Sherlock Holmes and Middle East Conflicts

<h4 style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <span style="text-align: start;">"All hell was loose in the country" [CROO]</span></h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyTijPo-dwPXa0GVz1qrn8_Id4pZpNh6eEwbb80Mv1c8hTXWlzTjMiH-Aq8dYFykjRLgRm6LWzZ_srr8TAgSUwhvZ1zt8EHC4rv7vJv3g2lxjGird83qfMxYGjeUsFWUVRcJ3AOaNAEd9Z/s1600/The_war_in_the_Soudan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyTijPo-dwPXa0GVz1qrn8_Id4pZpNh6eEwbb80Mv1c8hTXWlzTjMiH-Aq8dYFykjRLgRm6LWzZ_srr8TAgSUwhvZ1zt8EHC4rv7vJv3g2lxjGird83qfMxYGjeUsFWUVRcJ3AOaNAEd9Z/s1600/The_war_in_the_Soudan.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> The year was 1895, and Islamic terrorism was much in the news. <br /> <br /> Long before the 21st-century skirmishes in Iraq and Syria and Yemen, long before the "9/11" attacks in 2001 drew certain kinds of extremism to the attention of most North Americans, there were terrorist incidents and guerrilla battles in parts of the Muslim world, and it will be no surprise that Sherlock Holmes was involved.<br /> <br /> Then as now, events grew from a combination of theological differences, economic forces, tribal rivalry, and resentment of western imperialism. From a western point of view, as Holmes might have read them in <i>The Times</i> any morning in the 1880s or 1890s, events unfolded something like this.<br /> <br /> The Muslims of the Sudan region, south of Egypt, were watching for a messiah. In June 1881, Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, a boat-builder who traced his ancestry to the prophet Muhammad, announced that he was the man, and quickly proclaimed jihad. Four years later his followers had defeated the Turkish and Egyptian rulers of the region and captured Khartoum. Britain had interests in the area too, and Charles George "Chinese" Gordon — the man whose portrait hung on Watson's wall at 221B Baker Street — led an army to rescue foreigners from Khartoum and, if possible, reestablish order. Instead he was hacked to pieces, and his army turned back, at a battle in January 1885.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOd4hDDIfhTOLR-YRknAUOqdeIf_Cfd2z5l2SCEcJwIu5PFoC3O3kiwfl-vO-25dOt0omLzrtggZhrTT0ARaG1EaY1vxargiccOOO7ISABBx54AOvYSwxHWph8_Rbpjr3nALmFTsrOAjng/s1600/General+Chinese+Gin+Gordon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="General Gordon" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOd4hDDIfhTOLR-YRknAUOqdeIf_Cfd2z5l2SCEcJwIu5PFoC3O3kiwfl-vO-25dOt0omLzrtggZhrTT0ARaG1EaY1vxargiccOOO7ISABBx54AOvYSwxHWph8_Rbpjr3nALmFTsrOAjng/s1600/General+Chinese+Gin+Gordon.jpg" title="General Chinese Gordon" /></a></div> <div> <br /> Muhammad Ahmad died a few months later, though not before establishing sharia law in his domain. His right-hand man, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, succeeded him, with the title of Khalifa, or caliph — a word still used today for the leader of an Islamic state such as ISIS. This must have been the Khalifa whom Holmes visited "at Khartoum" — in effect, behind enemy lines — after his equally daring visit to Mecca, as Holmes narrates his movements in "The Empty House". Abdallahi was eventually defeated in 1898 by forces led by Horatio Kitchener, who would become Britain's great general in the early months of World War I (and whose face was well known from recruitment posters).<br /> <br /> Within this broad narrative there were many incidents to catch the attention of western newspaper readers. Arthur Conan Doyle heard of such things during his own visit to Egypt in 1895. Conflict flared up just then, and ACD got himself appointed "honorary" war correspondent for the <i>Westminster Gazette</i> — an excuse to get as close to the excitement as possible. Later, he turned some events and rumours into the plot for a novella, <i>The Tragedy of the Korosko</i>, published in 1898. <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTWjV2eBvppg-TkCqMGmxhkFTFcx3BDDm5wJ8Ah3UsFkjwFtxthcjyK084J7_LiO-p5RsVmpgcGEcll_XXVFdQVW7CAcjd_a59SlwEuFQk-rpo-eem83w8Zd6NaQfpk8Op7KUtV6n1AJL/s1600/Tragedy+of+the+Korosko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tragedy of the Korosko, 1898" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjTWjV2eBvppg-TkCqMGmxhkFTFcx3BDDm5wJ8Ah3UsFkjwFtxthcjyK084J7_LiO-p5RsVmpgcGEcll_XXVFdQVW7CAcjd_a59SlwEuFQk-rpo-eem83w8Zd6NaQfpk8Op7KUtV6n1AJL/s1600/Tragedy+of+the+Korosko.jpg" title="Tragedy of the Korosko" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> "There is nothing new under the sun," said Sherlock Holmes. Nothing new about confict between Islamic elements and western state power, at any rate.<br /> <br /> <i>Image credit: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_war_in_the_Soudan.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></i><br /> <br /></div> <div> --</div> <div> <br /></div>

Sherlock Holmes and Middle East Conflicts

"All hell was loose in the country" [CROO] The year was 1895, and Islamic terrorism was much in the news. Long before the...

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by Chris Redmond

May 4, 1891

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen" [FINA]</h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJy_0MrBsVDeWbU9Ubj7Wp12vhUqC_5-kygILfK-bQSGPHVxdTZbQh7rKNAo01A31pTYGHLvk5je0Kou79WQXUZ95jZyQ9sawB6LVNDDdHBoNXaDXLKFZ422hLBKP0e9P46rjqKS5iyOF/s1600/May+4,+1891.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="May the 4th be with you (Victorian style)" border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJy_0MrBsVDeWbU9Ubj7Wp12vhUqC_5-kygILfK-bQSGPHVxdTZbQh7rKNAo01A31pTYGHLvk5je0Kou79WQXUZ95jZyQ9sawB6LVNDDdHBoNXaDXLKFZ422hLBKP0e9P46rjqKS5iyOF/s640/May+4,+1891.jpg" title="May 4, 1891" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> The date of May 4 typically means melancholy for anyone who has read "The Final Problem," the short story in which Sherlock Holmes confronts his archenemy Professor Moriarty (who we've inexplicably never heard of up until this point in the Canon) and both of them tumble off the cliff into the Reichenbach Falls.<br /> <br /> As you may recall, after Holmes appeared in Watson's consulting-room and recounted his interaction with Moriarty, the two fled to the Continent, eventually landing in Switzerland:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> It was upon the 3rd of May that we reached the little village of Meiringen, where we put up at the Englischer Hof, then kept by Peter Steiler the elder. Our landlord was an intelligent man, and spoke excellent English, having served for three years as waiter at the Grosvenor Hotel in London. At his advice, upon the afternoon of the 4th we set off together with the intention of crossing the hills and spending the night at the hamlet of Rosenlaui. We had strict injunctions, however, on no account to pass the falls of Reichenbach, which are about half-way up the hill, without making a small d‚tour to see them.</blockquote> It was here that Conan Doyle chose the final resting place for Sherlock Holmes - a rest that was intended to be eternal but that we now know lasted nearly a decade. The description of the Reichenbach Falls is a fitting one for the epic struggle of good versus evil that took place later in the story:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> It is, indeed, a fearful place. The torrent, swollen by the melting snow, plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke from a burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls itself is an immense chasm, lined by glistening, coal-black rock, and narrowing into a creaming, boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over and shoots the stream onward over its jagged lip. The long sweep of green water roaring for ever down, and the thick flickering curtain of spray hissing for ever upwards, turn a man giddy with their constant whirl and clamour. We stood near the edge peering down at the gleam of the breaking water far below us against the black rocks, and listening to the half-human shout which came booming up with the spray out of the abyss.</blockquote> <br /> And after Watson was lured back to the Englischer Hof with the story of a patient in need (good old Watson!), he returned to the falls to find a note from Sherlock Holmes along with his alpenstock and silver cigarette case. He was led to conclude that that inevitable happened:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> An examination by experts leaves little doubt that a personal contest between the two men ended, as it could hardly fail to end in such a situation, in their reeling over, locked in each other's arms. Any attempt at recovering the bodies was absolutely hopeless, and there, deep down in that dreadful cauldron of swirling water and seething foam, will lie for all time the most dangerous criminal and the foremost champion of the law of their generation.</blockquote> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgBj_Rty6GPVxwJDG5NNn8HzFp5CGj6KV6V2lcQryGJqpQPfepgMHBDJTNfxBO9qIzxDYPl7xULa-IowAwlEd6KUnyXG9flXchzjuhBysAVfMNPYjOvb17NP1kXImEAlpHQ3INA6J6s4Tw/s1600/Holmes_reichenbach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgBj_Rty6GPVxwJDG5NNn8HzFp5CGj6KV6V2lcQryGJqpQPfepgMHBDJTNfxBO9qIzxDYPl7xULa-IowAwlEd6KUnyXG9flXchzjuhBysAVfMNPYjOvb17NP1kXImEAlpHQ3INA6J6s4Tw/s640/Holmes_reichenbach.jpg" width="436" /></a></div> <br /> But aside from the colorful descriptions of both the setting and the action, this story above many others shows Watson's emotional side. Over the course of two short years, readers had gotten to know Holmes and Watson through 12 stories that made up <i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i> and 11 stories that comprised <i>The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes</i> (as well as the previously published <i>A Study in Scarlet</i> and <i>The Sign of Four</i>). That's less than half of what would eventually become the entire Canon of 60 stories - stories that would be published over the course of the following 35 or so years.<br /> <br /> For Watson as well as for the readers, that's an intense run of stories - tales which fill us with wonder as we've been learning about the habits, eccentricities, limits and capabilities of the most intriguing detective that the world has ever known. Is it any wonder then that his sudden and tragic loss affected us so deeply?<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkV5sKiNw_bJrVOh1VsGNp8IxfQpX79BEHh_JGTDTb70ep2HnKupNEYweW4K3DB8YMQYpo0ZGjaU9x-9BA84it5lP_UUlTa8haDM34CE9XqKUwKsUNjrANy4EGSt0HLnF_JslYGfbWVqjp/s1600/Watson+sad+%5BFINA%5D.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Watson realizing what happened to Holmes" border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkV5sKiNw_bJrVOh1VsGNp8IxfQpX79BEHh_JGTDTb70ep2HnKupNEYweW4K3DB8YMQYpo0ZGjaU9x-9BA84it5lP_UUlTa8haDM34CE9XqKUwKsUNjrANy4EGSt0HLnF_JslYGfbWVqjp/s400/Watson+sad+%5BFINA%5D.PNG" title="Dr. Watson, realizing the outcome at the Reichenbach Falls" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> Watson opens the story with the fateful line, "It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished." We'll never forget reading that line for the first time and feeling a little stab in the gut. The modern equivalent would be exclaiming, "Wait, <b><i>what</i></b>?"<br /> <br /> He went on to describe how the scene affected him: "It was the sight of that alpenstock which turned me cold and sick...I stood for a minute or two to collect myself, for I was dazed with the horror of the thing."<br /> <br /> Even Holmes understood how his untimely departure would affect his friend, writing in his farewell note, "I fear that it is at a cost which will give pain to my friends, and especially, my dear Watson, to you."<br /> <br /> The pain was palpable to readers at the time. There is an apocryphal legend that grown men in London wore black armbands in a demonstration of mourning. We have yet to see any definitive evidence of this occurrence (and the <i><a href="http://bakerstreetjournal.com/" target="_blank">Baker Street Journal</a></i> once offered a bounty for anyone who could prove it). But it rings true to the spirit of what happened at the time, which was an outpouring of grief over the loss of a literary character. Letters flowed to <i>The Strand Magazine</i> and to Arthur Conan Doyle himself, one even beginning "You brute!"<br /> <br /> At least modern readers don't have to wait eight years for Holmes to reappear in <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i> or ten years for the first of the stories that would make up <i>The Return of Sherlock Holmes</i>. Can you imagine what it must have been like to have to put Holmes to rest in one's mind and to blindly wait to see if he would ever reappear?<br /> <br /> We're fortunate that the public outcry (and, let's face it, a hefty payday) convinced Sir Arthur to take up his pen once more to provide us with such rich and wonderful stories to fill our desires, fuel our imagination and enrich our friendships. While May 4 may seem one for us to mourn, we're fortunate that, as Watson observed upon Holmes's return in "The Empty House,"<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> ...once again Mr. Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complex life of London so plentifully presents.</blockquote> <br /> <br /> --<br /> <br />

May 4, 1891

"It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen" [FINA] The date of May 4 typically means melancholy for anyone who has rea...

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by Scott Monty

Oldest Footage of London Includes Sherlock Holmes Sites

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "he had lit the oldest" [SHOS]</h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNt53zQ44gieInlT0-Q0D9DBt4IidZUVHgCVCgYUUjvZqc7Ts2-g4EhE86GcePIuMUwZgD3n4EFQoih-qU1Faw3TRS9k9Z4SfokIxSIRZTt0DoglgA6LPn9snb-7KRE4qqabrhikV888dj/s1600/Houses+of+Parliament+1890s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Look kids, Parliament! Big Ben!" border="0" height="516" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNt53zQ44gieInlT0-Q0D9DBt4IidZUVHgCVCgYUUjvZqc7Ts2-g4EhE86GcePIuMUwZgD3n4EFQoih-qU1Faw3TRS9k9Z4SfokIxSIRZTt0DoglgA6LPn9snb-7KRE4qqabrhikV888dj/s1600/Houses+of+Parliament+1890s.jpg" title="Clock Tower and Houses of Parliament" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Recently on our Facebook page, we shared an old post in honor of #TBT (Throwback Thursday). The 1927 footage of London in full color was really something to behold, as we're used to only seeing black and white images and early footage from that era.<br /> <br /> Now, thanks to author Dana Cameron (<a href="https://twitter.com/danacmrn" target="_blank">@danacmrn</a> on Twitter), we discovered more film from London of Sherlock Holmes's time - only in this case, it's the oldest known footage of that venerable city that Watson called "that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained." [STUD]<br /> <br /> Have a look at the video of <a href="https://youtu.be/O_me3NrPMh8" target="_blank">the oldest footage of London ever</a>, which chronicles three decades from 1890 through 1920, and join us after the break below to see exactly where the footage intersects with the Sherlock Holmes tales.<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O_me3NrPMh8?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br /></div> <br /> <br /> <h4> Westminster</h4> Westminster is featured in a number of the stories, which makes sense as it is the spiritual heart of London, with its Jacobean Houses of Parliament and Clock Tower (more commonly, if erroneously, referred to as Big Ben).  In <i>The Sign of Four</i>, Sherlock Holmes requested transportation originating from the area:<br /> "Well, then, in the first place I shall want a fast police-boat - a steam-launch - to be at the WestminsterStairs at seven o'clock."<br /> In "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax," it was a different form of transportation, shared with the Hon. Philip Green that put Holmes and Watson in the vicinity: "as we drove swiftly past the Houses of Parliament and over Westminster Bridge."<br /> <br /> But the story most closely associated with Westminster is "The Second Stain," in which newspaper headlines bleated "MURDER IN WESTMINSTER" regarding the death of Eduardo Lucas in Godolphin Street. Number 16 Godolphin Street was described as being part of<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> one of the old-fashioned and secluded rows of eighteenth-century houses which lie between the river and the Abbey, almost in the shadow of the great tower of the Houses of Parliament."</blockquote> After digesting the news from the Prime Minister and European Secretary and linking it to the Godolphin Street murder (even though it was an extraordinary coincidence), Holmes said, "Put on your hat, Watson, and we will stroll down together to Westminster."<br /> <br /> And it didn't escape us that that the Houses of Parliament were the primary visual cue in the title card of the 1988 comedy <i>Without a Clue</i>, starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pAt-EOCgc7F2fTsxdBvSeJ3h3Rq9Q8v7z2kch4sX2iuUVlguoKkJxTHgE8vWgn8Rb-t11e3lrTuSc8AKIXDm3EHhtTczaxlPFGpS7kGcsLe2WOpbIJTaSTz2qTBVksmvV0U-b0z5q5Ga/s1600/Without+a+Clue+title+card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Houses of Parliament in Without a Clue" border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2pAt-EOCgc7F2fTsxdBvSeJ3h3Rq9Q8v7z2kch4sX2iuUVlguoKkJxTHgE8vWgn8Rb-t11e3lrTuSc8AKIXDm3EHhtTczaxlPFGpS7kGcsLe2WOpbIJTaSTz2qTBVksmvV0U-b0z5q5Ga/s1600/Without+a+Clue+title+card.jpg" title="Without a Clue" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <h4> Embankment</h4> There is only one mention of Embankment in the Canon, and that is around the death of John Openshaw in "The Five Orange Pips." When Openshaw's body was discovered near the Waterloo Bridge, Sherlock Holmes wondered, "How could they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the direct line to the station."<br /> <br /> The footage above at 2:13 shows Blackfriar Bridge in 1896. As the pedestrians pass, one can picture Holmes and Watson strolling along the same path at one point.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h4> St. Paul's Cathedral</h4> There is but one mention of St. Paul's, and once again, as with nearly all of the river scenery, we return to SIGN:<br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4AlKtHxREylg9N92Wc5jUP2Vxh5HjhyphenhyphenD5nwspbn82ue35BDMTQ9bQNI938gLmKxLne5VnHdNoaiEN9I0-njIPZRAlgEV1wDiEd21QobSrG-5cC5jM-nP3WpeIPYEm5xxlRlinetp8gZb/s1600/St.+Paul's.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Instagram shot of St. Paul's by @ihearofsherlock" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4AlKtHxREylg9N92Wc5jUP2Vxh5HjhyphenhyphenD5nwspbn82ue35BDMTQ9bQNI938gLmKxLne5VnHdNoaiEN9I0-njIPZRAlgEV1wDiEd21QobSrG-5cC5jM-nP3WpeIPYEm5xxlRlinetp8gZb/s1600/St.+Paul's.jpg" title="Original Instagram shot of St. Paul's by @ihearofsherlock" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "As we passed the City, the last rays of the sun were gilding the cross upon the summit of St. Paul's. It was twilight before we reached the Tower." </blockquote> <br /> <h4> Tower Bridge and the Tower of London</h4> Aside from the Houses of Parliament, there can be no better pieces of architecture that visually symbolize Victorian London. Of course, one had its beginnings in medieval times and the other was a more modern edifice. And it was at the older of the two where Holmes suggested anchoring the police launch while waiting for the <i>Aurora</i> to show itself in SIGN:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Where to?" asked Jones.<br /> "To the Tower. Tell them to stop opposite to Jacobson's Yard."</blockquote> <br /> <h4> The City</h4> "The City" - also known as the "Square Mile" - is technically a county that denotes where the original Roman settlement was, and where the financial district lies. A number of Canonical characters had business in the City:<br /> <br /> <ul> <li>Jabez Wilson had "a small pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City." [REDH]</li> <li>Holmes had to write to two establishments regarding Mr. Windibank, "One is to a firm in the City" [IDEN]</li> <li>Just prior to discovering the fate of young Openshaw, Sherlock Holmes determined that rather than going to Horsham, "I shall commence with the City." [FIVE]</li> <li>Much of the goings on of Neville St. Claire involved the financial district, as his "dear wife knew that I had business in the City." Of course, she wasn't aware it was "an opium den in the furthest east of the City," nor did she know about Hugh Boone's "hideous face ... which is familiar to every man who goes much to the City." [TWIS]</li> <li>When dealing with stockbrokers, it would be a considerable surprise if the action didn't take place in the financial district. "Mawson and Williams', the great stockbroking firm in Lombard Street" puts is in the heart of it. And when being flattered by Arthur Pinner, Hall Pycroft, "a smart, young City man," admitted "I had never dreamed that I was talked about in the City in this fashion." [STOC]</li> <li>Jonas Oldacre sought the legal services of John Hector McFarlane in making up his will in advance of his nefarious plan. McFarlane described their first meeting: "I was very much surprised, therefore, when yesterday, about three o'clock in the afternoon, he walked into my office in the City." [NORW]</li> </ul> <br /> The video also shows the Bank of England, and the counterfeiter James Winter (alias John Garrideb, alias Morecroft, alias Killer Evans) reminisced about the skill of his partner, "No living man could tell a Prescott from a Bank of England." [3GAR]<br /> <br /> <br /> <h4> Fleet Street and The Strand</h4> Beginning with the series of stories that became <i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i> and extending through the rest of the Canon, the <i>Strand Magazine</i> was the main publication that brought Sherlock Holmes to the public.<br /> <br /> When Holmes and Watson took their after-dinner walk in "The Resident Patient," they walked through this very neighborhood. "For three hours we strolled about together, watching the ever-changing kaleidoscope of life as it ebbs and flows through Fleet Street and the Strand."<br /> <br /> Fleet Street was the site of the Red-Headed League, as advertised in the newspaper: "Apply in person on Monday, at eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7, Pope's Court, Fleet Street." [REDH]<br /> <br /> Watson first had rooms in the Strand [STUD] and Henry Baskerville bought his boots there - one of which went missing before mysteriously turned up again [HOUN]. And Holmes instructed Watson very specifically in "The Final Problem":<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> In the morning you will send for a hansom, desiring your man to take neither the first nor the second which may present itself. Into this hansom you will jump, and you will drive to the Strand end of the Lowther Arcade, handing the address to the cabman upon a slip of paper, with a request that he will not throw it away.</blockquote> <br /> And Holmes and Watson met for dinner at Simpsons, where they could be found "sitting at a small table in the front window, and looking down at the rushing stream of life in the Strand." [ILLU]<br /> <br /> <br /> <h4> The West End</h4> Known today for the theatre and tourist attractions, the West End figures into just a handful of stories - although one of them is critical.<br /> <br /> <ul> <li>Holmes mentioned having been to "the other side of the West End" after leaving Baker Street with a rude meal in his pocket. [BERY]</li> <li>Violet Hunter spoke of her job-hunting efforts: "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me." [COPP]</li> <li>Spies - including Oberstein - were said to have residences in the West End [SECO, BRUC]</li> </ul> <br /> But perhaps one of the most significant locations in the Canon was located in the West End: the Criterion Bar (now the <a href="http://criterionrestaurant.com/" target="_blank">Criterion Restaurant</a>) in Picadilly Circus, where Watson "was standing at the Criterion Bar, when someone tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young Stamford," [STUD] who then led him to meet Sherlock Holmes. If you visit the Criterion today, you can see the meeting memorialized.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi2KOW9hJNVg6sED4ma-jZtKztp1qRGxM46MJtUKlE-P44MUHt-1ZOEA1ZxsGdhwnOpyzL5zHbqOXXzJjznpPF3p6Aq9ySFCsZfv23-euWyP0D3HM1gJheh39l6BkNJpcsMm06BwDFuYEb/s1600/Criterion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi2KOW9hJNVg6sED4ma-jZtKztp1qRGxM46MJtUKlE-P44MUHt-1ZOEA1ZxsGdhwnOpyzL5zHbqOXXzJjznpPF3p6Aq9ySFCsZfv23-euWyP0D3HM1gJheh39l6BkNJpcsMm06BwDFuYEb/s1600/Criterion.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5q4-VeY7_p20q9MRQb9EbJklVE9pzGI1azzl6odYFeKb_COtgaHNWoMgpk8R5OVJaHdLJIBKJcSHcKIV3d3r3qPkfQBBdU1tGUsKN_BLeSje1RQKGUCrlmYsvdyNb6a0hvogM_gLv2rY8/s1600/Criterion+plaque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5q4-VeY7_p20q9MRQb9EbJklVE9pzGI1azzl6odYFeKb_COtgaHNWoMgpk8R5OVJaHdLJIBKJcSHcKIV3d3r3qPkfQBBdU1tGUsKN_BLeSje1RQKGUCrlmYsvdyNb6a0hvogM_gLv2rY8/s1600/Criterion+plaque.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <h4> Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square</h4> Also one of the most popular destinations today, Trafalgar Square is at the intersection of roads leading to the Strand and Whitehall, with the National Gallery on one side of the square, St. Martin-in-the-Fields on another, and the <a href="http://www.sherlockholmespub.com/" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes Pub</a> not very far way on Northumberland Street - which, incidentally used to the be the Northumberland Hotel (where Sir Henry Baskerville stayed) and later the Northumberland Arms.<br /> <br /> The cabman that trailed Sir Henry to Baker Street told Holmes about his fare: "He hailed me at half-past nine in Trafalgar Square. He said that he was a detective, and he offered me two guineas if I would do exactly what he wanted all day and ask no questions." [HOUN]<br /> <br /> When Holmes heard of Lestrade's wild goose chase after Hatty St. Simon, he jokingly asked, "Have you also dragged the basin of the Trafalgar Square fountain?" [NOBL]<br /> <br /> <br /> <h4> St. James and Buckingham Palace</h4> In the video, we see the Crimean War Memorial, a monument to those British soldiers who lost their lives in supporting the Ottoman Empire against Russia. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War" target="_blank">Crimean War</a> warranted a few mentions in the Canon:<br /> <br /> <ul> <li>Trevor Senior recalled his time as a convicted criminal: "It was the year '55, when the Crimean War was at its height, and the old convict ships had been largely used as transports in the Black Sea." [GLOR]</li> <li>The Royal Munsters were given an alias but their heritage was acknowledged: "The Royal Mallows is, as you know, one of the most famous Irish regiments in the British Army. It did wonders both in the Crimea and the Mutiny" [CROO]</li> <li>Interestingly, one of the household tasked with watching over the Russian Professor Coram was on the opposing side during the war: "Mortimer the gardener, who wheels the bath-chair, is an Army pensioner - an old Crimean man of excellent character." [GOLD]</li> </ul> <br /> While there is no mention of Buckingham Palace in the Canon, there is the Victoria Memorial and we do know that Holmes "spent a day at Windsor, whence he returned with a remarkably fine emerald tie-pin" which was "a present from a certain gracious lady in whose interests he had once been fortunate enough to carry out a small commission." [BRUC]<br /> <br /> <br /> <h4> Hyde Park</h4> The largest park in London would seem to be a natural place for action in the Canon. However, the only reference to Hyde Park in the stories was in "The Noble Bachelor" when Lady St. Simon "was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in company with Flora Millar," and Lestrade later began "dragging the Serpentine" in his search for her.<br /> <br /> <br /> It's fascinating to see the London of then and now, and to note that much of the pedestrian and vehicular traffic patterns haven't changed and that even after the Blitz, many of the historic structures remain. One thing did strike us in some of the old footage: London's legendary fog was present and even obscured some of the landscape.<br /> <br /> <br /> --<br /> <br /> <br />

Oldest Footage of London Includes Sherlock Holmes Sites

"he had lit the oldest" [SHOS] Recently on our Facebook page, we shared an old post in honor of #TBT (Throwback Thursday). Th...

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by Scott Monty

The Lighter Side of Sherlock Holmes: An Interview with Glenn Schatell

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "which drew good humour" [VALL]</h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_jsd1f9pa8UM9EBi5G3hdUoyj1TEEYKTNurCc1yUX3PVpG5jzhKhnVrzuxf03h75qcaMZTWHeaNvBoYD7sH6ccOHsA2KNRxVKUmFAK63_ma2iPne4Hup7NQrkHxoC7a19ZfGFo8YnW0jg/s1600/Lighter+side+of+Sherlock+Holmes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Norm Schatell's opus magnum on Sherlock Holmes cartoons" border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_jsd1f9pa8UM9EBi5G3hdUoyj1TEEYKTNurCc1yUX3PVpG5jzhKhnVrzuxf03h75qcaMZTWHeaNvBoYD7sH6ccOHsA2KNRxVKUmFAK63_ma2iPne4Hup7NQrkHxoC7a19ZfGFo8YnW0jg/s1600/Lighter+side+of+Sherlock+Holmes.png" title="The Lighter Side of Sherlock Holmes by Norman Schatell" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <br /> Humorists have been taking stabs at Sherlock Holmes since about the same time as Doyle started writing his detective stories.  The first parody was probably anonymously penned by J.M.Barrie in 1891.  Since then, authors and artists have had a grand time making the great detective a bumbling fool or the butt end of a joke.  One of the most talented Holmes comedians was Norman Schatell, BSI ("Jonathan Small"), a cartoonist whose Holmes parodies were published in Sherlockian publications during the 1970s, such as <i><a href="http://bakerstreetjournal.com/" target="_blank">The Baker Street Journal</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/category/journal/" target="_blank">The Sherlock Holmes Journal</a></i>. Schatell had a knack for creating jokes that only lovers of the original canon could get, such as having a doctor complain that Watson's delirious because he can't decide if his injury is in his arm or his leg. <br /> <br /> Fortunately for those who enjoy a dose of humor with their Holmes, all of Norm Schatell's Sherlockian  pieces have been collected by his son, Glenn, in the book <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1DPhTD4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Lighter Side of Sherlock Holmes</a></i>.  I had the opportunity to interview Glenn Schatell via e-mail and discover what drove his dad to make funny drawings of the world's greatest detective. <br /> <br /> <h4> <b>IHOSE: Your father is one of the best known Holmes humor cartoonists.  What inspired him to combine the detective with cartoons?</b></h4> <b>Glenn Schatell:</b>  My father loved mystery books, especially English ones.  At the very beginning of Jon Lellenberg's introduction to the book, Jon mentions that when my Dad was 17, and still in high school, he asked the famous Sherlockian, Howard Haycraft, about someday becoming a Baker Street Irregular.  Eventually, my Dad's dream came true!<br /> <br /> My father had a great sense of humor.  I've been told that my Dad's father, my Grandpa Nat, used to draw cartoons for my Dad when he was a child.  Grandpa Nat, who was a senior Internal Revenue Agent, and a local Union City, New Jersey, politician, was renowned for his sense of humor and often was asked by civic organizations to do humorous toasts.<br /> <br /> My Dad was primarily a teacher.  He taught art at Union Hill High School in Union City for 25 years.  He also taught adults and children.  What he mainly taught students was "creativity".  My Dad really enjoyed drawing cartoons although he also did absolutely terrific realistic paintings,watercolors, abstract artwork, pen and ink drawings, murals, sculpture, and greeting cards.  However, he basically gave all of his artwork away for free, to his friends and relatives, and especially to his Sherlockian friends.<br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp9MYglg43NJYvMsliks8bDDj6ctTN0ol3ZuF1rIUjnN_TPHgbEZYlYrW2KBi9dSG_SN1MLElR0SSqAB3Bg4fOxKQCnR0JWVt8ukI6W2N3Ff_27T3T6qAF4KY2HZzUo3kpMvnQwI8HVD6S/s1600/Holmes+parody+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp9MYglg43NJYvMsliks8bDDj6ctTN0ol3ZuF1rIUjnN_TPHgbEZYlYrW2KBi9dSG_SN1MLElR0SSqAB3Bg4fOxKQCnR0JWVt8ukI6W2N3Ff_27T3T6qAF4KY2HZzUo3kpMvnQwI8HVD6S/s1600/Holmes+parody+3.jpg" width="462" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <h4> <b>IHOSE:  How did you decide to organize this book?</b></h4> <b>GS: </b>My wife, Gail Tavlin Schatell, was a great help in organizing the book.  We decided to begin the book with more precise cartoons my father did for Sherlock Holmes magazines, such as The Baker Street Journal.  Following that section is a series of cartoons that were originally drawn on legal-sized paper.  At the bottom of each page my father provides detailed information about where in the stories he found the idea for the cartoon.  The following section is what I call "rough sketches". These are "quick drawings" done primarily in pencil.  Following that section are 5 pages with a total of 60 cartoons (12 per page), which my father gave out as a Christmas gift to attendees at a Baker Street Irregulars dinner in the late 1970s.<br /> <br /> Sections that follow include three "Sherlock Holmes through Literature" cartoons, the Arts and Crafts Sherlock Holmes (my father used to teach arts and crafts to children), and a section with photographs (including photographs of Sherlockian sculpture my father did, a picture of my Dad and his friend Irving Kamil, and prizes he did for Mrs. Hudson's Cliffdwellers meetings, the scion he helped found). Next is a series of illustrations he drew in a Pablo Picasso style, drawings he did for various Sherlockian events, and Sherlockian stationery, including stationery (one-page) he drew for The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes.<br /> <br /> The next main section my father called "The Anthropological Holmes", a series of humorous illustrations he drew about Sherlock Holmes in different cultures from around the world.  It is followed by a serious of envelopes he illustrated with cartoons on the cover, which he sent to some of his friends, including John Bennett Shaw and Peter Blau.   (Peter is the Sherlockian who told me about MX Publishing.  He also runs "The Red Circle", the Washington, D.C. area scion, to which I belong).  On the book's last page, I decided to include a photograph of my father's Baker Street Irregulars investiture award.  He was given the name "Jonathan Small".  This was meant as a joke.  My Dad was almost 6 feet, 4 inches tall.<br /> <br /> <h4> <b>IHOSE:  Who were your father's main artistic influences?</b></h4> <b>GS: </b>I previously mentioned that my Grandpa Nat liked to draw cartoons for my Dad.  His mother, my Grandma Eva, was also interested in art.  My father studied art at New York University, and received a master's degree in art education from Hunter College in New York City.  He always enjoyed going to school.  He would go to many museum shows in Manhattan, and visited countless art galleries.  He would often talk to many of the artists he met at art gallery shows.  My father was familiar with practically every well-known artist, and was especially fond of Pablo Picasso.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjmhRVrpT4TZjbgZONe6MJWS8wDpWPnsL25xHYHqBu11MaQojCbmptHzvWt56aPirQUPoXrMi0X9t5A88VHac2EPpp7Z-p_dckMZBGf5oP9SQRBCa35GYFyONs3WAJvd-Tgnox2FePBJB/s1600/Holmes+parody.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjmhRVrpT4TZjbgZONe6MJWS8wDpWPnsL25xHYHqBu11MaQojCbmptHzvWt56aPirQUPoXrMi0X9t5A88VHac2EPpp7Z-p_dckMZBGf5oP9SQRBCa35GYFyONs3WAJvd-Tgnox2FePBJB/s1600/Holmes+parody.jpg" width="433" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <h4> <b>IHOSE:  Are you planning any more collections of your father's artwork?</b></h4> <b>GS:</b> I am not planning on any more collections of my father's Sherlock Holmes artwork.  I included every Sherlock Holmes cartoon and humorous illustration I could find in this book.  However, when I have time, I would love to try to have a museum show of my Dad's non-Sherlockian artwork, which is of museum quality.<br /> <br /> <h4> <b>IHOSE:  Is there any additional information you'd like our readers to know?</b></h4> <b>GS:</b> I donated my half of my father's Sherlock Holmes artwork, which my mother, Diana Schatell, gave me, to The University of Minnesota Library several years ago.  (My sister, Amy (Shea) Schatell decided to keep her half of the artwork for our family; however, I gave photocopies of what she kept to the Library.)  Julie McKuras, the editor of the Library's Sherlockian newsletter <a href="https://www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/holmes/friends-newsletters" target="_blank">The Friends of The Sherlock Holmes Collections</a>, intends to write an article about the book in the June 2015 edition.  <a href="http://sherlockholmesexhibition.com/" target="_blank">The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes</a> is now selling the book at its gift shop.  This travelling exhibition is currently at The Perot Museum in Dallas, Texas. Over the last few years, Steven Rothman, the editor of <i>The Baker Street Journal</i>, has been printing my Dad's cartoons in this quarterly publication.<br /> <br /> My father wasn't just the leading Sherlock Holmes artist of the 1970s.  He was also a major collector of Sherlockian material.  He collected everything he could find about Sherlock Holmes, such as movie posters, radio scripts, Sherlock Holmes games and toys, and every edition of <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i> he could find (including foreign versions).  I couldn't possibly mention all the types of collectibles he acquired in this e-mail.  He also bought original copies of the <i>Strand Magazine</i>, and purchased a series of letters that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Gillette exchanged when the actor was writing the play "Sherlock Holmes".  My mother gave some of the material my father collected to The University of Minnesota Library, but sold the letters, and many of the Sherlockian books my Dad bought, to a Japanese collector.<br /> <br /> My father also drew about 300 cartoons when he was in the United States Navy during World War II. They are mainly about Navy life in Australia, the Philippines, and Hawaii.  They're very funny!  I donated them to The Library of Congress (Veterans History Project) a number of years ago.  You can <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.65697/artworks" target="_blank">see a sample on-line</a>.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilxZY_SoSfri8nwhiOs29YbQ-8CpFYjsbqwHYcyW6tf0deaedIzU6PkHbBYDxm8HcskIErnQCGajuiAskeDNSmSeW_m-D-b-EBQdPeYafKiPkJ5wTmtIaesvWiLlW08KDyUP7ciuXE2h3y/s1600/Schatell+LoC+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilxZY_SoSfri8nwhiOs29YbQ-8CpFYjsbqwHYcyW6tf0deaedIzU6PkHbBYDxm8HcskIErnQCGajuiAskeDNSmSeW_m-D-b-EBQdPeYafKiPkJ5wTmtIaesvWiLlW08KDyUP7ciuXE2h3y/s1600/Schatell+LoC+image.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Click to enlarge</i></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <br /> In the early 1950s, my father briefly worked on "The Popeye" television series.  He also illustrated a very funny book called "How to Curse in Yiddish".   Quite a few of my Dad's cartoons were printed as greeting cards by "The Murder Ink" book store in Manhattan.  I would like to re-issue them some day.<br /> <br /> My father would have been happy knowing that a new generation of readers is enjoying the artwork in his book.<br /> <div> <br /> <br /></div> <div> For more about Norman Schatell and his artwork, see <a href="http://lightsidesherlockholmes.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">The Lighter Side of Sherlock Holmes</a> on Tumblr.<br /> <br /> --<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://amzn.to/1DPhTD4" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkD_VzdhJX9mHdhsKEmR8fRHpF1yPJ-9_mz3pV79TdPRZa3P2LKog3AN4b7YF_5_HOysOjcsxb5axIXIvTF8WbM1fjGV5dkn6jj2P24NUuoFqVue2LcVJG9l7Ts0snc16J62O5fxFlvFgK/s1600/Lighter+side+of+Sherlock+Holmes.jpg" width="131" /></a></span></div> <br /> <div> <br /></div> </div>

The Lighter Side of Sherlock Holmes: An Interview with Glenn Schatell

"which drew good humour" [VALL] Humorists have been taking stabs at Sherlock Holmes since about the same time as Doyle s...

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by Belanger Books

Exercise in the Sherlock Holmes Stories

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "flushed with the exercise" [STUD]</h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvnmh4X-ZRKVoLFjlVPnMGeOo_m1JsnouDHmnkRVsruA4vSaYNoPzXqZkq4860-OuHII02Kp-dwADgvOmYlgSPgvg9QheTf9ktj7SF1ihERh_Ghnt6bOfffdh-c6Nh0qOa8jLoK3Vj7SJv/s1600/Resident+Patient+-+Sidney+Paget.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvnmh4X-ZRKVoLFjlVPnMGeOo_m1JsnouDHmnkRVsruA4vSaYNoPzXqZkq4860-OuHII02Kp-dwADgvOmYlgSPgvg9QheTf9ktj7SF1ihERh_Ghnt6bOfffdh-c6Nh0qOa8jLoK3Vj7SJv/s1600/Resident+Patient+-+Sidney+Paget.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> We recently saw <a href="https://twitter.com/EditorBrooke/status/590140485198446594" target="_blank">a tweet</a> from a listener that caught our attention. Brooke Hall (<a href="https://twitter.com/EditorBrooke" target="_blank">@EditorBrooke</a>) indicated that the <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/p/show-archives.html#.VTkzsiFViko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere audio program</a> was part of her workout routine:</div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <div style="text-align: center;"> <br /></div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"> Morning workout, listening to <a href="https://twitter.com/IHearofSherlock">@IHearofSherlock</a>.<br /> — Brooke Hall (@EditorBrooke) <a href="https://twitter.com/EditorBrooke/status/590140485198446594">April 20, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /></div> <div> Of course we were pleased to know that our show is interesting enough to distract someone from the pain she's putting her body through. But it also got us to thinking about physical fitness and exercise in the Canon.<br /> <br /> <h3> Sherlock Holmes, uninterested exerciser</h3> When Watson first met Holmes in <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>, one of his observations was on the latter's physical characteristics:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller.</blockquote> Watson himself must have been in good shape when in the army, but after spending many months recuperating, it's not surprising that Stamford thought he looked "as thin as a lath". [STUD]<br /> <br /> While Holmes occasionally forgot about eating [FIVE] or even asked for dinner to be significantly delayed ("Seven-thirty, the day after tomorrow" [MAZA]), what do we know of his exercise habits?<br /> <br /> We're told that <b>"Sherlock Holmes was a man who seldom took exercise for exercise's sake."</b> [YELL] However, Watson goes on to describe his friend's capabilities:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Few men were capable of greater muscular effort, and he was undoubtedly one of the finest boxers of his weight that I have ever seen, but he looked upon aimless bodily exertion as a waste of energy, and he seldom bestirred himself save where there was some professional object to be served. Then he was absolutely untiring and indefatigable. That he should have kept himself in training under such circumstances is remarkable, but his diet was usually of the sparest, and his habits were simple to the verge of austerity.</blockquote> <br /> In "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" Holmes does indeed put his boxing skills to use, sending Mr. Woodley home in a cart. But he lamented, <b>"I get so little active exercise that it is always a treat"</b>.<br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhgWWSeD1Tm9O19XX5fqwpSFVPzV5XCCL4LBKg9FIwnLcLCLwX_I4iAn6vVk1MmiBWyQW28Q7m40tMw7kpDfki9-aG4UB_qHDIx3h5B6BVEtToYgZUtG9zpDDaPA66_Q4Nx77zlLCTayCX/s1600/Sherlock+Holmes,+Boxer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhgWWSeD1Tm9O19XX5fqwpSFVPzV5XCCL4LBKg9FIwnLcLCLwX_I4iAn6vVk1MmiBWyQW28Q7m40tMw7kpDfki9-aG4UB_qHDIx3h5B6BVEtToYgZUtG9zpDDaPA66_Q4Nx77zlLCTayCX/s1600/Sherlock+Holmes,+Boxer.jpg" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> Holmes put that muscular effort to work in "The Adventure of Black Peter":<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast. But I am prepared to bet that you will not guess the form that my exercise has taken."</blockquote> In this case, the exercise took the form of trying to spear a dead pig hanging from a hook in the ceiling at Allardyce's butcher shop.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr8mxgXCiWdJuLxfvzNmtC4xp4ABc6ooVt8pYt4TmNXkGSN1eHEW2Efco9lLDfLtJYrRxpb9j8Zo7SXOziyJ32GftclIEGK1DH6bxbbpplM53fGvUwvIv-spDi5r2xaXH-DslbA3FVRtsV/s1600/Black+Peter+-+Holmes+and+the+harpoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Holmes returns from the butcher shop, with nary a steak nor a pork chop." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr8mxgXCiWdJuLxfvzNmtC4xp4ABc6ooVt8pYt4TmNXkGSN1eHEW2Efco9lLDfLtJYrRxpb9j8Zo7SXOziyJ32GftclIEGK1DH6bxbbpplM53fGvUwvIv-spDi5r2xaXH-DslbA3FVRtsV/s1600/Black+Peter+-+Holmes+and+the+harpoon.jpg" title="Sherlock Holmes returns with a harpoon in "Black Peter"" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Pork chops again?"</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> We also see Sherlock Holmes going at it when a professional object was served, such as in "The Adventure of the Three Students":<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Aha! It is not for nothing that I have turned myself out of bed at the untimely hour of six. I have put in two hours' hard work and covered at least five miles, with something to show for it."</blockquote> <span style="background-color: white;">In "The Resident Patient," Holmes became tired of the sitting room at Baker Street and asked Watson to join him in <b>"a ramble through London,"</b> which then turned into a three-hour walk. Upon returning, they found a new client in Dr. Trevelyan, who told them of Mr. Blessington, who himself took a <b>"</b></span><b>short walk which had usually been the prelude to his dinner."</b><br /> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <br /> <h3> Unfit to exercise</h3> While Sherlock Holmes was capable of spurts of exercise, there were others in the Canon who were, shall we say, less than physically fit. Occasionally, Holmes and Watson had clients or engaged with other characters who displayed the hallmarks of those not accustomed to physical activity.<br /> <br /> In "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet," Alexander Holder ran down Baker Street <b>"puffing and blowing"</b> and explained his actions to Holmes and Watson thusly: "That is why I was so out of breath, for <b>I am a man who takes very little exercise."</b><br /> <br /> While his advanced age may be an excuse for lack of exercise presently, Nathan Garrideb's posture gave us a clue to a lifetime of habit in "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs":<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Mr. Nathan Garrideb proved to be a very tall, loose-jointed, round-backed person, gaunt and bald, some sixty-odd years of age. He had a cadaverous face, with the dull dead skin of a man to whom exercise was unknown.</blockquote> <br /> <b>Others worth mentioning:</b><br /> <br /> <ul> <li>Jabez Wilson was referred to as "portly" and obese" by Watson. [REDH]</li> <li>Henry Baker, the forlorn goose owner, was said to be "out of training entirely" as his hat bore "the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the wearer perspired very freely, and could, therefore, hardly be in the best of training." [BLUE]</li> <li>Jephro Rucastle was described as <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana;"> "</span>A prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face, and a great heavy chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat," who had "fat hands".  [COPP]</li> </ul> <br /> <br /> <h3> He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother</h3> A little closer to home, Sherlock Holmes's brother was certainly no fan of exercise, as his habits indicated:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Mycroft lodges in Pall Mall, and he walks round the corner into Whitehall every morning and back every evening. From year's end to year's end he takes no other exercise, and is seen nowhere else, except only in the Diogenes Club, which is just opposite his rooms." [GREE]</blockquote> </div> <div> <br /></div> <div> His appearance also backed up this assertion, as Watson noted Mycroft's "broad, fat hand, like the flipper of a seal."</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPz4V05OqeSN0DWSGqvKgeGuZxqYrm4GlcOavbJlA0AxDfnTzthXX7se5h4CwxuiM5mXjJG1338rvcQlnjiFKqvM3CZU7C5hhgvXn0Otsx_ItcAf910WWn8qYiJfhXC6tC9rJyapW8-wvp/s1600/Mycroft+Holmes+in+The+Greek+Interpreter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPz4V05OqeSN0DWSGqvKgeGuZxqYrm4GlcOavbJlA0AxDfnTzthXX7se5h4CwxuiM5mXjJG1338rvcQlnjiFKqvM3CZU7C5hhgvXn0Otsx_ItcAf910WWn8qYiJfhXC6tC9rJyapW8-wvp/s1600/Mycroft+Holmes+in+The+Greek+Interpreter.jpg" width="232" /></a></div> <div> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Mycroft Holmes was a much larger and stouter man than Sherlock. His body was absolutely corpulent, but his face, though massive, had preserved something of the sharpness of expression which was so remarkable in that of his brother.</blockquote> </div> <div> <br /> So there you have it. Are there other characters in the Canon with whom you associate exercise (or lack thereof)? Let us know in a comment.</div> <br /> --<br /> <br /> <br />

Exercise in the Sherlock Holmes Stories

"flushed with the exercise" [STUD] We recently saw a tweet from a listener that caught our attention. Brooke Hall ( @Edito...

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by Scott Monty

Once More With Feeling

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "You have the feelings of a gentleman" [3GAB]</h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQzPmpJPxIeEbRjwOh0G0ItFxCkP08hlYLaClea3SGJSP8x73N3wQ-9A9E3NnTgtnOhyphenhyphenaEHBwFV242gIkFMTWDBC4bY7TL7b7vpJJKTJ2END1g_2asBYZ3mupTsfcPnrjfFUADh1CRK4uk/s1600/CARD+-+brown+study.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQzPmpJPxIeEbRjwOh0G0ItFxCkP08hlYLaClea3SGJSP8x73N3wQ-9A9E3NnTgtnOhyphenhyphenaEHBwFV242gIkFMTWDBC4bY7TL7b7vpJJKTJ2END1g_2asBYZ3mupTsfcPnrjfFUADh1CRK4uk/s1600/CARD+-+brown+study.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> I was indulging in one of my non-Sherlockian hobbies the other day — drinking coffee in a booth — when my smartphone started to blow up, all because somebody happened to make a reference to "Stinker! Holmes" and I happened to ask what she meant. My friend, call her Sapphire, said she was alluding to Robert Downey, Jr., whose appearance in two Sherlock Holmes feature films doesn't suggest that he bathed very frequently.<br /> <br /> <br /> If I remember right, I asked, you had a similar complaint about Mycroft in television's <i>Elementary</i>?<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYTUAp1FovYFyTskg1eshmTK_OJbimaMVSC_KF4V7IoG-zjGwqWfqhzaHkLqNkc0umUvynVQY6B0lH6oiuKyOLp61CDzIk-ISBC9ieWlYSYHXBBtYByGAQEXkRktogqY8_I7UvtLT9BACa/s1600/Mycroft-elementary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Mycroft has a dirty secret" border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYTUAp1FovYFyTskg1eshmTK_OJbimaMVSC_KF4V7IoG-zjGwqWfqhzaHkLqNkc0umUvynVQY6B0lH6oiuKyOLp61CDzIk-ISBC9ieWlYSYHXBBtYByGAQEXkRktogqY8_I7UvtLT9BACa/s1600/Mycroft-elementary.jpg" title="Rhys Ifans as Mycroft Holmes in Elementary" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> Conversations on Twitter tend to grow. Our friend Crimson jumped in here: "<i>Elementary</i> is my favorite adaptation for a long, loooooong time, but their Mycroft is among the worst. I know he was supposed to be ill, but he just looked unwashed. Skeezy. "<br /> <br /> <b>Sapphire:</b> "Worse than Thorpe. Worse than Gatiss! Mycroft. Neither of them looked like they needed Febreze."<br /> <br /> <b>Crimson:</b> "I think Rhys Ifans always looks like that."<br /> <br /> <b>Sapphire:</b> "He really, really does. Even in Notting Hill! I would happily spritz him."<br /> <br /> <br /> I'm editing quite a bit here, but I turned the conversation to <i>Elementary</i> as a whole, making a point I've made before, that it's a fascinating show even though Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Watson don't seem to me much like the real, the canonical, Holmes and Watson. <br /> <br /> <br /> <b>Crimson:</b> "I think the H/W relationship in this is one of the absolute best. They have a respectful relationship and consider each other colleagues and equals."<br /> <br /> <b>Sapphire:</b> "They're friends, roomates and do crime-solving sh*t together."<br /> <br /> <b>Me:</b> "They spend most of their time talking about their emotions."<br /> <br /> <b>Crimson:</b> "This is a Holmes who seems much more like a human being. No 'sociopath' bull."<br /> <br /> <b>Sapphire </b>[incredulous about my objection]: "The fact that they talk about their feelings? That they have feelings?"<br /> <br /> <b>Me:</b> "That they talk about them. Endlessly."<br /> <br /> <b>Sapphire:</b> "That doesn't violate the canon for me at all."<br /> <br /> <b>Crimson:</b> "I don't remotely see how that's not canonical. What about 'I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain'?"<br /> <br /> <b>Me:</b> "A 'glimpse' in a crisis is not 15 minutes of soul-baring every episode."<br /> <div> <b>Sapphire:</b> "If that's the main anti-canonical thing to you, we can just fundamentally disagree on the show's merits."<br /> <br /> At about that point, we agreed to disagree — no, really, we did, because I am still not persuaded that the Holmes of the canon is constantly open with Watson about his feelings and his personal life. But I thought the dialogue might shed some light on why Sherlockians never run out of things to talk about.<br /> <br /> --<br /> <br /></div>

Once More With Feeling

"You have the feelings of a gentleman" [3GAB] I was indulging in one of my non-Sherlockian hobbies the other day — drinking c...

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by Chris Redmond

Qualify for the Next IHOSE Quiz

<div> <h4 style="text-align: center;"> "no memoir...would be complete without some little sketch" [NOBL] </h4> <div style="text-align: left;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKCdVTJ3Uz5Sx7qghyphenhyphenWjhQk8b8Hra-OJ_vIr2xr7t8NWsxqubPHmhYQPKVqJIx-JHEmjT2qK1BKcY_ZmFjeO_1RE_dDa6kKCtQsH9oLT_zpPhUOFZibYKIIigIin_0xIrR-88pypQn3Rt/s1600/IHOSE_caption+19+-+RESI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKCdVTJ3Uz5Sx7qghyphenhyphenWjhQk8b8Hra-OJ_vIr2xr7t8NWsxqubPHmhYQPKVqJIx-JHEmjT2qK1BKcY_ZmFjeO_1RE_dDa6kKCtQsH9oLT_zpPhUOFZibYKIIigIin_0xIrR-88pypQn3Rt/s1600/IHOSE_caption+19+-+RESI.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <br /> If you had a chance to listen to <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose76" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the latest audio episode of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere</a>, you heard longtime contributor James O'Leary taking part as a contestant on our quiz game we call "Mental Exaltation. It's a newish feature that we're featuring in every episode. If you'd like to pick up the portion of the episode where we played <a href="http://ihose.co/1OX8ZZt" target="_blank">click here</a> or go to the annotation marked "Mental Exaltation" on the embedded SoundCloud audio below (at approximately 1:22:30).<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/200952720&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe><br /></div> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">If you've listened to NPR shows like </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/" style="color: #006f85; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> and </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/" style="color: #006f85; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Weekend Edition Sunday</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">, you'll know that there are opportunities for listeners to participate in quizzes. In the former, a guest typically plays on behalf of a listener - the prize is Carl Kassell's voice on their answering machine. On the latter, the listener plays live on the air and the prize is a book or some NPR tchochke.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;" /> <span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">As </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> (the podcast) has a connection with NPR - we've been called "a cross between NPR's </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Car Talk</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> and </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Fresh Air</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">" - we thought it would be entirely appropriate to model our own quiz program after the two above.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;" /> <span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Here's how "</span><b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Mental Exaltation</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">" works:</span></div> <ul style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: left;"> <li>Each month, we'll post a qualifying question to determine a listener who'll play / be played for on the program. Winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries.</li> <li>If you'd like to enter, you must <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub&publisher=445106&sitescope=45933" style="color: #006f85; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">subscribe to I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere by email</a>.</li> <li>We'll either have a guest play on your behalf or we'll patch you into the show to have you play over the phone or Skype.</li> <li>If your player or you succeeds in passing the test, you'll have your choice of prizes: a random item from our I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Grab-Bag of Goodies (that's the IHOSE GBG), or the voice of a member of the Baker Street Irregulars on your answering machine.</li> </ul> <div style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div> <h4 style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 18.2000007629395px; font-stretch: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: left;"> <b>Qualify now</b></h4> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Our next quiz recording will take place on Sunday, May 3. You have until </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Saturday, May 2 at 11:59 pm ET</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> to qualify. And here's how to enter:</span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div> <iframe frameborder="0" height="1150" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kNg_1D7pi-Td70LM6JSnok48E_Xqo5I0DySpLOJvG7g/viewform?embedded=true" width="650">Loading...</iframe><br /></div> <br /> <br /> Good luck!<br /> <br /> --<br /> <div> <br /></div>

Qualify for the Next IHOSE Quiz

"no memoir...would be complete without some little sketch" [NOBL]  If you had a chance to listen to  the latest audio epi...

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by Scott Monty

Watson, You Handsome Devil!

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> “With your natural advantages, Watson" [RETI] </h4> <h4 style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwCJbu28urJLyJNNngUroKV4WAlYstygvc27B46fWUIzZzT5qZZu9HHgGlSQvnbgqCxQ1NJ0ouhluod9gN_jyiQZ35Iom-RoJcLPVbyKeT3lt4yl37kLmuKnuEdYcGgpqdo6kcZoLliIPk/s1600/DrWatson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Dr. Watson in profile" border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwCJbu28urJLyJNNngUroKV4WAlYstygvc27B46fWUIzZzT5qZZu9HHgGlSQvnbgqCxQ1NJ0ouhluod9gN_jyiQZ35Iom-RoJcLPVbyKeT3lt4yl37kLmuKnuEdYcGgpqdo6kcZoLliIPk/s1600/DrWatson.jpg" title="Dr. Watson" width="400" /></a></h4> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As the world awaits <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sherlock</i> Series Four the talk is, per usual, of the sex appeal of Benedict Cumberbatch. In an interview posted on <a href="http://www.bigissue.com/features/interviews/5075/mark-gatiss-interview-benedict-cumberbatch-has-made-sherlock-holmes-sexy" target="_blank">The Big Issue</a>, series co-creator Mark Gatiss states, </span><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“There is something very Mr Darcy-esque about his Sherlock. He is unattainable. He explicitly claims no interest in either sex, therefore he becomes very desirable. But the way Ben plays him and the way he looks is quite Byronic. He has made Sherlock Holmes sexy.”</span></blockquote> </div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldw8dt7wxF1qektmjo1_400.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldw8dt7wxF1qektmjo1_400.png" width="245" /></a></div> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Well, yes. But that is nothing new for Holmes. <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/William%20Gillette#.VTGkwSFViko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">William Gillette</a> was already a matinée idol when he brought the literary detective to the stage in 1899,  and his Holmes generated fangirl squeee among <i>fin de siècle</i> theater goers. Edward Lauterbach in “The Straightjacket of Success: Further Notes on Gillette’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sherlock Holmes</i>” (Vol 30, No 4 December 1980) writes:</span></div> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In her delightful memoir of the early nineteen-hundreds, Gretchen Finletter [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From the Top of the Stairs</i> (Boston: Little, Brown, 1946)], recalls the girlish admiration she and her friends offered Gillette for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. At the school which Gretchen attended, the girls worshipped either Maude Adams as Peter Pan or William Gillette. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“The Gillette fans felt they were better organised and much more sophisticated than the Peter Pan group: The advantage of the Gillette circle, as opposed to the Maude Adams party, lay largely in the fact that William Gillette was a man. Little girls of nine and ten adored Maude Adams. It was silly. To shiver over Sherlock Holmes in his silk dressing gown when he cried, “Quick, Watson, the needle!” bared his arm and stuck the hypodermic into the upper wrist, and then gazed out over the audience with that, oh, so tired look—that was a moment of mature experience in one’s life. It made the Peter Pan goings on mere childish falderal.”</span></div> </blockquote> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIkRhVoo7bcPxLr_LegeRDg1uwPU_A3zfoiSoZvlexM6vW9C8FDwLW1Q8DAdN6xHdl8WRKSGvOzdm7AKfC9AAgTIwGbeQdeZFaXe5psUCpjy8RgcG9PF1hSoinTMEVHTsxyDbatyblSyrN/s1600/Gillette_in_Secret_Service_-_FullBody_Shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="William Gillette in Secret Service" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIkRhVoo7bcPxLr_LegeRDg1uwPU_A3zfoiSoZvlexM6vW9C8FDwLW1Q8DAdN6xHdl8WRKSGvOzdm7AKfC9AAgTIwGbeQdeZFaXe5psUCpjy8RgcG9PF1hSoinTMEVHTsxyDbatyblSyrN/s1600/Gillette_in_Secret_Service_-_FullBody_Shot.jpg" title="William Gillette in Secret Service" width="308" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William Gillette in <i>Secret Service</i></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Basil Rathbone was no slouch in the looks department, either and he could make his Holmes smolder as in the pick-up scene with Hillary Brook in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Woman in Green </i>(1945). Handsome, suave and debonair Roger Moore traded the suave and debonair for Boy Scout earnest in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sherlock Holmes in New York </i>(1976). The handsome stayed and there were few complaints about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> aspect of the made-for-TV movie. Robert Downey, Jr. and Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlocks frequently doff their shirts while BBC <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sherlock</i> has offered up his backside. If Steven Moffat and Gatiss have Cumberbatch in disguise as Escott the plumber, there might be another opportunity for Sherlock butt crack in 2016.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the comic books Holmes has been portrayed with movie-star or rugged good-looks and even occasionally as chiseled-chinned beefcake.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is, of course, a far cry from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes. As Watson describes him in <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>:</span></div> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of determination. His hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch, as I frequently had occasion to observe when I watched him manipulating his fragile philosophical instruments.</span></div> </blockquote> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is Sidney Paget’s art in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Strand</i> that have become the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Portrait-Profile-Klinefelter/dp/1482371111/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429235309&sr=1-1&keywords=walter+klinefelter">iconic image of Holmes</a> and though they vary in their depiction of Holmes from handsome to ugly, Doyle stated to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tit-Bits</i> in a 1900 interview that Holmes “as I saw him in my imagination--was quite different from that which Mr. Paget pictured....In my own mind, however, he was a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>more beaky-nosed, hawk-faced man approaching more to the Red Indian type....” That is, no matter how Paget drew him, Doyle saw him as less attractive still.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxWRd758WpR1gmltrTwJatTiuv7GyWcpsgQmIeIoM23OsCECrZxvhNuGKMqrsKqlxJTUfImjY0PGN-x7vJCD8H9zbvP0kAkfazAW4M4Ecwb7-DIgWtgVRfnSa9YkqoXFYMqJEQfQTTLpOm/s1600/Sherlock+Holmes+-+Sidney+Paget+%5BRESI%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxWRd758WpR1gmltrTwJatTiuv7GyWcpsgQmIeIoM23OsCECrZxvhNuGKMqrsKqlxJTUfImjY0PGN-x7vJCD8H9zbvP0kAkfazAW4M4Ecwb7-DIgWtgVRfnSa9YkqoXFYMqJEQfQTTLpOm/s1600/Sherlock+Holmes+-+Sidney+Paget+%5BRESI%5D.jpg" width="225" /></a></div> <br /> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While Watson rarely describes himself, it is the good doctor who is the looker of the duo and we have that on the authority of Holmes:</span></div> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“With your natural advantages, Watson, every lady is your helper and accomplice. What about the girl at the post-office, or the wife of the greengrocer? I can picture you whispering soft nothings with the young lady at the Blue Anchor, and receiving hard somethings in exchange. All this you have left undone." [RETI]</span></div> </blockquote> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“The Retired Colourman” took place in 1898 or 1899 according to internal evidence and using the generally accepted 1852 as the year of Watson’s birth that means that Watson is 46 or 47 years old. While we may note the good-natured ribbing in the double entendre, we can definitely deduce that the middle-aged medico is Cary Grant/George Clooney good-looking. Holmes expects it would be no problem to charm information out of a twenty-something postal worker, a married and harried business woman and a hard-bitten waitress who has heard every come-on at least a dozen times.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Can we also detect a trace of envy in Holmes statement? Holmes “had a remarkable gentleness and courtesy in his dealings with women. He disliked and distrusted the sex, but he was always a chivalrous opponent,” [DYIN] but no doubt that came after studied practice for his profession, not naturally nor with “natural advantages”.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While early movie Watsons such as Ian Fleming and Athole Stewart were more handsome than their Holmeses, Arthur Wontner and Raymond Massey respectively, before Nigel Bruce the cinematic doctor was a minor character at best. It was Bruce's Watson who became the indispensable partner of Holmes, albeit as avuncular comedy relief. Bruce’s legacy has had a long reach; while he may not have been the <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=duff">duff</a>, Watson thereafter was often portrayed as an old-duffer, a bumbler or slow on the uptake. Occasionally he was competent, but rarely a man you could say had “experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents.” (That line of Watson’s, by the way, is not braggadocio but an attempt to dispel the impression that he was a love-besotted mooncalf every time he was around Mary Morstan. A failed attempt in some opinions.) </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While Violet de Merville wouldn't kick Ben Kingsley's dapper Watson from <i>Without A Clue</i> (1988) from her bed, it's Jude Law, and to a lesser extent Lucy Liu, who broke new ground by being a Watson competent and better-looking than Holmes. No knock to Martin Freeman but it is Cumberbatch’s Sherlock who’s the diva who sometimes treats John as an accessory (from "<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Empty Hearse"</span>: Sherlock: “Well, we’ll have to get rid of that [referring to a picture of John’s mustache]….He looks ancient. I can’t be seen to be wandering around with an old man.”) Whatever else the Warner Bros. franchise may have in the way of Canonical faults, they seem to have gotten the looks ratio between Holmes and Watson about right.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihh0IOIXExqzE-iJfT8MmrxEw3Ep9htgwmcFRIhiCb_g07RqB81C7TgsnyinpPeoEIAS8t6bIuskbwRwGzCLeQaVvfx313IBdslZFq0jKlVcinfrEXeqaKZgqE09-_SKYCIVhWVNdzB3sR/s1600/Lucy+Liu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihh0IOIXExqzE-iJfT8MmrxEw3Ep9htgwmcFRIhiCb_g07RqB81C7TgsnyinpPeoEIAS8t6bIuskbwRwGzCLeQaVvfx313IBdslZFq0jKlVcinfrEXeqaKZgqE09-_SKYCIVhWVNdzB3sR/s1600/Lucy+Liu.jpg" width="297" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirLZrfLjHu_fmCscFpCIJTaHZLJazlMXOKKkY0DO0HDeLuuDcDINw2PWG78U2gjHhauSG-esDPb4ZEzkxUH4xMGcQ8uVft9btK8Y2tR2c2Nxv5S2HuoWerxTAG2BcHaiDMTRoKiQI37yfI/s1600/Ben+Kingsley+-+Without+a+Clue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirLZrfLjHu_fmCscFpCIJTaHZLJazlMXOKKkY0DO0HDeLuuDcDINw2PWG78U2gjHhauSG-esDPb4ZEzkxUH4xMGcQ8uVft9btK8Y2tR2c2Nxv5S2HuoWerxTAG2BcHaiDMTRoKiQI37yfI/s1600/Ben+Kingsley+-+Without+a+Clue.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <br /> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some may counter the notion of a handsome Watson from a passage in “The Sussex Vampire”—undated in the text but generally supposed to take place in 1896:</span></div> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Promptly at ten o'clock next morning Ferguson strode into our room. I had remembered him as a long, slab-sided man with loose limbs and a fine turn of speed, which had carried him round many an opposing back. There is surely nothing in life more painful than to meet the wreck of a fine athlete whom one has known in his prime. His great frame had fallen in, his flaxen hair was scanty, and his shoulders were bowed. I fear that I roused corresponding emotions in him.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">"Hullo, Watson," said he, and his voice was still deep and hearty. "You don't look quite the man you did when I threw you over the ropes into the crowd at the Old Deer Park. I expect I have changed a bit also. But it's this last day or two that has aged me.”</span></div> </blockquote> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ll take Holmes assessment over Big Bob Ferguson’s any day. Ferguson obviously divined Watson’s shocked reaction to his appearance, and, as misery loves company, couldn’t help but take a jab at an old competitor. Perhaps Watson had changed--from an “Adonis-like” youth to merely just a “damned handsome” man.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“We all are extremely proud of Benedict Cumberbatch. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sherlock</i> turned him from a respected actor into a star,” said Gatiss. Well deserved, too. But when it comes to Canonical sexy, it’s Sherlock Holmes who walks in John Watson’s comely shadow.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /> --<br /> <br /></div>

Watson, You Handsome Devil!

“With your natural advantages, Watson" [RETI]  As the world awaits Sherlock Series Four the talk is, per usual, of the sex appea...

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by James C. O'Leary

Saturday Matinee: The Mystery of the Leaping Fish

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "Yet there was certainly an element of comedy" [3GAR]</h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUgF4hGTafec0s9z8Tfnd6Y7sLBeUbIXxEafGkIkZhZQ00YqtRmoGyMH5k6mo03aHWPdbVNYQMlsoPJf41JwAi8KA7W2KtHbdb2T6VCdYFfN7oNPv6jATwjDDFM-_sd-tzOrkWaWfbfPfu/s1600/The+Leaping+Fish.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUgF4hGTafec0s9z8Tfnd6Y7sLBeUbIXxEafGkIkZhZQ00YqtRmoGyMH5k6mo03aHWPdbVNYQMlsoPJf41JwAi8KA7W2KtHbdb2T6VCdYFfN7oNPv6jATwjDDFM-_sd-tzOrkWaWfbfPfu/s1600/The+Leaping+Fish.PNG" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Humor in Holmesian pastiche usually occurs within a given historical context. For example, the Guy Ritchie films with Robert Downey Jr. take their cues from "buddy-action" films, while 1988's <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096454/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank"><i>Without a Clue</i></a></b> is much more farcical. Given that current times might not see certain behaviors as grist for humor, there is an element of slightly forbidden pleasure when watching the 1916 silent comedy <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8W52FNmEFY" target="_blank">The Mystery of the Leaping Fish</a></i>.<br /> <br /> For many who participated in the making of this film, <i>The Mystery of the Leaping Fish</i> is an unusual departure for many of the participants. For Douglas Fairbanks (who stars as Coke Ennyday, a riff on Craig Kennedy), it was a chance for the swashbuckling hero to star in a madcap comedy. (In his portrayal of a Holmes-like character, Fairbanks gives him a slightly greater physicality, and many of the stunts - including an aquatic sequence - have a great energy and enthusiasm). The writer - Tod Browning - would later direct movies like <i><b>Freaks</b> </i>and <b><i>Dracula</i></b>. There is even a more tragic aspect - Alma Rubens (who plays Ennyday's assistant) died due to morphine addiction...<br /> <br /> And it is that casual, comic portrayal of drug addiction that gives <i>The Mystery of the Leaping Fish</i> a slightly unusual edge. Much like within canon stories, there is a seeming acceptance of regular cocaine use as it was seen as something of a "wonder drug". Given that within twenty years of <i>Leaping Fish</i>, both the <a href="http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-harrison-act.htm" target="_blank">Harrison Act</a> and the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93301189" target="_blank">Hayes Code</a> would make it harder to make such a lighthearted look at addiction....but for Sherlockians, <i>The Mystery of The Leaping Fish</i> is an interesting curiosity, and well worth seeking out. <br /> <br /> <center> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N8W52FNmEFY" width="600"></iframe></center> <br /> --<br /> <br />

Saturday Matinee: The Mystery of the Leaping Fish

"Yet there was certainly an element of comedy" [3GAR] Humor in Holmesian pastiche usually occurs within a given historical co...

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by Gordon D

St. George and his Sherlock Holmes Connections

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "Saints have never flourished in those parts" [HOUN]</h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD0j7cBbSl8AAiTj56i3Q0m6qP-YgIHqwABcT-jKMhqlZnS1nqMrIk_aWDLMmz66pPKyL5PmO9LNJN0dZD3U58QsJeXxhCljI1KyL6o3mig9tBnxWXdzBj6ueeRonPqmhjPXN9MMV2tH0D/s1600/St.+George+and+the+Dragon+Paolo+Uccello.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="St. George and the Dragon - Uccello" border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD0j7cBbSl8AAiTj56i3Q0m6qP-YgIHqwABcT-jKMhqlZnS1nqMrIk_aWDLMmz66pPKyL5PmO9LNJN0dZD3U58QsJeXxhCljI1KyL6o3mig9tBnxWXdzBj6ueeRonPqmhjPXN9MMV2tH0D/s1600/St.+George+and+the+Dragon+Paolo+Uccello.jpg" title="St. George slaying the dragon" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Everybody knows of St. Patrick's Day on March 17, honoring the patron saint of Ireland, but England's patron saint, George, marks his Day today, April 23, with far less press. (The other two components of the United Kingdom also have saints: Scotland's St. Andrew is honored on November 30, Wales's St. David on March 1.)<br /> <div> <br /></div> <div> St. George's Day is not an English holiday, and the St. George's Cross, red on a white background, is associated mostly with soccer fans, though it does appear as one component of the Union Jack. St. George is, however, a significant figure in English folklore and literature, so it's no surprise that he makes a few appearances in the tales of Sherlock Holmes. </div> <div> <br /></div> <div> Three explicit mentions of him have, as one might expect, a religious connection. </div> <div> <ol> <li>From <b>"The Man with the Twisted Lip"</b>: "Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, DD, Principal of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to opium." </li> <li>In <b>"The Noble Bachelor"</b> there are two mentions of  the location of the ill-fated wedding, <a href="http://www.stgeorgeshanoversquare.org/" target="_blank">St. George's Church in Hanover Square</a>. </li> <li>From <b>"The Crooked Man"</b>: "Mrs. Barclay was, it appears, a member of the Roman Catholic Church and had interested herself very much in the establishment of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild_of_St_George" target="_blank">Guild of St. George</a>, which was formed in connection with the Watt Street Chapel for the purpose of supplying the poor with cast-off clothing."</li> </ol> <br /> But it's also St. George who is meant when Sherlock Holmes in "The Priory School" and "The Six Napoleons" swears "By George!" In fact the same oath is used ten times in canonical stories — twice by Holmes, twice by Lestrade, twice by Carruthers of "The Solitary Cyclist", and once each by Stapleton, Inspector Martin, Stanley Hopkins, and Leverton, hero of the Long Island cave mystery, in "The Red Circle", who is certainly no Englishman. These incidents all come in the second half of the canon. It can be assumed that "By George!" is a euphemistic substitution for "By God!" but even so it was strong language, apparently not suitable for use in any of the Holmes tales published before the twentieth century.</div> <div> <br /></div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9jz8kIy5emxgqIOQw_mKF0AY_Fa9C98h0AE0FiX893VemoLVosczeDM0vZtyI2z5gTbI6BGjVSlw1wUXwGsMdDIuVHZfegDWsqNFveRvBSUIA4oaOAQr6FtVUO0SuzVqtvPIOIpicu7tg/s1600/Union_Flag_and_St_Georges_Cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9jz8kIy5emxgqIOQw_mKF0AY_Fa9C98h0AE0FiX893VemoLVosczeDM0vZtyI2z5gTbI6BGjVSlw1wUXwGsMdDIuVHZfegDWsqNFveRvBSUIA4oaOAQr6FtVUO0SuzVqtvPIOIpicu7tg/s1600/Union_Flag_and_St_Georges_Cross.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: "<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Union_Flag_and_St_Georges_Cross.jpg#/media/File:Union_Flag_and_St_Georges_Cross.jpg" target="_blank">Union Flag and St Georges Cross</a>" by THOR - Summer Sky in Southsea England. <br /> Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons </td></tr> </tbody></table> <div> <br /> St. George himself was no Englishman either, but a Roman soldier, born in Palestine in the third century AD. The principal legend about his life is that he killed a (presumably diabolical) dragon, rescuing a maiden in the process. On the strength of that feat of heroism he is the patron saint not only of England but of Portugal, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, and dozens of other places, not to mention the Scout movement and herpes sufferers. In his honor, April 23 is a holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.<br /> <br /> And in his honour, according to one recent count, England has 104 pubs called the "George and Dragon". None of them figures in the Sherlock Holmes tales, although Holmes and Watson stay at the "Green Dragon," perhaps representing the creature St. George slew, when they leave London to investigate the affair of "Shoscombe Old Place". Charles Augustus Milverton's safe is a metaphorical dragon, "this green and gold monster, the dragon which held in its maw the reputation of many fair ladies," and in that case Holmes himself stands in for St. George when he conquers the monster.<br /> <br /> A very familiar reference to England's patron saint comes in the play <i>Henry V</i>, whose author, William Shakespeare, happens to mark his birthday on St. George's Day. He provides a brilliant speech for the young king, rallying his troops before the battle of Agincourt, which was fought exactly 600 years ago this October. "Follow your spirit," Henry (or Harry) urges them, "and upon this charge, Cry — God for Harry! England and Saint George!" Just a few words earlier, what does Henry tell his soldiers? All Sherlockians know that clarion call, which Sherlock Holmes quotes as he rouses Watson in "The Abbey Grange": <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "The game's afoot!" </blockquote> </div> <br /> <br /> <br /> <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image credit: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APaolo_Uccello_047.jpg" target="_blank">Paolo Uccello [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></i><br /> --</div>

St. George and his Sherlock Holmes Connections

"Saints have never flourished in those parts" [HOUN] Everybody knows of St. Patrick's Day on March 17, honoring the patro...

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by Chris Redmond

The BBC Sherlock Is Actually Indian

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "Good gracious, Mr. Holmes" [3STU]</h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHmlcsrZ8PktV9LoRpZgfF70hoNgJsh07vPsDPHdpJ-OZ-x4F7iYtCPW7YsD3JiT2crb_vx8oj2d8mJM_4Ut8JA03tGIO8JJ6vOyK-PJD2v-_aSH8vM_rq9U54aiPCWYm3HfOdxtAsipzA/s1600/Fort+of+Agra+-+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHmlcsrZ8PktV9LoRpZgfF70hoNgJsh07vPsDPHdpJ-OZ-x4F7iYtCPW7YsD3JiT2crb_vx8oj2d8mJM_4Ut8JA03tGIO8JJ6vOyK-PJD2v-_aSH8vM_rq9U54aiPCWYm3HfOdxtAsipzA/s1600/Fort+of+Agra+-+cropped.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <i>Sherlock</i> is an <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10501730/Sherlock-how-it-became-a-global-phenomenon.html" target="_blank">international phenomenon</a>. From the legions of fans who travel to catch a glimpse of Speedy's Cafe on North Gower Street (the very real street where Baker Street is set in the series) to the hordes of online tributes to the show on Tumblr, blogs and discussion forums, there are devoted fans from around the world who dissect the episodes and wait (and wait...and wait...) for the new seasons to arrive.<br /> <br /> But you might be surprised to learn that new evidence has been uncovered to indicate that <i>Sherlock</i> is not a British export at all. While it may be globally popular, there are indications that Sherlock is actually an Indian show about an Indian detective.<br /> <br /> We'll leave it to the characters in Goodness Gracious Me to give you <a href="https://youtu.be/aqc9mQEbmS4" target="_blank">the explanation</a>.<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aqc9mQEbmS4" width="640"></iframe><br /> <br /></div> <br /> Thanks to Kumar Bhatia of the <a href="http://www.sherlockholmessociety.in/" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes Society of India</a> for the tip.<br /> <br /> And as a bonus, here's the <i>Sherlock </i>theme <a href="https://youtu.be/EuO6rdsnN8c" target="_blank">as played by the Indian Jam Project</a>:<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EuO6rdsnN8c?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br /> <br /></div> <br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Image credit: "<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_du_fort_d%27Agra_(1901).jpg#/media/File:Plan_du_fort_d%27Agra_(1901).jpg">Plan du fort d'Agra (1901)</a>" by <span lang="en">Unknown</span> - scanned from <a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray%27s_Handbooks_for_Travellers" title="en:Murray's Handbooks for Travellers">Murray's Handbooks for Travellers</a> <a class="external text" href="http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23302766M/A_handbook_for_travellers_in_India_Burma_and_Ceylon_.." rel="nofollow">A Handbook for Travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon (8th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1911</a> by <a class="external text" href="http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00fwp/identity_info.html" rel="nofollow">Prof. Emerita Frances Pritchett, Columbia University</a>. Image found at <a class="external free" href="http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/1600_1699/agrafort/maps/murray1901.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/1600_1699/agrafort/maps/murray1901.jpg</a> in Sept 2013 and used with permission from FP.. Licensed under Public Domain via <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</i></span><br /> <br /> --

The BBC Sherlock Is Actually Indian

"Good gracious, Mr. Holmes" [3STU] Sherlock is an international phenomenon . From the legions of fans who travel to catch a ...

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by Scott Monty

New Mr. Holmes Trailer

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes" [SPEC]</h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdlzN7p4lEIn049_4dh6rv0ykmAtMaKOOWidZyQNhWMgGKJU65hYJMnWwJWzdjH-rpuOWm-QL-Nvw_o4QkdxnS2yaa5b5ObqAP617hD6eo18pXvIGQvJ0oAf2sxqxZVzIvW2oVuhfG6aSm/s1600/mr-holmes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdlzN7p4lEIn049_4dh6rv0ykmAtMaKOOWidZyQNhWMgGKJU65hYJMnWwJWzdjH-rpuOWm-QL-Nvw_o4QkdxnS2yaa5b5ObqAP617hD6eo18pXvIGQvJ0oAf2sxqxZVzIvW2oVuhfG6aSm/s1600/mr-holmes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> As we prepare for Sir Ian McKellen to grace the theaters this summer in <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3168230/" target="_blank">Mr. Holmes</a></i>, we've been afforded the opportunity to see <a href="https://youtu.be/KSsf17Exa4g" target="_blank">the latest trailer</a>.<br /> <br /> The story is set in 1947, following a long-retired Sherlock Holmes living in Sussex with his housekeeper (Laura Linney) and her son (Milo Parker), who is showing some budding detective skills. Holmes finds himself haunted by an unsolved 50-year old case, but due to a deteriorating memory he remembers only fragments of the case: a confrontation with an angry husband, a secret bond with his beautiful but unstable wife.<br /> <div> <br /></div> <div> The film is directed by Bill Condon, who also directed Gods and Monsters and Dreamgirls, among other films. It debuts in the US at the San Francisco Film Festival on April 25 and at the USA Film Festival on April 26. Wider distribution dates: June 19, 2015 in the UK and July 17, 2015 in the U.S.</div> <div> <br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KSsf17Exa4g?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br /> <br /> <br /> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0G1lIBgk4PA?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br /></div> <br /> <br /> As an aside, the casting of Nicholas Rowe as Sherlock Holmes of the movies is sheer genius.<br /> <br /> What do you think? Are you looking forward to seeing <i>Mr. Holmes</i>?<br /> <br /> --<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /></div>

New Mr. Holmes Trailer

"I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes" [SPEC] As we prepare for Sir Ian McKellen to grace the theaters this summer in  Mr. Holmes ...

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by Scott Monty

Sherlock Christmas Special Will Be Set in 1895

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "I have never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and physical, than in the year '95." [BLAC] </h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil25bWJGvYS5Q-syd7InviWRoDl4AOGlfbPOkm-4HPvI4LdGMEpCYX3KTbbskpLZuxE4NfGwruc7-JtrYOZP80F_i-_Ux21tmwYGm6V0zEokTCJ2hkkXHhJQZYSGrqKb3Vcg8pjPOLGfU9/s1600/BBC+One+Christmas+Sherlock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in Victorian costume" border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil25bWJGvYS5Q-syd7InviWRoDl4AOGlfbPOkm-4HPvI4LdGMEpCYX3KTbbskpLZuxE4NfGwruc7-JtrYOZP80F_i-_Ux21tmwYGm6V0zEokTCJ2hkkXHhJQZYSGrqKb3Vcg8pjPOLGfU9/s1600/BBC+One+Christmas+Sherlock.jpg" title="Cumberbatch and Freeman in period clothing" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> We've known for some time that the upcoming Christmas special of <i>Sherlock </i>will be <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/11/sherlock-221back-special-teaser.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">set in Victorian times</a>. But the question as to exactly <i>when</i> in Victorian times has been something of a mystery.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/32380304/benedict-cumberbatchs-sherlock-goes-back-to-1895" target="_blank">According to the BBC</a>, the year in which the episode will be set is the perennially favorite 1895. Mark Gatiss himself disabused any notion that the year was 1885, as some speculations posited, when he said, "I can correct something that has been misreported. The series is set in 1895, not 1885."<br /> <br /> Astute viewers will recall that Watson's blog counter is stuck at 1895, which itself is a nod to the classic poem <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2013/10/celebrate-national-poetry-day.html#.VTZTwiFViko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"221B"</a> by Vincent Starrett, BSI ("<i>A Study in Scarlet</i>"), which reads in part:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;"> Here, though the world explode, these two survive,<br />And it is always eighteen ninety-five.</blockquote> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3WDoAez_fhXKxlbs4Zso2K7-dFUukV_AcwvsevkCDcDC4vG-RZ-njI2DfATt0MuQasfZLQ5278w3bt1JPzVON-OSbytM3xMDAjkE_l_6sKVrbQHEqOIkmQrx8zBYgolGY4YvLFQMZ_9xK/s1600/221B+-+Starrett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Vincent Starrett's classic "221B" poem" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3WDoAez_fhXKxlbs4Zso2K7-dFUukV_AcwvsevkCDcDC4vG-RZ-njI2DfATt0MuQasfZLQ5278w3bt1JPzVON-OSbytM3xMDAjkE_l_6sKVrbQHEqOIkmQrx8zBYgolGY4YvLFQMZ_9xK/s1600/221B+-+Starrett.jpg" title=""221B" by Vincent Starrett" width="582" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <br /></div> <br /> <br /> --<br /> <br />

Sherlock Christmas Special Will Be Set in 1895

"I have never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and physical, than in the year '95." [BLAC]  We've kn...

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by Scott Monty