlock Holmes Exhibition, and the local authority round Fitzroy Simpson,' " says Inspector Gregory in
has risen magnificently to the occasion. Romance takes Silver Blaze, " 'and believe myself that he is our man'
I

root unexpected places; bedded in the native soil of

in Holmes shook his head. 'A clever Counsel would tear it
the Metropolitan Borough of St. Marylebone, sheltered all to rags,' said he."
under the roof of the Abbey-National Building But the prime defect of the present-day
Society, a new plant has flowered, fair and fragrant "detective-story'" is the cheap and easy way out of an
amid the rank surrounding crop of byelaws and impasse by means of a reconstruction of the crime,
mortgage-deeds. Loving care and nature have brought "third degree" methods and the convenient collapse
to fruition a blossoming replica of the living-room at and confession of the accused. Few crime-story writers
221 B, Baker Street, surrounded by lesser blooms of appear to be acquainted with the strict rule of law that
the most delightful varieties. "the prosecution must prove affirmatively, to the
Here the physical eye can enjoy the Victorian satisfaction of the judge who tries the case that the
interior pictured in the mind's eye of generations of admissions or confessions were not induced {a) by any
admirers — the room where the Master lived and promise of favour or advantage, {b) by the use of fear
worked. Here is the famous dressing-gown, side by side or threats or pressure, by a person in authority" (2
with Dr. Watson's stethoscope, hanging on the inside East, P.C. 657). Of the two classic instances quoted by
of the door; there are the retorts used in Holmes's Kenny {Outlines of Criminal Law, 5th edn., p. 470),
1

chemical experiments, and a hundred other objects "Tell, and you shall have some gin" speaks for itself,
vividly recalling the fascinating pages of Arthur Conan though the propriety of excluding a confession, made
Doyle. There are "the diagrams, the violin-case and the on the faith of this representation, has been doubted.
pipe-rack and a wax-coloured model of my friend,
. . . As to the second, "If you will tell where the property
so admirably done that it was a perfect facisimile" is, you shall see your wife," {R. v. Lloyd (1834), 6 C.

{The Empty House). Nor are the great man's'foibles & P. 393), the learned author tactfully leaves the
concealed — vide The Musgrave Ritual — "his cigars in reader to infer for himself, according to taste, whether
the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe-end of a Persian it was argued that these words fell under category (a)

slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed or {b) in the quotation from East, supra.
by a jack-knife into the very centre of the wooden Aside from such elementary matters, Holmes knew
mantelpiece." evident that his filing system, as
(It is well how to deal with that bugbear of the practising
well as his social habits, left much to be desired). lawyer — the cunning client who thinks it clever to
There, too, is the permanent record of the occasion keep his adviser in the dark. " 'I cannot possibly advise
when "he would sit in an armchair, with his hair-trigger you* " he tells Blessington, in The Resident Patient,
and hundred Boxer cartridges, and proceed to adorn
a " 'if you try to deceive me.' 'But have told you
I

the opposite wall with a patriotic V.R. done in everything.' Holmes turned on his heel with a gesture
bullet-pocks" {Ibid). of disgust. 'Good-night, Dr. Trevelyan,' said he. 'And
In the past half-century Holmes has had no advice for me?' cried Blessington, in a breaking
innumerable imitators, but never an equal. "The voice. 'My advice to you, sir, is to speak the truth!' "
science of deduction," as expounded in A Study in A large proportion of cases are won or lost before
Scarlet and The Sign of Four, has proved too austere ever they come before the Court; painstaking
for this dilettante age. The so-called "detective-story" preparation and careful analysis are of greater
has either degenerated into the mere "thriller", packed importance than brilliant advocacy. This is a truism by
with incidents of violence, and with few pretensions to no means limited to criminal matters, and the Council
literary style, or it has developed out of all recognition, of Legal Education and the Law Society might do well
into a psychological novel, usually of excessive to consider the inclusion of the cases of Sherlock
complexity, and unsatisfactory in Ms denouement. Holmes, in their curriculum of legal studies. Practitioners,
For the ordinary lawyer, who fortunately spends too, should be encouraged to give practical
little of his professional life in close contact with demonstrations of the method in training pupils in
violent crime, the fascination of Sherlock Holmes lies chambers and articled clerks.

78
A beautifully executed illustration of "The Hound of the Baskervilles", drawn
by William Hewison after the style of Dante Gabriel Rossetti for an article
on "English Books Illustrated" which appeared in "Punch", 1956.
 1

Illustrated September 27 1952

Duke York's
of•T MAKTiM'* LAMB WO
Theatre
Mr * Mr* Fb*»» W»aT*
CHAPLIN MEETS HOLMES 8ot« I nix. an<5 Manager
Proprietor*
... CHARLES KROHWAN
It is perhaps not widely known CMAPLM* FAOHMAM PBE1»NT»
that in his early years Charlie A ORAM* IN POUR ACT*
anr A CONAM OOYLB
Chaplin made a number of *«• WILLIAM QULCTT*
tamufO
"straight" stage appearances both
in London and
extremely difficult,
the provinces.
however, to
establish the exact chronology of
It is

SHERLOCK HOLMES IN Xtit \M-iK at T>»* GR&A1 |>*TM.T|VK

m
i

asp nvnua Kiv a',i\saws with trifi

these appearances, but a number of
rrwAnq« ca*« or miss pauikwr
important dates are known. CfA«»<ft$*
Records show that he played in tx t«s c**r
•HER LOCK HOLME* WILLIAM [Link]
Giddy Ostend at the London DOCTOR KAT&OI KKSiNETH RlVtMITON
joe* rotJfiN UAVKIH
fcl [Link]?
Hippodrome on January 1 5, 1900. •II BOVARD IBIttHTOl R8GIMAL& BANCS
COUBT Vt>B *T»HL*0»a FKKDEKICK VKjRRiS
He would then have been ten years **0FC*4OR NORU8TV CKONWE StMNEK
old. The play, of the "East Lynne"
JIHM HRRABfB ... KHANCIS CAHLVLE
•ItMSY nt(NCK .. QL'INTUM M<.i*HKKSOX
ALFtEft BAS4ICK WILLIAM H. ;)*V
school, reflected both Charlie's JIM CtUfOIB « \I.K8R
t'HKI>i
TSOMU I1EXRV WALTER*
actual life and his dream life. A "LtSMtrOO*
LEA. f
MCTaOUt W4LTKH tMSOM
street-waif to the last act, he then itm* THOMAS fcTLVTOM
r*ft*oM» Jj illttftfllaW
reunited his scattered family and BILL* CHARLES MAI HJ>
I.

RLICS MOLKHKK *^n ii i-

won a fortune. MM. FaULKMKR III-. [Link] WKUSTBK

¥»&»» LABBa*KE [Link] 1'KLVt'B
Young Chaplin received fine TrtRBEtK SYBIL CAMI'BRLL
MM BM EMMET LTHEL LUKKIMOKB
notices for his performance. He T»V" It \< * IS liMJlm
t.;ir. fiat tf," vfc**» *•-«•
became quite a cocky young actor,
tor CTHW1V-. MMM AT t»l* L****ftfi8S--«rE«WG
enjoyed the life, dressed nattily, •acqmo aot Beam nmstM awKJMrn ai

and sported a cane. This temporary Sc*»*H-S!l*.*l'<.K K '•[Link] *-l»A»TKItST<;

IKES KTttfrrf- RVKMIAC
prosperity enabled him to place his TMiao A9T-TIIB STBTOAV C*h CM***** [Link]
mother in a convalescent home, but MMMTTM ACT- <*XT»0* WATS*"*-* raMOlTmS BOOM MrKSWOTWK-TIIB

despite the best of care she was Ss»*«k »» Rw«»f ©•»» UrtBB««M a!*** »» Watw »r«*»

never to regain her sanity. tStXXMtHBOXS

A. i*«m t*e .« rt»4 »«« »t» •
Chaplin's income remained con- a<**llir«iiriv»" •

brawi <hr jrt M<i «<» »«» '

stant for three years, while he

MATIMCM «V«M«» *»iui^AT •* *.«• o'o««*»i
toured in Sherlock Holmes with H. *.cmc WAMASB* wmxtn m *b£wls
BPUMHH NAAaOBB J\tlltS * BATHS W*
A. Saintsbury in the lead and &TACR [Link]-WiL4.l4M KWTAKCR Mi 51CM. DMUCTOa-lGIlN CKOO*

Chaplin himself as Billy, the office

boy. Then, when William Gillette, Charlie Chaplin — and the playbill that thecompany, but all he received
announced appearance in "The Strange
his from Gillette was a pat on the
the original American star of Case of Miss Faulker" (1905).
Sherlock Holmes came to London shoulder. A lean period followed
to star in the play, Chaplin was during his "awkward age." He
hired to resume the role of Billy. found work in a glass factory, but
this lastedonly one day. He burned
The play opened late in 1905 at
his hand and could not stand the
the Duke of York's Theatre, and in
the company was a number of stage
extreme heat. So back to the stage
he went, getting occasional
celebrities. Supporting Gillette in
bookings in burlesque. One was
the play was the beautiful Marie
with The Ten Looneys; and as a
Doro, later to star in American
single turn he was billed as Sam
movies. She was one of Charlie's
first crushes and he worshipped her
Cohen, the Jewish Comedian,
from afar, afraid to approach her. however, success as a comic, lay
just around the corner
King Edward saw the perfor- . . .

mance one evening with Queen

Alexandra and the King of Greece.
The actors were ordered not to Punch November 21 1951
look at the royal box, but Charlie
could not resist the temptation.
Double Bluff
There was an awful stillness in the
audience until a chuckle from King Said Watson to Holmes "Is it wise-
Edward broke the silence. Chaplin Such false whiskers when hunting
was scolded, but exultant that he for spies?"
had amused royalty. Said the sleuth, "I'm afraid
A success in his role, he expected You're as dense as Lestrade:
to be invited back to America with I'm disguised as myself in disguise."

80
 1

Daily Express Thursday May 24 Hammer, is an ever-guzzling, ever- opens in New York in July there
1951 loving, ever-shooting, ever-sapping will be dust on the floor. The dust
son-of-a-gun-like most shamuses in has been collected in Baker Street,
books, only more so. Spillane, London where Holmes is said to
HOLMES BEATS THE YARD himself, on the other hand, so I'm have lived, and shipped to New
A burglar's kit (1890 variety) which told, has just joined the religious York.
includes skeleton keys and a full sect called Jehovah's Witnesses.

range of jemmies has been lent by Maybe Hammer's bad habits are

an anonymous Londoner to the getting on his nerves.

John O'London's Weekly October
Sherlock Holmes exhibition at Whether Hammer is a sadist, a
10 1952
221 B Baker Street, Marylebone. heel, and a rake, or not, I want to
Scotland Yard disapproves. The state for the record that he comes
Yard lent handcuffs, firearms, and straight out of Sherlock Holmes, A SHERLOCKIAN COINCIDENCE!
bullets that had been used by
the champion gumshoe of sixty
years ago. All storybook private
We have learned that the Under-
murderers, but told the organisers: graduates at Pembroke College,
"An 1 890 burglar's kit could be eyes do. Dashiell Hammett-gets a
Cambridge this term include a Mr.
lot of credit, and rightly, for his
used in 1951. We are not willing to Sherlock and a Mr. Holmes and that
influence on the style of modern
risk someone snatching it."
they have been allotted rooms on
detective fiction, but have been I

the same staircase. The Master S. C.

mixing Conan Doyle with Spillane
Roberts, happens to be President of
inmy reading lately, and I'm surer
The People January 6 1952 the Sherlock Holmes Society of
than ever that whatever these
London, and was unaware of this
modern dicks do, Holmes did first
fact until pointed out to him. He
HANNEN SWAFFER SAYS . .
and better.
has since hinted darkly that the
Spreading "Culture" Spillane's man, Hammer ("I kill
arrangement "might well be the
mad dogs"), wants to rid the city of
work of Professor Moriarty."
Well, if the Festival of Britain did evil all by himself. So he empties
nothing else for culture, it at least his .45 into the soft intestines of
boosted detective fiction. bad men. But Holmes, in his time,
The Borough of St. Marylebone, knocked off at least two hoodlums The Spectator J une 5 1 953
indeed, claims that its Sherlock personally. He bumped the great
Holmes Exhibition in Baker Street, Professor Moriarty by the use of HOLMES, SWEET HOLMES
was the only Festival venture that baritsu (Japanese wrestling). And
Iremember seeing William
paid its way. he killed another mad dog by
Among the visitors was one Holmes at the
Gillette as Sherlock
throwing a deadly snake (a swamp
elderly woman who said to another, adder) right back at him.
Lyceum Theatre just fifty years ago
"Iwonder where Sherlock Holmes Hammer insults cops. He spits on and feel sure one is correct in
I

was buried." the district attorney's floor. But

saying that "elementary, my dear
"Don't be silly," was the reply. Holmes was the original baiter of
Watson" was a line in the play.

"Holmes was only a fictitious the official police. He laughed in

Gillette spoke in an eerie, sinister

character." the teeth of Scotland Yard, and drawl, rather high-pitched, and,
"Oh, I see," said her friend, "like that's been the style ever since. with his head thrown back and eyes
William Shakespeare." Hammer pours liquor down his half-closed, gave the impression

gullet. But Holmes topped him by that he was thinking of anything

hitting the main line (injecting
but the problem on hand. Only at
himself) with cocaine. And he the tense moments with Moriarty
Look April 22 1952 did he snap into life and become
smoked tobacco that drove Dr.
Watson to cover. peremptory and incisive. There was
JOHN LARDNER'S NEW YORK Dames? Well, Hammer talks a big
at thesame period a skit on Gillette
Another Rewrite as Holmes running at Terry's
romance, while Holmes was cool to
tomatoes, or women as they called Theatre in the Strand, called
Mickey Spillane, statistics show, is
Picklock Holes, and the phrase was
one of the hottest numbers in them then. But, who was it who
used in that as well.
modern literature. In hardback and posed as a plumber and promised to
Charlie Chaplin played the page
paperback editions, his detective marry a blackmailer's housemaid, in
boy in the Lyceum "Holmes" and
stories have sold something like 1 order to get the goods on her boss?
he used to dash on the stage with
million copies. Make that 11 No one but the greatest shamus of
his uniform in tatters indicative of
million and one, because I recently them all, S. Holmes. The rest are
his struggle with Moriarty's men
bought an early Spillane called imitations.
"The Big
who had tried, off stage, to stop
Kill", in self-defence
him reaching Holmes. No doubt Mr.
against Berle in Richmond and
Chaplin would be as good an
quarter radios in South Carolina.
Reveille June 8 1952 authority as any on the use of the
This Spillane lives in Newburgh,
line on the stage.
N.Y., a small piece from the great
city. His private eye hero, Mike When a Sherlock Holmes exhibition AUBREY VINCENT

81
 JohnO'London's April 11 1952 No snakes allowed most thrilling experiences of my
"When told them
I that I did not life, and am rushing to write to
I

want to keep a dog or a cat, but a you about it while the magic of it is

snake, they nearly had a fit. They still fresh in my mind. When we
SHERLOCK'S SHAG read of the possibility that the
said that if the word got round it first

The point is — did Sherlock Holmes would clear the hotel." Sherlock Holmes exhibition might
smoke a particularly foul tobacco He added with a smile: "I come to America, we thought it
or was his shag merely a fine-cut wonder what they would think if was too good to be true, but there
Virginia leaf? After all, he was theyknew had a remarkable
I
must be some patron saint of
something of a connoisseur of wine. worm unknown to science already Sherlockians who heard our
Would he, then, ruin his palate with in my bed-room, to say nothing of prayers, for our dream has been
rank tobacco? a couple of leeches." realized beyond all our
What does it matter, you say. He said leeches were another of expectations.
Not to ordinary people perhaps. his problems. "Dr. Watson refers to have seen at first hand the
I

But it does to the members of the the 'repulsive story of the red leech' wonderful collections of
" memorablia of Sir Arthur Conan
Sherlock Holmes Society of and 'death of Crosby the Banker'
London. At their last meeting in he explained. "There is no direct Doyle and Sherlock Holmes; have I

Baker Street, Colonel Sherbrooke- evidence how Crosby died but the seen the Norwood notebook,
Walker read a most instructive theory is that a leech may have got specimens of Cyanea Capillata,
paper on Holmes's and Watson's into his nostrils or windpipe and Russell's Viper, the red leech of
taste in tobacco. And, as always at choked him as it fed on his blood." repulsive fame, and the remarkable
the meetings a lively discussion "Now there are 64 varieties of worm, still unknown to science. I

followed. Poor old Watson, it was medicinal leeches alone, but no have stood on the platform outside
agreed, had little taste in anything; leech of any kind has been found the marvellous reconstruction of
but the Master — he knew a good which is completely red. I may 221 b and fallen under the spell of
cigar and, if you remember, wrote a eventually have to try cross- that never-never land which has
monograph on cigar ash. Surely the breeding leeches like geraniums in captivated me since my earliest
toe of that famous Persian slipper an attempt to get the right colour." years.
held a decent tobacco? Personally, I I know every detail of that
Aluminium doubt
like to think it did. fairyland as intimately as I know
He was also perplexed by every nook and corner of my own
Watson's reference to "the singular home — even more so, as never I

case of the aluminium crutch." He remember where have put my I

The Daily Telegraph May 26 1952 found that Holmes was most likely eyeglasses, but can tell you to a
I

engaged on that case between 1877 square inch the location of the
and 1 880. The question was
HOLMES SHOW IN NEW YORK harpoon that killed Black Peter, the
whether aluminium crutches Persian slipper with the shag
Curator Seeks A "Red Leech"
existed at that time. tobacco, the picklocks in the
Oneof the most careworn men in "The nearest thing I have got to butterdish, Holmes's commonplace
New York to-day was Mr. C. T. proving it is a treatise written by de books and Beecher's unframed
Thorne, 36, curator of the Sherlock Vi lie, the French aluminium portrait.
Holmes exhibition. It will shortly pioneer, in 1 859. It deals with the There is a wonderous aura about
be seen by New Yorkers. use of aluminium in surgical that poem that dispels any last
The exhibition was brought over equipment." doubt the sceptic may have as to
here after its successful London run Mr. Thorpe has been a reference the reality of Sherlock Holmes and
last year by Mr. Adrian Conan librarian of St. Marylebone Dr. Watson. The glow of the lamps,
Doyle, youngest son of Holmes's Borough Council for 18 years. He the clop-clop of the hansom heard
creator. It is at present lodged in a was given a year's leave by the in the sound track, the tick-tock of
New York warehouse. Council to accompany the Holmes the mantel clock which
When called on Mr. Thorne at
I exhibition. miraculously keeps the same time
his hotel to-day his air was troubled "My job made me a stickler for hour after hour — all these things
and reflective. "My problem is that authenticity," he said. "Until am I
heighten the ineluctable illusion of
I have to find a live snake — an easy satisfied a thing has a reasonable
reality. It is truly the Ultima Thule
task, but the complications that go chance of being genuine would I
of romance.
with it are little short of frightful," not dream of putting it in the
he said. exhibition." NATHAN L. BENGIS
Mr. Thorne, who needs a snake Keeper of the Crown,
to illustrate "The Speckled Band" The Musgrave Ritualists,
story continued: "I approached the West 188 Street,
TheTimes July 17 1952
hotel management here and asked New York.
them: 'Am allowed to keep pets
I

in my bed-room?' They replied: 'No THE ULTIMA THULE OF Right: A drawing by Wyndham Robinson of
"
dogs or cats are allowed.' ROMANCE "The Legendary Figure" in which Holmes'
reviews some of his cases. The "Strand
I have been through one of the Magazine", 1948.

82
Daily Express March 16 1959 BY PETER EVANS

The mystery of Baskerville

Thousands of devoted admirers of Sherlock Holmes, "Mr. Doyle stayed for eight days and nights. had I

the Baker-street detective to whom all things were to drivehim and Bertie about the moors. And used to I

elementary, will be surprised this morning by a new watch them in the billiards room in the old house,
mystery — a real life one — which sprang up last night. sometimes they stayed long into the night, writing and
It is a mystery which may well become as legendary talking together.
as the bitter, long-running Bacon-Shakespeare "Then Mr. Doyle left and Bertie said to me:
controversy. book was telling you
'Well, Harry, we've finished that I

"
For, after more than 50 years, the authorship of one about. The one we're going to name after you.'
of the best-known Holmes stories, "The Hound of the Butlast night, Baskerville's story was angrily denied

Baskervilles," is being disputed. by SirArthur Conan Doyle's son Adrian.

And disputed by no less an authority than the man When phoned him in Geneva, Switzerland, where
I

the story is named after, Harry Baskerville. he now he said:—

lives,
"Fletcher Robinson wrote not one word of the
story. He refused my father's offer to collaborate and
retired at an early stage of the project.
"Furthermore, my father never stayed with Robinson.
He stayed at the Duchy
Hotel, Princetown. He
accepted Robinson's offer of a coach and went riding
with him on the moors simply to get the atmosphere
of the place.
"In fact, have letters from Robinson proving this.
I

It was Robinson who told my father about a West

Country legend, but that was just about the extent of

his contribution."
Indeed, in a short preface to the book, author Doyle
wrote: "My dear Robinson, it was to your account of a
Last night drove to a small, narrow-streeted village in
I West Country legend that this tale owes its inception.
the silent shadow of Dartmoor to talk to wispy, white- For this and for your help in the details, all thanks."
haired Baskerville, who claims that a brilliant young But was this enough? Baskerville is convinced
journalist, who was soon to die in mysterious Robinson played a larger part.
circumstances, helped Doyle write the great thriller. "There was never such a legend. It was a story Bertie
Pink-faced and younger-looking than his 88 years, invented and helped to write. don't know why he
I

Baskerville told me in a firm, fine Devonshire voice: — didn't get more credit. It didn't seem to worry him,
"Doyle didn't write the story himself. A lot of the though," he said.
story was written by Fletcher Robinson. But he never Soon after the publication of the book mystery-man
got the credit he deserved. Robinson — described by a 1 907 newspaper cutting as
"They wrote it together at Park Hill, over at the author of many "thrilling detective stories" —
Ipplepen. know, because was there."
I I started a fateful investigation into an Egyptian
Baskerville, who was a coachman to Robinson's father, mummy's curse.
told me that long before Doyle arrived at Park Hill, in Before he could complete his research he died. He
Devon, Fletcher Robinson had confided:— was 35.
"Harry, I'm going to write a story about the moor When Doyle heard of his death he said: "I warned
and would like to use your name."
I him against concerning himself with the mummy. I

Clutching a fading, yellow-leafed, brown-paper- told him he was tempting fate by pursuing his
backed first edition of the book — with the inquiries, but he was fascinated and would not desist.
handwritten inscription: "To Harry Baskerville from B. Then he was overtaken with illness.
Fletcher Robinson. With apologies for using the name" "He was the last man in the world to want to die —
— Baskerville went on: strong, vigorous, and in excellent physical condition —
"Shortly after his return from the Boer War, Bertie but he died.
(Robinson) told me to meet Mr. Doyle at the station. "The immediate cause of death was typhoid fever,
He said they were going to work on the story he had but that is the way in which the 'elementals' guarding
told me about. the mummy might act."

84
 With the sudden, sad death of Robinson the
was forgotten — except
possibility of his co-authorship
by one man, Baskerville.
Could he have contributed more than the world
has realised?
A Holmes expert told me: "This could explain the
big mystery of why Holmes appears so infrequently in
the Hound.
"We know that when Doyle wrote the story he had
already killed off Holmes — whom he disliked and
regarded as a pot-boiler in 'The Final Problem.'
"If this information is correct, it is just possible that
Doyle, faced with a public outcry for killing his hero,
had to quickly produce another Holmes story.
"He may have agreed with Fletcher Robinson to
adapt an existing Robinson story but found it
impossible to make Holmes the central figure."
And in London last night the mystery deepened. A
member of the Sherlock Holmes Society told me: —
"This sounds like the story James Montgomery was
working on. He was American, a member of the
a rich
American Sherlock Holmes
Baker-street Irregulars (the
Society) and he came to Britain about three years ago
to interview Baskerville.
"He hinted at his discoveries but refused to say very
much because he was planning to publish a
monograph.
"He was very excited and talked about startling
discoveries. But he returned to America and within
three weeks he was dead. The monograph was never
published and his notes were never found."
It is a curious story. A mystery worthy of the brain
MARIA LAMM- DAVID OXLEY LOR"
mm.
of Baker Street himself. But I'm afraid he would
imi i™*, * tern nui
discover
i **«« M1MIT KUN KIS
little that is elementary. OPUCTtON

$. LONDON
Left: Harry [Link] page: The poster for the latest film of "The
Hound of the Baskervilles" and three frames from the strip cartoon of the
story by Edith Meiser and Frank Giacoia 1954-5.
 tfwk.

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S*

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.
•*-

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1
SADLER'S WELLS ROSEBERY AVENUE. E.C.1

Licensee GEORGE CHAMBERLAIN

Director NORMAN TUCKER

THE GOVERNORS OF SADLER'S WELLS

in association with

THE ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAIN

present

THE SADLER'S WELLS OPERA

AND

THE SADLER'S WELLS THEATRE

BALLET

1952 - 53 SEASON

PROGRAMME
12TH JANUARY TO 7th FEBRiy
BOOKING OPENS DECEMBER 29th

tS

.•Wv<

Ji

*^r
i&flanj
A I IT

Mm
The Times January 22 1953 connected him — it was a laudable, irascible merchants are tended by
though surely inevitable, gong-sounding maids. Miss Margaret
omission. Dale, who, television apart, was
SADLER'S WELLS THEATRE Miss Dale's own humorous making her cheoreographic debut at
BALLET "THE GREAT dancing (as we have admired it in Sadler's Wells on Wednesday, had
DETECTIVE" Facade and Bonne-Bouche) is re- neither of these ideas; in fact I find
flected in the athletic grotesquerie ithard to see what her idea was or
of her choreography, and some of why she picked on Holmes at all.
her ideas are cleverly comical. She clearly meant to make a
Perhaps Mr. Robb, who has de- screamingly funny ballet — a
signed the gay scenery and dangerous ambition, for ballet
costumes, must claim part of the rarely succeeds in being funny for
credit for the ingeniously contrived more than a few seconds at a time.
marionettes tyrannized by the The Great Detective is a phantas-
Professor. Arnell 's music suits the magoria of corpses, murderers,
world here evoked, in its staid yet policemen, distressed ladies, a
full-blooded and also kindly gaiety. gorilla, human puppets from some
Mr. Stanley Holden danced with quite different mythology, and two
elan, but made Dr. Watson more of unaccountably Regency sailors.
the Edwardian masher than his Holmes in deerstalker and Inverness
writings suggest. Mr. Kenneth cape was clearly recognisable,
Macmillan zealously portrayed the threading his way through no parti-
Detective, and doubled the role of cular mystery, but Moriarty, also
the Professor, with virtuosity in the played by Kenneth Macmillan,
final scene. But this dual role is not looked thirty years too young; and
only an artist's fiction; it is a my dearl — Watson! Stanley
dangerous gloss on history. We Holden's conception (or his choreo-
cannot allow posterity to infer that grapher's) of the excellent Doctor

The career of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, our beloved Mr. Holmes and the as a swaggering little elderly beau
vile Moriarty are one and the same was thoroughly inappropriate and
which takes a justly prominent
place in the annals of Victorian
person. Has Dr. Watson been all to reminiscent of Pantalon in

history, has not before provided the

duping his readers? Mr. Holmes Carnaval. Alas! The ballet is just a

inspiration for ballet, we think. must be persuaded, in his well silly muddle; and as for knowing if

Margaret Dale and Richard Arnell, earned retirement, to take pen and Miss Dale has gifts for choreo-

who, together with Brian Robb, refute the damaging suggestion. graphy or not, we are back where
have made the new ballet at we were before. Richard Arnell is
Sadler's Wells, bring to the stage
always an interesting composer, and
some hitherto unrecorded pages what little of his music could take
I

The Observer January 25 1953

in at first hearing seemed too
from the memoirs of his Boswell,
Dr. Watson; they do not allude by
grown-up for so innocent an occa-
name to their characters, and that
MY DEAR WATSON! sion. The designs of Brian Robb,
BY RICHARD BUCKLE showing various influences from
understandably, for the events here
Picasso to Dufy, but never a trace
shown are more bizarre than Mr. A Sherlock Holmes ballet? Well,
of the good old "Strand Magazine,"
Holmes's most fervent admirers will one can imagine a severely stylised
credit. and classical work to a Mozart
added the last straw of incongruity
to this misadventure of Sherlock
We see the Detective and his divertimento. The first movement
Holmes.
friend engaged in saving an an appeal for help in Baker-street;
innocent man from wrongful arrest; the andante a train journey from
we see the infamous Professor (let Paddington into the autumnal West
him not be named) at his Country; the theme and variations a
astonishing machinations, and we propounding of possible solutions
see the Detective as he tames a to the crime; the finale a triumph
dangerous gorilla and — in of the master mind, celebrated -
silhouette — grapples with his with just a hint of "Character"
enemy. The choregraphic invention colouring — by the rural police. Or
and the material of some episodes there is the romantic Betjeman
are droll, but one is glad to find the approach — for we must remember
Detective presented in a properly that the Holmes stories are read
heroic light, alert, precise and fear- to-day for the nostalgic picture
pipe and his violin are
less; his they evoke of gas-lit, fog-bound
introduced, but not the hypo- London in the nineties, of hansoms Above and previous pages: Two photographs
dermic syringe with which bowling between marmoreal clubs from the Sadler's Wells Ballet "The Great
Detective" with Kenneth Macmillan and
malicious gossip (even passed on by in Pall Mall and creeper-covered Stanley Holden as Holmes and Watson
his biographer) has sometimes villas in Camberwell, where retired respectively (1953).

88
 !

By prrmitsion of It*
Trusttts of tht Estate
of Sir Arthur
Conan Doyl*

What did Dr. Watson say to Holmes?

/'// have a Mann's Brown

MANNS BROWN
makes everyone friends

Mann's drown is Britain's best Brown Ale

1953
The Sunday Times January 29 1950 BY CHRISTOPHER MORLEY

The Baker Street Irregulars of NewYork

On a foggy and drizzling evening in January, 1 950, at a about affairs in 1 798. But now we need to know, as
club inNew York City, 50 men drank a standing toast. Holmes asked Watson. "What do you know of the
It was in regret and homage to their own boyhoods; it black Formosa corruption?" How would have loved
I

was occasioned by the soon approaching demise of to ask Madame

Generalissima Chiang that question,
the "Strand Magazine." Some 30 of the convives were just before she took off by plane lately — she is
members of the Baker Street Irregulars, a club whose obviously the Irene Adler of South-East Asia.
membership is limited to 60 — the number of the Or when Holmes spent the great hiatus 891 -94) in
(1
Sherlock Holmes stories. The others were delegates Tibet, wasn't he making arrangements 60 years ahead
from "scionist" societies, viz., satellite chapters from for what's getting ready now? Or the reptilian Moriarty
other faubourgs of cities, of which there are about 30. oscillating his cobra brow over the dynamics of an
Surely it is a unique tribute to an author whose asteroid, was doubtless precursing uranium and
name, officially, is never mentioned. The traditional hydrogen bombs, all fission spent. What could the
mystique is that Holmes and Watson are so much more great untold story of the Politician, the Lighthouse,
real than their creator that except by privilege from
and the Trained Cormorant have suggested but the
the Chair (known as The Gasogene) the Agent is never
career of Sir Stafford Cripps?
mentioned by name. These are the hints the B.S.I, follow through. Why
The fundamental doctrine of the B.S.I., when they did passengers on the G.W.R. have to take lunch at
set aside for an evening the irrelevant trivialities of Swindon? Exactly how (and with what type scalpel)
their own lives, is that the Holmes-Watson saga
do you nick the tendons of a horse? What was the
(officiallydenominated by Mr. Elmer Davis "THE precise layout of the rooms in Baker Street? Was
SACRED WRITINGS") is more actual, and more
Sherlock illiterate, mean could he read? Why did
I

timely, than anything that happens to ourselves or

Watson always have to read aloud to him all letters and
happened to its mortal mouthpiece. The greatest art is
telegrams? Why did Holmes never eat fish but always
the annihilation of art.
game, beef, and boiled eggs; Why did he never drink
once went to Somerset House, or whatever it's
I
tea? Why was he such a poor marksman? These are the
Arthur Conan Doyle.
called, to "search" the will of Sir
parleipses or paralipomena to which we devote the
Icouldn't help wondering whether in his final most innocent diversion of our lives.
testimony he had made any mention of his humble
Myself do not wholly agree with the tradition that
passports to immortaility. I paid my shilling (just as
I

A.C.D. should never be formally mentioned. loved I

Holmes used to at "Doctors' Commons") and read the

him long before his heirs and assigns and agents were
document, in his own clear masculine hand — so like
born, and find in his writings the most delicious
the map of the Priory School neighbourhood. Not a
I

asymptotes to the Holmes-Watson codex. As have I

word about the incubus Holmes and yet Holmes,
often said, how ridiculous he was only Knighted — he
. . .

even in profile and robe and headgear, is pretty nearly

should have been Sainted.
the Dante of our modern inferno.
My Christmas carol of last year was this:
With profound insight the B.S.I, have adopted as
What opiate can best abate Anxiety and toil?
their colours the three shades of Holmes's dressing
Not aspirins, nor treble gins, Nor love, nor mineral
gown. It faded as all mortal energies do; from royal —
oil
purple to blemished blue; from heliotroped blue to
My only drug is a good long slug Of Tincture of
mouse. Mouse, by the way, was the colour of the
Conan Doyle.
settees in Simpson's famous Chess Divan, as reported
in R.L.S.'s "New Arabian Nights," from which A.C.D.
unconsciously borrowed so much.
So the B.S.I, published for three years a quarterly
journal (whose motto was: "When was so much
written by so many
for so few?"), but if you can get
from your bookseller (Argus Bookshop, Mohegan
Lake, N.Y.) those three volumes you will have the best
winter evening reading of a lifetime. Myself, would I

rather have them than a first Bristol Cream of

Wordsworth and Coleridge's "Lyrical Ballads."
Wordsworth and S.T.C were also greatly anxious

90
 Now there's a tobacco you could smoke
all day without burning your tongue.

Amazing, Holmes!

Elementary, my dear Watson — it's

Grand Jtut
Never hums the tongue of old or young 2 oz 8/2
ISSUED BY GODFREY PHILLIPS LI Ml TED
1954
Empire News October 4 1953

THE SHERLOCK HOLMES •*$?&r

SPECIAL
Sherlock Holmes will ride from No.
4 platform at London's Baker Street
stationtomorrow at 3 p.m.
Before the war there were about
twenty electric locos running from
Baker Street. One of them was
called Sherlock Holmes, but the
plates were removed. understand I it

was the idea of Mr. Roberts, the

66-year-old Master of Pembroke
College, Cambridge, trustee of
Shakespeare's birthplace and
Johnsonian scholar, that the Sher-
lock Holmes Society of London
should put them back.
"S.C.," as Mr. Roberts is known
to Cambridge men, will be present,
with about 50 members of the
society, including the Marquess of
Donegall, possessor of the world's
best collection of Holmes first
editions.
No rules on dress have been
issued with the invitations, but
some deerstalkers and even an
Inverness cape may be on view.

Above: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson arrive by train in "The Adventure
of the Dancing Man" (1903). The invitation ticket was issued some
SO years later when London Transport inaugurated their 'Sherlock Holmes'
underground train with a special ceremony. The noted Sherlockian, Dr.
S.C. Roberts, officiated at the gathering.

r
The Chairman and Members
THE LONDON TRANSPORT EXECUTIVE
of

request the pleasure of the company of

7iv 1-kaJZ

BAKER STREET STATION

(Platform No. 3)

on Monday, 5th October, 1953, at 3.0 p.m.

FOR THE CEREMONY OF NAMING ONE OF THE LONDON

TRANSPORT ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES "SHERLOCK HOLMES"
and for the inaugural trip departing from
Baker Street at 3.20 p.m.
 ,

The Sunday Times February 5 Street rooms. ingenious process of elimination, he

1950 The oldest puzzle of all (raised as got them down to
far back as 1910 by Monsignor
Knox, "the father of English Illustrious Client,
THE IRREGULARS AND SOME Watsonology") was why an Afgan Red-Headed League,
IMPONDERABLES bullet which hit Watson in the Engineer's Thumb
Mr. Christopher Morley's charming shoulder caused him, for the rest of Norwood Builder
articlecannot fail to stir those like his life, to limp. Can the "Baker Empty House,
myself whose spiritual home has Street Irregulars" supply the
Wisteria Lodge,
always been 221 B,. Baker Street, answer? And have they any views as
I
Abbey Grange,
found especially engaging the to whether Watson (a) was a
Twisted Lip,
suggestion that some of the 'untold' dipsomaniac, (b) married twice, (c) Study in Scarlet,
Holmes-Watson stories glance at the married three times?
Orange Pips,
shape of things to come, and in The evidence for the first two of Noble Bachelor.
particular that the story of the these propositions is impressive; but
"Trained Cormorant" fore- Ientertain some doubts about the "And, acrostically simple, the
shadowed the career of Sir Stafford third. initial letters read down, the
Cripps. Having lifted a corner of carefully hidden secret is ours."
LORD JUSTICE ASQUITH
this curtain hope Mr. Morley will
I said Stout. "Her name was Irene
Royal Courts of Justice.
go on and tell us what politician of Watson."
what party is prefigured in some of Stout ended by telling the
the other 'untold' stories: e.g. the apoplectic "Irregulars" he was
"Adventure of the Tired Captain" The Sunday Times February 12 collecting material for a fuller
and the "Repulsive affair of the red 1950 treatment of the subject "It . . . will
leech." two volumes, the second of
fill

Mr. Morley asks: "Was Holmes which of certain

WAS WATSON A WOMAN? will consist
illiterate? mean, could he read?":
I speculations regarding various
and points out how often Holmes Lord Justice Asquith revives an old concrete results of that long-
delegates the reading of notes and puzzle concerning Dr. Watson — continued and — fear, alas —
I

letters to Watson. Personally think I

was he married twice, or three none-too-happy union (between
this was pure affectation. He times? Students of the Sacred Holmes and this "woman"). For
needed no help from Watson in Writings may recall that this
instance, what of the parentage of
question was debated in part by the
deciphering the letter written in Lord Peter Wimsey, who was born,
alternative words by the "Baker Street Irregulars" Ibelieve, around the turn of the
Cunninghams in the "Reigate themselves, on a memorable century — about the time of the
Squires." As to books, although occasion when one of their publication of 'The Adventure of
Watson describes his friend's members put to these most reverent the Second Stain'? That will bear
knowledge of literature in of all Sherlock Holmes's disciples looking into."
Holmes had read
disparaging terms, the most irreverent proposition in Can one wonder that (to quote
(and Watson had not) Winwood their records. Mr. Howard Haycraft) even after
Reade's "Martyrdom of Man." In New York, on January 31 the passage of years, Mr. Stout
Mr. Morley rightly stresses 1941 — "a date that lives in infamy attends the annual festivities of the
Holme's addiction to game (he is for all the faithful" - Mr. Rex august and nominally peace-loving
fantastically voracious of Stout, bearded creator of Nero "Irregulars" only when
woodcock) and But "boiled"
eggs. Wolfe, refused to join the accompanied by a personal
eggs? In those spacious days Mrs. commemorative toast, "The Second bodyguard?
Hudson generally combined her Mrs. Watson." It was
matter of a
eggs with ham, and this almost conscience, Stout said. He could A.R. McELWAIN, Fleet Street,

necessarily implies an absence of not bring himself to connive at the E.C.4.

shell. perpetration of a hoax. Not only

And was Holmes a "poor was there never a second Mrs.
marksman"? He emptied five Watson; there was not even a first
barrels of his revolver "into" the Mrs. Watson. Furthermore, there
flanks of the Hound of the was no Doctor Watson. "She" was a
Baskervilles and therefore woman!
presumably hit it. Mr. Morely may After producing a mass of
say that having regard to the size of "by
heretical "evidence," Stout,
the Hound it would be as difficult methods that Holmes himself might
to miss him as a haystack at point- have used," proceeded to look into
blank range. But the same cannot the immortal tales for a record of
be said of the "patriotic V.R." the "woman" Watson's full name.
traced with the punctures of He took all 60 them down
tales set
revolver bullets, with which Holmes in chronological order, numbered
decorated the walls of his Baker them from 1 to 60. Then, by an

93
 TheTatler August 12 1953 The People July 12 1953

WATSON TYRANISED HANNEN SWAFFER SAYS . . .

BY D.B. WYNDHAM LEWIS Was Sherlock A Fool?

"What the devil do you mean," Was Sherlock Holmes merely an
snarls a truculent Sherlock Holmes "opinionated busybody" — behind
fan inflamed by our expose of a the times? Or did Conan Doyle, his
fascinating new Baker Street creator, transform crime investi-
problem page by saying that
in this gation?
'Watson, for once, was sober'?" We Christopher Pulling, the Yard's
mean, chum, that John H. Watson, senior assistant secretary, declared
M.D., late Indian Army, was, for that Sherlock Holmes, although he
once, not under the influence of habitually sneered at the London
alcohol. police, used "dirtyand nasty
Apart from the question of methods" that, if adopted by
£KZ7 uXj hypocrisy,it seems to us a great

disservice to-Doc Watson to

Scotland Yard would have foisted
"guilt for a revolting statesman or
maintain that ridiculous conspiracy Church dignitary!"
of silence over his only failing. So, naturally, Doyle's two sons,
Daily Express June 2 1959 Those increasing snifters which Denis and Adrian, have risen in
nerved him to endure Holmes's anger.
tyranny might not have under- "The police systems of the
BROKEN BIG TOE mined a less amiable character; and modern world," they reply, "are
Killed a man in fact on learning that Professor founded on the new ideas in crimi-
Moriarty has successfully tossed nology, expressed by our father in
A blood clot caused by a broken
Holmes off the Reichenbach, his detective stories."
big toe killed Arthur Ernest
Watson took a fresh grip on life, "Father invented the use of
Sherlock Holmes aged 51 of Bed-
joined the Band of Hope, forgot plaster of paris for preserving foot-
minster, Bristol it was said at a
his old Afghan wound, and was prints," claim Doyle's sons, "the
Bristol inquest yesterday.
seen dancing round a cup of tea in minute examination of dust on a
Verdict: an accident
his surgery ("I'm youth, I'm joy, man's clothes to discover his
I'm a little broken out
bird that has occupation or where he had been,
of the egg!") On
Holmes's dis- and the precise differentiation
maying reappearance Watson's among various tobacco ashes."
wine-merchant could start rubbing The only time met J. Edgar
I

his hands again: The removal of Hoover, head of the F.B.I. — it was
Watson's name from the Medical at a New York lunch — he began his
Register was henceforth only a speech by saying: "Asa well-known
matter of time. London journalist is present, I will
Possibly the British Medical not say what I think of Scotland
Association boys were too harsh? Yard."
Watson was not often in his
consulting-room during the long
Holmes regime and when there he
was far too cockeyed for proper
By this
diagnosis or prescription.
means hundreds of human lives
must have been saved. BMA, you're
out.

94
 SW th noted Fleet Street colum nist, meets
Sherlock Holmes
- n5l
,
1S*?SC
ana asks Did the Master «
u f.
Detective transform crime investigation?
The Times January 8 1954 HERBERT TREE, perhaps a single Daily Mail January 9 1954
year does not matter.
This celebration of a famous
AN OLD FRIEND'S BIRTHDAY TANFIELD'S DIARY
character's birthday is not unique,
To-night the B.B.C. celebrates the for when Mr. Pickwick's centenary THE SHADOW OF MORIARTY
hundredth birthday of Mr. Sherlock came around some years ago a large STILL DARKENS BAKER
Holmes. Some successors of his, company drank his health at dinner STREET
both imaginary and real, headed by to the strains of "He's a jolly good
Lord Peter Wimsey, will pay tribute fellow." But Mr. Pickwick's sit-
to his genius. We can only wish that ting-room on the first floor front in It is possible that the heirs of the
the shades of two of his mighty Goswell Street has never been re- evil Professor Moriarty are behind
predecessors had been evoked to do constructed for his admirers, where- this confusion which exists over the
him similar honour, Inspector as during the Festival of Britain age of Sherlock Holmes? Someone,
Bucket and Sergeant Cuff. That many worshippers made pilgrimage it seems, is producing all sorts of

would have been quite a party. to the model of 221 B Baker Street, odd evidence on the date of the
Exactly how
the date of his birth exactly as it had been in Mrs. great detective's birth.
has been arrived at we do not yet Hudson's day. We have no positive Last night the B.B.C. held a
know. The chronology of the information where Mr. Holmes will party to celebrate Holmes's 100th
Holmes stories has engaged some of keep his anniversary, but there birthday, and in America the
the brightest intellects in this seems no reason to doubt that he Baker-street Irregulars — who
country. Their mental gymnastics still lives surrounded by his faithful decided that Holmes was born in
have sometimes been so brilliant as bees on the South Downs. 1 854 — also celebrated.
to seem almost exhausting. That at "Nothing of interest in the paper, The Americans decided on
least is the view of many a common Watson?" We can fancy him saying, January 6 because in the last story,
man who yields to none in his harking back, as old men will, and "His Last Bow," set in early August
adoration of the master. When all is then lighting with pleasure on his 1914, Watson describes Holmes as a
said, most of us, devoted though we own name. If any listeners feel man of 60.
be, are intellectually no better than disposed to raise their glasses to Britain's Sherlock Holmes
good, honest, plodding Watsons. him to-night, they must not fear Society have agreed to this date for
There are about us unexpected lest his cold and reserved nature the sake of uniformity — but only
possibilities of stupidity. In our should disdain their homage. Let with "characteristic reservations," I

humble, fundamentalist faith we them remember how, in the little was told yesterday.
take the sacred writings as we find Napoleons, he
affair of the six But unknown "researchers" in
them. We no more believe that, as bowed when they
to his audience many parts of the world have been
hinted by perhaps the most spark- broke into spontaneous clapping. producing conflicting evidence on
ling of all the commentators, "Thank you," he said, "thank Holmes's age. Keen amateur
Mycroft Holmes was in league with you," and turned away to hide his crimonologists want to know who
Professor Moriarty than that emotion. has been sowing these seeds of
Watson contracted a second confusion.
marriage with Miss de Melville. Our experts here point out that
For such as us a simple clue or Holmes was disguised with a goatee
two will suffice. In His Last Bow beard "His Last Bow" and
in
Holmes, when in the guise of "looked a man of 60," which did
Altamont, is described as "a tall not necessarily mean he was 60.
gaunt man of sixty." That adven- Mr. James Holroyd, a member of
ture happened beyond question in the Council of the Sherlock Holmes
1 91 4, on the eve of war, and so Society, tells me that an American
points to 1 854 as the year of the doctor has been busy making an
birth. More complex and dubious elaborate chronology of the great
evidence is derived from Holmes's detective's life and he makes the
career at Cambridge. MISS year of birth either 1 858 or 1 859.
DOROTHY SAYERS, a great This month, am told, a plaque is
I

authority (though some respect to be unveiled at St. Bartholomew's

fully think she went astray as to his Hospital to commemorate the first
college), believes that he was a third meeting of Dr. Watson and
year man in 1 874. That too sug- Sherlock Holmes.
gests 1 854, the year favoured by a
scholar of vast erudition,MR. H. W.
BELL; but it is add that
fair to
others have argued for 1 853 or even
1 852. However, as we have lately

seen a mistake made as to an il-

lustrious contemporary, SIR

A Swiss caricature published in 1954 to celebrate
Holmes' 100th Birthday.

96
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JIVl'Hfl AMAiTfUCR M8NlltCANTS AC lUti i- \UiU(S tuun.

Above: The 'Afghanistan' plaque errected in John O'London's Weekly March 19 pain-killing patent medicine widely
January 1954 by American enthusiasts to
commemorate the first meeting of Holmes 1954 sold in North America.
and Watson at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in I do not know whether Conan
London. Below: Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's
brother. Doyle ever visited this continent,
TEA-TIME TALES but it is possible that he might have

I wonder
any other "old girls"
if
seen the name in the advertising

who were at the Convent at Roe- columns of American periodicals.

hampton as far back as 1 902 RAYMOND HULL

remember a nun telling some of the Haro Street, Vancouver,
Sherlock Holmes stories during the Canada.
tea break?
Tea consisted of bread-and-jam
and cold water, but the thrilling
way in which she told us the Daily Telegraph June 29 1955
adventure of "The Engineer's
Thumb" compensated one listener
at least for the absence of real tea!
LONDON DAY BY DAY
Holmes's diagnosis
HELEN EASTWOOD,
St. Agnes, Cornwall I understand that at a recent
spiritualist session the ghost of Mr.
Sherlock Holmes, when asked how
he accounted for the fact that there
John O'London's March 26 1954 were now so many cars in the West
End of London in spite of petrol
rationing, replied:
"THE PARADOL CHAMBER"
"Supplementary, my dear Watson."
I have seen that
'John in

O'London's Column' he is
PETERBOROUGH
speculating on the meaning of the
word Paradol in Sherlock Holmes'
mention of "The Adventure of the
Paradol Chamber". Paradol is a
 »

John O'London's January 29

1954

A BOOKMAN'S DIARY
The "birth" of Sherlock Holmes,
according to the calculations of
such redoubtable scholars as
Christopher Morley, occurred in
January, 1 854, and all over the
world Sherlockians have been cele-
brating the centenary.
The flourishing Sherlock Holmes
Society of London held an anni-
versary dinner on January 14th. Its

members had been asked to disguise

themselve as Holmesian characters,
or to display articles associated
with the stories. Many of the diners
had followed up this suggestion,
and the impedimenta ranged from a
top hat to false whiskers, from a
butterfly net to a crutch.
As an uninitiated guest I found
all this slightly bewildering and my
perplexity changed to con-
sternation when my host quietly
produced a candle stump, a box of
matches — and a revolver. The
Sherlockians round me nodded
approval. "The Adventure of the
Three Garridebs," someone
murmured, "James Winter, alias
Morecroft alias Killer Evans, of
sinister and murderous
reputation . .
."

The revolver lay pointed towards

my plate throughout an excellent -•*
dinner — naturally graced with
quantities of Beaune — and it was
still there when our chairman, Dr. • • •*•
• •
-.7* -
i

Maurice Campbell, rose to discourse

learnedly on the reasons for fixing
1 954 as theHolmes centenary year.
Do Sherlockians take themselve
too seriously? Has the cult grown
to ridiculous proportions? The best
answer to that came from my
neighbour. "A little folly," he said,
"does nobody any harm."
The menu was, of course, printed
in Baskerville type.

Radio Times November 1954

•WHAT COMPANY, WATSON!'

In this month's B.B.C. radio pro-
duction of "The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes" John Gielgud is
to play Holmes with Ralph Richard-
son as Dr. Watson. The part of <T9
Professor Moriarty will be taken
by Orson Welles.

98
 4

Robin Jacques superb "Radio Times" illustra-

tion for "The Sign of the Four" broadcast as a ./ -i
play on B.B.C. Radio in February 1963.

.-'Sl'/lV*
£&r
.!•»«
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Everybody's Weekly September 1 1956 BY PETER BROWNE

Stand in for Sherlock

opinion about the disappearance of the frogman

Crabb.'
Mr. Greaves, after some intensive research,
came up with an answer which, he feels modestly, was
not unworthy of Holmes himself.
'I feel sure after consulting the great detective's
account of the mysterious affair of the Lion's Mane,
that the disappearance of Crabb might well have been
due to a similar cause, namely Cyanea Capillata.
'You will recollect if you have read this story that
one man was killed and others seriously injured by a
sea creature which resembled a lion's mane in the
water . . . apparently it radiated invisible filaments to a
distance of fifty feet which could sting a human being
very severely and cause death.
'This occurred off the coast of Sussex, and no doubt
when Sherlock Holmes destroyed the creature with a
heavy rock parts of it broke off and survived along the
[Link] the mysterious disappearance of the
frogman.'
The first Holmes letter in Mr. Greaves bulging file

arrived shortly after the end of the Sherlock Holmes

exhibition held during the 1951 Festival of Britain. In
the Abbey National building Holmes' famous
sitting-room was reproduced in meticulous detail, from
carpet slippers to pipe racks, deerstalker to magnifying
glass. When the exhibition later went to the United
States there was even a bottle of synthetic Baker Street
Every now and again an envelope addressed to fog.
Sherlock Holmes, Esq., 221 B Baker Street, finds its Some of the letters are written in jest; some are
way to the Dead Letter Section of the G.P.O. in earnest requests for information on the finer points of
London. Whereupon those who deal with such matters Holmesiana, from such societies as the Danish Baker
smile indulgently and send it on to John Greaves. Band of Boston, and the
Street Irregulars, the Speckled
Mr. Greaves, whose office stands where 221 B would Scandalous Bohemians of Akron. But most are sent to
be it the street number existed, has become a kind of a detective who to the writers is a very real person.
latter-day Dr. Watson, conscientiously answering And Mr. Greaves is a man who hates to trample on an
Holmes' mail from all over the world. illusion.
It is a self-imposed task which he thoroughly enjoys Though he never replies as from Holmes, he
— for already, as Secretary of the Dickens Fellowship, carefully skates round the question of his existence; as
he finds that fictional characters are sometimes more in the case of eight-year-old Betsy Rusasco, of
vividly real to him than other people. Indianapolis, who wrote:
An amiable, comfortably rounded citizen who is 'You're quite clever at solving cases. My sister and I

resigned to being told that he looks just like Pickwick, play Sherlock have to be Watson. know
Holmes but I I

he takes considerable pains over the replies which he a man who has a pipe like yours. We have two
dictates in his handsome fifth floor office, its bookcase long-haired dachshunds and when we play Sherlock
stuffed with Dickens and Conan Doyle novels. Holmes we pretend they are bloodhounds. A magazine
Currently, he is rather pleased with the way he solved said you went to Indianapolis, U.S.A. Did you?' To
the problem put to him in a recent letter from which Mr. Greaves replied:
Hamburg. 'Mr. Holmes had to vacate his flat and unfortunately
'Dear Mr. Holmes: it's known notorious that you I do not know his present address, so he may have
have dissolved the heaviest criminal affairs on your gone to Indiana. am sure he would have been most
I

writing table. I would enjoy verv much to hear your interested to hear about your games Like you, . . . I

100
 Cover illustration for one of the numerous Holmes' pastiches "The
Casebook of Solar Pons" (1965) by the late American Sherlockian
enthusiast, August Derleth. Pons has been hailed by "Time" magazine
as "the literary descendent of the Master" and appeared in some 57
adventures. Derleth set his stories in Praed Street, London and the
detective has an assistant named Dr. Lyndon Parker. The publishing
house which Derleth created especially for the Pons stories has the
appropriate name of 'Mycroft & Moran'.

always enjoy reading stories of his adventures. Sorry I 'As your hero-worshipper I present the enclosed
have no pictures showing his pipe, but think you
I Acrostic Anthem in honour of your hundredth
might like this one of him at work and also birthday and shall appreciate of you mail your
photographs of his sitting-room at 221 B Baker Street. complete autobiography. The enclosed Acrostic may
The majority of the letters come from the U.S.A., please be framed, to embalm it to posterity. Your
where a Sherlock Holmes series starring Basil Rathbone reply will naturally be a great thrill of the century.
is widely shown on television; but they come, too, Wishing you a glorious birthday with a red-litten
from most countries in Europe, from India and South sunrise . .
.'

America. Mr. Greaves takes it all in his stride — even the

Mr. Greaves takes great trouble over letters from occasional tourist who comes knocking at his door to
children, like the fourteen-year-old Brazilian who see Sherlock Holmes in person. "I get used to it," he
wrote: 'I am at your disposal in the defence of the says, "and after all, the members of the Dickens
good cause,' or the Italian youngster who asked: 'Will Fellowship are a bit mad, too. We talk about Dickens'
you be leaving for some punitive expedition against the characters as though they were real people, and quite
Teddy Boys?' — and was sent the neatly typed reply: 'I overlook the fact that they didn't live at all." As he
feel sure that had Mr. Holmes been in practice at the wrote not long ago to the New Yorker who wanted to
present time he would certainly have been able to deal know the date of Holmes' death:
with them.' .'
'I feel Sherlock Holmes never did die . .

Most optimistic, perhaps, was the Indian who wrote:

101
 3

:m mi
I; IJm i
The Daily Telegraph February 7
1958
pBDOQfc
HOLMES IN THE HOUSES
OF PARLIAMENT
Once again, I see, that dog, over
which Sherlock Holmes and Watson
have their famous exchange in
"Silver Blaze" has been trotted out
— and slightly mishandled — on the
floor of the House of Commons.
Mr. Hale, an assiduous reader
with an exceptional memory,
referred to it on Tuesday in the
Tribunal debate. This was his
version:
"Sherlock Holmes would have
spoken of the strange conduct of
the Lord Chancellor in the night-
Above left: The word has gone around the world — and still does. One of the earliest Dutch time. Dr. Watson would have said,
editions of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" from the turn of the century, and (right) a "The Lord Chancellor did not bark
1961 edition of "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty" and "The Adventure of Charles Augustus
Milverton" in one volume. during the night-time or the day.'
Sherlock Holmes would have
The Sunday Times January 1 the creator of Sherlock Holmes replied that that was the strange

1957 himself, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in conduct of the Lord Chancellor."
a letter to Dr. Belldated May 7, I am reminded of an earlier
1892, frankly acknowledged the allusion. This was by Mr. Butler in
THE ORIGINAL HOLMES source of his inspiration. He October 1955 speaking in the
BY IRVING WALLACE admitted that he owed the creation autumn Budget. Twitting the
of Holmes to his old instructor's Opposition with what they had not
Sir.— A recent letter from Mr.
teachings and to his demonstrations said in the General Election he
Adrian Conan Doyle has just been
of deduction, inference, and obser- remarked:
brought to my attention. In this
vation. "It is rather like Sherlock
letter,Mr. Doyle, having read Mr.
Cyril Connolly's review of my book
2. Over a period of years I Holmes and Dr. Watson; what was
corroborated Sir Arthur's admission significant about the action of the
"The Fabulous Originals," strongly
objects to a chapter in which I
by correspondence or personal dog? The dog did not bark."
credit the remarkable Dr. Joseph
interviews with other students who, Now the odd thing about this
Bell of Edinburgh as the prototype
like Doyle, had studied under Dr. overworked quotation is that the
for Sherlock Holmes.
Bell in the Royal Infirmary of word "bark" — included by Mr.
Mr. Doyle argues that his own Edinburgh and who knew the role Hale and Mr. Butler and many
father was the model for Sherlock their mentor played in the creation others — does not occur at all!
Holmes — and that my attempt to of Sherlock Holmes. Here is the correct version:
Even Robert Louis Stevenson, in "Is there any point to which you
award the honour to Dr. Bell is "a
fairy tale."
1 893, after meeting the "ingenious would wish to draw my attention?"
While one must, indeed, admire
and very interesting" Sherlock "To the curious incident of the
Holmes in print for the first time, dog in the night-time."
Mr. Doyle's paternal devotion, one
asked Sir Arthur in a letter from "The dog did nothing in the
cannot help but feel that this very
devotion detracts from his objec-
Samoa: "Only one thing troubles night-time."
me. Can this be my old friend Joe "That was the curious incident,"
tivity. shall do no more than
I

Bell?" remarked Sherlock Holmes.

briefly summarise my case here.
Aspiring politicians please copy.
1 . The star witness in the case for IRVING WALLACE
Dr. Bell remains none other than Los Angeles PETERBOROUGH

102
1>«E A,
John O'London's February 19 1954 BY ANTHONY HOWLETT AND MICHAEL POINTER

The Great Detective on stage

and screen
Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who loathed every form of
society with his whole Bohemian soul, turned away
with disdain from popular notoriety. It is not
surprising therefore that he should have refused any
part in the numerous dramatizations of his adventures
on the stage and in the cinema.
That he would have made an excellent actor is
undeniable. Dr. Watson has related many examples of
his friend's amazing powers in the use of disguises and
how his "expression, his manner, his very soul seemed
to vary with every fresh part he assumed. The stage
lost a fine actor,even as science lost an acute reasoner,
when he became a specialist in crime."
Holmes himself admitted that he could never resist a
touch of the dramatic and, at the denouement of The
Six Napoleons when Watson and Lestrade "with a
spontaneous impulse . broke out clapping as at the
. .

well-wrought crisis of a play," we are told that a "flush

of colour sprang to Holmes's pale cheeks, and he
bowed to us like the master dramatist who receives the
homage of his audience." Unfortunately Mr. Holmes's
powers as an actor were not displayed to the general
public, so it remains to consider how he has been
portrayed by professional actors on the stage and
cinema screen.
The first author of a Holmes play appears to have
been Charles Rogers, whose Sherlock Holmes was
produced in Glasgow in May, 1 894, with John Webb as
Holmes and St. John Hammond as Watson. Little is
known now of this play or its production.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who had so brilliantly
edited Watson's notes and presented them to a wider
audience, entered the theatrical field in 1 897 with a
five-act drama, although, as he remarked in a letter, "I
have grave doubts about putting Holmes on the stage
at all." The play was sent to the impresario Charles
Frohman, in New York. Frohman turned it over to the
American actor-playwright William Gillette who
undertook to rewrite it, having been given carte
blanche in the selection of incidents and dialogue.
Gillette steeped himself in the Holmes stories and in
four weeks produced his drama — so thoroughly
rewritten that no one now knows what the original
play was about. The only copy of the first draft 'was
destroyed in an hotel fire, but a fortnight later Gillette
had rewritten it yet again. Sherlock Holmes, this
"absurd, preposterous, and thoroughly delightful
melodrama," as it has been called, was an immediate
success and it ran for 236 performances in New York.
After a tour of America, it was brought to London in
1901 where it ran at the Lyceum for another 216
performances. (One of the early English actors in the

104
 .

role of Billy, the pageboy, was Master Charles In 1910 Conan Doyle wrote a play version of The
Chaplin.) Speckled Band. It was produced at the Adelphi
No small measure of the play's success was due to Theatre with H. A. Saintsbury as Holmes — a part he
the performance of William Gillette in the title role — had already played over a thousand times on tour in
his physicalappearance, temperament and personality Gillette's play — and Lyn Harding made an outstanding
have caused him to be revered by many as one of the success as the formidable Dr. Rylott [sic] Doyle was
.

greatest Holmeses of the footlights. Many other actors delighted and he has recorded in his memoirs that:
appeared in the title role during the numerous revivals, 'We had a fine rock boa to play the title-role, a snake
tours and translations of the play, but such was the which was the pride of my heart ... We had several
attraction of Gillette that over thirty years after the snakes at different times, but they were none of them
original production he could still achieve a remarkable born actors and they were all inclined either to hang
success with a farewell tour. down from the hole in the wall like inanimate

Left: Basil Rathbone, one of the best Holmes,

in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in
1940. Above: Clive Brook in "The Return of
Sherlock Holmes" made in 1929. Right: A
rare still from one of the earliest Holmes' films,
"The Murder in Baker Street", made by the
Nordisk Film Company of Denmark in
1908-12. The Great Detective is played by back through the hole and get
bell-pulls, or else to turn
a German actor, Alwin Neuss.
even with the stage carpenter who pinched their tails
to make them more lively. Finally we used artificial
snakes, and every one, including the stage carpenter,
agreed that it was more satisfactory.'

Only a month after Sherlock Holmes had opened at The next production on the London stage was
the Lyceum, a popular burlesque appeared at Terry's another play by Conan Doyle at the Coliseum in 1921
Theatre in the Strand entitled Sheerluck Jones (or Why entitled The Crown Diamond: An Evening with
D'Gillette Him Off?), with Clarence Blakiston in the Sherlock Holmes, with Dennis Neilson-Terry as
lead. This was followed three months later, in January, Holmes. This one-act drama was not a success and
1902, by John Lawson's An Adventure in the Life of Doyle adapted it into a short story under the title of
Sherlock Holmes. The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone, which appeared
In America and in Europe about this period many in the Strand Magazine for October, 1 921
unauthorized Holmes plays were produced. In Spain Two years later, Harold Terry and Arthur Rose
the popularity of the detective was enormous and he collaborated in the writing of a melodrama, The
was pitted against celebrated criminals of fiction, such Return of Sherlock Holmes, based upon the stories of
as Raffles and Arsene Lupin, in incredible adventures. The Empty House and Lady Frances Carfax. It had a
Another melodrama, entitled Sherlock Holmes, long run at the Princes' Theatre, with Eille Norwood
Private Detective, appeared in 1903, and 1905 saw the (who had just completed a brilliant series of
production of The Bank of England: An Adventure in forty-seven Holmes films) in the title role. In January,
the Life of Sherlock Holmes, by Max Goldberg. Also in 1953, after a thorough revision by Arthur Rose and
1905 came The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Ernest Dudley, the play was revived with great success
Holmes, a frivolous "curtain raiser" by William at the New Theatre, Bromley. It was correctly set in
Gillette, who played Holmes, assisted by Charlie the period of the 1 890s and the most meticulous
Chaplin as Billy and by Irene Vanbrugh. attention to the fine points of Holmesian detail was

105
displayed by the producer, Stanley Van Beers. Between 1 908 and 1 91 the Nordisk Film Company of
The last play country, apart from revivals,
in this Denmark produced a series of thirteen film adventures,
was in 1 933 at the Lyric Theatre, when Felix Aylmer with such success that American, German and Italian
and Sir Nigel Playfair appeared in The Holmeses of filmcompanies quickly followed suit and numerous
Baker Street, by Basil Mitchell. Thirty-four years cheap films with lurid plots appeared in the cinemas —
previously Gillette had dared to show Holmes in love, one such masterpiece, Sherlock Holmes in The Great
but this amazing play revealed him as an elderly Murder Mystery, explained that "Holmes goes into a
widower with a grown-up daughter! "When have I trance to pin a murder on an escaped gorilla — not
written to this man and told him that hold him
I based on Conan Doyle."
criminally responsible ... we will have no more In 1912, however, the film rights were sold to the
trouble," said Holmes in The Creeping Man — he must Eclair Company of France, who made nine films based
have taken similar action here, for the play was quickly on the original stories, and in 91 4 A Study in Scarlet
1

withdrawn. was filmed in England, followed by The Valley of Fear

The views of Mr. Holmes upon his impersonators in 1916. The same year saw an historic film version of
and their adventures in the cinema are, it is feared, like the famous play Sherlock Holmes, made by Essanay
the case associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, "a and featuring William Gillette in his original role.
story for which the world is not yet prepared." The But a real turning point in the history of Holmes in
earliest silent films may perhaps be excused, for the the cinema was in 1921 when the Stoll Film Company
cinema was in its infancy, but it is difficult to resist of Great Britain released The Adventures of Sherlock
applying Watson's graphic description of "ineffable Holmes, first of several series of extremely good films
twaddle" to many of the more recent versions — featuring Eille Norwood; forty-seven films were made
although the few exceptions were particularly in all. They were of a very high standard, sincere and,
memorable and outstanding. except for slight modernization, faithful to the original
It is believed that the earliest Holmes film was made stories. Norwood's fine portrayal earned widespread
in England about 1906, but no details can be traced. praise and Doyle himself wrote: "He has that rare

106
 )

Left: The famous Lyn Harding playing Dr. Grimesby Roylott to Raymond
Massey's Holmes in the 1931 production of "The Speckled Band."
Below: Alan Wheatley in the B.B.C. Television series of six adventures
shown in 1951. Top: Mrs. Hudson makes a rare appearance in "The
Sleeping Cardinal" (1931). Minnie Rayner was the good lady, Arthur
Wotner was Holmes and Ian Fleming, Watson. Middle: Douglas Wilmer
in "The Illustrious Client", one of 12 adventures screened on B.B.C.
Television in 1964. Bottom: Holmes has even gone into repertory
fairly regularly — here Alfred Burke (Holmes) and Paul Daneman star
in the Birmingham Repertory Company's production in 1952.

quality which can only be described as glamour, which

compels you to watch an actor eagerly when he is
doing nothing. He has the brooding eye which excites
expectation and he has also a quite unrivalled power of
disguise."
One of the last silent films was Moriarty (American
title:Sherlock Holmes) in 1922, starring John
Barrymore and Roland Young. The character of
Holmes was altered to suit Barrymore's more romantic
personality and a prologue to the film dealt with
Holmes's youth and college career.
The advent of the talking film was an occasion for
prompt revival of interest in Sherlock Holmes, and
between 1929 and 1939 many Holmes films were
produced in England, America and on the Continent.
However, only a few were of merit, although featuring
well-known and accomplished actors. Notwithstanding
that many of the films revealed glaring anachronisms
and distortions of style and character, the principal
fault lay in the fact that often the actor portraying
Holmes lacked any physical resemblance to the
established portrait, for this ethic of personal
resemblance is an imperative requisite demanded by
sentimental tradition.
The lineaments of Clive Brook are not really
Holmesian, but in 1929 he impersonated the Great
Man in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and repeated
the portrayal in Sherlock Holmes four years later.
When Raymond Massey {The Speckled Band, 1 931
and Robert Rendel {The Hound of the Baskervilles,
1932) essayed the role, enthusiasts groaned dismally at
such violation of cherished tradition.
An example of muddled and misconceived casting
gave Reginald Owen a curious claim to distinction, for

107
Above: Reginald Owen who had the unique distinction of playing Right: A scene from another of the earliest Holmes' films, "A Study
both Holmes and Watson in two 1933 films. Middle: Carleton Hobbs in Scarlet" made in 1914 by the Samuelson Film Company. The
and Norman Shelley, B.B.C. Radio's Holmes and Watson in 1959. actor playing Holmes is unknown. (See page 118).

Below The two most recent portrayers of Sherlock Holmes: Robert

: he is probably the only actor who has played both
Stephens in the controversial "Private Lives of Sherlock Holmes"
(1 971 ) and Peter Cushing who has played the Master in both films
Holmes and Watson on the screen — in 933 he was 1

and on television. Watson to Clive Brook's Holmes, and later in the same
year he was cast as Holmes in an unrecognizable
version of A Study in Scarlet.
The year 1931, however, marked the debut of
Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes. In the prime of
his distinguished career, Wontner gave a portrayal
which is widely held to be the most authoritative. In
the words of Vincent Starrett, doyen of Holmesian
scholars, "no better Sherlock Holmes than Arthur
Wontner is likely to be seen and heard in pictures, in
our time. Sentimentalized, as is imperative, his.
detective is the veritable fathomer of Baker Street, in
person. The keen, worn, kindly face and quiet,
prescient smile are out of the very pages of the book."
Lady Jean Conan Doyle in a letter to Mr. Wontner also
expressed her delight in "your really splendid
acting .[and] masterly personation of Sherlock
. .

Holmes."
The most recent well-known actor to portray
Sherlock Holmes has been Basil Rathbone, who has
appeared in fourteen films and over five hundred radio
and television plays in America, at the end of last year
he was seen on Broadway in Sherlock Holmes, a play
written by his wife.
Rathbone's first Holmes film was an excellent
version of The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1939. For
the first time in film history the story was kept
correctly in period and followed the original narrative
fairly closely. Generally speaking, it was the best of all-
the Holmes films. A year later Rathbone appeared
in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, another
careful production in period, though by comparison
less convincing.
It is somewhat astounding to recall the number of

impersonations there have been. In the past sixty years

some sixteen plays featuring Sherlock Holmes have
been produced in England and America alone (it is
impossible to estimate the countless revivals), whilst
innumerable versions have appeared in other parts of
the world. During the last forty-eight years Holmes has
been portrayed in at least 1 1 5 films, and on the radio
and television the number is well over a thousand.

108
Daily Express January 1 1958 Daily Express November 12 1958 10.30 THE PUBLIC LIFE OF

Just fancy that ELEMENTARY,

3-D? IT'S
MY DEAR WATSON
Sherlock Holmes went to court at
By JAMES THOMAS
Doncaster yesterday — to plead
worth £1 7s.
guilty to stealing coal The B.B.C. will broadcast its first

from an open-cast coal site. 3-D sound radio play on Saturday

Holmes, A 37-year-old — a 25-minute production starring
£15-a-week labourer, of Morton Sherlock Holmes.
Road, Mexborough, was fined £5. The play will be part of the
B.B.C.'s experimental stereophonic
relay between 1 0.1 5 and 11.15 on
Kfe
Saturday morning.
1 "•**»»*
The producer, Raymond Raikes,
said yesterday: "These scenes from
SfeMC, i-
'Sherlock Holmes' are only a be-
ginning.

'fvjS-zfjSlSS
^% "But listen for such things as the
knife whizzing right across the
room, the passing hansom cab, the
sound of Holmes's violin at one end
Iff \jJJ^^ of his study as Watson enters

m Wf3? ' y!\--

through the door at the other."
The relay can be picked up by
positioning a TV set and radio six
feet apart. Half the transmission
will come through the TV speaker,
SHERLOCK HOLMES
A case-book of Sherlockiana
to celebrate the centenary of
Holmes's creator,
* the other half through the radio on
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
the Third Programme channel.
(born May 22, 1S59)
Soon the B.B.C. will be experi-
Introduced by Leonard Maguire
menting with a new kind of "solid
"A common turned up, shiny,
loafer, with collar Linking script by Eddie Boyd
seedy coat, red cravat and worn boots." Eille sound" which can be transmitted
Norwood as Holmes in disguise in "The
Compiled and produced
over one modified aerial instead of by W. Gordon Smith
Illustrious Client".
through two stations. But anyone
who wants to pick up will have to Radio Times May 15 1959
Daily Express September 15 1958 have a special radio set and an
extension speaker.

The case against Holmes by

John O'London's December 3 1959
Moriarty

I cannot say how grieved I am at

LITTLE CARTOON-
the insult paid to Mr. Sherlock
By Bermrd Hollowood THE BELL THAT DIDN'T RING
Holmes by the uncouth persons Editor o'f "Punch"
In Mr. A. G. Thornton's witty
who consider him to be old article The Bell That Didn't Ring'
fashioned and worthy of no re-
in your issue of December 3, the
spect.
author says: "Sherlock Holmes
Sir, the memory of a desperate
knew of the existence of the
struggle on the edge of "a ghastly
telephone but he never used it."
abyss" and of many other valiant
Now, if Mr. Thornton had read
ventures, has convinced me that
the entire Saga, he would have
Holmes, Englishman though he be,
known that in two Holmes-cases
is no fuddy-duddy.
(The Three Garridebs' and the
PROFESSOR MORIARITY 'Retired Colourman') the telephone
(Charles Milverton) played its part and was actually
Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead, N.W. installed at 221 B Baker Street.
True, this was during the last years
Note: Inside Show Business of Holmes's practice as a consulting
(Thursday) reported that the detective.
British company remaking the
Hound of the Baskervilles will not Cornelis Herring,
mention Sherlock Holmes in adver- President, The Dutch Sherlock
(Conan Doyle was born 100 years Holmes Society,
tising the picture because "teen-
ago.) W. de Zwijgerlaan 115, Amsterdam.
agers think him a fuddy-duddy."

109
 The Daily Telegraph December 13 Mortgage deeds were on show to
1957 prove that the newly-named public
house formed part of the hotel
where Sir Henry Baskerville lost a
THE SHERLOCK HOLMES INN brown boot and found for Holmes
WHERE BASKERVILLE LOST A the clue which led the trail of the
BOOT Hound of the Baskervilles.
Sherlock Holmes, whose records Even the 52-page catalogue of
show he was not averse to an occa- Holmesiana adorning the premises
sional mild tipple in between bouts was set in Baskerville type.
of sleuthing, was given another
Holmes was invited
manifest of immortality yesterday.
Holmes was invited to the lunch-
The Northumberland Arms
old
time opening. Latest reliable re-
THE SHERLOCK HOLMES public house, in Northumberland
ports are that he is a busy bee-
NORTHUMBERLAND STREET, LONDON W.C.2. Street, near Charing Cross Station,
keeper in Sussex. Characteristically,
near Inspector Lestrade of the Yard
he sent no quotable response to the
and Sir Henry Baskerville, whose
invitation.
'Another Glass, Watson! hound needs no introduction, was
It was thought probably that he
formally reopened as The Sherlock
7/ f
5 isdeeply engaged on a monograph
Holmes.
on "The Hibernation Habits of the
Part of the Sherlock Holmes
Hive, and the essential analysis of
Festival of Britain exhibition,
Sussex wild flower pollen as an aid
curved pipe, stale toast, hypo-
to crime detection."
dermic syringe and all, has been
Nor was there any word from Dr.
exported from Baker Street to
Watson. His dissatisfaction with the
Northumberland Street for a nearly
National Health Service is believed
complete reproduction of Mrs.
to have led to a temporary return
Hudson's sitting-room. It occupies
to the North-West Frontier.
part of the new grill-room.
Mrs. Hudson, now in retirement
"Doesn't make sense," said one
has made it known for a long time
of the waitresses. "With a snack bar
that, with respect, she is too old for
Icould make £5 a week clear on
such goings on.
that bit of space."
Whether Inspector Lestrade was
Brown boot clue there or not is not known. Out of

Mr. H. Douglas Thomson, a director

deference to Scotland Yard
of Whitbread and Co., to appease colleagues who have spent more

Baker Stret Irregulars and Holme- time at the old Northumberland

sian societies athome and abroad, Arms than he ever spent at 221 B,
explained that it would have been Baker Street, it was authoritatively
stated he preferred to remain
ideal to have had a Sherlock
incognito among the War Office
Holmes pub in Baker Street. But
clerks and local office workers who
this was not possible.
have used the house for years.
On
the other hand Holmes and
Yesterday they contemplated
Dr. Watson, it was more than evi-
with true British phlegm the
dent, had more than one pint of
prospect of becoming a new tourist
bitter beer in the original Northum-
attraction in London.
berland Hotel and crossed the street
for Turkish baths to repair what-
ever was called a hangover in those
days.

110
WHITBREAD
inn

SHERLOCK HOLMES
 " . ,

The Sunday Telegraph June 25 imaginatively and deeply at things rageously fit young men who run
1 9b 1
we take for granted." with uncommon celerity. All this
All very well, of course, but you may, with application, have
Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts are learned from your newspaper. And
DEAR, DEAR WATSON
BY DEREK BOWMAN serious people: what will they say though your mind is not unduly
about an American fake Holmes retentive, you must be aware that
Except for his admiration for the and a female Watson in a comedy fast runners prefer hard ground. In
one woman who got the better of which ends up with its 30 char- all these circumstances my pre-

him, Sherlock Holmes never paid acters in a wild chase across the diction was inevitable.
much attention to the opposite sex. stage? "Come, my dear Watson, we may
What he would have made of a "No offence is meant and hope I safely leave the details to the news-
female Dr. Watson is hard to none is taken. Playfair is after papers. Weightier matters await our
imagine — but a female Dr. Watson Professor Moriarty just as Holmes attention."
appears in Joan Littlewood's is," says Mr. Goldman.
newest production, "They Might Be
Giants," at the Theatre Workshop, The Times September 14 1 959
Stratford, E., on Wednesday. " Times change,
The real Holmes, of course, THE CASE OF THE
would never tolerate such a thing, PREDETERMINED GAME my dear Watson . .
John'
but the explanation is simple. The Holmes & Watson at the Tourists' ... or so I venture to deduce
from certain, evidence
writer.
DlcksonCarr,
brought to my
notice. Not tells the real-
play is about an American ex-judge Match a banaom In Baker Street. life story of
Not a gaslight In Piccadilly. how one re.
called Playfair (Harry H. Corbett) Leeds 20 pts, Australians 44 And as for the Strand — vered crea-
u Your observation [Link]/f
astounds
who goes mad and imagines he is me. Holmes. When last I
Doy 1 e.
visited the Strand " — himself'
solved a notorious criminal
the Great Detective. Dr. Mildred "Watson, pray open the sealed " I was talking, my
dear oase - applylngmi/ methods."
fellow, not of the estimable
Watson (Avis Bunnage) is his envelope entrusted to your care
I thoroughfare of that name,
"You intrigue me. Holmes. I—"
but of the equally famous " But that Is merely one
psycho-analyst. on Saturday morning. It contains a 'Strand Magazine.' In whose Item. There are also, among
pages you and I once cut other good things, a group of
The author who has had the prediction that the Australian each prominent figures. Have
row seen a recent copy ? "
brilliant short stories and
topical articles and a delec-

temerity to put Sherlock Holmes — Rugby League team would defeat •• Well. I—" table colour feature on "The
English at Table.' Yes. the
"Then I 6trong1y advocate 'Strand' may have changed
even a phoney one — into an Leeds by a substantial margin; that you do ao. It Is, as with the times, Watson, but
always, a moat excellent Its old quality goes on for
American love story is a 33-year-old further, that they would score most magazine. But modernised. ever."
Watson, modernised. A new
Chicagoan, James Goldman, who of their points in the second half." 'Strand, * rich In the pith and
movement of the times, full
THE NEjV
looks like a younger brother of
Arthur Miller. It is his first play to
"Amazing, Holmes."
"Elementary, my dear Watson. If
of colour and variety, good
wTltlng and illustration. In
the January Number, for
example, that distinguished
STRAND
THE MACAZINS TO IHAP

be produced, and it took him two you have bent up your mind to January Namaer new en —It at mil nmiaftntt «•*' [Link],. mrlc* I It

years to write in a New York apart- absorb the facts of current football,
ment. He sent it to the impresarios, you will know that Leeds are now Advertisement for the "Strand Magazine"
the late Robert E. Griffith and but a shadow of other teams they placed in the national newspapers in
Harold Prince, who decided that have had in recent years. With your January 1949. Sadly, the periodical was
already doomed and was finally incorporated
only Miss Littlewood could do it limited powers of observation you into "Men Only" in March 1950.
justice. may also have discovered that this
"My madman is very verbal. He has was their fourth match in eight
no trouble talking," says the taci- days. In this extraordinary weather,
turn Mr. Goldman. my dear Watson, the inflexible
"As well as being a love story it's surface of the earth has an
a detective story and deals with unfortunate effect upon such
upper class characters in New York human frames as are thrown
— though there will be no American violently upon it. At Leeds, as
accents used. elsewhere, there are men
"The play attempts to say a temporarily hors de combat.
number of things connected with "The Australians, on the other
our assessment of the world around hand, were playing their first match
us. It asks us to look much more in this country. They are out-

113
LET'S FACE IT! By Lewis Williams

" Yes, comrade— I DO have a theory about the

popularity of Sherlock Holmes in Russia, but I
"
hesitate to mention it!
 5

The Daily Telegraph August 18 public's' civil code forbidding The appeal was heard in a small
1959 "unjust enrichment," they were room in the Supreme Court build-
entitled to a share of the profits ing a few blocks from the Kremlin.
from sale of Sir Arthur's books. The room was simply furnished.
CONAN DOYLE SUIT FAILS Berman estimated that the
Prof. In high-backed chairs decorated
Moscow courts payment bar
defendants, the Ministry of Culture, with hammers and sickles, sat three
From a special correspondent
and four publishing houses, had had judges. Prof. Berman said he had
MOSCOW, Monday a gross income of 1 3,555,850 been unable to get Soviet legal
Sherlock Holmes suffered one of roubles (about iVA million at the assistance and presented his case in
his rare defeats here to-day, as did normal rate) from Conan Doyle's Russian with only occasional
the hundreds of Western authors books sold before May 1 1 957. ,
assistance from an interpreter.
who were looking over his shoulder Putting the author's fair share at 1 Anna D. Nescheglotova, an
in the fight for authors' com- per cent., they claimed compensa- assistant Procurator, took only five
pensation from Soviet publishers. tion of 2,033,347 roubles (about minutes to urge rejection of the
The Supreme Court of the £180,000). plea. The defendants were not
Russian Federation upheld a lower Had he won his case Prof. directly represented.
court's ruling that foreign writers Berman would have filed also for a Beside Western correspondents,
were not entitled to royalties or share of receipts from the sale of there were only five interested
other compensation from the sale another 1 1 million copies of the Soviet citizens present, including
of their works in the Soviet Union. Sherlock Holmes stories since May, lawyers. They listened attentively
The decision left the 1957. He had also offered to accept to Professor Berman 's argument,
matter of authors' rights where it a share of profits instead of a flat but left before the decision,
has been since the Communists 15 per cent. confident of the outcome.
seized power in 1 91 7. Soviet pub- The suit was dismissed last year As is customary in cases of
lishing houses are free to publish by Moscow City Court. The procedure here, no stenographic or
any work of any writer whose claimants could request the Pro- other record was kept of the
country has not made a special curator to ask for another review hearing. Thus, as the case was not
agreement with Moscow to cover by Supreme Court of the Soviet accepted for trial, it will not go into
his rights. Union, but they have decided not the records.
They may, and in a few cases do, to press the case further. For the same reason the Conan
pay royalties to the authors, but Doyle estate will not have to pay
they are not obliged to do so. The A KOIIAH ;i< i! LI the normal fee levied against losers
legal basis for this is a section of the in Soviet civil cases — six per cent

Soviet copyright law which speci- of the sum claimed.

fically exempts foreign authors
from its protection.
The Sunday Times 16 April 1967
Efforts to challenge it have failed
repeatedly. The Supreme Court
held to-day that a complaint PERSONAL
brought by the estate of Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle was merely an at- HOLMES, arrived Syon Lodge,
Isleworth, Middlesex. Signs of
tempt to circumvent this exemp-
recent struggles. Thousands of
tion and therefore inadmissible.
antiques in mansion and grounds
Sir Arthur's son, Adrian, and his
but can detect nothing spurious.
counsel, Prof. Harold J. Berman, of k'AJU
Mr. Crowther opens 7 days a week:
Harvard University, thought they
had found a legally plausible and
states struggles all occasioned by
clients fighting impulse to purchase.
politically palatable way of ob-
Returning tomorrow; please accept
taining compensation. Cover of one of the unauthorised Russian
translations of "The Adventures of the Six
delivery at Baker Street of
They conceded that they had no
claim for royalties, but argued that,
Napoleons" published in Moscow in 1945. Chippendale chimneypiece on my
under a clause of the Russian Re-
behalf. WATSON.

115
Daily Express March 19 1965 BY PETER CHAMBERS

The women in Sherlock's life

Love never found a way with Sherlock Holmes. Yet the Sherlock Holmes story by involving him with the
the super-sleuth of Baker Street created half a century celebrated Irene Adler, the only woman who achieves
ago by Arthur Conan Doyle — his adventures are all any prominence in the Holmes saga.
crime, no sex — is having a remarkable revival on both
Unusual
sides of the Atlantic.
Miss Adler (according to the story) was an operatic
The musical "Baker Street" is on Broadway.
a hit In
Britain, the B.B.C.-TV series, "Sherlock Holmes,"
contralto, born in New Jersey, and sometime good
friend of the King of Bohemia.
plays to an audience of more than 1 1 million every
Saturday night, it was announced yesterday.
"She is the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this
planet," remarked Sherlock Holmes once.
The 1 2 episodes are costing £60,000, and American
For the hawk-nosed detective in the deerstalker hat,
TV companies are showing interest in buying it.
this was an unusually fulsome, almost gushing, thing to
No Kissing say about a member of the opposite sex.
What is new about Sherlock Holmes? just that he is But the affair went no further, of course. Mr. Colin
the half-forgotten original of all the private-eyes, ace London solicitor and secretary of the
Prestige, a
detectives, and thriller heroes of our era. Sherlock Holmes Society, told me: "The idea of the
A sign outside the New York theatre showing Great Detective actually becoming involved in a
"Baker Street" says: "Sherlock Holmes taught James romance with Miss Adler is quite, quite ridiculous.
Bond all he knows!" Holmes didn't do that kind of thing."
Except, of course, that Sherlock Holmes knew next A bachelor, firmly attached to his briar pipe and
to nothing about women. He never admired a pretty spy-glass, Holmes had only one true friend — Dr.
ankle, or kissed a fragrant female cheek. Watson, of course.
The American musical tries to inject romance into Watson worried about Holmes.
 "No wonder, he was a classic manic-depressive," said
actor Douglas Wilmer,who read everything he could
find about Holmes before accepted the leading role in
the TV series.
"He was rude, dedicated, disagreeable, ruthless,
passionate —and peculiar. Those heroin-induced
glooms couldn't be normal, could they?"
Dr. Watson wanted to see Holmes married and
settled. But even the atrractive Miss Violet Hunter —
"a woman with a mind," said Holmes — could not
distract him from the riddle in hand.

Cynical
"I'm engaged!" announced the great detective one day.
Dr. Watson beamed with pleasure. Disguised as a
plumber, Holmes had promised marriage to a
Hampstead housemaid.
Two versions of the delectable Mary Morstan. Opposite page: As But, of course, there was no love in it. Holmes was
portrayed by Isobel Elson with Eille Norwood in "The Sign of Four"
following up a few clues, and cynically trifled with the
in 1923 and Above: as seen by an unknown artist in "Stories of
Sherlock Holmes" published in America by Harpers in 1904. maid's affections in order to get on the inside track.
Left: Basil Rathbone with the beautiful Ida Lupino in "The Perhaps the Sherlock Holmes revival will start a new
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1940) and Below: Inga Swenson
as Irene Adler has designs on Sherlock (Fritz Weaver) in the American
fashion in heroes — the crime-buster who cares more
Stage musical, "Baker Street" (1965). about the crime than he does about busts.
Evening Mail June 12 1965 And particularly to Mr. Michael played the part excellently."
Pointer, of Grantham, who has sent But still no name.
THE CASE OF THE UNKNOWN me details of his own efforts to The trail now looked promising.
HOLMES solve this particular mystery. It is a Mr. George Pearson was eventually
BY ARTHUR STEELE detection story in its own right. reached by letter.
After years spent, with a But he had no record of the man
Who was the man in the deerstalker colleague, in cataloguing all the who had played Holmes.
hat, sucking a pipe with rather data on Holmes plays and films All he recalled was that the man
soulful expression which was no which they could track down, Mr. was the accountant at Samuelson's
doubt meant to indicate that Pointer admits that, unlike the Royal Film Agency in Corporation
Sherlock Holmes was engaged in a unique character whom Conan Street.
particularly baffling mystery? Doyle created, he accepts defeat. The trail turned to the British
Unless the readers of this column Film Institute, to which Mr.
can help. Pearson said he had given a number
The film was a 1 91 4 version of of stills from the film.
"A Study in Scarlet." It was the And that is where the portrait of
first story into which Conan Doyle the unknown Holmes was found.
brought his apparently deathless
And where the trail flickered out.
detective.
The identify of the non-
And it was the first picture to be professional actor of 50 years ago
made by the Samuelson Film Com- still remains one unsolved mystery
pany. was shot at Worton Hall,
It
in the history of Holmes.
Isleworth, and produced by one of
the British movie pioneers, George Radio Tim es January 18 1962
Pearson.
It featured Fred Paul and Agnes The Voice of Holmes
Glynne. Beyond that Mr. Pointer
My dear rather silly old grandfather
could at first find nothing.
always used to recall meeting
With the discovery of a book by
Holmes in his prime year of 1895,
Mr. Pearson, the producer, he was
and being addressed by him thus:
back on the trail.
'Woodman's Lee, cabby, as quick as
In it was an account of "A Study you can go!'
in Scarlet." The tones in which this thrilling
All we know isthat he was an
After details of shooting in command was uttered he always
accountant in a Birmingham film
Cheddar Gorge and on Southport described as 'high and somewhat
office.
sands (for the Rockies and the strident,' the very term used by
And he was chosen to play the
plains of Salt Lake), Mr. Pearson Watson of his friend's voice in "The
great detective in the first in which
went on: "Sherlock Holmes was a Stockbroker's Clerk."
Holmes appeared. problem. Much depended on his Highly strident leading players
That alone should earn him a physical appearance. Build, height, are little favoured by modern
place incinema annals. But no one mannerisms had to be correct. audiences. What might be termed
knows his name. "By a remarkable stroke of 'astringency' of voice is a good
With Sherlock Holmes riding a fortune G. B. Samuelson had an microphone substitute; and if ever
fresh wave of popularity — new employee in his Birmingham office there was an astringent voice it is

Holmes films are now

being shot, who absolutely fitted these require- surely that of Carleton Hobbs,
and the musical, "Baker Street" is ments ... decided to risk his
I whose portrayal, according to
breaking records on Broadway — engagement as the shrewd detec- numerous listeners, epitomise the
the identification of the first in the tive. Sherlock Holmes of their
long, long line of his movie inter-
"With imagination.
long and lean figure,
his
preters would be particularly satis-
his deer-stalker hat, cape-coat and MICHAEL HARDWICK
fying to all Holmes fans.
curved pipe, he looked the part and London, W.1.

118
 Daily Express October 2 1968

ROBERT PITMAN
In my opinion

Though no Baker Street fanatic, I

rejoice that the new television

"Hound of the Baskervilles" is so
authentic and so much better than
the earlier efforts in the series.
In 1960 we took a really cheap
(£15 a head) family trip to Lenin-
grad. Without the aid of guides, we
discovered that, despite the myth,
almost no Russian speaks a second
language.
But one bright-eyed boy of 1 2
did. He prattled at us. He cried:
"Sherlock Holmes!" "Baskerville
dog!" "Woof, woof!" It was,
obviously, one of his favourite
school books.
We have often smiled at the
memory of the Baskerville dog. But
now we find ourselves wondering
about that happy, genial boy.
Where are you, little Ivan? Are
you lining up bravely with those
other young radicals in defence of
free speech against the Kremlin?
Or are you perhaps strutting in
boots around Prague, with all the
solidity of Dr. Watson and without
a particle of his kindliness and con-
science?

Elementary The Daily Telegraph March 19

1970
my dear Watson LONDON DAY BY DAY
I neverthought of that is the first reaction of many people In Holmes's footsteps

when we mention that Lloyds Bank Travellers' Cheques are Sherlock Holmes's association with
just as useful here at home as they are abroad. Yet it does not Baker Street began in 1 887, but not
take a Sherlock Holmes to perceive the similarity of the two until now has it become visible.
Today a "My Dear Watson"
cases. It is very convenient, anywhere, to pay one's way by coffee shop opens there and in the
Travellers' Cheoues — hotel bills, rail tickets, air or boat summer a 160-bedroom hotel
passages. And even more so to be able to re-fill one's note- named after the detective, on the

case judiciously from time to time instead of cramming it

siteof the former YWCA
headquarters.
from the outset with highly-transferable wealth.
This project is welcomed by the
Lloyds Bank Travellers' Cheques can be cashed at the Sherlock Holmes Society of
branches of most British Banks and are widely accepted London and two of its members,
throughout Britain by many other agents. The security and Michael and Mollie Hardwick, who
have written five books about
consequent ease of mind they provide are invaluable.
Conan Doyle's creation and
dramatised many of the stories, are
helping the hotel with its
LLOYDS BANK TRAVELLERS' CHEQUES atmosphere.
They are also assisting a

Ask at any branch of the Bank for full details of these facilities
Knightsbridge travel agency to set
up tours of the south and west "in
1955
Holmes's footsteps."

119
 1 m ^~% ^
, »
^^

# ^
*.
*

% N
K
 APPEARS IT
THAT OUR. QUARRY
HASVANlSMeP
watzon !
Three modern strip cartoons featuring the Immortal Detective. Top:
"The Red-Headed League" from the London "Evening Standard."
Middle: "The Sussex Vampire" from the American "Washington Post"
and Bottom: "The Black Death" from the French "France Soir"
(1954-5).

^UP WITH
YOUR
V w • •• . •/
A
DOhi T SUOCT, LESTEADE
VOU'LL HIT WATSON! ^^
!

HANDS' ^
>g?|gs o i^3Hfc'
> 1
-•* '*'"'.
-.1 K $*SS
k

1^, kp^3R§^W~iX vtt !i H

K#~4r flB^V^I l

%_Z__1tS§^ IfBm
PfFfSANlOs-N.
\6iPcoM ^ClSv lHJ%
1^ *^*^ ^ " •
'.X^j^\"^ -^ -.
w^^^^S^^ sp\ik%^yA )^z_
V
The Times August 31 1966 THE TIMES LEADER

By the Reichenbach Falls

Day after daythis summer has come news of tragedy

in the Alps. Men of great experience who have lived all
their lives among the mountains have been killed as
well as newcomers from outside. Yesterday there was a
fresh variant on this grim theme. One of the smugglers
who operate across the frontier between Italy and
Switzerland was making his way with three of his
companions, pack on back, along a narrow path by the
edge of a ravine. A customs official was on their trail.
The smuggler slipped, the customs man grabbed at
him, and both fell into the ravine.
For an English audience this sad story of human
hunter and hunted in the Alps has one inevitable echo.
The date is May 4, 1 891 the place the Reichenbach
;

Falls. From London to Switzerland Holmes and

Watson have been dodging Professor Moriarty. They
have given him the slip in Belgium and France, and
gone by the Gemmi Pass and Interlaken to the little
village of Meiringen. There they have put up at the
English Hof. Thence they have taken their fatal
detour to admire the Falls, and together stood "near
the edge peering down at the gleam of the breaking
water far below." And there, a few hours later, the
great detective and the Napoleon of crime end their
contest, reeling over the abyss, locked in each other's
arms.
But of course only one of them really reeled.
Holmes's return to life three years later is still one of
the most dramatic and controversial passages in
literature. It was responsible for the only recorded
occasion on which Watson fainted. And who should

Two famous views of the grim battle between Holmes and Professor
blame him? Even though Watson was used to Holmes's
Moriarty in May 1891 which seemingly resulted in the death of the disguises (had he not been a decrepit Italian priest for
Great Detective — until public pressure caused Conan Doyle to re-
part of the journey which led to Meiringen?) it was a
suscitate him. Above: Arthur Twidle's illustration for the 1903 edition
of "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes"; and Right: Sidney Paget's bit thick to reappear in Watson's rooms as an even
original interpretation for the "Strand Magazine" (December 1893).
I his event has proved the inspiration tor innumerable newspaper
more decrepit bookseller, and thicker still to throw off
reports over the years, not the least of these being a "Times" Leader the disguise without warning.
of August 1966. Two years later, in May 1968, members of the
London Sherlock Holmes Society decided to mark the event with The Final Problem, which brought Holmes and
a special 'pilgrimage' to the scene where two members re-enacted the Moriarty to their fatal confrontation, was so
death struggle. The event was recorded in inventive style by the
"Dail/ Sketch's" reporter, Frederick Newman (see overleaf). apparently conclusive that to this day there are many
who find Holmes's explanation of how he escaped
unsatisfactory. Father Knox distinguished between
those international scholars who thought Watson had
faked The Final Problem for his own purposes, and
those who "regard The Final Problem as genuine and
the Return-stories as a fabrication". The evidence of
the latter is not easily disposed of ("The true Holmes
never splits an infinitive; the Holmes of the
Return-stories splits at least three", and so on). And
yet if such stories as The Norwood Builder and The
Dancing Men do not belong to the true canon, what is
anyone to think? Conan Doyle himself described them
as bulls-eyes. He ought to know.

122
Uh

*V

t >,;
 London Daily Sketch, of Mr. Holmes and Prof. Moriarty locked in combat.
A pictorial likeness, made by Mr. Geoffrey White of the
 be the late Prof. Moriarty, whereupon I

shall be once more [Link]

Scholefield, QC, Barrister and Master of

PRESUMED DEATH the Middle Temple."

I observed that the two men were well

matched: Sir Paul, 59 years old and six

foot tall; Prof. Moriarty, aged 66 and

OF Mr 6ft. 4in., and not more than a few pounds

between them.
At the same time, I could not but
notice that their efforts stemmed not
SHERLOCK HOLMES from any bitter emnity towards each
other, but were rather directed towards
the satisfaction of a great multiude of
camera-operators, who hung like bats
from the surrounding rocks.
I gathered that Sir Paul is President,

and Mr. Scholefield a member of the

Tragic Occurrence As Sherlock Holmes Society,
inspired this pilgrimage to Meirengen as
which has

the climax to a tour of Switzerland,

during which scenes of many of Holmes'
The Detective Plunges adventures here have been revisited.
Having struggled manfully for some
minutes, and with Sir Paul confessing that
at the Foreign Office he was more
From Precipitous Ledge accustomed
intellectual
to
nature,
wrestling of a more
the two men fell
apart. Somewhat thankfully, it occurred
to me.

SCREAMING
Now were taken by two
PROF. MORIARTY
their places
similarly dressed Alpine guideswho with
bloodcurling yodels and a great deal of
tottering and tumbling rolled on the

ALSO PERISHES brink of the Reichenbach Falls in the

very place described by Holmes's creator,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Two photographic likenesses of Sir
From Our Own Paul and Mr. Scholefield had been des-

Mr
Correspondent, patched from London by Special Courier,
and from these the guides had prepared
FREDERICK NEWMAN. effigies.
Amid gasping and screaming and
MEIRINGEN, May 1st groaning and hissing from 40 odd
watching members of the Sherlock
Holmes Society, these effigies were now
MUST confess it was not entirely by chance that found myself today I
observed to plunge into the cauldron of
I upon the mountainside 2,400 ft. above Meiringen. rumour and In truth, the falls.
speculation concerning extraordinary circumstances had drawn me there. There seemed no doubt but that
Even so, I was scarcely prepared for the spectacle that met my eyes. Moriarty was dead, and few will weep for
Before me, balanced on the edge of a fearful abyss, were two elderly this treacherous blackguard. But had
persons — one in deer-stalker and cape, the other in a black frock coat — Holmes, the greatest detective that ever
who by their garb I took to be gentlemen. lived, died too?

Yet by their actions, their grunting and snarling, their grappling with The sunlight continued to pierce the
rising sprays of the falls. The heavens did
each other, and their evident determination to hurl each other from the
not darken. Portents, surely, that Holmes
perilous ledge on which they perched, they appeared far from refined.
had not expired?
Touching first one and then the other Take comfort, dear reader, Holmes
lightly upon the shoulder with my cane, I to confirm.
re-appeared this very afternoon while a
addressed myself to each in turn above "I am playing of Sherlock
the part
dignitary of Meirengen was delivering his
the roar of the Reichenbach Falls behind Holmes," he replied courteously enough,
funeral oration.
them. though in a somewhat breathless manner.
"Pray excuse me," I begged as the falls "And I am re-enacting the death struggle PRIVILEGES
tumbled 600 ft. in clouds of spray. "But between Holmes and that arch criminal And
the great man learned into the
what is the meaning of this curious Moriarty, which took place at the very bargain that he had been made an
performance?" falls on May 4, 1891." honorary citizen of the village. Should he
The figure in the cape, whom, upon 'Then this," I said, turning to Sir pass this way again, he will be entitled,
closer inspection, I perceived to possess a Paul's antagonist and entering into the among other privileges to free use of the
fine, aquilinenose and powerful, bush- spirit of the matter. "I deduce to be toilets at Meirengen Railway Station.
like eyebrows, declared that he was Sir Professor Moriarty." Miraculously, Holmes is still alive, a
Paul Gore-Booth, head of the Diplomatic sturdy 140-year-old.
Service — a fact which I was at first MULTITUDE It would be a mystery, indeed, were he

disinclined to believe, but was able later He replied: "Quite so, but shortly I shall allowed to die.

125
The Observer 6 December 1970

NOT BEFORE THE PUBLIC!

BY POLLY TOYNBEE
Dedicated members of the Sherlock
Holmes Society of London are
outraged by the new film called
The Private Life of Sherlock
Holmes.'
One scene suggests that Holmes
and Watson were a homosexual
couple. Mr Philip Dalton, the
society's secretary, commented
yesterday, 'The idea is fantastic. I

think it is rather revolting.'

Lord Gore-Booth, the former
head of the Foreign Office, who
played the part of the great
detective when the society made a
fancy-dress pilgrimage to Switzer-
land in 1968, said yesterday: 'I
reacted to the film rather as Shake-
speare would have reacted if he had
seen the play "Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are Dead." Nothing in

the stories suggests that Holmes was

homosexual. think this is quite
I

out of the spirit of Conan Doyle.'

But what about Holmes's brother
Mycroft, member of the
Misogynists Clyb? 'He was just a
clever, lazy, clubman. It's a very
fashionable interpretation.'
Civil servant James Holroyd, a
Holmesian expert who has
published two books on the
subject, 'Baker Street Byways,' and
'Seventeen Steps to 221 B,' said:
'There is no suggestion whatever of
homosexuality in the stories. In
fact, there is fairly conclusive
evidence that Watson had three
different wives, and at the end of
"The Sign of Four" he falls in love.'
Barrister Anthony Hallet said:
'As a Sherlock Holmes story the
film didn't even begin. I suppose
the good looks of Robert Stephens
(who plays the name part) would
appeal to the ladies, but he behaved
absolutely abominably to his house-
keeper, Mrs Hudson.'
Mr Hallet agreed that
occasionally the society had
debated the question of Holmes's
sex life. 'We played around with the
idea, twisting quotations and taking
them* out of context, but that was
only for our own amusement. We'd
never do it in public'

126
The new faces of Holmes! Since the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
there have been several sequels to the Adventures, some of the best
being by his son, Adrian. The scene here was drawn by Robert Fawcett
for Adrian's "The Adventure of the Red Window" which appeared in
"Collier's" in 1953. Another tale which he wrote with John Dickson
Carr, "The New Exploits of Sherlock Holmes" prompted Professor
Moriarty to emerge from the shadows to pen the letter here to the
London "Evening Standard" in October 1943. Perhaps the most con-
troversial of the new interpretations of Ho(ffies has been the film,
"The Private Lives of Sherlock Holmes" made by Billy Wilder in 1970.
In the scene here Holmes, played by Robert Stephens, is being kissed
by Genevieve Page, while an astounded Dr. Watson (Colin Blakeley)
looks on. Sherlock also obviously has a place far into the future as
this cover illustration for "The Science-Fictional Sherlock Holmes"
shows. Published in 1960 by American enthusiasts, the book took
the Great Detective and Dr. Watson on exploits into the far reaches
of the universe.
 .

Daily Express January 3 1973

BANK RAID 'COPY OF 1890 STORY' money and safety deposit valuables in excess of £1]/2
million."
BY ARNOLD LATCHAM
An added clue to the 1971 raid was revealed by Mr.
Harman as he described how the gang got to know the
The 1971 Great Bank Robbery was a "dead ringer" of layout.
one of Sherlock Holmes's most famous cases. One of the thieves, 37-year-old Reginald Tucker,
It took place 1 6 months ago only a stone's throw rented a safety deposit which enabled him regularly to
from Mr. Holmes's legendary lodgings in Baker Street, visit the bank vaults and measure them up roughtly
London. with his umbrella.
And it was a real life copy of a crime in J une, 1 890, Mr. Harman said the raiders came up into the bank
described in the Sherlock Holmes story "The on the weekend of September 11,1 971 through a 7ft. ,

Redheaded League," said prosecutor Mr. Robert by 5ft. hole.

Harman at the Old Bailey yesterday. Their starting point was an empty shop 40 yards
Deftly to a jury of ten men and two women, Mr. away.
Harman compared the robberies of fact and fiction, And, said Mr. Harman, the tunnel they used was so
and the one vital difference between them. perfectly excavated by 38-year-old photographer
In Fiction the robbers tunnelled their way to the Anthony Gavin that it did not need any props to keep
bank vaults from two doors away and when they the roof up.
came up through the floor found Mr. Holmes, Dr. Mr. Harman added that all the equipment for the
Watson, and the bank manager waiting for them. job was provided by 35-year-old car dealer Thomas
In Fact when the 1971 robbers did exactly the same Stephens.
thing — tunnelling into Lloyds Bank Baker Street Stephens of Maygood Street, Islington; Tucker of
branch from a shop also two doors away — there was Lee Street, Hackney; and Gavin of Brownlow Road,
no one waiting for them. Dalston, have pleaded guilty to stealing from the bank
"So," said Mr. Harman, "they got clean away with and possessing explosives. They await sentence.

'Hurry up! They still believe we are re-enacting an old Sherlock Holmes
Daily Telegraph April 5 1973 adventure!" Bill Tidy's "Punch" cartoon of May 1968 seems an amazing
premonition of the news story

ELEMENTARY
At a recent Yugoslav book trade
meeting, President Tito condemned
the import and publication of
"pornography and trashy
literature." But he praised Sherlock
Holmes. "As a child," he said, "I
read books about Sherlock Holmes.
Ithink that such books can develop
children's imagination and sense of
justice."
With unexpected frankness Tito
called Marx's works "the heaviest
kind of literature, making great
demands on time and concentra-
tion." He suggested that the way to
encourage people to read them was
to produce popular editions.
Even better (and incidentally
reconciling an inherent
contradiction) would be to produce
books in which Marx and his
teachings were merged with the life
and philosophy of Sherlock
Holmes, with Fred Engels at his "Hurry up. They still believe we are re-enacting an old Sherlock
side, perhaps, as a fox-hunting, Holmes adventure."
dialectical Dr. Watson, whose utter
inability to understand what Marx dinars Iwill undertake to write the

was getting at would provide light first Sherlock Marx story: "A
relief. Study in Scarlet."
For a substantial advance of PETER SIMPLE

128
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 I
THE ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES
by William S. Baring-Gould

Here, in two volumes, is every word that Sir Arthur

Conan Doyle (1859-1930) ever wrote about the ad-
ventures of the detective and the doctor— fifty-six
short stories and four complete novels, arranged
chronologically from Holmes's first case, in 1874,
when he was a university student, to his signal ser-
vice to the British Empire in the opening days of the
First World War.
William S. Baring-Gould, the editor, who was one
of the greatest Sherlockian authorities, wrote two
previous volumes about the Sage of Baker Street—
The Chronological Holmes and Sherlock Holmes of
Baker Street: A Life of the World's First Consulting
Detective. To The Annotated Sherlock Holmes he
contributed eleven fascinating chapters of introduc-
tion on Conan Doyle, on Holmes and Watson and
and on the Baker
the evil Professor James Moriarty,
Street scene; he also provided "interludes" that throw
a new on many perplexing problems raised by
light
Watson's writings; and in addition annotated each
adventure from his vast collection of "Writings about
the Writings." He amassed as well, from files of
yellowing books and magazines, British and Amer-
ican, hundreds of illuminating maps, diagrams, coats
of arms, photographs, and drawings for inclusion in
this collection. All the most celebrated illustrators of
the Canon are represented among them, Sidney Paget
Dorr Steele of Collier's, and
of the Strand, Frederic
William H. Hyde of Harper's Weekly, as well as
numerous others.
In these pages the millions, young and middle-aged
and old, who love the detective and the doctor and
'tflfV 2 the London in which they walked and talked and
adventured will find the definitive account of their
famous association.

, >

Jacket design by Chris Simon

ci
BRAMHALL HOUSE
a division of Clarkson N. Potter, Inc.

419 Park Avenue South

New York, N.Y. 10016
ORPOOIOOO

L ^
Edited by Peter Haining

with a Foreword by Peter Cushing

ISBN: 0-517-172488