Warburton’s story regarding his father appears to be entirely falsified. There is no record of a Trelawney Warburton serving in the 17th Lancers during the Charge of the Light Brigade. The Lancers were in fact commanded by Captain William Morris, and while three members of the 17th did receive a V.C. for their gallantry, none were named Warburton. However, it seems odd that Warburton would pick such a famous battle in which to set a fictional account of his father’s exploits, when more obscure ones were available. So perhaps the historical records are incomplete?
Colonel Warburton’s patron, Lord Balmoral, makes several more appearance in the Canon (The Adventures of the Noble Bachelor, Silver Blaze, and the Empty House).
Sometime before 1889, George Warburton must have called upon Watson to help him with his father’s madness. Clearly recognizing that it did not have an organic cause, Watson then referred the case over to Holmes (The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb). Unfortunately, the case of Colonel Warburton’s madness was one that Watson never fully recorded, either because it was too prosaic or one that the world was not yet ready to hear.
As a naturalist, Warburton’s passion for exotic animals like the baboon seems less nefarious that that of Dr. Grimesby Roylott who allowed his baboon and cheetah to wander freely over the grounds of his estate at Stoke Moran (The Adventure of the Speckled Band).
Warburton’s enthusiasm for re-discovering the presumably extinct Cahow was ahead of his time. Seventy-one years later, in 1951, the Cahow would be dramatically rediscovered on islets in Castle Harbor.
Coincidentally, Warburton’s inheritance was deposited at the same bank where Holmes foils an attempted robbery by Mr. John Clay (The Red-Headed League), though some have accused Watson of fabricating this institution, for records of it are scarce.
CHAPTER XVIII: THE EVIDENCE OF THE ITALIAN PAINTER
By careful analysis of Aicardi’s description it appears that he is referring to the painting entitled Boating (1874, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) by Édouard Manet (1832–1883). Manet’s The Suicide (Foundation E.G. Bührle, Zurich, Switzerland) is believed to have been completed between 1877 and 1881, though Aicardi’s reference here argues against the latter date.
It is tempting to speculate that Aicardi’s cousin Pietro Goldini may run the very restaurant on Gloucester Road, Kensington where Holmes and Watson meet to plan their assault on the lair of Hugo Oberstein (The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans).
In an odd coincidence, Aicardi favored a blood-tinged type of blood manufactured in England by the firm of Brickfall. It is not clear whether, in 1880, Josiah Amberley was yet a junior partner that profitable firm. Amberley eventually retired in 1896 and engaged Holmes to solve the disappearance of his wife (The Adventure of the Retired Colourman).
Mr. Thaddeus Sholto was very proud of possessing works by both Corot and Bouguereau and he was “partial to the modern French school” (Chapter IV, The Sign of the Four). The fact that Professor Moriarty owned a very expensive Greuze painting was one of the most significant clues that he lived outside his lawful means and thus must have had a source of significant supplemental income (Chapter II, The Valley of Fear). It is not clear exactly to which Vernet Signore Aicardi refers. There was Claude Joseph Vernet (1714 – 1789), his son Antoine Charles Horace Vernet (1758 – 1835), and his son Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (1789 – 1863), all of whom were painters. The Italian Aicardi’s love of the French school is likely attributable to his time in the Légion étrangère. By a very strange coincidence, none other than Sherlock Holmes claims to be descended from one of the Vernets on his mother’s side (The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter). Watson and Holmes encounter works by Kneller and Reynolds in the dining hall of the Baskervilles (Chapter 13, The Hound of the Baskervilles).
According to Leslie S. Klinger, Watson intended to appropriate the line: “The artist whose pigments are set out, and who has only to blend them into the expression of his own soul” but deleted it from the final manuscript for unknown reasons (The Adventure of the Priory School). Perhaps Holmes complained about him being ‘too romantic?’
In many ways, like Signore Aicardi, Holmes could have been considered an artist, though he personally fancied himself a “scientist” of detection. And Holmes certainly had both the eccentric temperament of an artist, as well as sharing their vices of “tobacco, spirits, and stronger stimuli” (i.e. cocaine). Holmes was also an avid devote of singlestick (Chapter II, A Study in Scarlet).
It is difficult to reconcile Aicardi’s tale about a serialized novel by Wilkie Collins with the reported dates of the Bermuda Manuscript, since his The Policeman & the Cook was not released until 1881. But of course, Aicardi was lying about the nature of his conversation with Sims, so perhaps it is not a true discrepancy. Was it just a coincidence that Aicardi mentioned Beeton's Christmas Annual or Lippincott's Monthly Magazine while discussing the optimal way to publish a story? These represent the first (A Study in Scarlet) and second (The Sign of the Four) places that Watson directed his first literary agent, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to publish his early cases with Holmes, and perhaps he got the idea from Aicardi?
The ingredients of aqua tofana were mostly arsenic and lead and possibly belladonna, but the exact blend has been lost to history. It was a colorless, tasteless liquid and so easily mixed with water or wine to be served during meals. It was mentioned by the Daily Telegraph as a possible weapon in the case of the ‘Brixton Mystery’ (Chapter VI, A Study in Scarlet).
For a translation of “E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle” see the notes to Chapter XXIII.
The Canon provides evidence that Watson was skilled in many languages, but his Italian was limited (The Final Problem).
Presuming that Aicardi was being honest when he claimed Milano as his home, the constable’s suggestion that he might be involved with either the Mafia (originated from Sicily), or the Carbonari or Camorra (both begun in Naples) seems to divulge a lack of knowledge about the geopolitical factions of the Italian state. Beppo and Pietro Venucci were connected with the Mafia (The Adventure of the Six Napoleons), the Daily Telegraph as a possible weapon in the case of the ‘Brixton Mystery’ (Chapter VI, A Study in Scarlet), while it is commonly assumed that Giuseppe Gorgiano’s ‘Red Circle’ was a fictitious cover for the ‘Black Hand,’ a also known as the Camorra (The Adventure of the Red Circle).
CHAPTER XIX: THE EVIDENCE OF THE SPANISH MARQUESA
The Canon is replete with Spanish beauties encountered by Watson and Holmes, including Senora Durando (from the mythical San Pedro; The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge), Isadora Klein (from Pernambuco, Brazil; The Adventure of the Three Gables), Mrs. Ferguson (Peruvian; The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire), Mrs. Maria Pinto Gibson (from Manáos, Brazil; The Problem of Thor Bridge), and Beryl Garcia Stapleton (from Costa Rica; Chapter XV, The Hound of the Baskervilles).
Lady Frances Carfax was also left “with limited means, but with some very remarkable old Spanish jewelry of silver and curiously-cut diamonds to which she was fondly attached - too attached, for she refused to leave it with her banker and always carried it about with her” (The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax).
Watson does not appear to have easily forgotten his encounter with the Marquesa, for many years later the initial ‘D’ in conjunction with a Spanish lady immediately brings her name to mind (The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge). The following year he met yet another Dolores, who was Mrs. Ferguson’s maid (The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire).
The Hotel Escurial in Madrid was the site of the murder of the Marquess of Montalva and Signor Rulli (The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge). Davos Platz was the site of a famous tuberculosis sanatorium. The fictional dying lady that Watson deserts Holmes for at Reichenbach Falls had wintered there (The Final Problem).
There is the only one other mention of Florida in the Canon as the home of Colonel Elias Openshaw and a hotbed of the KKK (The Five Orange Pips).
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Watson appears to have been inspired by the Marquesa’s habit of gazing upon a military hero for inspiration. In 1888, he had a picture of General Charles George Gordon framed for the sitting room of 221B Baker Street (The Cardboard Box).
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746 – 1828) was a Spanish painter during the Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. He painted both horrific depictions of war (a series known as Los Desastres de la Guerra), and a magnificent portrait of the English hero of the Peninsular War, The Duke of Wellington, now to be found in the National Gallery, London. Presumably the Marquesa possessed a copy of this portrait and not the original Goya.
Watson and Holmes were often skeptical about the existence of the supernatural (The Sussex Vampire & The Hound of the Baskervilles).
Keeping Jimson weed in the house to ward off ghosts was an Aztec practice, which the Marquesa most likely would have learned of only by residing in Mexico!
Like Dunkley, Holmes also complained that he had no desire to be part of a Grimm’s’ fairy tale (The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire).
CHAPTER XX: THE EVIDENCE OF THE AMERICAN LADY
In an odd coincidence, the partners of Lucy’s father would make later appearances in the Canon. Mr. Aloysius Doran had nothing until he struck a rich pocket in 1881 (The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor), while it’s not clear exactly when ex-Senator Neil Gibson, the ‘Gold King,’ made his fortune (The Problem of Thor Bridge).
Lucy’s mother died of diphtheria, as did Victor Trevor’s sister (The ‘Gloria Scott’), which nowadays has been essentially eliminated due to universal vaccination.
Lucy’s quote, “Alas, the storm is come again!... I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past” is derived from The Tempest, Act Two, Scene Two.
CHAPTER XXI: THE EVIDENCE OF THE FRENCH LAWYER
It is clear from the Canon that Watson is fluent in French, as he has no problem following along and reporting Holmes’ not infrequent use of French phrases. In this manner, his education was similar to that of Ms. Violet Hunter, who accomplishments included “a little French, a little German” (The Adventure of the Copper Beeches). It is most evident near when Watson reports in 1881 that he was reading a French novel, Vie de Boheme, that was not translated into English until 1888 (Chapter V, A Study in Scarlet). Dubois’ comment, ‘L’homme n’est rien, l’oeuvre tout,’ translates as ‘the man is nothing, the work is everything.’ Coincidentally, Holmes says the same thing after the capture of Mr. John Clay (The Red-Headed League). Watson’s retort, ‘Battre le fer pendant qu'il est chaud,’ translates as ‘To strike when the iron is hot.’
We can find on evidence that there was a fire at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco in 1880. It is highly probable that Dubois is lying. If Dubois actually stayed at the Palace, built in 1875, he was clearly flush for money, for it was at the time one of the largest and most expensive hotels in the world.
Dubois’ description of the murdered man as ‘Un véritable sauvage’ echoes Jules Vibart’s depiction of the Ho. Philip Green (The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax).
Thaddeus Sholto echoed the expression that Dubois used, ‘Le mauvais goût mène au crime’ which translates to ‘Bad taste leads to crime’ (Chapter IV, The Sign of the Four).
Watson’s first literary agent, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, once accused Watson of “never show(ing) one gleam of humour or mak(ing) a single joke” in his book Memories and Adventures. This only goes to show how little Sir Arthur actually read Watson’s words, for Holmes clearly states that Watson has a “certain unexpected vein of pawky humour” (Chapter I, The Valley of Fear).
CHAPTER XXII: THE LIST OF EVIDENCE
The Mayor of St. George’s in 1880 was William C.J. Hyland (1817 – 1892), a post which he ably served, since on the 3rd of October 1892, he was elected unanimously for the twelfth time in a row!
Watson encountered others plagued by consumption, such as Godfrey Staunton’s tragically expired wife (The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter), the aforementioned fictional lady at Reichenbach, and his first literary agent’s wife, Louisa Hawkins Conan Doyle.
This literary agent has not attempted to verify Watson’s claim that a bottle of Madeira poured into an orchid would result in the death of the plant within forty-eight hours. I did not wish to purposefully murder an orchid (which in my experience die handily enough on their own) and I certainly did not wish to waste a fine Madeira!
Watson’s most famous list, of course, is the “Twelve Limits” of his new roommate Sherlock Holmes (Chapter II, A Study in Scarlet).
Watson speaks authoritatively on the possibilities of monomania, specifically the idée fixe, when he and Holmes encounter the smashing of the Napoleonic busts. Many of his ideas are unchanged from this discussion with Dunkley (The Adventure of The Six Napoleons). He also talks about calling in an alienist to deal with the strange case of Professor Presbury (The Adventure of the Creeping Man).
The Arabian Nights, more properly known as One Thousand and One Nights, was probably first encountered by Watson in the form of the c.1840 sanitized translation of Edward William Lane. The more famous eroticized version of Sir Richard Francis Burton was not available until c.1888. We know that Watson read it because he refers to it twice in the Canon (The Adventures of the Noble Bachelor and Three Gables).
CHAPTER XXIII: A POSSIBLE SOLUTION
All of the tales of treasure recounted by Constable Dunkley are verifiable Bermudian legends. Dunkley’s prediction that more Spanish treasure will be found in Bermuda will come true, thanks in large part to the work of the diver Teddy Tucker. His most famous find is considered one of the most valuable pieces of sunken treasure ever found. The emerald-studded 22-karat gold Tucker Cross was discovered in 1955. It is believed to have come from ‘San Pedro’, a Spanish galleon which was lost on the reefs in 1594.
Dunkley’s envisioning of how the sea-glass played into the mystery must have drawn on knowledge about the activities of a local branch of the KKK, perhaps remnants of Confederate sympathizers after the war? It is similar to how other branches utilized warnings “sent to the marked man in some fantastic but generally recognizable shape – a sprig of oak-leaves in some parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others” (The Five Orange Pips).
Dunkley’s prediction that more caves remained to be found in Bermuda also came true. The most famous one, Crystal Caves, was discovered in 1905, when two young teenagers named Carl Gibbons and Edgar Hollis were engaged in a spirited game of cricket and lost their ball down a hole. Exploring further led to a previously hidden natural wonder.
Paul Bert published La Pression Barométrique, providing the first systematic understanding of the causes of decompression sickness in 1878.
Longfellow’s translation of The Inferno was published in 1867. His actual translation of the final line was ‘Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.’ While Longfellow’s version in general is quite beautiful, that particular line sounds a bit odd to modern ears.
The astute reader will recognize echoes herein of Watson’s introduction to “Part 2 – The Scowrers” (Chapter VII, The Valley of Fear). Much of what follows in Chapter XXIV reads like a prototype to the full novellas that serve as interludes and explanations for the mysteries of A Study in Scarlet and The Valley of Fear.
CHAPTER XXIV: AN EXTRAORDINARY TALE
Watson’s telling of the final hours in the life of Commandant Iain Harrier are far too detailed for it to be conceivable that he could have simply dreamt up all of these details. It seems likely that he misrepresented his reminiscences here with an amalgam of what he actually said on that night at the Globe Hotel supplemented with details that must have been admitted by Lucy later that evening.
Harrier’s recollection of the French intervention in Mexico and the brief reign of Emperor Maximilian are essentially accurate. The French Foreign Legion became part of the world consciousness
due to their defensive stand at the Battle of Camarón (1863), in which sixty-five men held off a force of over two thousand for an entire day, until only two unwounded survivors remained. Like Thermopylae (480 BCE), the Alamo (1836), and many others before it, there is something mythical about a doomed stand.
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