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-- OR -- Mr. Frankland, elderly legal enthusiast whom you can also find in his own digs at Lafter Hall, can also be seen in these previous issues of Electro-Graphic Monthly courtesy of his literary agent David Richardson: February 2004 . . . Frankland on Watson
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Letter From Dr. Watson Queen Anne
Street Dear members of the Dark Lantern League, This is to introduce Mr Frankland of Lafter Hall, whom I earlier had occasion to introduce to Sherlock Holmes when I was reporting to him from Dartmoor in the matter of the Baskerville Curse. At the time I described him as elderly, red-faced, white-haired and choleric. He exhibited a passion for the law, and I found him to be quite learned in old manorial and communal rights. The villagers of Fernworthy had good reason to be aware of this, as I learned he had sometimes applied this knowledge to their benefit, but also at times to their detriment, so that they alternated between chairing him through the village and burning him in effigy. When I first wrote to Holmes he had seven cases in progress, and it seemed as though he might well loose a considerable portion of his fortune. However, while I was still there, I learned that he had won two of them, and it seems this eventuality did not come to pass. My initial impression was that, once away from the subject of the law, he was kindly in manner and good-natured. A rumor was circulating that he intended to prosecute Dr Mortimer for excavating an ancient barrow without the consent of the next-of-kin! This, and what seemed a somewhat eccentric basis for many of his lawsuits, had caused him to be seen as a somewhat comic figure, although it seems likely that 'old Middleton' likely did not laugh much when people began trekking through his park, passing only a hundred yards from his front door. I had not seen him since those long-ago days on Dartmoor until a letter from him arrived shortly after the publication of my Holmes memoir His Last Bow in the Strand Magazine. I shall leave it to him to acquaint you with his life before and since, as he tells me that he is now working on an autobiography, so perhaps you may have an opportunity for a more extended acquaintance. John H Watson, MD |
