The Midwinter Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes: Three Adventures & The Grand Gift of Sherlock (36 page)

[461]
Douglas Maberley first novel is mentioned, but not by name, in
The Adventure of the Three Gables
. It appears to be a thinly disguised romance of his initial days as an attaché in Rome.

[462]
Charles Augustus Milverton had a bust of Athene upon his bookshelf. Watson obviously did not want to be reminded of that foul fellow, and chose a different Roman god, perhaps influenced by Holmes’ frequent exclamations of “By Jove!”

[463]
Since all six plaster busts were smashed by the end of
The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
, one can only assume that Watson went out and bought a marble bust to remind him of that remarkable day.

[464]
Read by Watson in an unnamed magazine in Chapter I of
A Study in Scarlet
.

[465]
Mentioned in
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
.

[466]
Holmes briefly alludes to this monograph in the non-Canonical tale
The Adventure of the Manufactured Miracle
, though at the time he reports that it was never published. He must have later rectified this deficiency.

[467]
One of the greatest of all lost books, known to exist only because of its mention in
His Last Bow
.

[468]
Holmes mentions his plans to write this book in
The Adventure of the Abbey Grange
, but this is the first proof that he actually completed it. Unfortunately, it too has been lost to posterity.

[469]
Shown to Watson in Chapter I of
The Sign of Four
.

[470]
According to Holmes, these were originally published in the 1887 edition of the ‘Anthropological Journal’ (
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
).

[471]
The Bertillon system of measurements was much admired by both Dr. James Mortimer (Chapter I,
The Hound of the Baskervilles
) and by Sherlock Holmes (
The Naval Treaty
).

[472]
Never formally referred to, however, Holmes was clearly a student of handwriting, as evidenced by multiple cases, perhaps most notably in
The Reigate Squires
.

[473]
Holmes showed this to Watson in Chapter II of
The Sign of Four
.

[474]
Mentioned in the non-Canonical story
The Adventure of the First Star
.

[475]
Never formally mentioned as being written up as s monograph, it is hardly surprising that Holmes would have done so, given the prominence it plays in Chapter XV of
The Hound of the Baskervilles
.

[476]
Mentioned in Chapter IV of
A Study in Scarlet
,
The Sign of Four
, and
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
.

[477]
This is likely the monograph that Holmes alludes to writing in Chapter XIX of
The Gate of Gold
.

[478]
Mentioned in
The Adventure of the Dancing Men
.

[479]
Mentioned in Chapter II of
The Hound of the Baskervilles
.

[480]
Mentioned by Holmes in Chapter II of
The Hound of the Baskervilles
to be a “special hobby” since he was very young, this is the first proof that he finally formalized this knowledge into a monograph.

[481]
Holmes mentioned his plans to write this in
A Case of Identity
.

[482]
Holmes mentions his intention to write this in
The Adventure of the Dying Detective
.

[483]
Holmes mentions his intention to write this in
The Adventure of the Creeping Man
.

[484]
Mentioned in Chapter I of
The Sign of Four
.

[485]
A close paraphrase of what Holmes said to Watson in Chapter I of
The Hound of the Baskervilles
.

[486]
Actually, Watson called himself this in
The Adventure of the Creeping Man
, but who is quibbling?

[487]
Also from Chapter I of
The Hound of the Baskervilles
.

[488]
As noted in
The Greek Interpreter
. Holmes also admits to having no friends, other than Watson, in
The Five Orange Pips
.

[489]
I believe that this is one of the rare examples in which we witness the “hidden fires” (Chapter XII,
The Hound of the Baskervilles
) of Holmes’ heart. This became more apparent as the two men aged, as it was primarily seen in late cases such as
The Adventures of the Devil’s Foot
and
The Three Garridebs
.

[490]
Given that this is a close paraphrase of Holmes’ self-written words from
The Adventure of the Blanched Solider
(“The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action which I can recall in our association.”), it can only be a reference to Watson’s several wives, of whom Holmes clearly approved of in his own unique way.

[491]
Holmes’ math here is a bit hard to follow, as he included the years of the Great Hiatus in his count, when surely the grieving Watson was not expecting a gift from the presumed deceased Holmes!

[492]
This may be the closest we ever find to a belated apology from Holmes for his cruel misleading of Watson that he had died in Reichenbach Falls, for he directly mimics the lines that he said to Watson immediately before his dramatic reveal (as documented in
The Adventure of the Empty House
).

[493]
It is perhaps surprising that Watson would not have already owned some lesser copy of Shakespeare’s complete works, since he was imminently familiar with the works of the playwright William Shakespeare, as evidenced by the vast number of references found in his adventures with Holmes. The 1623 edition is better known as a ‘First Folio.’ Holmes sarcastically asks Mrs. Mary Maberley if she owns one in
The Adventure of the Three Gables
. Approximately 750 copied were printed (though only about 40 are complete today), and it is now one of the world’s most valuable printed books, with a value of over $3 million. How exactly Holmes obtained an ultra-rare First Folio is unclear, but it must have cost him a princely sum, perhaps obtained from either his enormous fees from the Duke of Holdernesse (
The Adventure of the Priory School
), augmented by the £500 (over $50,000 in 2014 purchasing power) he liberated from Von Bork (
His Last Bow
)? A ‘Grand Gift’ indeed!

[494]
Though Watson was the “one fixed point” according to Holmes (
His Last Bow
).

[495]
Here Holmes directly quotes from ‘Ulysses’ (1833) one of the great masterpieces of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign.

[496]
Holmes is clearly referring to the
Adventure of the Red Circle
, though the name of the Richard Wagner opera is never named.
Götterdämmerung
, the ‘Twilight of the Gods,’ is the finale of his epic ‘The Ring of the Nibelungen’ saga, and tells the tale of Ragnarök, the end of the world of the old gods.

[497]
Most noticeably in Chapter I of
The Sign of Four
, but also in several other places.

[498]
“I shall ever regard him as the best and the wisest man whom I have ever known” (
The Adventure of the Final Problem
).

[499]
Watson’s literary agent Sir Arthur Conan Doyle imagined that “perhaps in some humble corner of such a Valhalla, Sherlock and his Watson may for a time find a place…” in his Preface to
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

[500]
A very slight misquote of Bolingbroke to Percy in Shakespeare’s
Richard II
(Act II, Scene III): “I count myself in nothing else so happy, as in a soul remembering my good friends.”