The Midwinter Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes: Three Adventures & The Grand Gift of Sherlock (31 page)

[210]
Although they have attained a near-legendary reputation, the Baker Street Irregulars headed by Wiggins only appear in the earliest two cases of the Canon (
A Study in Scarlet
&
The Sign of Four
) and the  case of
The Crooked Man
(dated to 1889). However, various non-Canonical works suggest that Holmes continued to employ them for many years.

[211]
Limehouse Basin opened in 1820 as an important connection between the Thames and the canal system, where cargoes could be transferred from larger ships to the shallow-draught canal boats. Because ships crews were employed on a casual basis, replacement crews would be found wherever they were available, with foreign sailors in their own waters being particularly prized for their knowledge of currents and hazards in ports around the world. Crews would be paid off at the end of their voyages and, inevitably, permanent communities of foreign sailors became established. At Limehouse, there were colonies of Lascars and Africans from the Guinea Coast, and a Chinatown established by the crews of merchantmen in the opium and tea trades. The area achieved notoriety for opium dens in the late 19th century, but after the devastation of the Second World War most of the Chinese community relocated to the Soho area of London.

[212]
The mark of a Chinese apothecary shop was a bundle of hay hanging under the eaves.

[213]
The
Compendium of Materia Medica
was written by Li Shizhen during the Ming Dynasty. It is regarded as the most complete and comprehensive medical book ever written in the history of traditional Chinese medicine. It lists all the plants, animals, minerals, and other items that were believed to have medicinal properties.

[214]
Of all of the leukemias, a rare subtype known as acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is particularly sensitive to arsenic, which is still employed today as part of its cure.

[215]
The Bradford sweets case was the accidental arsenic poisoning of more than 200 people in Bradford, England, in 1858; an estimated 20 people died when sweets accidentally made with arsenic were sold from a market stall. The event contributed to the passage of the Pharmacy Act 1868 in the United Kingdom and legislation regulating the adulteration of foodstuffs

[216]
One of the first things that Watson recognized about Mr. Sherlock Holmes was that he had a “good practical knowledge of British law” (Chapter II,
A Study in Scarlet
).

[217]
Waterloo Bridge was referred to with sad irony as London’s ‘Bridge of Sighs’ for the numerous suicidal leaps that took place from its railings. There was even an 1844 poem by Thomas Hood commemorating this sad tradition. John Openshaw was murdered on this bridge by the K.K.K. (
The Five Orange Pips
).

[218]
Holmes would go on to condone justifiable private revenge again, most famously in the assassination of the king of all the blackmailers (
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
).

[219]
Watson’s famous list of Holmes’ limits suggests that his knowledge of astronomy was ‘nil’ (Chapter II,
A Study in Scarlet
).

[220]
When he refers to the Napoleon of crime, Holmes is of course speaking about Professor Moriarity (Chapter I,
The Valley of Fear
).

[221]
It has been argued that the famous quote of Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827) to Napoleon Bonaparte is apocryphal, though there is little doubt that Laplace was either a deist (as were most of the great scientists and philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, including many of the founding fathers of the United States, as well as Victorians like Alfred Lord Tennyson) or an agnostic, and thus, the quote is certainly plausible. Deism is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of a Higher Power, accompanied with the rejection of revelation and authority as a source of religious knowledge, with a disbelief in supernatural events such as miracles.

[222]
There is very little evidence in the Canon that Holmes possessed any particular religious inclinations. We know that he made a special study on the Buddhism of Ceylon (Chapter X,
The Sign of Four
), and visited with the head (or Dalai) Llama of Lhasa, while living in Buddhist Tibet for two years (
The Empty House
). Watson even once described Holmes as sitting “upon the floor like some strange Buddha” (
The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger
). Holmes admitted that his “Biblical knowledge is a bit rusty” (
The Crooked Man
) and he also did not appear disturbed by the magnum opus of Professor Coram in which his analysis of the documents found in the Coptic monasteries of Syria and Egypt cut deep at the very foundations of the revealed Abrahamic religions (
The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
). Holmes was also a passionate devotee of William Winwood Reade’s book,
The Martyrdom of Man
, which was a secular history of the Western world, with rather outspoken attacks upon Christian dogma (Chapters II & X,
The Sign of Four
). There are few instances of Holmes having any sense of a higher power. One such is when he referred to flowers as evidence of the “the goodness of Providence” (
The Adventure of the Naval Treaty
). However, a close reading of the case suggests that at the time of that comment Holmes was being purposely distracting, so any such reference must be viewed with suspicion. Holmes also comments on the terrible mystery of the universe at the conclusion of the grim case of
The Cardboard Box
. The most likely conclusion is that Holmes was either a Buddhist or a deist, or some combination of the two, and while those particular religious leanings perhaps situated upon him a skeptical viewpoint of some of the trappings of the Christian version of the midwinter solstice, they would not have limited him from enjoying the season as a whole, nor prevented him from developing his own interpretation of its deeper meaning.

[223]
This is not hyperbole on the part of Watson. He and Holmes had known each other for over seven years before Holmes deigned to inform Watson that he had a brother (
The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter
)! And yet, Watson really has little grounds for complaint, since he also neglected to tell Holmes about his brother Henry for a similar period of time (Chapter I,
The Sign of Four
)!

[224]
A paraphrase of a portion of the great “To be, or not to be” soliloquy from
Hamlet (
Act III, Scene I). Watson’s brother Henry had died by 1888, and while the exact date of Mary’s passing is never made clear, it is estimated to have occurred by 1892, during the Great Hiatus.

[225]
Watson’s hesitation sounds similar to what he expressed at the beginning of several of the more scandalous tales, including
The Adventures of The Empty House
and
Charles Augustus Milverton
. 

[226]
This would most likely be one of the huge scale grand oratorio renditions of the ‘Messiah’ (1741) of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) sung by the Royal Choral Society (founded 1872). The Royal Albert Hall was opened in 1871 in honor of Queen Victoria’s late husband. Holmes and Watson also partook of a concert by ‘Carina’ at the Albert Hall in
The Adventure of the Retired Colourman
.

[227]
Holmes was not an avid partaker of exercise for the sheer sake of exercise, but he was not adverse to a stroll from time to time, as detailed in numerous of the stories.

[228]
A distance of 2.1 miles, it might take slightly longer than Holmes’ estimate in the snow. One of the first actions of Sir Henry Baskerville upon arriving in London was to go look at the folk promenading along the ‘Rotten Row’ in Hyde Park (Chapter VI,
The Hound of the Baskervilles
).

[229]
Holmes is being a bit hypocritical here, as he himself mocked Lestrade at the time, asking him if he had also dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square (
The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
).

[230]
The first wife of the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) committed suicide by drowning in the Serpentine in December 1816. He married Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of
Frankenstein
, less than two weeks later.

[231]
Holmes is referring to Speaker’s Corner, an area utilized for public speaking since at least the 1850’s.

[232]
The Tyburn tree was the most infamous of London’s sites of public execution, which took place there until the late 1700’s. Watson later echoes Holmes words when he described their passage along Edgeware Road on the way to visit Mr. Nathan Garrideb in 1902 (
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
). Jonathan Wild (c.1682-1725) was a notorious criminal mastermind who was hanged at Tyburn. Holmes recommended a study of his exploits to Inspector MacDonald in Chapter II of
The Valley of Fear
.

[233]
On 30 January 1661, (the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I), Cromwell's body was exhumed from its place of honor in Westminster Abbey, and was subjected to the ritual of a posthumous execution, along with the company of three of his deceased lieutenants (though his daughter was allowed to remain buried at the Abbey.) His disinterred body was hanged in chains at Tyburn, and then eventually thrown into a pit, while his severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685. The body has been lost to history, but Cromwell’s head is now buried at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, his alma mater, which plainly forgave some of Cromwell’s less generous qualities.

[234]
That Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), military dictator of England from 1653 until his death was a Puritan religious fanatic should not be doubted, as most clearly evidence by his ban of Christmas itself! In the England of that era,
Christmas was considered to be a
holiday of celebration and enjoyment. In London, soldiers were ordered to go round the streets and take, by force if necessary, food being cooked for a Christmas celebration. Traditional Christmas decorations, such as holly, were banned. This was all in addition to his other attempts to impose joyless order upon the nation. All of the theatres were closed down. Most sports were banned, and boys caught playing ball on a Sunday could be whipped as a punishment. Women and girls were required to dress in ‘a proper manner,’ which included no cosmetics, no color in their dresses, and their hair covered by a white head-dress.

[235]
Billy, the page-boy at 221B Baker Street is only mentioned in Chapters I & II of
The Valley of Fear
,
The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone
, and
The Problem of Thor Bridge
.

[236]
Holmes expressed similar sentiments (“The London criminal is certainly a dull fellow…”) in the beginning of
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
.

[237]
Holmes was a great expert on the uses of footprints and wrote a monograph on it that he showed to Watson in Chapter II of
The Sign of Four.

[238]
Holmes’ knowledge of the types of tobacco ash was profound. His monograph on the subject was mentioned in
A Study in Scarlet
,
The Sign of Four
, and
The Boscombe Valley Mystery.

[239]
I have been unable to locate any records indicating that a public house by this name existed in the relative locale of Baker Street at the time of this incident. However, it is a very common name for English pubs, despite its representation of a pagan vegetative deity, most likely Viridios of Roman Britain. Perhaps Watson was unable to recall the actual name and used the first one that sprang to mind?

[240]
Watson can only be referring to the medieval adventure romance
Quentin Durward
by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).

[241]
Although the Celsius system had been proposed originally in the 1740s, England did not adopt it until approximately 1962.

[242]
The Baker Street Underground Station opened in 1863 as one of the original stations of the Metropolitan Railway. Curiously, Holmes and Watson almost never travel by the Tube. Watson mentions it in Chapter II of
A Study in Scarlet
and
The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
, and it plays a large role in
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
, but the only time they actually travel on it is during
The Adventure of the Red-Headed League
.

[243]
The Corps of Commissionaires were formed in 1859 to serve as a source of occupation for pensioned veterans. They wore uniforms and served as porters and messengers. Commissionaire Peterson was the exceptionally honest man who brought Holmes the eponymous Blue Carbuncle.

[244]
The Crimean War (1853-1856) was fought between England, France, and the Ottoman Empire on one side, and the Russian Empire on the other. It is famous today mainly for the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade and the heroisms of Florence Nightingale.