The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Non-slipcased edition) (Vol. 1) (The Annotated Books)
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28 A major city and port of southwestern France, located on the Garonne River, the city of Bordeaux has long been the commercial centre of the eponymous wine region, regarded as the greatest in the world. Bordeaux had a unique relationship with England. Part of Britain’s Aquitaine properties, in 1224 the town declared itself ready to defend itself for “our lord the King of England.” In return, the king of England bought its wine. By the middle of the thirteenth century, it is estimated, three-quarters of England’s royal supply of wine—including wine for his armies—was coming from Bordeaux. By the first half of the fourteenth century, the British Isles bought almost half of Bordeaux’s output, enough to provide six bottles of “claret,” the English generic term for the red wine of Bordeaux, for each man, woman, and child.
The rivalry between England and France made trade between Bordeaux and England turbulent over the ensuing years. In the seventeenth century, French wine was subjected to severe tariffs, and the English turned to port, a product of Portugal, to satisfy their cravings for red wine. In 1860, however, the Anglo-French trade treaty ended the discriminatory tariffs, and between 1860 and 1873, the British increased their importation of French wine eightfold. “Gladstone claret” (named after the British prime minister) was the affectionate term used for affordable red wines from Bordeaux. Bordeaux’s exports in 1875 exceeded 650 million bottles.
29 William S. Baring-Gould calls St. Saviour’s, or Southwark Cathedral, “a most unlikely place for Miss Sutherland’s wedding,” because of its distance from King’s Cross. Jack Tracy proposes that the church was St. Saviour’s, Fitzroy Square, in a parish near King’s Cross, the eastern boundary of which was the Tottenham Court Road, where Mary Sutherland’s father’s business had been located. The “St. Pancras Hotel” is properly the Midland Grand Hotel, at St. Pancras Station, a building that now serves as offices for BritRail.
30 That is, a four-wheeled cab, as contrasted to the two-wheeled hansom cab.
31 Mary Sutherland undoubtedly refers to the Daily Chronicle, which began in 1855, under the name of the Clerkenwell News. It captured a large and important reading public from the monopoly of The Times and became the great organ of the middle classes.
32 Earlier, Holmes mentioned an “intricate matter” referred to him from Marseilles. It is intriguing to speculate that, based on the questionable character of its employee Mr. Windibank, the matter involved this firm. In the 1880s, the “fraudeurs” flooded England with bogus first-growth wine. Raisins were used extensively to produce wine that was substituted for the crops of Bordeaux devastated by phylloxera for over forty years. Marseilles and Sète, another prominent French port, became bywords for fraud and fabrication, their vintners importing raisins from Greece and mysteriously exporting first-growth claret.
33 Watson complains later that he became an institution in Holmes’s life like the “old black pipe” (“The Creeping Man”), mentioned also in “The Blue Carbuncle,” “The Copper Beeches,” The Hound of the Baskervilles, and “The Red-Headed League,” probably also identifiable as his “meditative” pipe (“The Solitary Cyclist”) and as “the unsavoury pipe which was the companion of his deepest meditations” (The Valley of Fear).
34 Holmes possessed a number of commonplace books, or scrapbooks, which needed an index. He also appears to have filed the “agony columns” of the daily newspapers. Holmes appears to use the terms “index” and “commonplace book” interchangeably.
35 A borough and market town of Hampshire, lying in the Anton Valley.
36 Called “the handsomest, the most fashionable, and the most modern-looking” town in the Netherlands by a contemporary guidebook, this city in the province of South Holland was the seat of government and the residence of the court of Holland. Ever since the first “Hague Conference” in 1899, The Hague has been a centre of international law.
37 Holmes’s scrupulous methods of observation and the results he obtained were adopted by some official detectives. According to “A Night with the Thames Police,” an article appearing in the Strand Magazine in 1891, “The river police could tell of many a remarkable clue to identification—a piece of lace, or the button of a man’s trousers.” For budding detectives, Tit-Bits magazine published in 1893 the results of a “Holmes Examination Paper” providing over a dozen examples of how boot-laces provide “a tolerably reliable index both to the character of the wearer and the extent of his worldly possessions.”
38 Jet is a velvet-black coal-like mineral, usually highly polished and used for ornaments.
39 The marks could also have been caused by pressure against some hard edge of furniture, such as a dining table, a dressing table, or the front panel of a piano, argues Lenore Glen Offord.
40 The earliest use of “pince-nez” in print was in the Saturday Review in 1880. Widely popular in Victorian times and still in use in the 1940s, they have generally been associated in literature and film as worn by weak or effeminate men (but compare the character of Morpheus, played by Lawrence Fishburne, in the popular film The Matrix). See also “The Golden Pince-Nez,” in which a woman’s glasses are found clenched in the hand of a murder victim.
41 A double-breasted men’s coat with long tails that are of the same length in front as behind, reaching to about the knees.
42 “Harris tweed” is manufactured in Harris, the name of the southern portion of Lewis, the largest and most northerly island of the Outer Hebrides, off the western coast of Scotland.
43 A cloth or leather leg-protector, covering the top of the shoe—more commonly known, in the twentieth century, as “spats.”
44 This is, of course, Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), the great French novelist and author of eighty-five novels, including Le Père Goriot and the multi-volume La Comédie humaine. Why Holmes found Windibank’s quotation of Balzac interesting is unknown. Early in the nineteenth century, British critics attacked Balzac as exemplary of the shockingly immoral fiction imported from France. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, his reputation was secure, and English translations abounded. Perhaps Holmes sensed a hidden “French connection” in Angel’s life.
45 In A Study in Scarlet, Holmes cautioned Watson, before agreeing to be his flat-mate, that he generally had chemicals around and occasionally did experiments. Watson characterised Holmes’s knowledge of chemistry as “profound.”
46 In chemistry, a “sulfate” or “sulphate” is a salt or ester of sulfuric acid. “Baryta” or barite is barium sulfate occurring as a mineral. Barium hydrogen sulphate, as the editors of the Catalogue of the 1951 Sherlock Holmes Exhibition in London refer to it, was first prepared by J. J. Berzelius in 1843. These editors dismiss the compound as a decidedly non-commercial “curiosity,” concluding, “The only source of such a compound would be from a private collection. It seems probable that a sealed tube of the substance which had lost its label was found by one of Holmes’s friends in a university laboratory; and the finder, knowing that Holmes made something of a hobby of routine chemical analysis, asked him to identify it.”
More recently, Donald A. Redmond, in “Some Chemical Problems in the Canon,” notes that a compound of barium known as hexasulphide of barium may be precipitated by acetone. Holmes had long been interested in investigating the acetones (see “The Copper Beeches”), and this analysis may be an offshoot of that work.
47 A piece of dining-room furniture having compartments and shelves for holding articles of table service. The Baker Street sideboard is also mentioned in “The Beryl Coronet,” “The Blue Carbuncle,” “The Five Orange Pips,” “The Noble Bachelor,” and “The Veiled Lodger.”
48 D. Martin Dakin comments, “[This] remark [seems] more worthy of a hell-fire preacher than of a practical detective. If all minor sins led straight to the gallows, the hangman would have been an even busier man than he was in the last century.” But this judgement may be justified if Holmes had knowledge of Windibank’s involvement in other crimes. See note 12.
49 French: That’s it—that�
�s everything.
50 “Hafiz” is also spelled “Hafez.” His more complete name is Mohammed Shams Od-Dīān Haāfez (b. 1325/26, Shīāraāz, Iran–d. 1389/90, Shīāraāz), and he was one of the finest lyric poets of Persia. The Diwan (Collected Poems) of the poet was not translated in its entirety into English prose until 1891. However, scholars have been unable to trace the proverb to any published works of Hafiz.
“Horace” is Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65–8 B.C.), the greatest of the Latin lyric poets.
THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY1
Australia, particularly as the movement for independence grew, fascinated the Victorians in the late nineteenth century. Because of Australia’s history as a penal colony for British convicts and political dissidents, it held a position not unlike the Wild West in America. The Victorian public readily believed that Australians in England were frequently involved in violent crime, and so they would have preconceptions about the characters of the McCarthys and the Turners, the key players in “The Boscombe Valley Mystery.” It is the first of the short stories in the Canon to involve murder and the first short-story appearance of Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard. In Lestrade’s earlier case with Holmes, recorded by Watson as A Study in Scarlet, Holmes called him and his partner Inspector Gregson “the pick of a bad lot.” Lestrade is treated little better here: Holmes calls him an “imbecile.” As in “A Case of Identity,” Holmes has little use for the “regulars” and takes it upon himself to be both jury and judge.
WE WERE SEATED at breakfast one morning, my wife2 and I, when the maid brought in a telegram.3 It was from Sherlock Holmes, and ran in this way:
Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley4 tragedy. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. Leave Paddington by the 11:15.
“What do you say, dear?” said my wife, looking across at me. “Will you go?”
“I really don’t know what to say. I have a fairly long list at present.5
“Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you.6 You have been looking a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes’s cases.”
“The Boscombe Valley Mystery.”
Staff artists “Cargs” and E. S. Morris, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 29, 1911
“I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained through one of them,” I answered.7 “But if I am to go I must pack at once, for I have only half an hour.”
The telegraph instrument galleries, General Post Office.
The Queen’s London (1897)
My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller.8 My wants were few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station.9 Sherlock Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey traveling cloak and close-fitting cloth cap.10
“It is really very good of you to come, Watson,” said he. “It makes a considerable difference to me, having some one with me on whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless or else biased. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall get the tickets.”
We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until we were past Reading.11 Then he suddenly rolled them all into a gigantic ball, and tossed them up onto the rack.
“Have you heard anything of the case?” he asked.
“Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days.”
Paddington Station.
The Queen’s London (1897)
“The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those simple cases which are so extremely difficult.”
“That sounds a little paradoxical.”
“But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they have established a very serious case against the son of the murdered man.”
“It is a murder, then?”
“Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have been able to understand it, in a very few words.
“Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in Herefordshire.12 The largest landed proprietor in that part is a Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he held, that of Hatherley,13 was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the Colonies,14 so that it was not unnatural that when they came to settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his tenant, but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have avoided the society of the neighbouring English families, and to have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of sport, and were frequently seen at the race meetings15 of the neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants—a man and a girl. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the families. Now for the facts.
“We had the carriage to ourselves.”
Sidney Paget, Strand Magazine, 1891
“On June 3, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at Hatherley about three in the afternoon, and walked down to the Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came back alive.
“From Hatherley Farmhouse to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was William Crowder, a gamekeeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The gamekeeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in the evening of the tragedy that had occurred.
“The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, the gamekeeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran,16 who is the daughter of the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley Estate, was in one of the woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On following him they found the dead body stre
tched out upon the grass beside the Pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son’s gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the body.17 Under these circumstances the young man was instantly arrested, and a verdict of ‘wilful murder’ having been returned at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next Assizes.18 Those are the main facts of the case as they came out before the coroner and the police-court.”
“They found the body.”
Sidney Paget, Strand Magazine, 1891
“I could hardly imagine a more damning case,” I remarked. “If ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so here.”
“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing,” answered Holmes, thoughtfully. “It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different.19 It must be confessed, however, that the case looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the daughter of the neighbouring land owner, who believe in his innocence, and who have retained Lestrade,20 whom you may remember in connection with the ‘Study in Scarlet,’ to work out the case in his interest.21 Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are flying westward at fifty miles an hour, instead of quietly digesting their breakfasts at home.”
“I am afraid,” said I, “that the facts are so obvious that you will find little credit to be gained out of this case.”
“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact,” he answered, laughing. “Besides, we may chance to hit upon some other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted even so self-evident a thing as that.”