Review: Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles

<h4 style="text-align: center;">“he has a picture-book under his arm” [GREE] </h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKequyGUVUaV3s0jKvVT1cVsGlXCIDzXuFT2eev7RQcG-E0jclLS7ZwkKpuLDJII873zhF2hQF7CGIfQnZgA1S9U5G4YqNtLTVmNsWi7pXGeXQ9B8KaMZoVmyTxNTL7ndfDRVXpEEZUb94xzkdC7AAvCl8V9bty4z0cuyabVM8eIO8I_K7wIcswlU-lg/s1500/Noel%20-%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20HOUN%20cover%20cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="929" data-original-width="1500" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKequyGUVUaV3s0jKvVT1cVsGlXCIDzXuFT2eev7RQcG-E0jclLS7ZwkKpuLDJII873zhF2hQF7CGIfQnZgA1S9U5G4YqNtLTVmNsWi7pXGeXQ9B8KaMZoVmyTxNTL7ndfDRVXpEEZUb94xzkdC7AAvCl8V9bty4z0cuyabVM8eIO8I_K7wIcswlU-lg/w640-h396/Noel%20-%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20HOUN%20cover%20cropped.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>It's the way the world works. I wrote a survey of all of <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles </i>graphic novel adaptations, and as soon as I'm done, I find another one. </p><p><i><a href="https://amzn.to/3AWamsn" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles</a></i> is an "old book by Arthur Conan Doyle" featuring "new doodles by Jack Noel."</p><p>Although labeled a "Comic Classic," I was somewhat relieved to find that this isn't really a comic.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgka8l_B-z5GIyz8KPhGDgWppZgaNkwX_zQrTXqQO5K-GkEn7dFaCIEQD7GxcFGllQSMPLsbymY-5ynzY8Dg13N5Qt228HXhInFn17k-r4LvZLhr86HzD6fQiFmtKQoR97l5mGbfXnekM-mgLA6G-RlpaFaROtXb5JHnF8GmEq4_SFMK03Qu1w-rN7w2w/s2118/Noel%20-%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20HOUN%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2118" data-original-width="1500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgka8l_B-z5GIyz8KPhGDgWppZgaNkwX_zQrTXqQO5K-GkEn7dFaCIEQD7GxcFGllQSMPLsbymY-5ynzY8Dg13N5Qt228HXhInFn17k-r4LvZLhr86HzD6fQiFmtKQoR97l5mGbfXnekM-mgLA6G-RlpaFaROtXb5JHnF8GmEq4_SFMK03Qu1w-rN7w2w/w284-h400/Noel%20-%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20HOUN%20cover.jpg" width="284" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Instead, this enjoyable read is formatted in illustrated diary format, as made popular by <i><a href="https://amzn.to/3KR1o49" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Diary of a Wimpy Kid</a></i> and its many imitators. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4CDAlG_Ys1tA8VWM5vvvTiDJe6Rqf8-GzfChQp-sOgQbes3dCSPcyw2mOt-Rlb49jTY6OBM7U1pM0ni31atVyfDpUUJ-T0fotKKh4Fml9V-lZKltKW97ad6Szo7UcSAYVIoxap1bKzDZ0N_JpyWaLz6-6vJTg2GS2uatkUaJt1bS8LM62fm28bCC0w/s1436/Noel%20-%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20HOUN%20inside%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1052" data-original-width="1436" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB4CDAlG_Ys1tA8VWM5vvvTiDJe6Rqf8-GzfChQp-sOgQbes3dCSPcyw2mOt-Rlb49jTY6OBM7U1pM0ni31atVyfDpUUJ-T0fotKKh4Fml9V-lZKltKW97ad6Szo7UcSAYVIoxap1bKzDZ0N_JpyWaLz6-6vJTg2GS2uatkUaJt1bS8LM62fm28bCC0w/w640-h468/Noel%20-%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20HOUN%20inside%201.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div>Text; small, cartoony images; character portraits; and various diagrams are scattered across the pages in such a way that there's always something new to look at. Plus, there are occasional comments on the action, often in joking fashion. <div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisGiYplA1QGuSrONM20FMUtepYO7ob2DBHGXNqLyYQtbJqU-Vla6-2-bQrGLkniF0YeME9VnvHkBilMCSl9iLb6FHVlMHUwXmsKsTQmSQaLCMEbWhX7rpT5t7EQgdtxdhP802uAah5WDGJttNhfkkspqeKVCQ8T9RSvyluU07FqibXeYfjPx8NSdWRIw/s1416/Noel%20-%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20HOUN%20inside%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1014" data-original-width="1416" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisGiYplA1QGuSrONM20FMUtepYO7ob2DBHGXNqLyYQtbJqU-Vla6-2-bQrGLkniF0YeME9VnvHkBilMCSl9iLb6FHVlMHUwXmsKsTQmSQaLCMEbWhX7rpT5t7EQgdtxdhP802uAah5WDGJttNhfkkspqeKVCQ8T9RSvyluU07FqibXeYfjPx8NSdWRIw/w640-h458/Noel%20-%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20HOUN%20inside%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The whole thing is punctuated by the use of an electric lime color that adds to the air of something creepy going on. Various captions, drawn to resemble post-it notes, highlight questions and clues that underline the mystery. </p><p>It's an amusing, modern way to tell the story for kids. I laughed several times, particularly when Watson's statement, "I spent the day at my club and did not return to Baker Street until evening," had a tiny note attached that ran, "Yes, I have my own life without Sherlock, thank you very much." </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ3SUCtRWNEIAJeghVe6VlvoGfdoN8vB0LpzLO74m-pX01vQfqSiuIfatZlY40TkE1mD11MDVVdP6CKhtEiORsFicfRXiviyVF0FH9h9p-KMhVj970HJkRj6xdj32whaLqLLdouLnShEahrtlzGwJsuapak74twod5kVuRa3-BVGt5g7danhgwLFfjnA/s1403/Noel%20-%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20HOUN%20inside%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1018" data-original-width="1403" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ3SUCtRWNEIAJeghVe6VlvoGfdoN8vB0LpzLO74m-pX01vQfqSiuIfatZlY40TkE1mD11MDVVdP6CKhtEiORsFicfRXiviyVF0FH9h9p-KMhVj970HJkRj6xdj32whaLqLLdouLnShEahrtlzGwJsuapak74twod5kVuRa3-BVGt5g7danhgwLFfjnA/w640-h464/Noel%20-%20Sherlock%20Holmes%20HOUN%20inside%203.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>The sense of humor is appreciated, but the author also maintains the classic mood of the story, with plenty of spookiness and all the key points included. The additions are cute, entertaining, and surprisingly informative, giving the reader greater understanding of what's going on. It's a fun way to reread the most famous Sherlock Holmes story. </p><p>The publisher recommends the book for ages 7-9 and has posted an <a href="https://www.farshore.co.uk/resources/hound-of-the-baskervilles-activity-pack/" target="_blank">activity pack</a>. </p><p><i><a href="https://amzn.to/3AWamsn" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Comic Classics: Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles</a></i> abridged by Lucy Courtenay, designed and illustrated by Jack Noel, published by Farshore, November 2021</p><p>--</p><p><br /></p></div>

Review: Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles

“he has a picture-book under his arm” [GREE]  It's the way the world works. I wrote a survey of all of The Hound of the Baskervilles gra...

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by Johanna Draper Carlson

Baker Street Elementary – No Short, Sherlock

<h4 style="text-align: center;">“The facts are briefly these” [SCAN]    </h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMeEXQ8x_Uej6D92ibNXVnPwFma3mx-RCcQExRQalKPkOhuk92dYM5BSQHLMqaFIBUbwPDn30JO5YHNVTkkxG9Aj85xgXfNji7tXaBEuD3WbsWbxHOlBXm6mGlcbeJcwgpDWfTWi8rpgolO3-hkCJ7D1tcUXlN6q6pANEhnKPoGSfLR-PdyXsPAKjoA/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMeEXQ8x_Uej6D92ibNXVnPwFma3mx-RCcQExRQalKPkOhuk92dYM5BSQHLMqaFIBUbwPDn30JO5YHNVTkkxG9Aj85xgXfNji7tXaBEuD3WbsWbxHOlBXm6mGlcbeJcwgpDWfTWi8rpgolO3-hkCJ7D1tcUXlN6q6pANEhnKPoGSfLR-PdyXsPAKjoA/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Once Sherlockian scholarship took off in the 1930s and early 1940s, the collective writers (who were many — remember Christopher Morley's observation that "Never before had so much been written by so many for so few") must have tired of writing out the full story titles again and again.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">So the intrepid Jay Finley Christ, BSI ("The Final Problem"), who needed to save space in his 1947 volume <i>An Irregular Guide to Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street</i>,  created a standardized four-letter abbreviation for the stories.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In fact, we carry a copy of that very list for easy reference. You can find it at <a href="http://ihose.co/ABREV">ihose.co/ABREV</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Christ's basic principle was simple: the abbreviation is the first four letters of the story's title, leaving aside phrases like "The Adventure of." He listed them alphabetically, from ABBE for "The Abbey Grange" to YELL for "The Yellow Face."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">A few problems arise with the four-letter rule, most obviously the fact that three stories begin with the word "Three." Christ solved that one easily by using numerals in the stories where there might be confusion: 3GAB for the Gables, 3GAR for the Garridebs, 3STU for the Students. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">He didn't do the same thing for "The Five Orange Pips" or "The Six Napoleons" because there's only one five and one six. And "The Sign of the Four" is SIGN, with no numeral needed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And lest you think that these choices were capricious or confusing, Christ was a professor at the University of Chicago, home of the famed <i>Chicago Manual of Style</i>. The manual indicates that "whole cardinal numbers from one through one hundred, as well as ordinals, are spelled out in nontechnical contexts." Indeed, Christ was working from academic and legal precedents for his abbreviations.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">As you know, all good systems have a few exceptions, and Christ's was no different. He chose CHAS for "Charles Augustus Milverton," because that was a recognized abbreviation for Charles; and ENGR for "The Engineer's Thumb." </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And in three instances he apparently ignored introductory words, deeming them as insignificant as "The Adventure of." So we have IDEN for "A Case of Identity," LAST for "His Last Bow," and TWIS for "The Man with the Twisted Lip." In each case, the word with the most significant meaning for that story takes precedent.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">That's the long and the short of it, anyway. Let's see how Baker Street Elementary grapples with it... </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRz-nDF0qOUUOJUjkTpaXzpCsD-DWwGZ-8plKuQXNMm4kujqVsB5sYIdn44dXlwjZZCG8p3br2zz02mJnn9Hou5t4DtA-O6sCIokBc_UbI4EVxqCFQF_wp_meQLRC4_kONerh8I7imHZrm4ZD0GFnChOF1tnyk_0ZJjy6QOn_45DENpAiYHpyGA-fSnw/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRz-nDF0qOUUOJUjkTpaXzpCsD-DWwGZ-8plKuQXNMm4kujqVsB5sYIdn44dXlwjZZCG8p3br2zz02mJnn9Hou5t4DtA-O6sCIokBc_UbI4EVxqCFQF_wp_meQLRC4_kONerh8I7imHZrm4ZD0GFnChOF1tnyk_0ZJjy6QOn_45DENpAiYHpyGA-fSnw/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOqucS-bOQDyHSYlgoTv7Xv08kx46SJtr7a4GiJb_RPgtOmNlnEvht-Df7WWPd71JGI1ZLvBcfhpdo4gJOmGvdGLTTBLG064O7Lx1W73pP17O9nVfmsmE_-AVa8k-k1IR0-W1WmSVlOOmWpbrpKBNfYai6qQgzg1MjGjBgKS7kbIKWt3u2nKUj2OFjA/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOqucS-bOQDyHSYlgoTv7Xv08kx46SJtr7a4GiJb_RPgtOmNlnEvht-Df7WWPd71JGI1ZLvBcfhpdo4gJOmGvdGLTTBLG064O7Lx1W73pP17O9nVfmsmE_-AVa8k-k1IR0-W1WmSVlOOmWpbrpKBNfYai6qQgzg1MjGjBgKS7kbIKWt3u2nKUj2OFjA/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAUAsF8bq6hEFWI6F27ixBzHZ3FRNdPaWhPqtosZ3Ed15lFgi1gYs9EiMf5AigW-tdBrHWUufyYCB1V0gc0LYot10vTQsPeeXF33MBt-Oilckr28hAuVn3Xs8BvEbphwzyU6Is_Yd4vz_g8Avqln5a6MrN8_Ili_EUmb6OXKcudn-qW9aFO4b3NpI7TA/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAUAsF8bq6hEFWI6F27ixBzHZ3FRNdPaWhPqtosZ3Ed15lFgi1gYs9EiMf5AigW-tdBrHWUufyYCB1V0gc0LYot10vTQsPeeXF33MBt-Oilckr28hAuVn3Xs8BvEbphwzyU6Is_Yd4vz_g8Avqln5a6MrN8_Ili_EUmb6OXKcudn-qW9aFO4b3NpI7TA/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.4.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZxHlPrXgyrod0M-e1d4Yv2P-8xSYGzJ9ZsWzPwoLzeutIFbJfdlYm5hJMC4Bw0I3GiXD46GLLq5F4O3zq442ZgXBRHy9-lD1nPvsdqQ40sgRgdaSAkaN3pCeYWsIs0663YPkzxtqEpQeusVnk-PZOqWeRgzv0ayZwPaA07BZA34HkKtnKPf8xo1FjA/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZxHlPrXgyrod0M-e1d4Yv2P-8xSYGzJ9ZsWzPwoLzeutIFbJfdlYm5hJMC4Bw0I3GiXD46GLLq5F4O3zq442ZgXBRHy9-lD1nPvsdqQ40sgRgdaSAkaN3pCeYWsIs0663YPkzxtqEpQeusVnk-PZOqWeRgzv0ayZwPaA07BZA34HkKtnKPf8xo1FjA/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.5.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDdxToA_G1Hd_-EvLIAIzqetdZm0AqkGM13W-UUH6lx_jSojjqmAakMfxLqs5dlVDL0D-NE3Di8X6-2cMLNQUAZv2etZUbgOHRMl6nGBbh8ozb_y0leUowDy4OCqNlUc3vbJaBmEJTrwO_PTtdZYDjE1xBnX-fxJUsFeZZxJO1YpZXG9YVyZTo0ClwDw/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDdxToA_G1Hd_-EvLIAIzqetdZm0AqkGM13W-UUH6lx_jSojjqmAakMfxLqs5dlVDL0D-NE3Di8X6-2cMLNQUAZv2etZUbgOHRMl6nGBbh8ozb_y0leUowDy4OCqNlUc3vbJaBmEJTrwO_PTtdZYDjE1xBnX-fxJUsFeZZxJO1YpZXG9YVyZTo0ClwDw/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20139.6.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>Baker Street Elementary</i></b><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at </span><a href="http://www.bakerstreetelementary.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #006f85; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;">www.bakerstreetelementary.org</a><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">.</span></div><div><div><br /></div><div><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGyHxoov2AdCNzI-sA382WHyzmCYKmU5vuVxxUUbwgmzd_zESpxNTWBoDo-0BOUVmZPf0EpIOXFT9y59il288HBvx1-_JJJXxHhZAn2orzWJPWbYZasKlLBplbQMHDaY9thgs_w1diI7ch/s1600/Baker+Street+Elementary.jpg" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGyHxoov2AdCNzI-sA382WHyzmCYKmU5vuVxxUUbwgmzd_zESpxNTWBoDo-0BOUVmZPf0EpIOXFT9y59il288HBvx1-_JJJXxHhZAn2orzWJPWbYZasKlLBplbQMHDaY9thgs_w1diI7ch/s640/Baker+Street+Elementary.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><br />--</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>

Baker Street Elementary – No Short, Sherlock

“The facts are briefly these” [SCAN]     Once Sherlockian scholarship took off in the 1930s and early 1940s, the collective writers (who wer...

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by Scott Monty

The Bull Pup: Canine, Gun, or Something Else?

<div class="separator"><h4 style="text-align: center;">"It's a dog," said I. [CROO]</h4></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJz_LalD4gQDhxDEWNMciCrKcZWYASt4IAtbnckmROC6ejzzNOxhRKmMQ5_WqtIjf1zuzrf6kdgGPdX76gX9uW7JsNHC11MrIu7uQFKk4hqt1mdbloSKh1O0O5BhojV6hZHPNkWfY04HfDBsjm6ib1vadS6kjzgRLs27MHmwpx7rf7cQXZ-Nl403FY3g/s1200/Bulldog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJz_LalD4gQDhxDEWNMciCrKcZWYASt4IAtbnckmROC6ejzzNOxhRKmMQ5_WqtIjf1zuzrf6kdgGPdX76gX9uW7JsNHC11MrIu7uQFKk4hqt1mdbloSKh1O0O5BhojV6hZHPNkWfY04HfDBsjm6ib1vadS6kjzgRLs27MHmwpx7rf7cQXZ-Nl403FY3g/w640-h640/Bulldog.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div> <div>While the dog that did nothing in the night-time may be more famous to the world-at-large, being cited in essays, court opinions and as the title of an award-winning play, Watson’s mysterious bull pup may have the edge to fame within the Sherlockian world. <br /><br />When Holmes and Watson decide to be roommates at the beginning of <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>, Holmes lists his shortcoming and asks the doctor to do the same: <blockquote><div>“I keep a bull pup,” I said, “and I object to rows because my nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am extremely lazy. I have another set of vices when I'm well, but those are the principal ones at present.” </div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>As the bull pup does not physically appear in STUD or any of the subsequent adventures, many have assumed it was only a metaphor. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2011/08/this-wood-cycle-must-have-emerged-prio_9.html">Peter H. Wood’s</a> article in the Spring 2014 issue of <a href="https://www.torontobootmakers.com/canadian-holmes/"><i>Canadian Holmes</i></a>, “I Keep a Bull Pup…,” is one of the most comprehensive looks at the issue with the division of the arguments falling into two camps which Wood calls the <b>Literalist school </b>(the bull pup is a dog Watson owned or intended to own) and the <b>Metaphorical school</b> (the bull pup is a gun or a bad temper). </div><div><br /></div><div>Wood concludes that he can’t come to a conclusion to which camp has the most compelling evidence to be likely correct; he finds the evidence wanting in both cases. <br /><br />I have taken my own look at the bull pup question and I, too, will look at the Literal and Metaphorical schools but I will begin at a school that Wood did not look at: the Doylean. <br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Doylean School </h3><br />The Doylean School, by necessity, looks at the matter outside the Grand Game. When Arthur Conan Doyle refers to a bull pup in his fiction he is always referring to a canine, whether an actual, physical dog, as in the short stories: <br /><br /><b>“The Winning Shot”</b> (1883): </div><blockquote><div>"Eh, Jock; see to mun's moo', rayther! — Blessed if he bean't foamin' like Farmer Watson's dog — t' bull pup whot died mad o' the hydropathics."</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><b>“A Straggler of '15”</b> (1891): </div><blockquote><div>He's got a bull pup o' mine that I gave him when I took the bounty.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Or the novel <b><i>Beyond the City</i></b> (1891): </div><div><blockquote>"Finally, when the cabman, all top-heavy and bristling, had staggered off up the garden path, there emerged in a very leisurely way from the cab a big, powerfully built young man, with a bull pup under one arm and a pink sporting paper in his hand. <br /><br />"The bull pup which they had seen upon the day before bolted from its hiding-place, and scuttled snarling from the room. <br /><br />She came to the door with them, and as they glanced back they saw her still standing there with the yellow bull pup cuddled up under one forearm, and the thin blue reek of her cigarette ascending from her lips."</blockquote><br /><br /></div><div>Or the play co-written with J. M. Barrie: <b><i>Jane Annie; or, the Good Conduct Prize</i></b> (1893): </div><div><blockquote>“And the man has come with the bull-pups.” <br /><br />“The band got five shillings between them from Missus to go away, but she had to pay extra for not taking the bull-pups.” </blockquote><br /><br /></div><div>Or a canine in metaphor or simile as in the novels: <br /><br /><b><i>Micah Clarke</i></b> (1889): </div><div></div><blockquote><div>“Let us see what sort of sport the bull-pups make in the baiting of him!”</div><div><br />“In particular, friend Foster pinked the King in such wise that his Majesty ran howling down the street like a gored bull-pup.”</div></blockquote><div></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>The Great Shadow</i></b> (1892): </div><blockquote><div>"Maybe, if we could have seen seventy mothers weeping for their lads, we should not have felt so pleased over it; but then, men are just brutes when they are fighting, and have as much thought as two bull pups when they've got one another by the throttle."</div></blockquote><div><br /><br />So when Doyle wrote Watson saying he had a bull pup, we can be sure he was referring to a canine. </div><div><br /></div><div>The same can be said for references to <b>bulldogs </b>and <b>bull terriers</b>, they were either actual canines, similes or metaphors: </div><div><br /></div><blockquote><div>"There is Buller, the famous Cambridge quarter, only ten stone in weight, but as lithe and slippery as an eel; and Jackson, the other quarter, is just such another — hard to tackle himself, but as tenacious as a bulldog in holding an adversary." (<b><i>The Firm of Girdlestone</i></b>, 1889)</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>And those who have the physical characteristic of the animal:</div><blockquote><div>"And there rides Ney with his red head, and Lefebvre with his bulldog jaw… (“How the Brigadier Came to the Castle of Gloom,” 1895). </div></blockquote><p> </p><div style="text-align: left;">So what, then, became of Watson’s dog? As the manuscript to A Study in Scarlet is apparently not extant, we cannot interrogate it as to Doyle’s intent. We cannot see if there are further passages or mentions of the bull pup that have been excised, either by author or publisher."</div><div><br /></div><div><br />Martin Booth, in his biography of Doyle, <i><a href="https://amzn.to/3KIYHRX" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Doctor and The Detective</a></i>, remarked of the author’s writing of the Holmes tales:<br /><blockquote>"Good though the stories are, they do contain a lot of slapdash writing….This careless attitude towards the stories came about because Conan Doyle regarded them as little more than light fiction, good little money-earners. The effort of painstaking research that he applied to his historical novels, was, he felt, wasted here…" (p 155) <br /><br />"One of the inconsistences in the stories, which has resulted in a bizarrely amusing consequence, concerns Watson’s dog, which was a bull pup, either a bulldog or a bull terrier. It appears in A Study in Scarlet but is never mentioned again….The truth of the matter is that Conan Doyle simply forgot the creature, but this has not prevented bizarre interpretations as to the fate of the temporary canine." (pp 156-7) </blockquote><br /> <br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Canonical Viewpoint </h3>I’ll now enter the Game and open with the relevant entry from S. Tupper Bigelow’s <i>An Irregular Anglo-American Glossary of More or Less Unfamiliar Words, Terms and Phrases in the Sherlock Holmes Saga</i>. <br /><br /></div><blockquote><div>[keep a] bull-pup: Watson lists this as one of his shortcomings as a potential flatmate. The meaning of the phrase has bedevilled Sherlockians for decades, with opinions divided into three schools: <br /><br />*young bulldog[.] Objection; there is no further evidence of such a dog in the Canon. <br /><br />*a short thick pistol or revolver. Objection: the first firearm called by this name was not manufactured until 1937. (<i>New Official Gun Book</i>, ed. Charles R. Jacobs, c. 1951) <br /><br />*Anglo-Indian or army slang for “have a bad temper.” Objection: no non-Sherlockian lexicographic source, contemporary or otherwise, has been found for this definition. The most authoritative source is this contention by Jacques Barzun, a celebrated man of letters, in his 1975 book, <i>Simple & Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers</i>:</div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">“The curious fact about that the dog is that he is never heard of again---and no wonder, for ‘keep a bull pup’ in the 1880s was army slang for ‘have a bad temper.’ The author probably put the phrase in the army doctor’s mouth for vivid local color.” </div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><div><br />In correspondence, Mr. Barzun commented that the interpretation was supplied probably in the 1930s by a retired English army Captain, Humphry Fry, an admirer of Sherlock Holmes who was an English master at St. Bernard’s School in New York. Mr. Barzun said he and the Captain “often exchanged views about details in the stories. I must have asked him why Watson’s dog never appeared at 221B Baker Street.” </div></blockquote><div><br /><br />Jack Tracy opted for the [same] definition in his 1977 <i>Encyclopedia Sherlockiana</i> but later wrote to an inquirer that his sources were “oral history and tradition.” <br /><br /> <br /><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;">The Metaphorical School </h2>The two major classes of the Metaphorical school: One that a bull pup is a revolver or firearm of some kind and two it is slang for a bad temper. As Bigelow’s entry under the bull pup heading points out there is scant evidence for either. <br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Bull pup as slang </h3>Jack Tracy in <i>Encyclopedia Sherlockiana</i>, aside from a never-appearing dog, lists “To keep a bull pup, in Anglo- Indian slang, means to have fits of quick temper.” To quote Wood from his article:</div><div><blockquote>"In the bibliography he cites as one of his authorities, Sir Henry Yule’s “Hobson—Jobson,” an encyclopedia of Anglo-Indian slang, first published in 1903. As Sir Henry died in 1889, the compilation presumably covers Watson’s time in the great subcontinent. There is no citation in this work for “Bull-pup,” “bull (pup)” “Keep a bull-pup,” or any similar expression save for “keep a pig” alluded to above [The only “keep” phrase of any relevance seems to be “keep a pig,” which was Victorian slang for owning two rooms and subletting one to a friend, who used the room for his or her own purposes.], when challenged as to his source for the expression by Thomas D. Puller, Tracy replied: “... I have no scholarly or academic sources which may be formally cited for the Sherlockiana entry on ‘bull pup.’ My sources are informal (the <i>Times</i> allusions mentioned in the <i>Annotated </i>and the <i>ESJ </i>[sic] letters columns) and oral (the same world travellers you have probably been talking to yourself). I settled on the ‘temper’ definition because (1) the oral/informal references are so diverse in origin and so consistent in meaning and (2) it is the only explanation which makes sense in context."</blockquote><br />Wood did a search of six slang dictionaries and found no entries defining bull pup as slang for temper. When one does a Google search today for bull pup as slang one cannot find an independent listing, Anglo-Indian or otherwise, as “having a temper,” only those that list the Sherlockian contention of Watson’s bull pup being so. The closest we come to it being British military slang is “bull--High polish on Parade Boots.” (Source: <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_British_military_slang_and_expressions#B" target="_blank">Glossary of British Military Slang and Expressions</a>; this article originally appeared in the October 2021 issue of <i>The Passengers' Log</i>, the magazine of the<a href="http://www.sherlock.on.net/index.html"> </a><a href="http://www.sherlock.on.net/index.html">Sydney Passengers.</a>)<br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Bull pup as a firearm </h3>In the world of firearms there is a type of weapon called a bullpup—one word as opposed to two words. It is a weapon, originally referring to a long gun, having its action (the mechanism that loads, locks, fires, extracts and ejects the ammunition) behind the trigger, creating a shorter weapon compared to rifles with the same size gun barrel. </div><div><br /></div><div>The first such weapon was the British-made Thorneycroft carbine (no relation to Dr. Thorneycroft Huxtable, M.A., Ph.D., etc.) manufactured in 1901. The term bullpup for this type of weapon did not come into general use until the 1930s. A bullpup machine pistol wasn’t patented until 1936. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thus, while Watson could have come back from Afghanistan with a rifle, it could not have been a bullpup nor would it have been called by that name.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIDl3XUbVSpromiZUQeS-JmdHp6Ta8uiFf5M5UxItz2urFvKY0CjPj5k-7_YyjqqG9wCHSjnfRY-FJzy2Bm377XjgqzBh0cMHwUeB8NnnSJBt9U9pNQ0iqtzek4XUaSBYsp2OM2huhw4JR8l5VOygDVWWGUoZFSGV416zojiR4a1pFASdEeineYtt_w/s1024/Webly%20No.%202.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1024" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIDl3XUbVSpromiZUQeS-JmdHp6Ta8uiFf5M5UxItz2urFvKY0CjPj5k-7_YyjqqG9wCHSjnfRY-FJzy2Bm377XjgqzBh0cMHwUeB8NnnSJBt9U9pNQ0iqtzek4XUaSBYsp2OM2huhw4JR8l5VOygDVWWGUoZFSGV416zojiR4a1pFASdEeineYtt_w/w640-h438/Webly%20No.%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Webley No. 2 .450 Centerfire</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"></div> <br /><br />In 1872, British gun maker Webley produced the British Bulldog. It was a weapon that filled a need. </div><div><br /></div><div>It had a short 2 ½ barrel and fired large caliber .442 Webley or .450 Adams cartridges. “Upon its introduction in the early 1870s, Webley’s new British Bulldog had become an immediate sensation in Victorian England since the carrying of carrying firearms in Great Britain was accomplished quite discreetly. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thus the pocketsized, highly concealable Bulldog fit right into the period of Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper,” said <a href="https://gundigest.com/wp-content/uploads/6ShooterSpecialFinal.pdf">George J. Layman in “When Bulldogs Ruled” (<i>Gun Digest</i> 2010)</a>.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5mUooPTqFX98z2os355fs6KicwHEkRfP0sJvC2bjlwOS5IJWNA-d6pItIvNfCD_iZNs-77XnlnSE712xTMK-WArA4ZFPvPqrah01cCJOkGzJEpUT2gkgM3-WJ91r3xtmitammhcgsUrk6ot1EEp0t-E-KqOfRqL8YH28ZMiRsz4OFjT0dbkqwxd8YZw/s1024/British%20Bulldog.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5mUooPTqFX98z2os355fs6KicwHEkRfP0sJvC2bjlwOS5IJWNA-d6pItIvNfCD_iZNs-77XnlnSE712xTMK-WArA4ZFPvPqrah01cCJOkGzJEpUT2gkgM3-WJ91r3xtmitammhcgsUrk6ot1EEp0t-E-KqOfRqL8YH28ZMiRsz4OFjT0dbkqwxd8YZw/w640-h480/British%20Bulldog.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The topstrap carried the legend "THE BRITISH BULL DOG"</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>It is quite obvious that the British Bulldog became a legend in its own time. By 1876, several European and American imitators jumped on the Bulldog bandwagon, marketing copies of self-cockers marked “British Bull Dog” over the topstrap. </div><div><br /></div><div>Many of the European Webley copies came from Belgium and their overall finish and quality was noticeably inferior to the genuine British-made variations. Quite a number of these – both domestic [US] and foreign – were stamped with such markings as “Western Bull Dog,” “British Lion,” “Boston Bulldog,” etc., and, not surprisingly, many were indeed well made.<br /><br /><br />The name Bulldog became a powerful marketing tool to denote any big-bore, short-barreled revolver. Layman wrote: </div><blockquote><div>“Generally speaking, it should be noted that the term ‘bulldog’ supposedly refers specifically to a small pocket revolver of large caliber---but the general design was so popular that smaller calibers of 32 and 38 were also marketed as Bulldogs.” </div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Webley later produced a .320 revolver with a .380 variant but did not market them as Bulldogs. Nor, apparently, did they call them “bullpups.” The 19th century reputation for the breed’s tenacity, combativeness and pugnacity was the perfect marketing for a small weapon whose bite was worse than its bark. </div><div><br /></div><div>If Watson owned a pocket gun and called it by the cutesy moniker of “bull pup,” it was a private nickname with which he didn’t enlighten the reader, or Holmes, about.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;">The Literalist School </h2>Between attending Netley, shipping to India, being attached to the Berkshires at Kandahar, wounded in the battle of Maiwand, convalescing from a wound and enteric fever, shipping back to England, and spending a comfortless, meaningless existence in London, the question arises when did Watson acquire, or could afford, a bull pup? </div><div><br /></div><div>As Owen Dudley Edwards puts it in his footnote on the dog in the Oxford Edition of  <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>,</div><blockquote><div>“Sherlockians have expended much ink in the quest of a domestic pet impossible in Afghanistan, illegal on the <i>Orontes</i>, inappropriate for a private hotel, and invisible in Baker Street.”</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>In “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170424184541/http://maiwandjournal.victorianwars.com/its_a_dogs_life_in_the_army.htm" target="_blank">It’s a Dog’s Life in the Army</a>,” Richard J. Stacpoole-Ryding wrote:</div><blockquote><div>“It was common practice for officers and other ranks in the Victorian army to take their dogs, and other pets, along with them wherever they went---including the battlefield. The officers and men of the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment were no exception…”</div></blockquote><div> <br />Stacpoole-Ryding, in his book <i><a href="https://amzn.to/3KGxNdD" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Maiwand</a></i>, mentions: </div><blockquote><div>“Lieutenant Richard Trevor Chute kept a dog, which landed him in trouble in the Officers’ Mess. In 1880, when the regiment was at Kandahar, Captain John Quarry…acquired a newly born bull terrier and he called it Billy. Billy was given to Sergeant 1485 William Guntrip, who Quarry held in high esteem. Guntrip was later killed at Maiwand and Billy went back to live with Quarry.”</div></blockquote><div>  <br /><br />There are two other dogs known to be with the 66th who have gone on to gather some fame. </div><div><br /></div><div>Captain William Hamilton McMath “kept a small fox-terrier dog named Nellie. Master and dog were devoted to each other and could not be separated, not even on the battlefield.”<a href="http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Berkshire/ReadingAfghanCampaign.html"> The memorial to the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment at Forbury Gardens, Reading, Berkshire</a>, known as the “Maiwand Lion,” was unveiled in December 1886 and says this about McMath: </div><blockquote><div>“It is moving to record that Captain McMath's little dog ‘Nellie’—a pet of the Regiment—which had followed her master into action, was subsequently found by the burying party lying dead at his side.” </div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Master and pet were buried together.</div><div>  <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The most famous canine at Maiwand was Bobbie, most likely owned by Corporal 1386 Peter Kelly. To quote Stacpoole-Ryding from “It’s a Dog’s Life in the Army”:</div><blockquote><div>"There is a regimental legend that Bobbie was present at the famous stand of the last eleven at Khig. It is unknown if Corporal Kelly was present at the last stand preceding this event and escaped before the last eleven gallantly remained so their colleagues could make good their escape, leaving or being separated from Bobbie in the chaos. Corporal Kelly is recorded in the medal roll as being wounded in hospital at Kandahar on 1 September 1880 and therefore can be reasonably assumed to have been wounded at Maiwand and was recovering from his wounds. So, was Bobbie at the final stand or not? There is no evidence to support this either way; if he was then Bobbie must have been the only British witness of the famous stand. Some contemporary paintings of the ‘Last Stand’ show Bobbie being present, and in keeping with the regiment’s legend.</div><div><br />"What is known of Bobbie is that he got separated from his owner and the Berkshires at Maiwand and found himself among the Afghan infantry on the battlefield. He was wounded and managed to catch up with the retiring column making their way towards Kandahar and reunited with his master. The story states that his master was wounded; again there is no evidence to support this unless one takes the entry in the medal roll to mean that Corporal Kelly was wounded at Maiwand and was in hospital because of the wound. <br /><br />"Bobbie returned with his owner and the regiment to England on H.M. Troopship <i>Malabar </i>docking at Portsmouth in February 1881. The regiment was stationed at Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight. On 17 August 1881 the men of the regiment who had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal were presented to Queen Victoria and Bobbie went along to have an audience with the Queen at Osborne House.</div></blockquote><div></div><div>  <br /><br />Bobbie was not, as sometimes stated, awarded a medal by the Queen as the Afghan 1878-1880 metal was not presented to the 66th until 1883 and by then the little white dog was deceased. </div><div><br /></div><blockquote><div>“[Bobbie] became a well-known figure around the barracks. However, in 1882 Bobbie was accidently run over by a hansom cab that was carrying a wedding party in Gosport whilst accompanying the 66th on a route march. It was reported that a soldier of the regiment tried to club the cab driver with his rifle butt, but was stopped by the commanding officer who happened to be present.”</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>So beloved was the dog the regiment had him preserved and he still can be seen today at The Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire) Museum. <br /><br /> As shown, dogs were not “impossible in Afghanistan” nor illegal on troopships. As Wood points out:</div><div><blockquote>"Could he [Watson] have kept a pet dog in a private hotel in the Strand? The likelihood of a hotel guest having a pet dog to share, and possibly ease his “meaningless existence,” as Watson refers to his life before meeting Holmes, becomes higher as one moves up the scale of hotels. Luxury hotels cater to the whims and fancies of the wealthy, and to this day can provide any service the guests desire — and are able to pay for….Baedeker’s (1905) gives the cost of the “least pretentious hotels” en pension (i.e. with full room and board), as around 10 shillings a day in the Strand area of London. “Many hotels refuse to receive dogs,” it says, “but provide for their keep in suitable quarters for 1/6 to 3s. per day.” The cost of living, with the occasional meal and drink outside the hotel, plus a weekly hot bath at 1/-, would have swallowed up Watson’s pension even before including the cost of a dog’s room and board."</blockquote></div><div>  <br /><br />As such, dogs were not “inappropriate for a private hotel” so much as costly. But one could well imagine a patriotic private hotel manager welcoming two veterans of the fatal battle of Maiwand, one two-legged and the other four-legged. </div><div><br /></div><div>But Edward’s pithy epigram isn’t so much a factual list of why Watson couldn’t have had a bull pup, since it’s inaccurate as to particulars, but a way to explain the last part: the bull pup’s invisibility at Baker Street.</div><div>  <br /><br />I think that the transient nature of Watson’s dog has to do with the way he phrased his possession of it. Not “I own a bull pup,” or “I have a bull pup,” but “I keep a bull pup.” </div><div><br /></div><div>True, “to keep” does mean “to retain possession of,” but it also means “to manage, tend, or have charge of.” <br /><br />Remember: Watson arrived in England in November 1880, well ahead of the rest of the 66th which did not return until February 1881, when he says:</div><blockquote><div>“I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was dispatched, accordingly, in the troopship <i>Orontes</i>,” </div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>What if Captain Quarry asked the doctor to take his newly reacquired bull terrier pup Billy early back to the safety of England with him? </div><div><br /></div><div>Or if it was the pet of his faithful orderly Murray who had so recently saved his life? </div><div><br /></div><div>Or his old friend, Colonel Hayter, who had come under Watson care in Afghanistan? </div><div><br /></div><div>Or in fact any of the dog-owning men of the regiment? </div><div><br /></div><div>Watson then would have temporary keep of the bull pup until sometime after February 18, 1881 when the <i>Malabar </i>docked in Portsmouth. The pup may even have been retrieved by its owner before the start of <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>.</div><div>  <br /><br />It could be argued he was too weak to take care of a pup, although if the was strong enough for a sea voyage, he may have been up to the task of caring for a dog. And perhaps like today’s service animals, the dog helped take care of him.</div><div><br /></div><div>It may have been too heavy a burden for his wallet, but perhaps the owner made sure to cover Watson’s expenses. </div><div><br /></div><div>Watson didn’t say to Holmes “I keep a bull pup temporarily for a comrade,” or offer some other qualifier to his statement. The full sentence could have been altered by Watson, his literary agent, or the editors at Ward, Lock & Co. But whether or not the manuscript suffered unknown editing, the fact remains there is only one brief passage to indicate the pup’s existence.</div><div>  <br /><br />I offer the theory of Watson’s temporary stewardship of another member of the Berkshire’s canine from shortly before the doctor’s departure from Asia in October 1880 to a brief few months after his arrival in England in 1881, then returned to its owner. <br /><br />True, it is surmise. But to paraphrase Holmes “But at least it covers all the historical facts."</div><div><br /></div> -- <div><br /></div><div><i>Agree? Disagree? Have a theory of your own? Leave a comment for James below.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>

The Bull Pup: Canine, Gun, or Something Else?

"It's a dog," said I. [CROO] While the dog that did nothing in the night-time may be more famous to the world-at-large, being...

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by James C. O'Leary

Episode 247: Big Finish

<h4 style="text-align: center;">“some interest to finish” [DANC]  </h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKrNMR0pmrjJ9lrgzRkUqARvJ82_e14Z-fHkYtoW4UJjBiA9SEMKVNf5GeadwsTQVluWAGh8ceTmlCHs8PgvBBD6ATpkQk2R8uE5SUDaIheyb-IicjNyONovjn4wO3tjIGEZ71Hqq4Fm9-NWu7yvBCZfVYR67ki2QuRjOdsXUQ7tpM6ZVgYuu9bmTNIw/s899/IHOSE%20247%20header.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="899" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKrNMR0pmrjJ9lrgzRkUqARvJ82_e14Z-fHkYtoW4UJjBiA9SEMKVNf5GeadwsTQVluWAGh8ceTmlCHs8PgvBBD6ATpkQk2R8uE5SUDaIheyb-IicjNyONovjn4wO3tjIGEZ71Hqq4Fm9-NWu7yvBCZfVYR67ki2QuRjOdsXUQ7tpM6ZVgYuu9bmTNIw/w640-h480/IHOSE%20247%20header.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div><p>We live in an age when Sherlock Holmes audio productions are more prolific than ever. For listeners of a show like <i>I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere</i>, that is excellent news indeed.</p><p>And for fans of Big Finish Productions, there are plenty of stories from which to choose, both new and old. Big Finish executive producer, writer, composer, and actor Nicholas Briggs and writer Jonathan Barnes join us to talk about the creative process and output there.</p><p>We cover dramatizations of some of David Stuart Davies' works, Conan Doyle's original stories, newly-written mysteries, and even a Doctor Who crossover — all of these and more are part of the Sherlock Holmes range of stories at Big Finish.</p><p>Don't forget about the <b>Canonical Couplet</b> quiz: two lines of poetry and it's up to you to guess which story we're referring to. One winner chosen at random from all correct entries will receive a mystery prize from the IHOSE vaults.</p><p>Send your answer to comment @ ihearofsherlock .com by September 14, 2022 at 11:59 a.m. EST. The winner will be chosen at random from among all the correct answers. All listeners are eligible to play.</p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a data-patreon-widget-type="become-patron-button" href="https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2318606">Become a Patron!</a></div><script async="" src="https://c6.patreon.com/becomePatronButton.bundle.js"></script><p></p><div><div><div style="margin: 0px;">Please do consider becoming a <a href="https://ihose.co/ihosepatron" target="_blank">Patron of the Arts</a>. Your support helps us to ensure we can keep doing what we do, covering file hosting costs, production, and transcription services. </div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b>Exclusive</b> for our Patreon supporters: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/71301804" target="_blank">a video version of this interview</a>. <a href="https://patreon.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Our Patreon page</a> has more info.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><h3><a href="https://traffic.libsyn.com/ihearofsherlock/ihearofsherlock247.mp3" target="_blank">Download</a> [Save As] | File size: 89.3 MB, 59:13</h3><iframe allowfullscreen="" data-dashlane-frameid="1926" data-dashlane-rid="a63055d41239d885" data-form-type="" height="192" mozallowfullscreen="true" msallowfullscreen="true" oallowfullscreen="true" scrolling="no" src="https://play.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/24222471/height/192/theme/modern/size/large/thumbnail/yes/custom-color/0e3a6c/time-start/00:00:00/playlist-height/200/direction/backward/download/yes" style="border: none;" title="Embed Player" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><h4 style="line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a href="https://pod.link/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Listen to I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere anywhere</a></span></h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://pod.link/ihearofsherlock" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCIkwuVBamXWgWlu0frtZ10DWQQflqTD3OV6wU0vFHrGbfCDjtCgA3z5t7YRp_aa-pNjMbiok2vIaTpM66UZ5kEhrBsMkQDNsEr-1Y67kLU0wf4CGrNhqSScZnTm68gxZvXU9hek86TaD/w200-h200/IHOSE+logo+-+headphones+HR.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div><h2 style="margin: 0px;">Sponsors</h2><div style="margin: 0px;"><ul><li><a href="https://www.wessexpress.com/" target="_blank">Wessex Press</a> is the premier publisher of books about Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle, including <i><a href="https://wessexpress.com/html/shreview2021.html" target="_blank">The Sherlock Holmes Review</a>.</i></li><li><a href="https://www.mxpublishing.com" target="_blank">MX Publishing</a>, through its series <i>The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories</i> has raised over $100,000 for Undershaw.</li></ul></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;">Would you care to advertise with us? 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Let's chat!<br /><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><h2><b>Links</b></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><ul><li>This episode: <a href="https://ihose.co/ihose247" target="_blank">ihose.co/ihose247</a></li><li><a href="https://www.bigfinish.com/" target="_blank">Big Finish Productions</a></li><li><a href="https://www.bigfinish.com/ranges/v/sherlock-holmes" target="_blank">The Sherlock Holmes range</a> at Big Finish</li><li>Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meet the War Master in <i><a href="https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-war-master-escape-from-reality-2543" target="_blank">Escape From Reality</a></i></li><li>Sherlock Holmes meets the seventh Doctor in <a href="https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-all-consuming-fire-1229" target="_blank"><i>Doctor Who: All-Consuming Fire</i></a></li><li>Other episodes mentioned:</li><ul><li><a href="https://ihose.co/ihose245" target="_blank">Episode 245: Moriarty</a></li></ul></ul><div><div style="margin: 0px;">Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard magazine at <a href="https://ihose.co/flipsherlock" target="_blank">ihose.co/flipsherlock</a>  as well as through our accounts on <a href="https://facebook.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://youtube.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://instagram.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>And would you consider leaving us a rating and review? 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Episode 247: Big Finish

“some interest to finish” [DANC]   We live in an age when Sherlock Holmes audio productions are more prolific than ever. For listeners of a ...

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by Scott Monty

Author Interviews: Charles Prepolec and J.R. Campbell

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> “the unusual, and even the fantastic” [SPEC]</h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAfY5x4Ntf0iWql0LGIFmRoRU4BCLa4HuvPcJt0KtvAOZyLez3xiaIAwWESDyWSebrwdPNNPUvkbYgg9aZmT_qk1IPyZ7-S0FnZxX9WVSy7JnMllhBdUzQzxmCrPowD2_QuKNUClVdTJF_m7cdwGdaEGyCO-67HQPs4uENebuJ2bq5U-ez-wy-bP2zRw/s640/Gaslight%20Ghouls%20Kickstarter.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="640" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAfY5x4Ntf0iWql0LGIFmRoRU4BCLa4HuvPcJt0KtvAOZyLez3xiaIAwWESDyWSebrwdPNNPUvkbYgg9aZmT_qk1IPyZ7-S0FnZxX9WVSy7JnMllhBdUzQzxmCrPowD2_QuKNUClVdTJF_m7cdwGdaEGyCO-67HQPs4uENebuJ2bq5U-ez-wy-bP2zRw/w640-h356/Gaslight%20Ghouls%20Kickstarter.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />Charles Prepolec, BSI ("The Man with the Twisted Lip") and J.R. Campbell are well known in the Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle community. Their <i>Gaslight</i> series involving Holmes and Watson battling ghosts, demons, and other supernatural creations have been a big hit with both Holmes and horror fans, and their collection <i>Professor Challenger, New Worlds Lost Places</i> was a Doylean dream come true, a collection of short stories starring Doyle's other famous creation, Professor Challenger.<br /><br />Now, Prepolec and Campbell are back with a new collection of terrifying tales of Sherlock Holmes in <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/belangerbooks/gaslight-ghouls-uneasy-tales-of-sherlock-holmes"><i>Gaslight Ghoul: Uneasy Tales of Sherlock Holmes, Monsters, and Madmen</i></a> which is currently running a crowdfunding campaign on <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/belangerbooks/gaslight-ghouls-uneasy-tales-of-sherlock-holmes">Kickstarter</a>. <br /><br /><br />I interviewed the two editors on their thoughts about the great detective, their favorite Holmes performance, and what brought them to writing on the world's first consulting detective.<br /><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;">Q&A with Charles Prepolec</h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5zmMW7QvtDVbOyFGtEr7RoqicDctUimCSkERcXh0vq_lrizQwdTitnd4Rlrwu16zK_Ts9WRWLimz86i70SAoikdRK0ZujUIcgYFP00WaCmn9l0NKwNs_J1PBrLVCyeMMz9-ui3uNY-hx6GrUlXkOz5O5ffZnHD06WiYNn1qtBnVojiZGxtKCG4ZZ7w/s640/Charles%20Prepolec.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="640" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5zmMW7QvtDVbOyFGtEr7RoqicDctUimCSkERcXh0vq_lrizQwdTitnd4Rlrwu16zK_Ts9WRWLimz86i70SAoikdRK0ZujUIcgYFP00WaCmn9l0NKwNs_J1PBrLVCyeMMz9-ui3uNY-hx6GrUlXkOz5O5ffZnHD06WiYNn1qtBnVojiZGxtKCG4ZZ7w/w640-h394/Charles%20Prepolec.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Q: How were you first introduced to Sherlock Holmes?</h4>CP: I’d read <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles </i>when I was about 10 years old and disliked it thoroughly as I found the absence of Holmes for much of it rather unsatisfying. Close to a decade later I found myself picking up The Cases of Sherlock Holmes comics, as I was a fan of the artists (Dan and David Day), and found myself getting into the text, which was entirely ACD’s original text, not adapted. From there it was a short step to buying a copy of <i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i> and I’ve been hooked ever since.<br /> <br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Q: Do you have a favorite Sherlock Holmes story?</h4>CP: As much as I go on about the short stories being the best, my favorite remains <i>The Sign of Four</i>, the second appearance of Sherlock Holmes. It’s pretty much a perfect late Victorian adventure novel, with romance, flashbacks to exotic locales, creepy and bizarre characters and a more fully-formed version of our hero than the proto-Holmes of <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>. Of the short stories, I rate "The Speckled Band," with all its Gothic-revival elements as one of Doyle’s absolute best, but when push comes to shove, my heart belongs to SIGN. <br /><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Q: Have you written previous Sherlock Holmes adventures?</h4>CP: No. I’ve never written any, ever, but have edited five Sherlock Holmes anthologies and written a good number of published non-fiction pieces. I’m simply not imaginative enough to come up with clever ideas and plots on my own, but am analytical enough to recognize, appreciate and finesse the work of others who do. <br /><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Q: What do you feel is the most underappreciated aspect of Holmes?</h4>CP: That he’s as human as the rest of us, with all the idiosyncratic foibles and personality traits, both positive and negative, that go along with being one. There is that moment in "The Norwood Builder" when McFarlane announces he expects to be arrested and Holmes replies “<i>This is really most grati—most interesting</i>” and Watson notes “<i>My companion’s expressive face showed a sympathy which was not, I am afraid, entirely unmixed with satisfaction</i>.” <br /><br />The mask slips and Holmes’s innate human selfishness stands clearly revealed and we are reminded to take him seriously when he said in "The Red Headed League" that “<i>My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so</i>.” <br /><br />We forget that he isn’t some super-human altruistic servant of justice, but rather a somewhat too-clever guy who does what he does simply to avoid going mad from boredom, regardless of Watson’s hero-worshipping efforts to convince us otherwise.<br /> <br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Q: Do you have a favorite film/television/theatre actor to play Holmes? What attracted you to the performance?</h4>CP: Peter Cushing usually tops my list. His waspish energy and a certain ever-present intelligence in those piercing blue eyes make for a very convincing Holmes, plus I just love him in most anything. And, given his ‘Hammer Horror’ associations, I can’t imagine a more perfectly representative Holmes for the stories we have in our books.<br /><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Q: How did <i>Gaslight Ghouls</i> come about? What is the basic theme for the anthology?</h4>CP: Each book in our ‘Gaslight’ series tends to carry a loose theme beyond the broadly vague tag of ‘horror.’ In previous volumes our general themes have explored the outright fantastic, the nightmarish, the uncanny and the gothic, but this time out we took our thematic cues from Holmes’s comments to Watson in "The Copper Beeches" regarding isolated country houses. Specifically, “<i>…Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser</i>.” <br /><br />So, what comes to mind when you think of evil and hidden wickedness in lonely places set in rural Britain when looking for a horror theme? Why, folk horror, of course! A subgenre of horror that is currently undergoing something of a revival. As such, we decided on this timely, and with Holmes’s COPP comments, fairly obvious, theme for our latest anthology.<br /><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"> Q: Why do you enjoy having Sherlock Holmes in horror stories?</h4>CP: It’s somehow the most fitting and natural thing in the world for me. The character of Sherlock Holmes was ‘born’ in the same literary crucible that gave us Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein</i>, Stoker’s <i>Dracula</i>, Stevenson’s <i>Jekyll and Hyde</i>, Poe’s body of work, etc… the 19th century gothic revival. <br /><br />When Conan Doyle began writing in earnest, he wrote weird tales, gothic tales, or more broadly horror tales. I see his creation of Holmes, blatantly redressing Poe’s Dupin, as something of a practical consideration to save him having to create a new character to unravel the threads every time he wrote a weird tale. <br /><br />Surely a detective-type made more sense than an endless stream of different students, nephews, and other such clever young protagonists to serve the same purpose in populating his ‘horror’ stories. And, frankly, much of the Canon has more in common with 19th century weird fiction than it does with what we call mystery or even detective fiction today. <br /><br />So, for me, Sherlock Holmes is most interesting when involved in strange, outré, and grotesque horror stories. Plus, it’s just huge fun to play in the Victorian literary monster sandbox. And, in the end, even Watson tells us Holmes “<i>…refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic</i>.” Who am I to argue with Watson? <br /><br /><br /><br /><b><i>Editor's note: we first interviewed Charles about the Gaslight series in 2013 on <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose57">Episode 57</a>:</i></b><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" data-dashlane-frameid="6459" data-dashlane-rid="c85b16514b19a034" data-form-type="" height="192" mozallowfullscreen="true" msallowfullscreen="true" oallowfullscreen="true" scrolling="no" src="//play.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/2508014/height/192/theme/modern/size/large/thumbnail/yes/custom-color/e55b24/time-start/00:00:00/playlist-height/200/direction/backward/download/yes" style="border: none;" title="Embed Player" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="100%"></iframe> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p></p><h3></h3><h2 style="text-align: left;">Q&A with J. R. Campbell</h2><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0LsKVY2ib1Q6xRh-FaGVokvA9-jEmxJIGYFU67hZ05K4zn2kW1Q0HYox5LuC6BgHZJstzzrkkQX_uuPLTMVGt-B1XPgCFv07d68INgjAgtkogRDrthRT5mncOno5RFPLxzDoQU5Kl4VO4YusywRqXYiFwZliC6Avihjaodyph8XIkC8gwmptqlVuBbg/s720/Photo%20-%20J.R.%20Campbell.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="540" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0LsKVY2ib1Q6xRh-FaGVokvA9-jEmxJIGYFU67hZ05K4zn2kW1Q0HYox5LuC6BgHZJstzzrkkQX_uuPLTMVGt-B1XPgCFv07d68INgjAgtkogRDrthRT5mncOno5RFPLxzDoQU5Kl4VO4YusywRqXYiFwZliC6Avihjaodyph8XIkC8gwmptqlVuBbg/w480-h640/Photo%20-%20J.R.%20Campbell.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Q: How were you first introduced to Sherlock Holmes?</h4>JRC: There is a phrase, "Everyone thinks they know Sherlock Holmes but they are wrong," and that described me pretty well. I was aware of Sherlock from an early age, I'd seen him here and there, read him a couple of times, and he appeared to me an interesting but rather flat classic detective. It wasn’t until I read through <i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i> that Holmes became a more rounded, more impactful character. He really is addictive but, for me at least, it wasn't until I had a few of his investigations under my belt that he started to emerge from the shadows.<br /><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Q: Do you have a favorite Sherlock Holmes story?</h4>JRC: In general, I prefer the short stories. They add to more than the sum of their parts. My favorite? I’ll go with "Silver Blaze" — it has everything: deductions based not just clues uncovered but on the absence of evidence, some great quotes, and I adore the independence Holmes shows by waiting until after he has cashed in his winnings before presenting the solution to the case.<br /><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Q: Have you written previous Sherlock Holmes adventures?</h4>JRC: I have and I've enjoyed it. I’ve contributed to prior Gaslight anthologies, other anthologies, and radio scripts to Imagination Theatre’s <i>The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i>. I’m looking forward to the release of <i>Improbable Remains: The Bizarre and Unconventional Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i>, a collection of my Sherlock Holmes short stories.<br /><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"> Q: What do you feel is the most underappreciated aspect of Holmes?</h4> JRC: I’m always fascinated with who Holmes is willing to trust and who he doesn’t. In "The Problem of Thor Bridge" when Gibson denies any wrongdoing, while everyone insists he’s had an improper relationship outside his marriage, Holmes is willing to at least entertain the notion that Gibson is telling the truth. <br /><br />In "The Blue Carbuncle," when he accepts Ryder’s pledge not to steal again and lets him go. I always expect his prior investigations, the terrible things he has seen, will render him unwilling to trust others but that’s not the case.<br /><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"> Q: Do you have a favorite film/TV/theatre actor to play Holmes? What attracted you to the performance?</h4><br />JRC: Enjoyed the way the Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed the detective in BBC's <i>Sherlock</i>, the analytical way in he seemed to observe the world as if he were not a part of it. That said, I always enjoyed the Robert Downey Jr. films, presenting a Holmes who was more a part of the world. There were times when Jeremy Brett’s performance was amazing and Basil Rathbone’s voice is often the Holmes voice I hear (even though I know it is not as correct as Brett's was). My guilty pleasure remains the Michael Caine comedy <i>Without a Clue</i>.<br /><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"> Q: How did <i>Gaslight Ghouls</i> come about? What is the basic theme for the anthology?</h4>JRC: Our Gaslight anthologies have always combined Sherlock Holmes and elements of horror fiction, aiming to walk the fine line satisfying purists from both camps. It's a patch of literature that has fascinated both Charles and me for many years. For me, it speaks to the essence of Holmes, the embodiment of the rational, scientific process applying himself to chaotic and irrational problems.<br /><br />For <i>Ghouls</i>, the inspiration was based firmly in folk horror and, specifically, monsters and madmen. Given the anti-science events of recent years, a dive into non-scientific systems of thought seemed both timely and due for a challenge from the master detective. I was quite pleased with the results, with a number of excellent stories from writers we've worked with before as well as a number of writers we've been hoping to work with for some time. <br /><br /> <br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Q: Why do you enjoy having Sherlock Holmes in horror stories?</h4>JRC: We tend to consider borders of different literary genres as set and unmoving but my experience has been that they shift quite a bit. Certainly I've seen them change during my time, the boundaries have shifted a great deal since Doyle wrote his last story and even farther since he penned his first. <br /><br />I'm not suggesting that it's wrong to consider the original stories as mysteries, even though many of them carry elements that would be considered outside of the mystery genre today. But I would argue that the canonical stories revel in a certain dread—a particular atmosphere—that the modern mystery genre has left behind. <br /><br />During Doyle's time, mysteries were morbid and frightening. They were ghastly. Cozy mysteries simply were not a thing when Sherlock arrived on the scene. In order to chase that sensation, which was so delicious in the canonical stories, we've had to ignore some modern genre lines. This has caused some purists to turn up their noses, which is their right. <br /><br />I'd rather be true to the spirit of the canonical Sherlock Holmes stories than to the rules of modern literary genres which simply did not exist when Holmes stepped onto the page. Naturally, everyone likes what they likes, your mileage may vary, but Doyle's Holmes stories were, to my mind, much more adventures than what we consider mysteries today. <br /><br />The Sherlock Holmes stories I want to read don't always fit into the mystery-genre shaped hole on my bookshelf, so Charles and I go and dig them out ourselves.<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(253, 253, 253); font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(253, 253, 253); font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><br /><br /><b>Charles Prepolec MBt, BSI (“The Man with the Twisted Lip”)</b> is co-editor of four previous Sherlock Holmes fiction anthologies (with J. R. Campbell) for EDGE SF & F - <a href="https://amzn.to/3Cp1aik"><i>Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes</i></a> (2008), <i><a href="https://amzn.to/3PGSpn0">Gaslight Grotesque: Nightmare Tales of Sherlock Holmes</a> </i>(2009),<i> <a href="https://amzn.to/3dIPqwR">Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes</a></i> (2011) and <a href="https://amzn.to/3QKz5X0"><i>Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes</i></a> (2018), plus <a href="https://amzn.to/3KhncWq"><i>Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places</i></a> (2015); as well as co-editor (with Paul Kane) of <a href="https://amzn.to/3KfcwaH"><i>Beyond Rue Morgue: Further Tales of Edgar Allan Poe's 1st Detective</i></a> (2013) for Titan Books. <br /><br />At the turn of the century, he served as news editor for late actor Christopher Lee’s official website. A speaker and frequent contributor to Sherlock Holmes-related non-fiction books, journals, etc… <i>Gaslight Ghouls: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes, Monsters and Madmen</i> (2022) is his first anthology for Belanger Books. He resides with his patient wife, Kris, and a yet more patient cat, in Calgary, AB, Canada. Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/sherlockeditor">@sherlockeditor</a> <br /><br /><br /><b>J.R. Campbell</b> is a Calgary-based writer and editor. His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies including <a href="https://amzn.to/3Aav0EC"><i>A Study in Lavender</i></a> and <a href="https://amzn.to/3PIrwyM"><i>Challenger Unbound</i></a>. With Shannon Allen he has edited the anthologies <a href="https://amzn.to/3Kbun2d"><i>By the Light of Camelot</i></a> and <a href="https://amzn.to/3Ctgvyr"><i>The Astronaut Always Rings Twice</i></a> and with his brother-in-arms, Charles Prepolec, he has edited the anthologies <i>Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes</i>, <i>Gaslight Grotesque: Nightmare Tales of Sherlock Holmes</i>, <i>Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes</i>, <i>Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places</i>, and <i>Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes</i>. A new collection of his short fiction, <a href="https://www.weirdhousepress.com/product/improbable-remains/"><i>Improbable Remains: The Bizarre and Unconventional Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i></a> is now available from Weird House Press.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/belangerbooks/gaslight-ghouls-uneasy-tales-of-sherlock-holmes"><i>Gaslight Ghouls</i></a> is available on Kickstarter until August, 31st! You can <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/belangerbooks/gaslight-ghouls-uneasy-tales-of-sherlock-holmes" target="_blank">see what the campaign is all about and join others</a> who are backing it.<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(253, 253, 253);">--</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(253, 253, 253);"><br /></p>

Author Interviews: Charles Prepolec and J.R. Campbell

 “the unusual, and even the fantastic” [SPEC] Charles Prepolec, BSI ("The Man with the Twisted Lip") and J.R. Campbell are well kn...

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by Belanger Books

Baker Street Elementary – Grand Gift of Silence

<h4 style="text-align: center;">“a child has done the horrid thing” [SIGN] </h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypPn3lWtxjM0Y_caCiN8fuZYCyERTvJfxICIp_JqdjnOkzw86N1-GF7O_m5gBcK9WVaaki2s2qYH-VjHXB2UFxnw3q6pa4nNpKEkAVmbPaGCbXUCvGAn28D4_vumDy0PRcNoiEyO6L6kK3QHTMCi6AfuLdCvj1YMsvQ6Fuq_HLpoZKmj1xRJn856VVw/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20138.1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypPn3lWtxjM0Y_caCiN8fuZYCyERTvJfxICIp_JqdjnOkzw86N1-GF7O_m5gBcK9WVaaki2s2qYH-VjHXB2UFxnw3q6pa4nNpKEkAVmbPaGCbXUCvGAn28D4_vumDy0PRcNoiEyO6L6kK3QHTMCi6AfuLdCvj1YMsvQ6Fuq_HLpoZKmj1xRJn856VVw/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20138.1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">When Holmes and Watson come across clues in Pondicherry Lodge after the death of Bartholomew Sholto, Watson describes what they found:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><blockquote>“He held down the lamp to the floor, and as he did so I saw for the second time that night a startled, surprised look come over his face. For myself, as I followed his gaze my skin was cold under my clothes. The floor was covered thickly with the prints of a naked foot,—clear, well defined, perfectly formed, but scarce half the size of those of an ordinary man.”</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And immediately, Watson's conclusion is:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“Holmes,” I said, in a whisper, “a child has done the horrid thing.”</div></blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Now, we know that Sherlock Holmes held a distrust of women and that he told Watson that “The most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But what was Watson's experience with children such that he should immediately conclude that a child killed a grown man with a poisoned dart?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Perhaps it was his experience in tormenting children on the playground, as he recounted in 'The Naval Treaty':</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“On the contrary, it seemed rather a piquant thing to us to chevy him about the playground and hit him over the shins with a wicket.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Was Watson projecting (and perhaps exaggerating) his own misbehavior when he incorrectly assumed that a child had killed Sholto?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">He seems silent on the matter, as he was at Baker Street Elementary... </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoO1hWs37GOwc_zxzErr4BhgpYQKNToeh0jsux8V8aOa0XJenvRPt46k0xXlVSMps1_emKexSZGfN9KAw3jOo-jqv55Pgq89eFE6PrIqzVK3SaqoOlSRKVjBSr_dKwVePJFAcoqrn8DZ9vss94UMYT2-OOBCEBhNdgqHYtJU65QgD8dlsVc26nEgBWPw/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20138.2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoO1hWs37GOwc_zxzErr4BhgpYQKNToeh0jsux8V8aOa0XJenvRPt46k0xXlVSMps1_emKexSZGfN9KAw3jOo-jqv55Pgq89eFE6PrIqzVK3SaqoOlSRKVjBSr_dKwVePJFAcoqrn8DZ9vss94UMYT2-OOBCEBhNdgqHYtJU65QgD8dlsVc26nEgBWPw/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20138.2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL8Vinynxyzh-Fv_htqZyMdUfIeqQF5EeIevP37CAOHKEIwURnymURawSKUx_78lHQLRjQFDkA8lERVDHZoUU_NXDRl-OY_PmIWQJQnv4ZStdQ-y59kZwRh2npOP2dTbScqBIAnXrh_7WChBgiCXOnQ4Ww3Z1cF2neZ9CG8I1Bu7cBaQDSpmRuy1Rt9A/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20138.3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL8Vinynxyzh-Fv_htqZyMdUfIeqQF5EeIevP37CAOHKEIwURnymURawSKUx_78lHQLRjQFDkA8lERVDHZoUU_NXDRl-OY_PmIWQJQnv4ZStdQ-y59kZwRh2npOP2dTbScqBIAnXrh_7WChBgiCXOnQ4Ww3Z1cF2neZ9CG8I1Bu7cBaQDSpmRuy1Rt9A/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20138.3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk9QBp4a8CosIFGXlOUsea2QB-RqNHrDNl9ZdzljAUQwAh6pV7K87kIfUfumuGhGGk5w1sM4dQdKI-HmXY7x0EN2jlHrPeOH5GsTrepr2yBX6YxAThi2c7CBEGbRYPuXKEI9BpwqoBrGh9Nc_UbJ1mEbnbO2tOukYBWJGOgxCaHBhE9d6PEvNwhxMNTg/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20138.4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk9QBp4a8CosIFGXlOUsea2QB-RqNHrDNl9ZdzljAUQwAh6pV7K87kIfUfumuGhGGk5w1sM4dQdKI-HmXY7x0EN2jlHrPeOH5GsTrepr2yBX6YxAThi2c7CBEGbRYPuXKEI9BpwqoBrGh9Nc_UbJ1mEbnbO2tOukYBWJGOgxCaHBhE9d6PEvNwhxMNTg/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20138.4.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>Baker Street Elementary</i></b><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at </span><a href="http://www.bakerstreetelementary.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #006f85; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;">www.bakerstreetelementary.org</a><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">.</span></div><div><div><br /></div><div><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGyHxoov2AdCNzI-sA382WHyzmCYKmU5vuVxxUUbwgmzd_zESpxNTWBoDo-0BOUVmZPf0EpIOXFT9y59il288HBvx1-_JJJXxHhZAn2orzWJPWbYZasKlLBplbQMHDaY9thgs_w1diI7ch/s1600/Baker+Street+Elementary.jpg" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGyHxoov2AdCNzI-sA382WHyzmCYKmU5vuVxxUUbwgmzd_zESpxNTWBoDo-0BOUVmZPf0EpIOXFT9y59il288HBvx1-_JJJXxHhZAn2orzWJPWbYZasKlLBplbQMHDaY9thgs_w1diI7ch/s640/Baker+Street+Elementary.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><br />--</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>

Baker Street Elementary – Grand Gift of Silence

“a child has done the horrid thing” [SIGN]  When Holmes and Watson come across clues in Pondicherry Lodge after the death of Bartholomew Sho...

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by Scott Monty

Episode 246: Sherlock Holmes and the British Empire

<h4 style="text-align: center;">“One of the most precious public possessions of the empire” [BERY]  </h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj78nF4S6EMFZPZs1WJ5IxXZjdmW29sf_kC_joNy0LwJ42zaiDZG7gcsVFPZfAhSo2VdWdKaYkS7trPzVzDISZTmXp-HaOl_RjclXNrpMNDPUp7YfUAePczJW8A7wDKBUQRv4ysyGwew23_xVvZjUb4c2aXb9oflYSyMYSuiClXfqsinFezL8j6ZjnoGw/s1500/ihearofsherlock246%20header.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1130" data-original-width="1500" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj78nF4S6EMFZPZs1WJ5IxXZjdmW29sf_kC_joNy0LwJ42zaiDZG7gcsVFPZfAhSo2VdWdKaYkS7trPzVzDISZTmXp-HaOl_RjclXNrpMNDPUp7YfUAePczJW8A7wDKBUQRv4ysyGwew23_xVvZjUb4c2aXb9oflYSyMYSuiClXfqsinFezL8j6ZjnoGw/w640-h482/ihearofsherlock246%20header.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div><p>At the end of July 2022, the Baker Street Irregulars held a conference in upstate titled "Sherlock Holmes and the British Empire."</p><p>That itself isn't news (although <a href="https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2019/08/save-date-sherlock-holmes-and-british.html#.Yvq7UXZKjb1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">we did promote the original date of the event</a>), but what <i>is</i> news is the breadth and depth of presentations that were given there. Half of our intrepid reporting team attended the event and captured commentary from some of the esteemed presenters to give a flavor of the event to IHOSE listeners who were unable to attend.</p><p>The <b>Canonical Couplet</b> quiz awaits if you can make it through the episode; we have a lovely prize for you: a souvenir package from the British Empire conference if you correctly guess the story we're referring to and we choose your name.</p><p>Send your answer to comment @ ihearofsherlock .com by August 29, 2022 at 11:59 a.m. EST. The winner will be chosen at random from among all the correct answers. All listeners are eligible to play.</p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a data-patreon-widget-type="become-patron-button" href="https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2318606">Become a Patron!</a></div><script async="" src="https://c6.patreon.com/becomePatronButton.bundle.js"></script><p></p><div><div><div style="margin: 0px;">Please do consider becoming a <a href="https://ihose.co/ihosepatron" target="_blank">Patron of the Arts</a>. 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Let's chat!<br /><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><h2><b>Links</b></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>This episode: <a href="https://ihose.co/ihose246" target="_blank">ihose.co/ihose246</a></li><li><a href="https://bakerstreetirregulars.com/2022/08/16/empire-conference-report/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Empire Conference Report</a> from the Baker Street Irregulars</li><li><a href="https://files.bakerstreetirregulars.com/events/2022-bsi-empire-agenda.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Empire Conference and Speakers Agenda</a> (PDF)</li><li><i><a href="https://amzn.to/3zYpTHF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dining with Sherlock Holmes</a></i> by Julia Rosenblatt and Frederich Sonnenschmidt</li><li>Other episodes mentioned:</li><ul><li><a href="https://ihose.co/ihose231" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 231: A Quiet Air of Mastery</a></li></ul></ul><div><div style="margin: 0px;">Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard magazine at <a href="https://ihose.co/flipsherlock" target="_blank">ihose.co/flipsherlock</a>  as well as through our accounts on <a href="https://facebook.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://youtube.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://instagram.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>And would you consider leaving us a rating and review? 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Episode 246: Sherlock Holmes and the British Empire

“One of the most precious public possessions of the empire” [BERY]   At the end of July 2022, the Baker Street Irregulars held a conference ...

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by Scott Monty

Baker Street Elementary – Time and Tidiness Wait for No Man

<h4 style="text-align: center;">“tidy up a bit” [SECO] </h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpnOP7MHv7RmEjF6zWOdx-EG8tIA-zw3WAZv6s5Sfhs4sGwLZOjOXGIH_UjgrGrgHD_hwpbGWIhgTfu9I4c8F5HLwFiiEMxyEkTzZqzNxl2pgRnkCvlmwq6UlKdlBbuHQuubIQYZNJEjsa8qaMOWwwdoSk1vBnwb8GqNU7_fUnlAzaN8XWCxNPUJTJA/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20137.1.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpnOP7MHv7RmEjF6zWOdx-EG8tIA-zw3WAZv6s5Sfhs4sGwLZOjOXGIH_UjgrGrgHD_hwpbGWIhgTfu9I4c8F5HLwFiiEMxyEkTzZqzNxl2pgRnkCvlmwq6UlKdlBbuHQuubIQYZNJEjsa8qaMOWwwdoSk1vBnwb8GqNU7_fUnlAzaN8XWCxNPUJTJA/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20137.1.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We might think that Dr. Watson, as a doctor, appreciated cleanliness and tidiness. But we have him at his own word in the opening of "The Musgrave Ritual" that his field experience in Afghanistan superseded his medical sensibilities:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"An anomaly which often struck me in the character of my friend Sherlock Holmes was that, although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind, and although also he affected a certain quiet primness of dress, he was none the less in his personal habits one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction. Not that I am in the least conventional in that respect myself. The rough-and-tumble work in Afghanistan, coming on the top of a natural Bohemianism of disposition, has made me rather more lax than befits a medical man. But with me there is a limit, and when I find a man who keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece, then I begin to give myself virtuous airs."</div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Sherlock Holmes had his methods, even in his questionable personal habits. And nowhere was this more evident than in <a href="https://youtu.be/6qxnXJuslXM" target="_blank">this scene from <i>The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes</i></a>, when Holmes takes Mrs. Hudson to task for tidying up:</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6qxnXJuslXM" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Who would have thought that it was at Baker Street Elementary that she got her start?</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwMamk_k6r-giaj173K8XCFWYTBhCZDrU4GFM7pkq7EbPAB-m536oDqBoumuEEdiSZ0RXeyJtc9iFTtdyqqaqVn5djPIvDxyDzcQgeIIpXVA5P0RF-eoWYUXxhYqckLJIxVuBfXjuEGXBQDFdAG42MhacmeZULbWUJyVyvI_Z_TM4o6V8pQgtLE_GJYA/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20137.2.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwMamk_k6r-giaj173K8XCFWYTBhCZDrU4GFM7pkq7EbPAB-m536oDqBoumuEEdiSZ0RXeyJtc9iFTtdyqqaqVn5djPIvDxyDzcQgeIIpXVA5P0RF-eoWYUXxhYqckLJIxVuBfXjuEGXBQDFdAG42MhacmeZULbWUJyVyvI_Z_TM4o6V8pQgtLE_GJYA/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20137.2.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZgiLP8oK_-r3xLijnKN53G_0WaKX92P000ALXfQ2RofKqvr9L5fAUrwjf0wKKeb4KWHWJOTa7PYr8nfCEXEVGVYAU7gkoyM-MQZUCuXnzqx_fBwNXmz-yx3diKa3Lje2P4uKb2wPUAk4TKHnkbLaXrBNBdSaTD-WOItwQ4-VIrGNbRypXFHlhYRyIwg/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20137.3.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZgiLP8oK_-r3xLijnKN53G_0WaKX92P000ALXfQ2RofKqvr9L5fAUrwjf0wKKeb4KWHWJOTa7PYr8nfCEXEVGVYAU7gkoyM-MQZUCuXnzqx_fBwNXmz-yx3diKa3Lje2P4uKb2wPUAk4TKHnkbLaXrBNBdSaTD-WOItwQ4-VIrGNbRypXFHlhYRyIwg/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20137.3.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoiPvs6I0keAlDcX9wfLGphFrqZKXAjxU464FO02X-vu2vJVt0_HJ4u87NQceeNjCr8-wUv2LyzYZlIeG_rULipo1XYS0N8oxc4JDxlC340lyeitjYsYpZVW25WDT-3jMnWOZGDZ2VcLWf_9O7zIvLGKkNTNUz4d_s3bdSMsWTDBeNLmoIiaNyOwRR2Q/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20137.4.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoiPvs6I0keAlDcX9wfLGphFrqZKXAjxU464FO02X-vu2vJVt0_HJ4u87NQceeNjCr8-wUv2LyzYZlIeG_rULipo1XYS0N8oxc4JDxlC340lyeitjYsYpZVW25WDT-3jMnWOZGDZ2VcLWf_9O7zIvLGKkNTNUz4d_s3bdSMsWTDBeNLmoIiaNyOwRR2Q/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20137.4.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Ve4xbsmgHo9_UXD1CuOxKHkWTtzM9Gne5KL-otpbZubfwPYBF3mU7PB4A7C8dIuq46zo5xfrfKQoxm38NudIMPYTUAdUosFM_nLb2UAsHPiZNdVR4_dL_gWISLMwUuU4kuWrOQc6fY9UINVBYCp2d0u7On_lIrrvK3WNKm0eHhFJrHm5HPYX6qv5QA/s768/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20137.5.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Ve4xbsmgHo9_UXD1CuOxKHkWTtzM9Gne5KL-otpbZubfwPYBF3mU7PB4A7C8dIuq46zo5xfrfKQoxm38NudIMPYTUAdUosFM_nLb2UAsHPiZNdVR4_dL_gWISLMwUuU4kuWrOQc6fY9UINVBYCp2d0u7On_lIrrvK3WNKm0eHhFJrHm5HPYX6qv5QA/w640-h480/Baker%20Street%20Elementary%20137.5.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><i>Baker Street Elementary</i></b><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at </span><a href="http://www.bakerstreetelementary.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #006f85; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;">www.bakerstreetelementary.org</a><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">.</span></div><div><div><br /></div><div><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGyHxoov2AdCNzI-sA382WHyzmCYKmU5vuVxxUUbwgmzd_zESpxNTWBoDo-0BOUVmZPf0EpIOXFT9y59il288HBvx1-_JJJXxHhZAn2orzWJPWbYZasKlLBplbQMHDaY9thgs_w1diI7ch/s1600/Baker+Street+Elementary.jpg" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGyHxoov2AdCNzI-sA382WHyzmCYKmU5vuVxxUUbwgmzd_zESpxNTWBoDo-0BOUVmZPf0EpIOXFT9y59il288HBvx1-_JJJXxHhZAn2orzWJPWbYZasKlLBplbQMHDaY9thgs_w1diI7ch/s640/Baker+Street+Elementary.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><br />--</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>

Baker Street Elementary – Time and Tidiness Wait for No Man

“tidy up a bit” [SECO]  We might think that Dr. Watson, as a doctor, appreciated cleanliness and tidiness. But we have him at his own word i...

+ Read more »

by Scott Monty