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A Study in Scarlet
SIGNIFICANT YEAR REFERENCE:
"In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University
of London . . ."
SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL TIE-IN:
"I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom
I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand." (June 27, 1880.)
SIGNIFICANT PASSAGE OF TIME:
"I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital
at Peshawar . . . improved . . . was struck down by enteric fever . . . . For
months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself . . . I was
despatched . . . landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably
ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine
months in attempting to improve it . . . London . . .There I stayed for some
time at a private hotel in the Strand . . . I soon realized . . . that I must
make a complete alteration in my style of living."
SIGNIFICANT YEAR REFERENCE OF
QUESTIONABLE VALUE:
"There was the case of Von Bischoff at Frankfort last year."
KEY WATSON DATE OF CASE:
"It was upon the 4th of March, as I have good reason to remember, that
I rose somewhat earlier than usual, and found that Sherlock Holmes had not yet
finished his breakfast."
KEY HISTORICAL REFERENCE OF THE CASE:
"I want to go to Halles concert to hear Norman Neruda this afternoon."
SEEMING BAD REPORTAGE BY THE STANDARD:
"The two bade adieu to their landlady upon Tuesday, the 4th inst., and
departed to Euston Station with the avowed intention of catching the Liverpool
express. They were afterwards seen together upon the platform. Nothing more
is known of them until Mr. Drebbers body was, as recorded, discovered
in an empty house in the Brixton Road, many miles from Euston."
LESTRADE CONFIRMS WATSON:
"They had been seen together at Euston Station about half-past eight on
the evening of the 3rd. At two in the morning Drebber had been found in the
Brixton Road."
"On Thursday the prisoner will be brought before the magistrates, and your
attendance will be required."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
March 4, 1881. Of course, Bring-Goulds original thought in a 1948 BSJ
was March 4, 1882. Methinks he bowed to popular opinion.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
March 4, 1881. He does reiterate a nice point about Holmes and Watson meeting
at Barts on January 1st, because the lab was empty, something we might
make use of later.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Call me contrary, but certain warped impulse has always made me want to go with
that "bad" Standard date. As March 4 fell on a Tuesday in 1884, The
Standard would seem to be placing the date at March 4, 1884. If Watson copied
from actual newspaper clippings in his scrapbook, this could be a very reliable
date. It would mean, of course, that "Speckled Band" actually took
place *before* the Drebber-Stangerson murders, and Watsons desire to write
a novel of tragic romance in America caused him to condense time in his first
chronicle of Holmes, making a later case his first with the detective.
In his original introduction to "The Date Being . . ." Andrew Jay
Peck makes a good case for the Moriarty-involved opening of The Valley of Fear
having been transplanted on to the Birlstone case, which didnt necessarily
involve Moriarty. He cites the precedence of the mind-reading passage from "The
Resident Patient," which we all know was transplanted from the suppressed
tale "The Cardboard Box." I think a good case can be similarly made
for separating the "meeting Sherlock Holmes" portion of STUD from
the "Drebber case" portion. The coincidence of Holmes getting a letter
from Gregson just as the consulting detective concludes an explanation of his
trade seems a bit much (like something from fiction, for heavens sake!),
but the transplant notion explains even that quite nicely.
I have to conclude that the initial meeting, the days of Watson studying Holmes,
and the incident of the article "The Book of Life" all took place
some time long before March 4, 1884, the obvious beginning of the true Study
in Scarlet.
The Sign of the Four
CURRENT STATE OF HOLMESS DRUG HABIT:
"Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance . .
."
CURRENT STATE OF WATSONS HEALTH:
"My constitution has not got over the Afghan campaign yet."
"What was I, an army surgeon with a weak leg and a weaker banking account,
that I should dare to think of such things?"
SIGNIFICANT REFERENCE TO ANOTHER CASE:
"But you have yourself had some experience of my methods of work in the
Jefferson Hope case."
SIGNIFICANT PASSAGES OF TIME:
"More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street
. . ."
"For weeks and for months we dug and delved in every part of the garden
without discovering its whereabouts."
SIGNIFICANT EVENT REFERENCE
OF QUESTIONABLE VALUE:
"I was consulted last week by Francois le Villard, who, as you probably
know, has come rather to the front lately in the French detective service."
THE MANY DATES OF MARY MORSTAN:
"I was quite a child . . . placed . . . in a comfortable boarding establishment
at Edinburgh, and there I remained until I was seventeen years of age. In the
year 1878 my father, who was senior captain of his regiment, obtained twelve
months leave and came home. He . . . directed me to come down at once."
"On reaching London I drove to the Langham and was informed that Captain
Morstan was staying there, but that he had gone out the night before and had
not returned."
"He disappeared upon the third of December, 1878 nearly ten years
ago."
"If she were seventeen at the time of her fathers disappearance she
must be seven-and-twenty now a sweet age . . ."
THE YEARLY PEARL DELIVERY:
"About six years ago to be exact, upon the fourth of May, 1882
an advertisement appeared in the Times asking for the address of Miss Mary Morstan
. . ."
"I published my address in the advertisement column. The same day there
arrived through the post a small cardboard box addressed to me, which I found
to contain a very large and lustrous pearl."
"Since then every year upon the same date there has always appeared a similar
box, containing a similar pearl, without any clue as to the sender."
"She . . . showed me six of the finest pearls that I had ever seen."
SIGNIFICANT MONTH AND DAY REFERENCE:
"This morning I received this letter . . ."
"Post-mark, London, S. W. Date, July 7."
"Be at the third pillar from the left outside the Lyceum Theatre to-night
at seven oclock."
"LOST Whereas Mordecai Smith, boatman, and his son Jim, left Smiths
Wharf at or about three oclock last Tuesday morning . . ."
THE DATES OF MAJOR SHOLTO:
"He retired some eleven years ago . . ."
"The major had retired some little time before." (Captain Morstans
disappearance)
"I have just found, on consulting the back files of the Times, that Major
Sholto, of Upper Norwood, late of the Thirty-fourth Bombay Infantry, died upon
the twenty-eighth of April, 1882."
"Captain Morstan disappears. . . . Four years later Sholto dies."
"Early in 1882 my father received a letter from India which was a great
shock to him. He had suffered for years from an enlarged spleen, but he now
became rapidly worse, and towards the end of April we were informed that he
was beyond all hope . . ."
SIGNIFICANT MONTH REFERENCE:
"It was a September evening and not yet seven oclock, but the day
had been a dreary one, and a dense drizzly fog lay low upon the great city.
Mud-coloured clouds drooped sadly over the muddy streets.
SIGNIFICANT PRIOR ACQUAINTANCES:
Holmes to McMurdo: "Dont you remember that amateur who fought three
rounds with you at Alisons rooms on the night of your benefit four years
back?"
Athelney Jones: "Its Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the theorist. Remember
you! Ill never forget how you lectured us all on causes and inferences
and effects in the Bishopgate jewel case."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 18, 1888. Theres long been two camps on SIGN, the July camp
and the September camp, and Baring-Gould is firmly on the September side. Of
course, theres always one person who goes completely off the chart . .
.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
April 16, 1888. Zeisler trusts Watsons mentions of twilight and moonlight
as if the doctor was an astronomer, yet doesnt believe Watson knows what
month it is?
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
The year in which The Sign of the Four occurs would seem a straightforward calculation.
Captain Morstans disappearance, December 3, 1878 is described as "nearly
ten years ago." The ad in the May 4, 1882 newspaper is described as "about
six years ago." Holmess research seems to back up these dates.
The next choice one has to make when pondering the dates of SIGN is whether
one wants to go with Mary Morstans "This morning I received this
letter" (said letter postmarked July 7) or Dr. Watsons "It was
a September evening . . ." As Keefauvers First Rule of Chronology
is "Trust Dr. Watson," I have to go with September. Apparently most
of my predecessors do as well, making Holmess statement "Women are
never to be trusted" from this case especially timely.
Why was Holmes so emphatic about the untrustworthiness of women when Watson
announces his engagement to Mary Morstan? Is it that he really doesnt
trust women in general, or that hes trying to break the news of Morstans
duplicity to his friend? That envelope postmarked July 8 seems ample evidence
for collusion between Mary Morstan and Thaddeus Sholto, who were simply using
Holmes and Watson to force Bartholomew Sholto to play straight in dividing up
the treasure. Add to that bit of evidence the fact that Mary Morstan shows the
Baker Street boys six pearls when anyone who does the math knows she should
have seven, and her credibility breaks down rather swiftly. Holmes knew this
was not a woman to be trusted. (And this chronologist is also very fond of the
script of Crucifer of Blood.)
As for the exact date, we know the case starts on a Tuesday, thanks to Holmess
ad. Watsons opening words, "Three times a day for many months I had
witnessed this performance," lead me to believe that it was the first Tuesday
in September, as the three summer months would be a natural bracket for Watson
to track Holmess drug habit in. Thus, the Birlstone Railway Timetable
has to go with Tuesday, September 4, 1888 for the start of this case.
It might be noticed that Im dating SIGN based on internal evidence and,
for the moment, totally ignoring Watsons marital status in other tales.
Well, as Sherlock Holmes once said "It is a capital mistake to theorize
before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories,
instead of theories to suit facts."
My feeling is that presupposing Mary Morstan to be the only wife Dr. Watson
ever had is definitely theorizing before the data. Thus, Keefauvers Second
Rule of Chronology states: "It is a capital mistake to theorize marriages
before one has dates. Insensibly one begins to twist dates to suit marriages,
instead of marriages to suit dates." (And we all know that dating must
properly come before marriage!)
"A Scandal
in Bohemia"
KEY WATSON DATE OF CASE:
" . . . it was on the twentieth of March, 1888 . . ."
KEY WATSONIAN EVENT:
"I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us away from
each other."
SIGNIFICANT PASSAGE OF TIME:
"Then I must begin by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years
. . ." says the king. "A Scandal in Bohemia" was published in
July of 1891.
THE MANY DATES OF IRENE ADLER:
"Born in New Jersey in the year 1858."
"Some five years ago, during a lengthy visit to Warsaw, I (the King) made
the acquaintance of the well-known adventuress, Irene Adler." (As Irene
had "Prima Donna of the Imperial Opera of Warsaw" in her bio, it would
seem she attained that position around the age of 25, also, it would seem, the
age of the King at that time. "I am but thirty now.")
According to Watsons date of the story, Irene married Godfrey Norton on
March 21, 1888. (A Wednesday.)
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
May 20, 1887. How Baring-Gould can, in good conscience, print that date on a
page facing a date Watson which writes as March 20, 1888 is beyond me. If Watson
was mistaken, shouldnt a good editor fix that mistake? And if Watson *wasnt*
mistaken, shouldnt a good Sherlockian agree with him?
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
March 22, 1889. Heres a prime example of twisting dates to fit marriages.
Zeisler thinks Watson met Mary Morstan in April of 1888. That being the case,
theres no way Watson can be married to her a month earlier. Thus SCAN
becomes the square peg that must be pounded into that round hole, and if said
pounding must destroy Watsons best date reference, so be it. THE BIRLSTONE
RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
This tale seems to make chronologists crazy, but I really have to go with Watson
on this one. Hes clear and precise this time with no internal contradictions.
As this was his first short story, the good doctor probably paid greater attention
to detail on SCAN than any other tale. Let the marriages fall where they may
-- in my book SCAN is rock solid at March 20, 1888.
"The Red-Headed
League"
KEY WATSON DATES OF THE CASE:
"I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the autumn
of
last year . . ."
"It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months ago."
"THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE IS DISSOLVED. October 9, 1890."
SIGNIFICANT CANONICAL TIE-IN:
"You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we went
into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary Sutherland . . ."
WILSONS ACCOUNT OF TIME PASSED:
"Will you be ready to-morrow?" (Duncan Rosss words to Wilson
on the day of the newspaper ad.
"This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the manager came
in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my weeks work. It was the
same next week, and the same the week after."
"Eight weeks passed away like this . . ."
"And no later than this morning. I went to my work as usual at ten oclock,
but the door was shut and locked, with a little square of card-board hammered
on to the middle of the panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for
yourself."
"THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE IS DISSOLVED. October 9, 1890."
"This assistant of yours who first called your attention to the advertisement
how long had he been with you?"
"About a month then."
HOLMESS DETECTION SCHEDULE:
"To-day is Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion."
KEY HISTORICAL REFERENCE OF THE CASE:
"Sarasate plays at the St. Jamess Hall this afternoon."
SIGNIFICANT PRIOR ACQUAINTANCES:
"Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard?"
"I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. John
Clay."
BANKER MERRYWEATHERS RECORD
1404 CONSECUTIVE WEEKLY RUBBERS:
"It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I have
not had my rubber."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
October 29, 1887.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
October 19, 1889.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Well, at least the year seems a no-brainer on this one: 1890. And the day does
seem to be Saturday, the day of concerts and rubbers of whist. But when Watson
starts telling us that April 27 was two months prior to October 9, all chronological
Hell seems about to break loose.
But is Watson the true culprit here? The good doctor occasionally seems to be
blamed by chronologists for quoting what came out of the clients mouths
inaccurately, when those clients may have been totally in the wrong to begin
with. (Think about it -- most of them are in no frame of mind to cite accurate
dates.) Ive gone on record prior to this stating that Wilson was lying
about his true twenty-four weeks of work to keep Holmess fee down ("Upon
the Relative Reliability of Watson and Wilson," Baker Street Journal, June
1983), and will stick with that thought. October 9 was the date on that sign.
April 27 was the date on the newspaper. Both are pieces of physical evidence
actually presented to Holmes and Watson, and yet Jabez Wilson keeps referring
to the interval between as eight weeks, even though the digging of a tunnel
and copying of all that encyclopaedia material would both fit more comfortably
into a twenty-four week span. Plainly, Wilson is lying.
All the Saturday evidence, however, makes me now agree with chronologists like
Blakeney, Dakin, Hall, and Thomson . . . October 11 has to be the beginning
date of the case. "Duncan Ross" just didnt know exactly what
day it was when he wrote the sign, or else was a little bit late in posting
it after he originally wrote it. So the Smashs final judgement this time
out: Saturday, October 11, 1890.
"A Case of
Identity"
NOTABLE SINGLE RESIDENT AT BAKER STREET:
". . . Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings
at Baker Street."
UNCHRONICLED CASE REFERENCE:
"But here" I picked up the morning paper from the ground
"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the first heading upon which
I come. A husbands cruelty to his wife."
"This is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged
in clearing up some small points in connection with it."
SIGNIFICANT PASSAGE OF TIME:
"Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks.
It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my assistance
in the case of the Irene Adler papers."
NOTABLE STATE OF WATSONS WRITING CAREER:
"I cannot confide it even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle
one or two of my little problems."
PRIOR ACQUAINTANCE OF QUESTIONABLE VALUE:
"I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, whose husband
you found so easy when the police and everyone had given him up for dead."
AGE REFERENCES OF QUESTIONABLE VALUE:
"Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, too, for
he is only five years and two months older than myself."
". . . she married again so soon after fathers death, and a man who
was nearly fifteen years younger than herself."
SIGNIFICANT DAY REFERENCES:
"That was last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything
since then to throw any light upon what became of him."
"I advertised for him in last Saturdays Chronicle."
"Missing [it said] on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman named
Hosmer Angel."
EVENT REFERENCE OF QUESTIONABLE VALUE:
"You will find parallel cases, if you consult my index, in Andover in 77,
and there was something of the sort at The Hague last year."
SIGNIFICANT REFERENCES TO PRIOR CASES:
"Once only had I known him to fail, in the case of the King of Bohemia
and of the Irene Adler photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business
of The Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected
with A Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle
indeed which he could not unravel.
STATE OF WATSONS MEDICAL PRACTICE:
"A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own attention at
the
time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the bedside of the sufferer."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
October 18, 1887.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
October 9, 1889.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Spring is the time of courtship and mating urges, and it is spring to which
we must inevitably consign "A Case of Identity," based on biology
alone. Weeks have passed since Holmes saw Watson, and the detective has been
rewarded for the Adler affair in that time, easily placing this case in spring
of 1888, weeks after the late March doings of SCAN.
The ad in the Saturday paper advertises that Hosmer Angel is missing as of the
morning of the 14th, which many chronologists assume means that the 14th was
the day of the intended wedding (Friday). To me, Hosmer Angel wasnt truly
missing until the next night had passed without a word from him, and since the
14th of April 1888 falls handily on a Saturday, it seems to fill the bill quite
nicely. Since Miss Sutherland has demonstrated her speed in taking recourse
by getting the ad in Saturdays paper following Fridays wedding desertion,
I have no doubt that she was on Holmess doorstep by Monday, making my
date for this cases beginning: Monday, April 16, 1888.
(One note of defense against an obvious question: When Holmes refers to "the
other day, just before we went into the very simple problem presented by Miss
Mary Sutherland" in October of 1890 (in REDH), he is not necessarily referring
to IDEN. Like every good businessman, Sherlock Holmes did have repeat customers.
As for the reference to SIGN, Watson is simply thinking about it as he writes
the tale -- we cant expect him to remember every though from years before.)
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery"
WATSONS MARITAL STATE:
"We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I . . ."
STATE OF WATSONS PRACTICE:
"I have a fairly long list at present."
"Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you."
CURIOUS REFERENCE, NOT NECESSARILY
REFERRING TO MRS. WATSON:
"I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained through one
of them."
HOLMESS STATEMENT OF THE DATE:
"On June 3d, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house . . ."
"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."
PREVIOUS ACQUAINTANCE OF NOTE:
". . . and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect in connection
with A Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in his interest."
"In spite of the light brown dustcoat and leather-leggings which he wore
in deference to his rustic surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognizing
Lestrade, of Scotland Yard."
YOUNG MCCARTHYS TESTIMONY:
"I had been away from home for three days at Bristol, and had only just
returned upon the morning of last Monday, the 3d."
THE DATES OF MCCARTHY AND TURNER:
"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."
"This fellow is madly, insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago,
when he was only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away
five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get into the clutches
of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a registry office?"
"About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered . . ."
"I have had diabetes for years. My doctor says it is a question whether
I shall live a month."
"It was in the early 60s at the diggings. There I parted from
my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and respectable life. I
bought this estate, which chanced to be in the market, and I set myself to do
a little good with my money, to make up for the way in which I had earned it.
I married, too, and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
June 8, 1889.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
June 27, 1890.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
The key date around which "Boscombe Valley" revolves is plainly Monday,
June 3rd, the day of the murder. As June 3rd falls on a Monday only in 1989
in the decade prior to BOSCs publication, that is the date most chronologists
begin their work with (others making much too much of a casual remark in STOC,
but more on that when we get there). An inquest on the 4th follows the murder,
followed by the magistrates on the 5th. Holmes read all this from newspapers
in London, so Holmes and Watsons involvement could not have possibly begun
before Thursday the 6th . . . which is still quite a rush, especially since
one of the papers came all the way from Herefordshire. And while Friday would
seem a likely date, Dr. Watson and his wife are breakfasting very late for a
weekday. Thus the Smash must go with conventional wisdom and actually agree
with Baring-Gould: Saturday, June 8, 1889.
"The Five Orange
Pips"
SIGNIFICANT PASSAGE OF TIME:
"When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes cases between
the years 82 and 90 . . ."
SIGNIFICANT YEAR REFERENCE:
"The year 87 furnished us with a long series of cases . . . the Paradol
Chamber . . . the Amateur Mendicant Society . . . the British bark Sophy Anderson
. . . the Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the Camberwell
poisoning case."
SIGNIFICANT MONTH REFERENCE:
"It was in the latter days of September . . ."
WATSONS MARITAL STATUS:
"My wife was on a visit to her mothers . . ."
PREVIOUS ENCOUNTERS OF NOTE:
"I heard from Major Prendergast how you saved him in the Tankerville Club
scandal."
"I have been beaten four times three times by men, and once by a
woman."
THE DATES OF THE OPENSHAW CLAN:
"When Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where
he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came back to Europe
and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham."
"He didnt mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the time
when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This would be in the
year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years in England."
" . . . by the time that I was sixteen I was quite master of the house."
"One day -- it was in March, 1883 a letter with a foreign stamp
lay upon
the table in front of the colonels plate."
"The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks later,
upon the night of May 2d."
"Well, it was the beginning of 84 when my father came to live at
Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the January of 85.
On the fourth day after the new year I heard my father give a sharp cry of surprise
as we sat together at the breakfast-table."
"On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went from home
to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody . . . . Upon the second day of
his absence I received a telegram from the major, imploring me to come at once.
My father had fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits
"It was in January, 85, that my poor father met his end, and two
years
and eight months have elapsed since then."
"It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the following
enigmatical notices:
"4th. Hudson came. Same old platform.
"7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and John Swain, of St. Augustine.
"9th. McCauley cleared.
"10th. John Swain cleared.
"12th. Visited Paramore. All well."
WATSON PROMOTES HIS PREVIOUS BOOK:
"I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases
we have had none more fantastic than this."
"Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 29, 1887.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
September 24, 1889.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Here we have an excellent case of a Watsonian fork in the road: on one hand,
Watson makes clear year and month references that are backed up by the clients
date-filled tale. On the other hand, we have a reference to "The Sign of
Four" and a wife who has a mother. More conservative Sherlockians of the
past tried with all their might to keep Watson married to only one woman, and
have that one woman be Mary Morstan. As a result, they want to ignore the year
and keep the month, ignore the mother and keep the SIGN. The Smash has to go
back to his Number One Rule on this one: Trust Watson.
And following that rule, I have to lay down my second rule of chronology: If
one argues in front of Watsons dates, one inevitably starts twisting dates
to suit marriages, rather than letting dates dictate marriages. (And everyone
knows dates lead to marriages.)
Accepting the dates and the wife with a mother, we are left with only that pesky
SIGN reference, which is easy to see as shameless self-promotion on Watsons
part: "If you think this case is great, buy The Sign of Four,
available at all better book stalls!"
Which, in turn, leaves us with only one question: what was the day this case
started? For that, we must turn to the handiwork of Captain Calhoun of the Lone
Star. On Wednesday, May 2, 1883, Captain Calhoun killed Elias Opensaw. On Friday,
January 9, 1885, Captain Calhoun killed Joseph Openshaw. And on Friday, September
16, 1887, Captain Calhoun killed John Openshaw. Why that particular day? Why
five orange pips and only five? Ritual, of course. Calhoun was a pattern killer,
and even though life at sea made it hard to adhere to his patterns perfectly,
theyre still there. He killed Openshaw #2 exactly one year, eight months,
and seven days after Openshaw #1. Then Openshaw #3 dies exactly two years, eight
months, and seven days after Openshaw #2. Was the added year a purposeful change,
or just the result of fitting his pattern around his seagoing schedule?
Who knows with these mass murderers? Whatever the reason, Im dating this
case at Friday, September 16, 1887.
"The Man with the
Twisted Lip"
WATSONS DEFINITE DATE REFERENCE:
"One night--it was in June, 89--there came a ring to my bell . .
."
"Of Friday, June 19th."
WATSONS MARITAL STATUS:
"Or should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" (In other words,
married, but to a wife unsure of his name.)
ISA WHITNEYS DRUG SCHEDULE:
"But now the spell had been upon him eight-and-forty hours . . ."
"I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday."
"I tell you that it is Friday, man."
THE DATES OF NEVILLE ST. CLAIR:
"Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884 there came to Lee
a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name . . . in 1887 he married the daughter
of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children."
"Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town . . ."
INSPECTOR BRADSTREETS ELAPSED CAREER:
"Well, I have been twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes
the cake."
DURATION OF MRS. ST. CLAIRS ORDEAL:
"That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes.
"Good God! What a week she must have spent!"
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
June 21, 1889.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
June 21, 1889 (What? Agreement between the big "Z" and B-G?)
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Funny thing about "Twisted Lip" -- Watson argues with a man who has
supposedly been smoking opium for two days straight about what day it is, and
only succeeds in confusing him (and us) all the more.
When Watson tells Isa Whitney that its Friday, June 19th, what is Isas
response? "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday." Watson assumes
the "it" in Whitneys statement refers to the current day, but
its obvious to anyone with a calender for 1889 that what Whitney is really
saying is "I thought June 19th was Wednesday." And June 19th was a
Wednesday in 1889.
For a man supposedly in an opium stupor, Isa Whitney seems to be on the ball
about what day June 19th was on. Had he really been smoking for two days straight?
Watson trusts Kate Whitneys word that Whitney has been lost to dope for
48 hours. But was she exagerating, just to get the Watsonss help? I think
so. Whitney knew hed only been at the Bar of Gold a few hours, just as
he knew that the 19th was Wednesday.
Like most of us, Watson knew what day of the week it was. He just wasnt
clear on the number attached to it. Thankfully, he had a friend like Isa who
was unselfish enough to try to straighten him out, even when embroiled in massive
problems of his own (opium and a scheming wife).
The Smashs final conclusion: Going with the crowd, Friday, June 21, 1889
for this one.
"The Adventure of
the Blue Carbuncle"
THE MOST FAMOUS DATE REFERENCE IN THE CANON:
"I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after
Christmas . . ."
SIGNIFICANT REFERENCES TO OTHER CASES:
" . . . of the last six cases which I have added to my notes, three have
been entirely free of any legal crime."
"Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler papers,
to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the adventure of the man
with the twisted lip.
LENGTH OF TIME SINCE BAKER HAD CASH:
"If this man could afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and
has had no hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world."
RECONFIRMING THE DATE:
"Precisely so, on December 22d, just five days ago."
STATE OF WATSONS PRACTICE:
"I shall continue my professional round. But I shall come back in the evening
. . ."
THE ARRIVAL OF THE BIRD:
"This year our good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by
which, on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to receive
a bird at Christmas."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
December 27, 1887.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
December 27, 1889.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Its a testimony to the power of "Blue Carbuncle" that no one,
but NO ONE denies that this case began on December 27 -- a really remarkable
thing, when one considers how fast and loose Sherlockian scholars have played
with much more plainly stated dates. As for the year, well as the latest of
the three cases Watson refers to as most recent in his chronicles in TWIS, which
has 1889 written all over it (literally). Thus the Smash must go with the crowd
once more on this one: Friday, December 27, 1889.
Added note: Holmess statement of the three cases of Watsons last
six sounds as though the chronology student is now limited to placing five,
and only five, cases between SCAN and BLUE. Could Watson have participated in
a case and not taken notes on it during that period, only to write it up later?
"The Adventure of
the Speckled Band"
THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE OCCURRENCE
AND THE WRITING:
"On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during
the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes . . ."
SIGINIFICANT COMMENTS BY WATSON:
"The events in question occurred in the early days of my association with
Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors in Baker Street. It is possible
that I might have placed them upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was
made at the time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by
the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given."
SIGNIFICANT DATE REFERENCE:
"It was early in April in the year 83 . . ."
SIGNIFICANT MORNING REFERENCE:
"He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the mantelpiece showed
me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I blinked up at him in some surprise,
and perhaps just a little resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits."
THE TIMES OF THE ROYLOTTS:
"In the last century, however, four successive heirs were of a dissolute
and wasteful disposition, and the family ruin was eventually completed by a
gambler in the days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground,
and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under a heavy mortgage.
As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and afterwards returned to
England a morose and disappointed man."
"When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, the young
widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. My sister Julia and
I were twins, and we were only two years old at the time of my mothers
re-marriage. She had a considerable sum of money--not less than L1000 a year--and
this she bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, with
a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to each of us in the
event of our marriage. Shortly after our return to England my mother died --she
was killed eight years ago in a railway accident near Crewe.Dr. Roylott then
abandoned his attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us
to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran."
"Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet . . ."
"She was but thirty at the time of her death . . ."
"She died just two years ago . . ."
"Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there a half-pay
major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My stepfather learned of the engagement
when my sister returned and offered no objection to the marriage; but within
a fortnight of the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event
occurred . . ."
"Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until lately lonelier
than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, whom I have known for many years,
has done me the honour to ask my hand in marriage."
" . . . we are to be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago
some repairs were started in the west wing of the building . . ."
SIGNIFICANT REFERENCES TO NATURAL EVENT:
"It is a little cold for the time of the year."
"But I have heard that the crocuses promise well."
THE SCHEDULE OF THE WORKMEN:
"Two days ago some repairs were started in the west wing of the building
. . ."
" . . . there were no signs of any workmen at the moment of our visit."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
April 6, 1883.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
Early in April 1883, probably April 4,1883.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
The statement "early in April in the year 83" is clear enough,
and no chronologer disputes it. The day is the item of question on this case,
and my first impression on that score is that Watson would not be so annoyed
at being awakened at 7:15 if it were not a day he fully expected to sleep as
long as he wanted . . . a Sunday. Ernest Bloomfield Zeisler argues that it was
not a Sunday, as Watson would not have felt compelled to state that the workmen
were not at Stoke Moran if it were a Sunday, as the assumption would have been
obvious to the reader. Yet Watson does not tell us that it was Sunday, so we
have no basis for making Zeislers assumption. Zeisler also argues against
Sunday, stating that Holmes could not have visited the Doctors Commons to check
out Roylott on a Sunday . . . which I think shows little faith in the resources
and connections of Sherlock Holmes. A regular person might not have been able
to do the research on a Sunday, but the master detective on a mission of immediate
life-or-death importance? That is another story. Quarter past seven is only
a resentful hour to young bachelors on the morning after their Saturday night
recreations, and thus Im sticking this tale on Sunday, April 1, 1883.
Was SPEC the true first case of working with Holmes that Watson recorded? I
find nothing in SPEC that disproves my earlier assertion in the STUD Chronology
Corner. Watsons confession that he promised to keep this tale secret until
after a certain ladys death gives him a good reason for using STUD first,
even though SPEC was the more remarkable tale . . . perhaps even the thing that
inspired him to start writing up Holmess cases to begin with. He surely
must have had the writing of it in mind while he was still in contact with Helen
Stoner, or else the promise not to write of it would not have even come up.
And that promise also shows us exactly why he decided to publish STUD first
. . . all of the main players in the crime are dead by the time the case is
done.
In VEIL, Watson makes the statement, "When one considers that Sherlock
Holmes was in active practice for twenty-three years, and that during seventeen
of these I was allowed to cooperate with him and to keep notes of his doings
. . ." Knowing that Watson was doing so in September of 1903 (CREE), subtracting
the three years when Watson thought Holmes dead, one gets the year 1883 as the
year that Holmes started allowing Watson to "cooperate with him."
Unless one can prove a falling out between the two during some other period,
I think the VEIL statement backs up my assertion of SPECs claim to being
the prime Canonical tale.
Having said all that, Ill go one step further and proclaim April Fools
Day as a new Sherlockian holiday . . . the day our Canon truly begins. Not in
the Afghan war, not as Watson graduated from medical school, and not as he and
Holmes became room-mates, innocent of each others career plans. It all
truly began on a day when Holmes woke a resentful Watson from a peaceful morning-after
slumber to head into what is perhaps THE classic among their adventures together.
On April Fools Day . . .
"The Adventure of
the Engineers Thumb"
SIGNIFICANT SEASON AND YEAR REFERENCE:
"It was in the summer of 89, not long after my marriage, that the
events occurred which I am now about to summarize."
STATE OF WATSONS PRACTICE:
"I had returned to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his
Baker Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally even
persuaded him to forego his Bohemian habits so far as to come and visit us.
My practice had steadily increased, and as I happened to live at no very great
distance from Paddington Station, I got a few patients from among the officials."
TIME OF WATSON WAKE-UP:
"One morning, at a little before seven oclock, I was awakened by
the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come from Paddington
and were waiting in the consulting-room."
THE TIMES OF VICTOR HATHERYLY:
"He was young, not more than five-and-twenty . . ."
"I have had considerable experience of my work during the seven years that
I was apprenticed to Venner & Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich.
Two years ago, having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of
money through my poor fathers death, I determined to start in business
for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria Street."
"During two years I have had three consultations and one small job, and
that is absolutely all that my profession has brought me. My gross takings amount
to L27 10s. Every day, from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon,
I waited in my little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came
to believe that I should never have any practice at all."
"Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the office, my clerk
entered . . ."
"He was plainly but neatly dressed, and his age, I should judge, would
be nearer forty than thirty."
SIGNIFICANT DAY REFERENCE:
"It appeared in all the papers about a year ago." "Listen to
this: Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged twenty-six, a
hydraulic engineer."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 7, 1889.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
September 8, 1889.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Its the summer of 1889. Watson is not only married, his practice is well
established, and he is high on Holmess abilities over Scotland Yard, steering
Hatherly away from the police and toward his old friend. Watson is also still
in close enough contact with Holmes and Mrs. Hudson to expect that showing up
with a guest for breakfast will not be an imposition -- the kind of thing only
a close family member can get away with, so he is not far out of their lives.
As both BOSC and TWIS took place in June of that summer, and both featured Holmes
succeeding significantly where the police had failed, I would have to place
ENGI close on the heels of those two cases, the latter of which occurred on
June 21.
As "the 9th inst." means "the 9th of this month," we know
that Jeremiah Haylings disappearance was in all the papers sometime in
the latter two-thirds of the month he disappeared in, which was "about
a year ago." This would seem to confirm dating the case in the final part
of June.
The fact that the maid has to wake Dr. Watson up at 7 a.m. during the early-dawn
month of June says "sleep-in Sunday" to me, and adding that to all
the preceding data, I place "Engineers Thumb" on Sunday, June
30, 1889.
"The Adventure of
the Noble Bachelor"
WATSONS MARITAL STATE:
"It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I was
still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came home from an afternoon
stroll to find a letter on the table waiting for him. I had remained indoors
all day, for the weather had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal
winds . . ."
AND THE SEASON ONCE MORE:
"Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for the only problem we have
still to solve is how to while away these bleak autumnal evenings."
LORD ST. SIMONS LIFETIME:
"Born in 1846. Hes forty-one years of age . . ."
"Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself for over twenty years proof against
the little gods arrows . . ."
"As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has been compelled to
sell his pictures within the last few years . . ."
"It is in the personal column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see,
some weeks back."
"There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society papers of
the same week."
"An important addition has been made during the last week to the list of
the prizes which have been borne away by these charming invaders."
"When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?"
"In San Francisco, a year ago."
"My wife was twenty before her father became a rich man."
"Her father brought her over for this last London season."
THE WEDDING DAY:
"Two days later--that is, on Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement
that the wedding had taken place . . ."
"Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a morning
paper of yesterday . . ."
"The ceremony, as shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred
on the previous morning . . ."
FHMS HOTEL BILL:
"Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. 6d., glass
sherry, 8d."
"More valuable still was it to know that within a week he had settled his
bill at one of the most select London hotels."
FRANK AND HATTIES DATES:
"Frank here and I met in 84, in McQuires camp, near the Rockies,
where pa was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; but
then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile . . ."
" . . .then Frank went off to seek his fortune . . ."
" . . . there was my Franks name among the killed. I fainted dead
away, and I was very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took
me to half the doctors in Frisco. Not a word of news came for a year and
more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really dead. Then Lord St. Simon
came to Frisco . . ."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
October 8, 1886.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
December 7, 1888.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Well, taking Lord St. Simons birth year and adding his age (also considering
the fact that its autumn and his birthday has most likely passed for that
year), the case probably takes place in 1887, with 1888 as an outside possibility
if his birthday was past mid-October. Frank and Hattie met in 1884, and over
two years have passed since that time, seeming to confirm an 1887 or 1888 date.
But then comes the matter of Frank Moultons hotel bill for October 4th,
used as note-paper for a note he slipped Hattie Doran on the day of her wedding.
As the wedding was reported the next day in a Wednesday newspaper, it plainly
occurred on a Tuesday. In 1887, October 4 occurs on a Tuesday. In 1888, on a
Thursday. As it would seem much more likely for a fellow to be carrying his
hotel bill on the same day he received it, rather than sometime the next week,
we find confirmation of 1887 as the year.
For Holmes and Watson,then, the case begins two days later, on Thursday, October
6, 1887.
"The Adventure of
the Beryl Coronet"
WATSONS CURRENT PLACE OF RESIDENCE:
"Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window . . .
STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"It was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day before
still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the wintry sun."
THE DAYS OF THE TRANSACTION:
"Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a card was
brought in . . ."
"Next Monday I have a large sum due to me . . ."
"I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely certain that I should
be able in four days to reclaim it."
"I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall call
for it in person on Monday morning."
AGES AND TIMES OF THE HOLDER FAMILY:
"He was a man of about fifty . . ."
"She is my niece; but when my brother died five years ago and left her
alone in the world I adopted her . . ."
"She is four-and-twenty."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
December 19, 1890.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
February 19, 1886.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
While my usual method is to follow Watsons dates and let marriages sort
themselves out later, "Beryl Coronet" is the first example of a situation
where Watsons marital status must be used to help determine part of the
date. We know it is February and Watson is unmarried and at Baker Street, speaking
of "our bow-window." As the tale was published in 1892, that bachelor
limitation holds us to the years 1882 thru 1887.
Within that six year span, I would conjecture that 1886 is the most likely suspect,
for one reason and one reason alone: Holders client has that large sum
of money coming due on Monday. And while Monday is a fine day for debts to come
due, I think it much more likely that the first of the month was the real day
that the debt came due. As March 1st fell on a Monday in 1886, I would then
place this cases beginning on Friday, February 26, 1886."The Adventure
of the Copper Beeches"
THE SOLE SIGNIFICANT TIME REFERENCE:
"It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after breakfast
on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at Baker Street."
REFERENCES TO CASES PAST:
"The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King of Bohemia, the
singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the problem connected with the
man with the twisted lip, and the incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters
which are outside the pale of the law."
THE ABSENCE OF MORIARTY:
"But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot blame you, for the days of the
great cases are past. Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise
and originality."
THE LIFE AND DATES OF VIOLET HUNTER:
"I have been a governess for five years in the family of Colonel Spence
Munro, but two months ago the colonel received an appointment at Halifax, in
Nova Scotia . . ."
"Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office as usual,
but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone."
"I shall go down to Hampshire quite easy in my mind now. I shall write
to Mr. Rucastle at once, sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester
to-morrow."
"For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was very quiet;
on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after breakfast and whispered something
to her husband."
"Two days later this same performance was gone through under exactly similar
circumstances."
"I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew down the
blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have not sat again in the window,
nor have I worn the blue dress, nor seen the man in the road."
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE DOG:
"On the very first day that I was at the Copper Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took
me to a small outhouse which stands near the kitchen door. As we approached
it I heard the sharp rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal
moving about."
". . .for two nights later I happened to look out of my bedroom window
about two oclock in the morning. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and
the lawn in front of the house was silvered over and almost as bright as day.
I was standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was aware that
something was moving under the shadow of the copper beeches. As it emerged into
the moonshine I saw what it was. It was a giant dog."
HOLMES RESUMES THE CASE:
"The telegram which we eventually received came late one night just as
I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down to one of those all-night
chemical researches which he frequently indulged in."
"By eleven oclock the next day we were well upon our way."
THE SEASON ASSERTS ITSELF:
"It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy
white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly,
and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a mans
energy. All over the countryside, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot,
the little red and gray roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the
light green of the new foliage."
"I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this morning,
but I must be back before three oclock, for Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle are
going on a visit, and will be away all the evening"
"Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were married, by special license, in Southampton
the day after their flight."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
April 5, 1889.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
April 7, 1890.THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Watson has saved the best test of a chronologer for last in the "Adventures"
tales. "Copper Beeches" has astoundingly little data -- no years,
months, or days of the week mentioned directly. All we get is "early spring,"
a Watson who is plainly at Baker Street (though refers to the sitting room as
"old"), and a number of cases that are in the past.
Based on that list of cases Holmes mentions, and the dates Ive already
assigned to them, SOLI must take place after 1889. The fact that Holmes is complaining
about the lack of criminal challenges means the matter pre-dates Moriarty and
Holmess 1891 war on the Professors organization. Only 1890 remains.
And while Watson was surely married at that time, his words "the old room
at Baker Street" would tend to confirm that he was just back for a lengthy
visit. Why was he visiting? The tales opening paragraphs should be enough
to answer that question. Watson was back in Baker Street making his first attempts
at writing up The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, soaking up the old, familiar
atmosphere and having full access to Holmess notes to supplement his own.
As The Sign of the Four was just published in February of 1890, it would seem
only natural for Watson to be making such an endeavor in March of 1890.
As a considerate husband, of course, Watson would not just pack up and leave
his wife if she were not already away on a visit of her own . . . a fairly long
visit, it would seem, as Watson is still at Baker Street when Miss Hunters
telegram arrives. Why would a husband and wife be apart for so long in the spring,
that time when romance is at its peak? My answer would be this:
They gave each other up for Lent.
Sacrificing that thing they loved the most for the period between Ash Wednesday
(March 5, 1890) and Easter Sunday (April 20, 1890). Considering that Watson
has already presented Holmes with four tales at the storys outset, which
is sixty pages worth in the Doubleday complete, estimating Watsons writing
speed at a solid six pages a day, factoring in the most likely days for Miss
Hunter to be checking Westaways for job openings, my conclusion is this:
COPP begins on Tuesday, March 18, 1890.
"Silver Blaze"
THE BAKER STREET SCENE
" . . . as we sat down together to our breakfast one morning."
DAYS OF OUR LIVES
"Such was the general situation last Monday night when the catastrophe
occurred."
"On Tuesday evening I received telegrams from both Colonel Ross, the owner
of the horse, and from Inspector Gregory, who is looking after the case, inviting
my cooperation."
"Tuesday evening! And this is Thursday morning. Why didnt you go
down yesterday?"
"It is obvious, therefore, that there were many people who had the strongest
interest in preventing Silver Blaze from being there at the fall of the flag
next Tuesday."
"Four days later Holmes and I were again in the train, bound for Winchester
to see the race for the Wessex Cup."
VAGUE REFERENCE TO WATSONS WORKS:
"Because I made a blunder, my dear Watson which is, I am afraid,
a more common occurrence than anyone would think who only knew me through your
memoirs."
AGE OF SILVER BLAZE
"He is now in his fifth year . . ."
THE TIMES OF RESIDENCE
"We have found traces which show that a party of gypsies encamped on Monday
night within a mile of the spot where the murder took place. On Tuesday they
were gone."
"He has twice lodged at Tavistock in the summer."
THE SEASON
"In every other direction the low curves of the moor, bronze-coloured from
the fading ferns, stretched away to the sky-line, broken only by the steeples
of Tavistock . . ."
THE HORSES OF THE MATTER
"Wessex Plate [it ran] 50 sovs. each h ft with 1000 sovs. added, for four
and five year olds. Second, L300. Third, L200. New course (one mile and five
furlongs).
"1. Mr. Heath Newtons The Negro. Red cap. Cinnamon jacket.
"2. Colonel Wardlaws Pugilist. Pink cap. Blue and black jacket.
"3. Lord Backwaters Desborough. Yellow cap and sleeves.
"4. Colonel Rosss Silver Blaze. Black cap. Red jacket.
"5. Duke of Balmorals Iris. Yellow and black stripes.
"6. Lord Singlefords Rasper. Purple cap. Black sleeves."
COLONEL ROSSS YEARS ON THE TURF:
"I have been on the turf for twenty years . . ."
JOHN STRAKERS WORK HISTORY:
"He has served the colonel for five years as jockey and for seven as trainer."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 25, 1890
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY SAYS:
July 12, 1888
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Placing the year of "Silver Blaze" is another great challenge for
the Sherlockian chronologist. It appears to take place before Watson started
marrying, but beyond that, there seems little clue. (The reference to Watsons
memoirs is easily discounted, as Holmes could have said such a thing before
Watson had written anything, basing it solely on Watsons over-positive
opinion of Holmes.) The thread I grabbed to follow through this tangled skein
was the six horses of the Wessex Plate race. As four and five year olds, we
know they were all born four to five years before the race. And as they were
born, they were also named.
Now, a horses name can be a plain thing. Silver Blaze and the Negro were
obviously named for their coloration. Pugilist was plainly called that in hopes
hed be a fighter. But what of the others? Why, for example, would Lord
Backwater name his horse "Desborough"?
Consider what we know about Backwater hes a friend of Lord Balmorals
family, as we saw in "Noble Bachelor." (Both men having horses in
this race is but one more sign of their close friendship.) Hes also something
of a romantic, as he is Lord St. Simons advisor when his bride disappears,
and has also agreed to be Sir Roberts intended host for his honeymoon.
Backwaters romantic tendencies plainly extended to his reading tastes,
for in 1884, a Scottish novelist named Annie Swan had a novel published called
"Mark Desboroughs Vow." Ms. Swan was a writer of idealized romances,
and the romantic Backwater was so enthralled by the character of Mark Desborough
that he named his horse after him.
Then we come to the Duke of Balmoral and his horse, Iris. From the data provided
by Watson in "Noble Bachelor," we know that the Duke of Balmoral was
not doing too well financially, even having to sell his pictures at some point.
He was plainly searching for any business venture that might bring him much
needed funds, and my theory is that the Duke named his horse Iris in 1884 to
impress one James Wilkes, a toolmaker who was going out on his own in London
that year and founding a company named "Wilkes Iris" to make irises
for microscopes. Business did not boom immediately for Wilkes, who even had
to turn to making cigarette lighters at some point to make ends meet, so the
Dukes interest in the company probably didnt last much longer than
the time it took to name the race horse, but name it "Iris" he did.
Taking the naming of the horses into account that places this case in the area
of 1888-1889. But where to go from there?
The fading ferns, the ear-flapped cap these are signs of autumn cold
setting in. But when in autumn? Going by Canonical example alone, The Hound
of the Baskervilles has the Dartmoor foliage fading by early October. As Watson
is so solidly married (by his own dates) in autumn 1889, this places us in fall
of 1888. And the fall of 1888 was a very busy time for Sherlock Holmes, if only
for one reason: Jack the Ripper. Striking on August 31, September 8, twice on
September 30, and then one last time on November 8, Jack was the one criminal
who could not be ignored by anyone in London.
Sherlock Holmess distraction is evident from the way he ignores summonses
from Colonel Ross and Inspector Gregory, though eventually he does go. That
last part indicates some time has passed since the September 30th murder, yet
with the still-fading foliage, November 8th (and the time after it to investigate)
has not yet come. Given such considerations, and the days Watson gives us, Id
have to say the case begins on Thursday, October 25, 1888.
"The Yellow Face"
HOLMESS CURRENT STATE:
"Few men were capable of greater muscular effort, and he was undoubtedly
one of the finest boxers of his weight that I have ever seen."
THE FRIENDSHIPS CURRENT STATE:
"For two hours we rambled about together, in silence for the most part,
as befits two men who know each other intimately. It was nearly five before
we were back in Baker Street once more."
NATURES CURRENT STATE:
"One day in early spring he had so far relaxed as to go for a walk with
me in the Park, where the first faint shoots of green were breaking out upon
the elms, and the sticky spear-heads of the chestnuts were just beginning to
burst into their fivefold leaves."
GRANT MUNROS AGE:
"I should have put him at about thirty, though he was really some years
older."
EFFIE MUNROS AGE:
"I am a married man and have been so for three years.
"She was a widow when I met her first, though quite youngonly twenty-five."
"She had only been six months at Pinner when I met her; we fell in love
with each other, and we married a few weeks afterwards."
THE TIMETABLE OF THE NEW NEIGHBOURS:
"Well, about six weeks ago she came to me."
"Well, last Monday evening I was taking a stroll down that way when I met
an empty van coming up the lane . . . it was clear that the cottage had
at last been let."
"All the rest of the night I tossed and tumbled, framing theory after theory,
each more unlikely than the last."
"I should have gone to the City that day, but I was too disturbed in my
mind to be able to pay attention to business matters . . ."
"For two days after this I stayed at home . . . . On the third day, however,
I had ample evidence that her solemn promise was not enough to hold her back
from this secret influence which drew her away from her husband and her duty.
"I had gone into town on that day . . ."
"That was yesterday, Mr. Holmes . . ."
"In that case I shall come out to-morrow and talk it over with you. But
we had not a very long time to wait for that. It came just as we had finished
our tea."
PHOTO TIME FOR THE MUNROS:
". . . a full-length photograph of my wife, which had been taken at my
request only three months ago."WHAT ZEISLER, KING OF CHRONOLOGY SAYS:
A Saturday near April 1, 1885 or 1886
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
Saturday, April 7, 1888THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
When placing this case in the years of Holmes and Watsons cohabitation,
much has been made of Watsons words, "we rambled about together,
in silence for the most part, as befits two men who know each other intimately."
But their current level of intimacy really make any difference to Sherlock Holmes,
who kept to himself on a regular basis? Watson didnt have any choice but
to become comfortable with Holmess silences very quickly, so I dont
think that line can fairly be used as a solid criteria for dating the tale.
Much more important, in my mind, is the reference to Holmess incredible
strength and boxing ability. According to A Study in Scarlet, Watson learned
of Holmess boxing abilities before he knew of Holmess line of work.
As boxing was one of the few points of social contact Holmes engaged in during
college, its not surprising that he and Watson made contact on that point
early on. We know Holmes was boxing actively four years before The Sign of the
Four, but past that, there is little evidence of it.
Going by Holmess physical condition, and Watsons comments on it,
I would have to date this case as early as possible, before the drug experimentation,
before the cases that would cause him to collapse utterly. In 1883, at the time
of SPEC, we know Holmess strength was poker-bendingly healthy, and that
surely held out until 1884. Why 1884?
Starting with the day Grant Munros neighbors moved in, a Monday, it is
easy to count the days in this story and find that Munro called upon Holmes
on a Saturday. Which Saturday?
Well, theres that photo that Grant asked his wife to have taken of her
"three months before." And when would a man be asking his wife for
a photograph? Christmas naturally suggests itself, and that would be the time
Munro would think of as when his wife had it taken, regardless of when the actual
photo session was. And three months later puts us right in that time when those
green shoots are appearing on the trees: Saturday, March 29, 1884.
(Why 1884, and not 1883? Because in 1883 three months after Christmas would
put this case at the same time as "Speckled Band" was set at in an
earlier Chronology Corner.)
"The Stockbrokers
Clerk"
THE STATE OF WATSONS CAREER AND MARRIAGE:
"Shortly after my marriage I had bought a connection in the Paddington
district."
"I had confidence, however, in my own youth and energy and was convinced
that in a very few years the concern would be as flourishing as ever."
"For three months after taking over the practice I was kept very closely
at work and saw little of my friend Sherlock Holmes, for I was too busy to visit
Baker Street, and he seldom went anywhere himself save upon professional business."
STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"I was surprised, therefore, when, one morning in June, as I sat reading
the British Medical Journal after breakfast, I heard a ring at the bell, followed
by the high, somewhat strident tones of my old companions voice."
"You had, then, been sitting with your feet outstretched to the fire, which
a man would hardly do even in so wet a June as this if he were in his full health."
SIGNIFICANT REFERENCE TO A PRIOR CASE:
"I trust that Mrs. Watson has entirely recovered from all the little excitements
connected with our adventure of the Sign of Four."
STATEMENT OF THE SEASON
AND WATSONS HEALTH:
"Summer colds are always a little trying."
"I was confined to the house by a severe chill for three days last week."
THE TIMELINE OF HALL PYCROFTS CAREER:
"I used to have a billet at Coxon & Woodhouses, of Draper Gardens,
but they were let in early in the spring through the Venezuelan loan, as no
doubt you remember, and came a nasty cropper. I have been with them five years,
and old Coxon gave me a ripping good testimonial when the smash came, but of
course we clerks were all turned adrift, the twenty-seven of us. I tried here
and tried there, but there were lots of other chaps on the same lay as myself,
and it was a perfect frost for a long time. I had been taking three pounds a
week at Coxons, and I had saved about seventy of them, but I soon worked
my way through that and out at the other end. I was fairly at the end of my
tether at last, and could hardly find the stamps to answer the advertisements
or the envelopes to stick them to. I had worn out my boots paddling up office
stairs, and I seemed just as far from getting a billet as ever."
THE DAYS OF PYCROFTS NEW JOB(S):
"At last I saw a vacancy at Mawson & Williamss . . .I sent in
my testimonial and application, but without the least hope of getting it. Back
came an answer by return, saying that if I would appear next Monday I might
take over my new duties at once, provided that my appearance was satisfactory."
"When do you go to Mawsons?"
"On Monday."
"Be in Birmingham to-morrow at one."
"Stick at it, and let me have the lists by Monday, at twelve."
"All Sunday I was kept hard at work, and yet by Monday I had only got as
far as H. I went round to my employer . . . and was told to keep at it until
Wednesday, and then come again. On Wednesday it was still unfinished, so I hammered
away until Friday that is, yesterday."
"And you can come up to-morrow evening at seven and let me know how you
are getting on. Dont overwork yourself. A couple of hours at Days
Music Hall in the evening would do you no harm after your labours."
HOLMES AND WATSON ENTER THE TIMELINE:
"At seven oclock that evening we were walking, the three of us, down
Corporation Street to the companys offices."
THE CURRENT DAY RECONFIRMED:
"It is customary at Mawsons for the clerks to leave at midday on
Saturday."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
June 15, 1889
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
June 15, 1889
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Trusting Dr. Watsons narrative, we can pull two undisputable references
from "Stockbrokers Clerk": that it was June, and it was a Saturday.
Beyond those, the next most important chronological details would seem to be
these three: (1) the case occurs after The Sign of the Four, (2) the three month
duration of Watsons marriage, and (3) the fact Watson hasnt seen
Holmes at all in that time, as he builds his practice.
Taking those last three details into account, and simply looking at the dates
which the Smash has already assigned to the cases weve looked at thus
far, the starting date of STOC is fairly plain: Saturday, June 1, 1889.
(Once more Im taking Holmes and Watsons weather reporting as a somewhat
subjective phenomenon, and allowing that a man can reasonable say "so wet
a June as this" at any given time during the month, even the very first
day.)
"The Gloria
Scott"
SEASON OF THE TELLING:
"I have some papers here," said my friend Sherlock Holmes as we sat
one winters night on either side of the fire."
"I had often endeavoured to elicit from my companion what had first turned
his mind in the direction of criminal research, but had never caught him before
in a communicative humour."
"Those are the facts of the case, Doctor, and if they are of any use to
your collection, I am sure that they are very heartily at your service."
POINT IN HOLMESS CAREER:
"But why did you say just now that there were very particular reasons why
I should study this case?"
"Because it was the first in which I was ever engaged."
POINT IN HOLMESS EDUCATION:
"You never heard me talk of Victor Trevor? He was the only friend I made
during the two years I was at college . . . and that only through the accident
of his bull terrier freezing on to my ankle one morning as I went down to chapel.
"I was laid by the heels for ten days."
"Before the end of the term we were close friends."
"Finally he invited me down to his fathers place at Donnithorpe,
in Norfolk, and I accepted his hospitality for a month of the long vacation."
SPORTING OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE:
"There was excellent wild-duck shooting in the fens, remarkably good fishing
. . ."
HOLMESS DEPARTURE FROM DONNITHORPE:
"At last I became so convinced that I was causing him uneasiness that I
drew my visit to a close."
"All this occurred during the first month of the long vacation. I went
up to my London rooms, where I spent seven weeks working out a few experiments
in organic chemistry. One day, however, when the autumn was far advanced and
the vacation drawing to a close, I received a telegram from my friend imploring
me to return to Donnithorpe . . ."
"He met me with the dog-cart at the station, and I saw at a glance that
the last two months had been very trying ones for him.
THE DATING OF THE GLORIA SCOTT:
"Some particulars of the voyage of the bark Gloria Scott, from her leaving
Falmouth on the 8th October, 1855, to her destruction in N. Lat. 15 degrees
20, W. Long. 25 degrees 14, on Nov. 6th."
"It was the year 55, when the Crimean War was at its height, and
the old convict ships had been largely used as transports in the Black Sea."
YEARS PAST SINCE THE SHIPS DESTRUCTION:
"Why, its thirty year and more since I saw you last."
"The case might have been dealt leniently with, but the laws were more
harshly administered thirty years ago than now, and on my twenty-third birthday
I found myself chained as a felon with thirty-seven other convicts in the tween-decks
of the bark Gloria Scott, bound for Australia."
"We prospered, we travelled, we came back as rich colonials to England,
and we bought country estates. For more than twenty years we have led peaceful
and useful lives, and we hoped that our past was forever buried."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
July 12, 1874.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
Summer 1876.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Heres a fascinating little problem. Trevor distinctly dates the destruction
of the Gloria Scott on November 6, 1855. He backs up the general period with
the statement that the Crimean War was at its height, which it was in 1855.
Yet both he and Hudson refer to that experience as being thirty years ago, which
means this case would occur in 1885 . . . while Holmes and Watson were together.
Previous chronologers have dismissed the thirty years as a mutual mistake on
the parts of Hudson and Trevor, but what about young Trevor, the physical evidence
of those twenty peaceful years in England? The elder Trevor needed more than
a few years to find fortune, travel, and eventually feel changed enough to head
back to England as a colonial. He thought his past was well behind him, and
that means his wife and son were certainly additions to his life after the return
to England.
But what if the "thirty years" was not a mistake, but a simple rounding
up of a number like twenty-seven or twenty-eight? Sound reasonable enough. In
fact, any comparison between the 1850s and the 1880s would seem a bit like three
decades, wouldnt it? Of course, that would make Sherlock Holmes a college
student when he first met Dr. Watson . . . but what was it Watson wrote in A
Study in Scarlet?
"There was only one student in the room . . ."
Holmes speaks of coming back to his London rooms from Donnithorpe, most probably
his Montague Street rooms (which well later learn he had when he "first
came up to London"), where he works on organic chemistry, much as he was
doing when Watson first met him. Back when we were discussing A Study in Scarlet,
I became convinced that Holmes and Watson first met in the summer of 1881. Would
it be so impossible, then, that Holmess vacation in Donnithorpe took place
in the summer of 1880?
Since Holmess trip to Donnithorpe begins with the traditional English
university long vacation, Im going to place both the trip and this case
on Saturday, July 3, 1880.
"The Musgrave Ritual"
TIME PASSES ON BAKER STREET:
"It was only once in every year or two that he would muster energy to docket
and arrange them." "Month after month his papers accumulated until
every corner of the room was stacked with bundles of manuscript which were on
no account to be burned, and which could not be put away save by their owner."
SEASON OF THE TELLING:
"I have some papers here," said my friend Sherlock Holmes as we sat
together by the fire, I ventured to suggest to him that, as he had finished
pasting extracts into his commonplace book, he might employ the next two hours
in making our room a little more habitable."
THE STORYS PLACE IN HOLMESS BOX OF CASES: "Heres the
record of the Tarleton murders, and the case of Vamberry, the wine merchant,
and the adventure of the old Russian woman, and the singular affair of the aluminum
crutch, as well as a full account of Ricoletti of the club-foot, and his abominable
wife. And hereah, now, this really is something a little recherche."
"He dived his arm down to the bottom of the chest . . ."
REFERENCES TO OTHER CASES:
"You may remember how the affair of the Gloria Scott, and my conversation
with the unhappy man whose fate I told you of, first turned my attention in
the direction of the profession which has become my lifes work."
"Even when you knew me first, at the time of the affair which you have
commemorated in A Study in Scarlet, I had already established a
considerable, though not a very lucrative, connection."
HOLMESS RESIDENCE AT THE TIME OF THE CASE: "When I first came up
to London I had rooms in Montague Street, just round the corner from the British
Museum . . ."
THE SOURCE OF THE CASE:
"Now and again cases came in my way, principally through the introduction
of old fellow-students, for during my last years at the university there was
a good deal of talk there about myself and my methods. The third of these cases
was that of the Musgrave Ritual . . ."
LENGTH OF TIME SINCE HOLMES SAW MUSGRAVE: "For four years I had seen nothing
of him until one morning he walked into my room in Montague Street."
TIME SINCE MUSGRAVES FATHER DIED:
"He was carried off about two years ago."
THE MONTHS OF BRUNTONS LOVE LIFE:
"A few months ago we were in hopes that he was about to settle down again,
for he became engaged to Rachel Howells, our second housemaid; but he has thrown
her over since then and taken up with Janet Tregellis . . ."
THE SOMETIMES-SUPPRESSED COUPLET:
"What was the month?"
"Sixth from the first."
THE DAY MUSGRAVE CATCHES BRUNTON:
"One day last weekon Thursday night, to be more exact."
BRUNTONS PLEA FOR TIME:
"Only a week, sir? A fortnightsay at least a fortnight!"
THE DAYS AFTER MUSGRAVE CAUGHT BRUNTON:
"For two days after this Brunton was most assiduous in his attention to
his duties. I made no allusion to what had passed and waited with some curiosity
to see how he would cover his disgrace. On the third morning, however, he did
not appear . . ."
DAYS AFTER BRUNTONS DISAPPEARANCE
THAT RACHEL DISAPPEARS:
"For two days Rachel Howells had been so ill, sometimes delirious, sometimes
hysterical, that a nurse had been employed to sit up with her at night. On the
third night after Bruntons disappearance, the nurse, finding her patient
sleeping nicely, had dropped into a nap . . ."
DAYS AFTER RACHELS DISAPPEARANCE
BEFORE HOLMES CALLED IN:
"Although we made every possible search and inquiry yesterday, we know
nothing of the fate either of Rachel Howells or of Richard Brunton."
HOLMES GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS:
"The same afternoon saw us both at Hurlstone."
ORIGINS OF HURLSTONE:
"Over the low, heavy-lintelled door, in the centre of this old part, is
chiselled the date, 1607, but experts are agreed that the beams and stonework
are really much older than this."
AGE OF THE OAK:
"It was there at the Norman Conquest in all probability."
TIME WITHOUT AN ELM:
"It was struck by lightning ten years ago."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
October 2, 1879.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS: October 2, 1879.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
This pretty little puzzle was handled with such impressive mathematical and
cosmological skill by Ernest Bloomfield Zeisler that even Baring-Gould bowed
to his mastery in The Annotated Sherlock Holmes. But the Smash must follow a
different path, as always, and this time that path leads all the way back to
Charles the First.
"What was the month?" asks the ancient ritual, in a passage mysteriously
suppressed in many editions. The answer: "Sixth from the first." And
while others might debate what exactly was the first month on the calendar back
in 1649 A.D., my preferred thought is that "the first" refers to the
man whom this whole ritual revolves around: Charles the First. While some might
argue that he wasnt called "Charles the First" immediately following
his death, the passage merely refers to "the first," and, indeed,
Charles was first in the minds of his followers, and as Holmes says, the advent
of Charles II was already foreseen. Charles the First died on January 30, 1649.
Six months later would have been June 30.
After dating "The Gloria Scott" in July of 1880 and discussed Holmes
meeting Watson in the summer of 1881 back when A Study in Scarlet was the topic,
it seems that Im going to have to go with June of 1881 for this cases
placement. Brunton begs for "at least a fortnight" more on the job,
presumably to finish his treasure hunt a treasure hunt that needs to
be performed on as close to January 28th as possible. A fortnight (fourteen
days) before that is June 16th, a Thursday. (How perfect is that? Brunton was
discovered on a Thursday.) Counting the days in Musgraves narrative, it
then follows that Holmes took up the case on Thursday, June 23, 1881
just in time to recreate the ritual on his own.
"The Reigate Squires"
A YEAR, A MONTH, AND A DAY
"It was some time before the health of my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes recovered
from the strain caused by his immense exertions in the spring of 87."
"On referring to my notes I see that it was upon the fourteenth of April
that I received a telegram from Lyons which informed me that Holmes was lying
ill in the Hotel Dulong. Within twenty-four hours I was in his sick-room and
was relieved to find that there was nothing formidable in his symptoms. Even
his iron constitution, however, had broken down under the strain of an investigation
which had extended over two months, during which period he had never worked
less than fifteen hours a day and had more than once, as he assured me, kept
to his task for five days at a stretch."
BACK TO BAKER STREET, OFF TO REIGATE
"Three days later we were back in Baker Street together . . . a week after
our return from Lyons we were under the colonels roof."
THE DAY OF THE BURGLARY
"Old Acton, who is one of our county magnates, had his house broken into
last Monday."
CUNNINGHAM CORRECTS HOLMESS BOGUS NOTE
"You see you begin, Whereas, at about a quarter to one on Tuesday
morning an attempt was made, and so on. It was at a quarter to twelve,
as a matter of fact."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
April 14, 1887.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
April 25, 1887.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Watson begins the sequence of events leading to "Reigate Squires"
with an exact date that Canonical chronologists do not dispute in the least:
Thursday, April 14, 1887. Watson made it to Holmess bedside by the 15th,
they were back in Baker Street by the 18th, and in Reigate a week later, on
Monday the 25th, a week after old Actons house was burgled. That night
at 11:45 William Kirwan is killed, which Holmes purposefully mis-writes as 12:45
Tuesday morning.
The only question is when does one consider that the case actually started?
When we first hear of Holmes on the 14th? Upon hearing of the Acton burglary
on the 25th? Or when Holmes actually gets involved on the 26th? Personally,
Ill take Tuesday, April 26, 1887.
"The Crooked Man"
STATE OF WATSONS MARRIAGE AND CAREER:
"One summer night, a few months after my marriage, I was seated by my own
hearth smoking a last pipe and nodding over a novel, for my days work
had been an exhausting one. My wife had already gone upstairs, and the sound
of the locking of the hall door some time before told me that the servants had
also retired."
TIME OF HOLMESS VISIT:
"It was a quarter to twelve."
SIGNIFICANT OBSERVATITIONS FROM HOLMES:
"You still smoke the Arcadia mixture of your bachelor days, then! Theres
no mistaking that fluffy ash upon your coat. Its easy to tell that you
have been accustomed to wear a uniform, Watson."
WATSONS CURRENT SUBSTITUTE:
"I have no doubt Jackson would take my practice."
DURATION OF THE BARCLAY MARRIAGE:
"I may add that she was a woman of great beauty, and that even now, when
she has been married for upward of thirty years, she is still of a striking
and queenly appearance."
DURATION OF BARCLAYS COMMISSION:
"It was commanded up to Monday night by James Barclay, a gallant veteran,
who started as a full private, was raised to commissioned rank for his bravery
at the time of the Mutiny."
DURATION OF BARCLAYS RESIDENCE:
"The first battalion of the Royal Munsters (which is the old One Hundred
and Seventeenth) has been stationed at Aldershot for some years. The married
officers live out of barracks, and the colonel has during all this time occupied
a villa called Lachine, about half a mile from the north camp."
THE DAY OF THE CRIME:
"Now for the events at Lachine between nine and ten on the evening of last
Monday."
THE DAY OF THE INVESTIGATION:
"That was the state of things, Watson, when upon the Tuesday morning I,
at the request of Major Murphy, went down to Aldershot to supplement the efforts
of the police."
DURATION OF WOODS SUPPOSED DEATH:
"I thought you had been dead this thirty years, Henry."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 11, 1889.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
June 26, 1889.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
With the Sepoy Mutiny beginning in 1857, and Mrs. Barclays clear statement
that she thought Henry Wood had been dead for thirty years (and she had better
reason to remember than anyone), the logical year for this case would be 1887.
(Holmess statement of "upward of thirty years" has to be taken
as an estimation hes good, but he doesnt track wedding anniversaries.)
Beyond that, one must look to the details of Watsons married life, and,
as always, thats where it gets tricky.
While other chronologers have gone with 1889, Anstruther seemed to be Watsons
fill-in doctor that particular summer, as we have seen in "The Boscombe
Valley Mystery," and Watson is using Jackson in this case. Holmess
reference to Watsons military career and bachelor days also mark this
as a tale from earlier times, when Watson had only been married for the first
time and was still not so long out of uniform. His wife then, was that Mrs.
Watson from "Five Orange Pips" who went on a visit to her mothers
and never seems to have returned. Watson is more easily tired in those early
days, still showing the effects of the war. Looking at the above details, 1887
still seems a likely choice for the year. As for the day within that year?
Well, a few months have passed since Watsons marriage, a marriage that
had obviously not taken place at the time of "Reigate Squires" in
the last part of April. Watsons attentions seem totally unencumbered by
romance as he takes Holmes to the country in that tale, so I would even go so
far as to say that he had yet to meet his future wife (or at least had yet to
start dating her).
Its also not long before Mrs. Watson runs off to her mothers, Id
wager, as Watson is exhausted yet still not headed for the bedroom at nearly
midnight. Definitely sounds like trouble in paradise. The "long series
of cases" dealt with by Holmes and Watson in 1887 probably didnt
help matters any, and Holmess sudden appearance that Wednesday morning
at breakfast may have been the last straw, sending the current Mrs. Watson packing
for mothers house.
Given all of the above, Id place this case on Tuesday, August 30, 1887.
"The Resident Patient"
STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"It had been a close, rainy day in October."
CURRENT STATE OF LONDON:
"The paper was uninteresting. Parliament had risen. Everybody was out of
town, and I yearned for the glades of the New Forest or the shingle of Southsea."
A depleted bank account had caused me to postpone my holiday."
CURRENT STATE OF WATSONS CAREER:
"You are yourself, I presume, a medical man?"
"A retired army surgeon."
THE START OF TREVELYANS PRACTICE:
"I wont weary you with the account of how we bargained and negotiated.
It ended in my moving into the house next Lady Day, and starting in practice
on very much the same conditions as he had suggested."
"A few good cases and the reputation which I had won in the hospital brought
me rapidly to the front, and during the last few years I have made him a rich
man."
"Some weeks ago Mr. Blessington came down to me in, as it seemed to me,
a state of considerable agitation. He spoke of some burglary which, he said,
had been committed in the West End . . . For a week he continued to be in a
peculiar state of restlessness . . . ."
"Two days ago I received the letter which I now read to you."
"He proposes to call at about a quarter-past six to-morrow evening . .
."
"You can imagine my amazement when, at the very same hour this evening,
they both came marching into my consulting-room . . ."
THE YEAR OF THE ORIGINAL CRIME:
"This was in 1875. They were all five arrested, but the evidence against
them was by no means conclusive. This Blessington or Sutton, who was the worst
of the gang, turned informer. On his evidence Cartwright was hanged and the
other three got fifteen years apiece. When they got out the other day, which
was some years before their full term, they set themselves, as you perceive,
to hunt down the traitor and to avenge the death of their comrade upon him."
DISTANCE OF WATSONS WRITING FROM THE CASE:
"From that night nothing has been seen of the three murderers by the police,
and it is surmised at Scotland Yard that they were among the passengers of the
ill-fated steamer Norah Creina, which was lost some years ago with all hands
upon the Portuguese coast, some leagues to the north of Oporto."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
October 6, 1886.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
October 29, 1887.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Its October. Its before 1890. Watson is seriously depressed, in
that way that only a man who has been without female companionship for some
time can be depressed. The year 1887 seems full of female contact for Watson,
if past Chronology Corners are to be believed, and Watsons feelings of
being cooped up in the sitting room sound a lot like the early Watson of Baker
Street, still nursing his post-war health. Given the fact that they wouldnt
have let the Worthingdon bank gang out of prison *too* early, Ill have
to place this case in 1886.
As to the day in 1886, the heat seems to indicate earlier in the month, the
kaliedescope of evening activity on the Strand seems to say Saturday night.
Based entirely on those thoughts and a touch of male intuition, Im going
to call this one taking place on Saturday, October 2, 1886.
"The Greek Interpreter"
TIME HOLMES AND WATSON HAVE BEEN FRIENDS:
"During my long and intimate acquaintance with Mr. Sherlock Holmes I had
never
heard him refer to his relations, and hardly ever to his own early life."
THE SEASON OF THE CASE:
"It was after tea on a summer evening . . ."
A SIGNIFICANT ORBITAL COMMENT:
"The conversation, which had roamed in a desultory, spasmodic fashion from
golf clubs to the causes of the change in the obliquity of the ecliptic . .
."
THE NIGHT OF THE CASE:
"This is Wednesday evening," said Mr. Melas. "Well, then, it
was Monday
night only two days ago, you understand that all this happened."
THE RESIDENTS OF 221B:
"We had reached our house in Baker Street . . ."
AND A MUCH LATER EVENT:
"Months afterwards a curious newspaper cutting reached us from Buda-Pesth."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 12, 1888.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
August 15, 1888.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
The obliquity of the ecliptic isnt something that comes up every day in
casual conversation. In fact, it really is only particularly pertinent on two
days of the year: the summer solstice and the winter solstice, the high and
low points of the Earths cock-eyed spin around the sun. Well, we know
its summer. We know that summer solstice usually occurs on June 21. And
we know its Wednesday. The only pre-Reichenbach date on which the summer
solstice occurs on a Wednesday is in 1882 far too early for Holmes and
Watson to have had a "long and intimate acquaintance."
The years 1887 and 1888 are somewhat likely candidates, as Wednesday falls the
day after and the day before summer solstice, respectively, in those years.
But Holmes, being a forward-thinking individual, was most likely anticipating
the solstice that would occur in the early morning hours of the next day. Therefore,
Im calling this one as beginning on Wednesday, June 20, 1888.
"The Naval Treaty"
THE MARRIAGE CONNECTION:
"The July which immediately succeeded my marriage was made memorable by
three cases of interest, in which I had the privilege of being associated with
Sherlock Holmes and of studying his methods. I find them recorded in my notes
under the headings of The Adventure of the Second Stain, The
Adventure of the Naval Treaty, and The Adventure of the Tired Captain."
THE TIME FOR TELLING SECOND STAIN:
"The new century will have come, however, before the story can be safely
told."
THE DATE OF THE TREATY PASSING:
"Nearly ten weeks agoto be more accurate, on the twenty-third of
May he called me into his private room, and, after complimenting me on
the good work which I had done, he informed me that he had a new commission
of trust for me to execute."
DURATION OF THE BRAIN FEVER:
"Here I have lain, Mr. Holmes, for over nine weeks, unconscious, and raving
with brain-fever."
WATSONS POINT IN GETTING TO KNOW HOLMES:
"I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects."
THE SLOW SEASON FOR THE MEDICAL BUSINESS:
"I was going to say that my practice could get along very well for a day
or two, since it is the slackest time in the year."
COUNTING HOLMESS CASES:
"On the contrary," said Holmes, "out of my last fifty-three cases
my name has only appeared in four, and the police have had all the credit in
forty-nine."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
July 30, 1889.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
July 29, 1889.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
While the time of year in "The Naval Treaty" seems abundantly clear
from Percy Phelpss tale, again we come to a case where the dating of Watsons
marriage would seem to be necessary to pinpointing the year. Of course, with
evidence in other cases of a Watson marriage in both 1887 and 1889, choices
still have to be made. As Holmes has but fifty-three cases on his books in which
he worked with the police at this point, I have to take the earlier choice on
this one.
Given the facts that Watson said this case took place in July, that the last
day of July 1887 is exactly ten weeks past the theft of the treaty (which took
place "nearly ten weeks ago," and that the case seems to take three
days, Id have to put the start of this case at Friday, July 29, 1887.
"The Final Problem"
THE DATES OF THE NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS:
"As far as I know, there have been only three accounts in the public press:
that in the Journal de Geneve on May 6th, 1891, the Reuters dispatch in
the English papers on May 7th, and finally the recent letters to which I have
alluded."
THE MARRIAGE, 1890, AND THE DATE OF THE CASE:
"It may be remembered that after my marriage, and my subsequent start in
private practice, the very intimate relations which had existed between Holmes
and myself became to some extent modified. He still came to me from time to
time when he desired a companion in his investigations, but these occasions
grew more and more seldom, until I find that in the year 1890 there were only
three cases of which I retain any record. During the winter of that year and
the early spring of 1891, I saw in the papers that he had been engaged by the
French government upon a matter of supreme importance, and I received two notes
from Holmes, dated from Narbonne and from Nimes, from which I gathered that
his stay in France was likely to be a long one. It was with some surprise, therefore,
that I saw him walk into my consulting-room upon the evening of April 24th."
THE MORIARTY CAMPAIGN:
"You crossed my path on the fourth of January, said he. On
the twenty-third you incommoded me; by the middle of February I was seriously
inconvenienced by you; at the end of March I was absolutely hampered in my plans;
and now, at the close of April, I find myself placed in such a position through
your continual persecution that I am in positive danger of losing my liberty."
THE TIMETABLE FOR ENDING MORIARTYS REIGN:
"This morning the last steps were taken, and three days only were wanted
to complete the business."
"You must drop it, Mr. Holmes, said he, swaying his face about.
You really must, you know.
"After Monday, said I."
THE EUROPEAN TOUR DATES:
"We made our way to Brussels that night and spent two days there, moving
on upon the third day as far as Strasbourg. On the Monday morning Holmes had
telegraphed to the London police . . ."
"For a charming week we wandered up the valley of the Rhone, and then,
branching off at Leuk, we made our way over the Gemmi Pass, still deep in snow,
and so, by way of Interlaken, to Meiringen."
"It was on the third of May that we reached the little village of Meiringen
... on the afternoon of the fourth we set off together, with the intention of
crossing the hills and spending the night at the hamlet of Rosenlaui. We had
strict injunctions, however, on no account to pass the falls of Reichenbach
. . ."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
April 24, 1891.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
April 24, 1891.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Some things you just cant argue with. Gravity. Semi-trucks. The dating
of "The Final Problem." The only fellow ever to try it was named J.
Christ (J. Finley Christ, to be specific, but you can see why he might have
tried to pull off a miracle of chronology). Me, Im going with Watsons
clear and accurate dates. This one starts on Friday, April 24, 1891.
"The Adventure of
the Empty House"
STATEMENT OF THE YEAR:
"It was in the spring of the year 1894 that all London was interested,
and the fashionable world dismayed, by the murder of the Honourable Ronald Adair
under most unusual and inexplicable circumstances."
THE TIME OF THE WRITING:
"Only now, at the end of nearly ten years, am I allowed to supply those
missing links which make up the whole of that remarkable chain."
"... had I not been barred by a positive prohibition from his own lips,
which was only withdrawn upon the third of last month."
TIME AND DATE OF THE MURDER:
"Yet it was upon this easy-going young aristocrat that death came, in most
strange and unexpected form, between the hours of ten and eleven-twenty on the
night of March 30, 1894."
WATSON TAKES A HAND:
"All day I turned these facts over in my mind . . . . In the evening I
strolled across the Park, and found myself about six oclock at the Oxford
Street end of Park Lane."
HOLMESS SPEEDY RETURN:
"I spent some months in a research into the coal-tar derivatives, which
I conducted in a laboratory at Montpellier, in the south of France. Having concluded
this to my satisfaction and learning that only one of my enemies was now left
in London, I was about to return when my movements were hastened by the news
of this very remarkable Park Lane Mystery, which not only appealed to me by
its own merits, but which seemed to offer some most peculiar personal opportunities.
I came over at once to London."
"The credit of the execution is due to Monsieur Oscar Meunier, of Grenoble,
who spent some days in doing the moulding. It is a bust in wax. The rest I arranged
myself during my visit to Baker Street this afternoon."
THE MONTH OF HOLMESS REAPPEARANCE:
"Such was the remarkable narrative to which I listened on that April evening
. . ."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
April 5, 1894.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
April 3, 1894.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
With such a clear date for the murder that came to be known as the "Park
Lane Mystery," finding the beginning of this case seems to hinge on just
how quickly Holmes could have found out about the murder and returned to England.
As Holmes was planning his return to London, anyway, its entirely possible
he was in Grenoble picking up the wax bust when word came of the air-gun murder.
There was also probably not delay in his receipt of the news, as brother Mycroft
had been surely keeping an eye on possible air-gun deaths.
Holmess progress from London to Switzerland in "The Final Problem"
gives us a good yardstick with which to measure a trip back from Grenoble. A
day from London to Brussels. A day from Brussels to Strasbourg. Another day
could have surely gotten Holmes to Grenoble. The return trip would have therefore
been a maximum of three days, and that was certainly a leisurely rate. A travelling
Holmes intent on his destination could have made much better time, Im
sure.
The other factor to consider in this matter is the fact that Watson and the
street loafers are still interested in the Park Lane Mystery on the day Holmes
arrives back in London. The murder occurred on Friday, March 30. Mycroft could
have telegraphed Holmes on Saturday, March 31. Even if Holmes was already in
travel mode and in Grenoble, he probably couldnt have begun the trip until
late in the day. Travelling on Sunday and Monday, a Tuesday afternoon arrival
seems not at all unlikely, and still within the range of days when Watson might
still be following the case. That said, Im going to have to go with Tuesday,
April 3, 1894.
"The Adventure of
the Norwood Builder"
THE MORIARTY REFERENCE POINT:
"London has become a singularly uninteresting city since the death of the
late lamented Professor Moriarty."
TIME SINCE "EMPTY HOUSE":
"At the time of which I speak, Holmes had been back for some months, and
I at his request had sold my practice and returned to share the old quarters
in Baker Street."
THE STATE OF THE PARTNERSHIP:
"Our months of partnership had not been so uneventful as he had stated,
for I find, on looking over my notes, that this period includes the case of
the papers of ex-President Murillo, and also the shocking affair of the Dutch
steamship Friesland, which so nearly cost us both our lives. His cold and proud
nature was always averse, however, from anything in the shape of public applause,
and he bound me in the most stringent terms to say no further word of himself,
his methods, or his successesa prohibition which, as I have explained,
has only now been removed."
MCFARLANE AT HIS OFFICE:
"I was very much surprised, therefore, when yesterday, about three oclock
in the afternoon, he walked into my office in the city."
HOLMESS STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"I crawled about the lawn with an August sun on my back, but I got up at
the end of an hour no wiser than before."
THOSE JIBES AT WATSON:
"I fear that the Norwood Disappearance Case will not figure in that chronicle
of our successes which I foresee that a patient public will sooner or later
have to endure."
"Perhaps I shall get the credit also at some distant day, when I permit
my zealous historian to lay out his foolscap once more eh, Watson?"
"If ever you write an account, Watson, you can make rabbits serve your
turn."WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
August 20, 1895.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
July 2, 1894.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Its August and it is "some months" after Holmess return
in April of 1894. Since well later learn that 1894 was a very busy year
for the Holmes-Watson partnership, it seems unlikely that Watson would have
selected anything but an 1894 case to talk about his return to 221B, so we can
surely take his "some months" to mean months, and not a year or more
as some chronologists have theorized. But what day in August of 1894?
Well, theres an interesting little thing going on behind the scenes in
this tale, hinted at by Holmess multiple references to Watsons writings.
In the month that would follow, September 1894, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
would have its second edition published in America . . . an edition that suddenly
wouldnt have "The Cardboard Box" in it any more. (Oddly enough,
"Cardboard Box" took place in August, too.) Whatever debate it was
that caused that story to be pulled from the American edition was undoubtedly
what had Holmes thinking of Watsons writings anew, and with a negative
outlook at that. It may have been the remaining Cushing sister who finally showed
up at 221B to express her outrage at the tales publication, or it might
have been some other scandalized reader, but either way Holmes probably didnt
wind up on the good side of the encounter. And hes still smarting at the
time of "Norwood Builder."
Giving Watson as much time as possible to deal with his American publishers
after the anti-"Cardboard" event that set Holmes off, Id have
to date this case as early in August as possible: Wednesday, August 1, 1894.
"The Adventure of
the Dancing Men"
WHAT HAPPENED THE YEAR BEFORE:
"Last year I came up to London for the Jubilee . . ."
THE HASTY WEDDING:
"In some way we became friends, until before my month was up I was as much
in love as man could be. We were quietly married at a registry office, and we
returned to Norfolk a wedded couple."
THE MONTH, AND DURATON OF THE MARRIAGE:
"Well, we have been married now for a year, and very happy we have been.
But about a month ago, at the end of June, I saw for the first time signs of
trouble."
THE DANCING MEN COMETH:
"About a week ago it was the Tuesday of last weekI found on
one of the window-sills a number of absurd little dancing figures like these
upon the paper."
"None did come for a week, and then yesterday morning I found this paper
lying on the sundial in the garden."
"When I got back after my visit to you, the very first thing I saw next
morning was a fresh crop of dancing men."
"Two mornings later, a fresh inscription had appeared."
TIME BETWEEN CUBITT VISITS:
"The interview left Sherlock Holmes very thoughtful, and several times
in the next few days I saw him take his slip of paper from his notebook and
look long and earnestly at the curious figures inscribed upon it. He made no
allusion to the affair, however, until one afternoon a fortnight or so later.
I was going out when he called me back."
TIME BETWEEN MESSAGES:
"But there was a delay in that answering telegram, and two days of impatience
followed, during which Holmes pricked up his ears at every ring of the bell.
On the evening of the second there came a letter from Hilton Cubitt."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
July 27, 1898.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
July 27, 1898.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
As the matching dates of Zeisler and the B-G Annotated might infer, the paths
of "Dancing Men" chronology are well trod along common paths. The
year is determined by adding one to the year of the Jubilee. (The Diamond Jubilee
in 1897 is the usual choice, as Watson seems so very married the year following
the Golden Jubilee in 1887 also, the "Return" cases would have
to be post-hiatus for Watson to title them so, wouldnt they?) The month
is found in "a month ago, at the end of June," and the day in "about
a week agoit was the Tuesday of last week."
To me, the phrase "about a week ago" or "about a month ago"
would tend to mean "almost a week ago" or "almost a month ago,"
or else Hilton Cubitt would use the phrase "more than a week ago,"
"a little over a month ago," or something along those lines. Other
chronologists would dispute such logic, claiming that "almost" Tuesday
cant be Monday because Watson played billiards the night before at his
club.
For people who cant say exactly which club Watson belonged to, however,
or what his position in said club might have been, the lack of billiard availability
on a Sunday night seems a bit of a stretch. Even if English law forbade open
clubs or billiards on Sunday night, we still cant say for certain that
Watson and Thurston didnt sneak into their club for a private game. Thus,
Im going to have to go with Monday for "almost Tuesday."
The last one in July of 1898 is nearly a week ahead of month-end, making it
a good candidate for "about a month ago" following the same logic,
so Im going with Monday, July 25, 1898.
"The Adventure of
the Solitary Cyclist"
THE BUSY EIGHT YEARS:
"From the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive, Mr. Sherlock Holmes was a very
busy man. It is safe to say that there was no public case of any difficulty
in which he was not consulted during those eight years, and there were hundreds
of private cases, some of them of the most intricate and extraordinary character,
in which he played a prominent part."
THE STATEMENT OF THE DATE:
"On referring to my notebook for the year 1895, I find that it was upon
Saturday, the 23d of April, that we first heard of Miss Violet Smith."
THE CASE JUST BEFORE THIS ONE:
"Her visit was, I remember, extremely unwelcome to Holmes, for he was immersed
at the moment in a very abstruse and complicated problem concerning the peculiar
persecution to which John Vincent Harden, the well known tobacco millionaire,
had been subjected."
UNCLE RALPHS TIME AWAY:
"My mother and I were left without a relation in the world except one uncle,
Ralph Smith, who went to Africa twenty-five years ago, and we have never had
a word from him since."
A CONFIRMATION OF THE MONTH:
"Excuse me," said Holmes. "When was this interview?"
"Last December four months ago."
THE DAYS OF THE CASE
"You must know that every Saturday forenoon I ride on my bicycle to Farnham
Station, in order to get the 12:22 to town ... Two weeks ago I was passing this
place, when I chanced to look back over my shoulder, and about two hundred yards
behind me I saw a man, also on a bicycle ... on my return on the Monday, I saw
the same man on the same stretch of road. My astonishment was increased when
the incident occurred again, exactly as before, on the following Saturday and
Monday."
"Thursday brought us another letter from our client."
"I think, Watson, that we must spare time to run down together on Saturday
morning and make sure that this curious and inclusive investigation has no untoward
ending."
"Two days ago Woodley came up to my house with this cable, which showed
that Ralph Smith was dead."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
April 13, 1895.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
April 23, 1898.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Well, Watson seems to have done us all a favor in this case and said it plainly:
Saturday, April 23, 1895. Theres just one problem: in 1895, the 23rd falls
on a Tuesday. The Saturdays are April 6, 13, 20, and 27. And our two friendly
Chronology Corner past masters, Baring-Gould and Zeisler, each take a different
route in deciding what the error is. Baring-Gould claims its the first
digit in day, Zeisler goes with the last digit in year. In both cases, the error
comes down to a single digit, someone mistaking a "2" for a "1"
or an "8" for a "5."
So why doesnt anyone think that maybe that "3" could have been
a "0"?
The day is a lot easier to mess up than the year, so Im leaning toward
the B-G hypothesis, but mistaking a "1" for a "2"? Nope.
I have to go with Saturday, April 20, 1895 for this one, the closest possible
Saturday to the one Watson put in print.
"The Adventure of
the Priory School"
FROM HOLMESS ENCYCLOPAEDIA:
"Holdernesse, 6th Duke, K.G., P.C.half the alphabet!
Baron Beverley, Earl of Carston dear me, what a list! Lord
Lieutenant of Hallamshire since 1900. Married Edith, daughter of Sir Charles
Appledore, 1888. Heir and only child, Lord Saltire. Owns about two hundred and
fifty thousand acres. Minerals in Lancashire and Wales. Address: Carlton House
Terrace; Holdernesse Hall, Hallamshire; Carston Castle, Bangor, Wales. Lord
of the Admiralty, 1872; Chief Secretary of State for Well,
well, this man is certainly one of the greatest subjects of the Crown!"
HUXTABLE AND SALTIRE FIRST CROSS PATHS:
"On May 1st the boy arrived, that being the beginning of the summer term."
AND THEN THEY PART WAYS:
"He was last seen on the night of May 13th that is, the night of
last Monday."
"His absence was discovered at seven oclock on Tuesday morning."
THE DAY HOLMES TAKES THE CASE:
"Now, on Thursday morning, we are as ignorant as we were on Tuesday."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
May 16, 1901.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
May 17, 1900.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
May 13th occurs on a Monday during Holmess Canonical period activity in
1889, 1895, 1901, and 1907, and 1912. The latter two years are easily dismissed
as Holmes is well known to have been in Sussex and America, respectively. As
Holmess encyclopaedia refers to "1900," one can hardly place
the case before that year, which leaves us with 1901.
While Zeisler may dispute such hard evidence, being a bit over-enthralled with
subjective statements about the moon, few other chronologers have, and I find
myself inclined to agree with the pack on this one: This case began on Thursday,
May 16, 1901.
"The Adventure of
Black Peter"
IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR:
"I have never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and physical,
than in the year 95."
"In this memorable year 95, a curious and incongruous succession
of cases had engaged his attention, ranging from his famous investigation of
the sudden
death of Cardinal Tosca an inquiry which was carried out by him at the
express desire of His Holiness the Pope down to his arrest of Wilson,
the notorious canary-trainer, which removed a plague-spot from the East End
of London. Close on the heels of these two famous cases came the tragedy of
Woodmans Lee, and the very obscure circumstances which surrounded the
death of Captain Peter Carey."
THE STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"During the first week of July, my friend had been absent so often and
so long from our lodgings that I knew he had something on hand."
THE DATES OF PETER CAREY:
"He was born in 45 fifty years of age. He was a most daring
and successful seal and whale fisher. In 1883 he commanded the steam
sealer Sea Unicorn, of Dundee. He had then had several successful voyages in
succession, and in the following year, 1884, he retired. After that he travelled
for some years, and finally he bought a small place called Woodmans Lee,
near Forest Row, in Sussex. There he has lived for six years, and there he died
just a week ago to-day."
THE DAYS OF CAREYS DEATH:
"You remember that a stonemason, named Slater, walking from Forest Row
about one oclock in the morningtwo days before the murder ... this
refers to the Monday, and the crime was done upon the Wednesday."
"On the Tuesday, Peter Carey was in one of his blackest moods, flushed
with drink and as savage as a dangerous wild beast. He roamed about the house,
and the women ran for it when they heard him coming. Late in the evening, he
went down to his own hut. About two oclock the following morning, his
daughter, who slept with her window open, heard a most fearful yell from that
direction ..."
THE MONTH OF NELIGANS FINAL FATE:
"On the first page were written the initials J. H. N. and the
date 1883."
"It struck me that if I could see what occurred in the month of August,
1883, on board the Sea Unicorn, I might settle the mystery of my fathers
fate."
"It was in 83 that it happened August of that year. . . We
were coming out of the ice-pack on our way home, with head winds and a weeks
southerly gale, when we picked up a little craft that had been blown north.
There was one man on her a landsman. . . So far as I know, the mans
name was never mentioned, and on the second night he disappeared as if he had
never been . . . Only one man knew what had happened to him, and that was me,
for, with my own eyes, I saw the skipper tip up his heels and put him over the
rail in the middle watch of a dark night, two days before we sighted the Shetland
Lights."
CAIRNS MEETS CAREY:
"The first night he was reasonable enough, and was ready to give me what
would make me free of the sea for life. We were to fix it all two nights later."
LENGTH OF HOLMESS INVOLVEMENT IN THE MATTER:
"There, Watson, this infernal case has haunted me for ten days."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
July 3, 1895.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
July 10, 1895.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
This one isnt too hard to calculate: The year is definitely 1895, both
in Watsons words and in Black Peters birth year plus his age. Watson
also says his friend had been absent much during the first week of July. Holmes
tells us he spent ten days on the case. Carey was killed on a Wednesday "a
week ago."
Put all this together and look at a calendar, youll come up with Wednesday,
July 10, 1895, just like Zeisler did, and just like I did. (Those folks that
say July 3 just werent listening closely enough to Watson.)
"The Adventure of
Charles Augustus Milverton"
WATSON TOSSES OUT A CHALLENGE:
"The reader will excuse me if I conceal the date or any other fact by which
he might trace the actual occurrence."
THE STATEMENT OF THE SEASON:
"We had been out for one of our evening rambles, Holmes and I, and had
returned about six oclock on a cold, frosty winters evening."
THE CURRENT MURDERER COUNT:
"Ive had to do with fifty murderers in my career, but the worst of
them never gave me the repulsion which I have for this fellow."
THE TIME UNTIL THE MARRIAGE OF LADY EVA:
"She is to be married in a fortnight to the Earl of Dovercourt."
THE DATES WATSON WAS GOING TO CONCEAL:
"My dear sir, it is painful for me to discuss it, but if the money is not
paid on the 14th, there certainly will be no marriage on the 18th."
THE DEADLINE RUNS OUT:
"To-morrow is the last day of grace, and unless we can get the letters
to-night, this villain will be as good as his word and will bring about her
ruin."
THE DAYS OF ESCOTT:
"For some days Holmes came and went at all hours in this attire, but beyond
a remark that his time was spent at Hampstead, and that it was not wasted, I
knew nothing of what he was doing. At last, however, on a wild, tempestuous
evening, when the wind screamed and rattled against the windows, he returned
from his last expedition."
THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF HOLMES AND WATSON:
"It was a six-foot wall which barred our path, but he sprang to the top
and over. As I did the same I felt the hand of the man behind me grab at my
ankle, but I kicked myself free and scrambled over a grass-strewn coping. I
fell upon my face among some bushes, but Holmes had me on my feet in an instant,
and together we dashed away across the huge expanse of Hampstead Heath. We had
run two miles, I suppose, before Holmes at last halted and listened intently."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
January 5, 1899.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
January 6, 1886.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
Finding a date for "Charles Augustus Milverton" is a work that must
be based upon the observation of trifles. Watson has said from the outset that
hes concealling the date from us, and the number of blackmail victims,
combined with the burglary on the part of he and Holmes, give him ample reasons
to do so. So how does one date this case? By looking to the cases primary
focus, of course.
As smart as Milverton was, there is no way his operation and personal safety
continued for as long as it did with Milverton as an independent operator. Especially
prior to 1891, when there was but one king of all London crime, and that king
wouldnt have taken kindly to an independent operator making as much as
Milverton did without proper tribute being paid.
Yes, it is very hard to see Charles Augustus Milverton operating in Moriartian
London without ties to the Professor, and given the amount of money that Milverton
brought in with his blackmail business, one would suspect those ties were very
close. So close, and so profitable, would be such a connection that Im
sure Moriarty would have felt "incommoded" by Milvertons sudden
demise and the burning of his papers.
And when was Moriarty "incommoded"? On January 23, 1891.
"But," one might argue, "Watson acts like he hadnt seen
Holmes for many months before The Final Problem." If you look
closely at what Watson writes in that tale, he says he only retained records
of three cases with Holmes in 1890. He says he read of Holmes in the paper and
received notes from him in 1891, but he never really says he didnt see
Holmes in 1891. We also know, from "The Valley of Fear," that Watson
abbreviated his awareness of Holmess battle against Moriarty in FINA,
and I think CHAS was another example of that abbreviation (especially when one
remembers that FINA was written to clear Holmess reputation ... a record
of him committing a burglary would hardly have helped).
If one needs further evidence of Watson dropping CHAS from his published accounts
of the Moriarty war, examine Holmess comment in FINA with a mind to CHAS:
"I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to allow me to leave
your house presently by scrambling over your back garden wall."
If one of Watsons last adventures with Holmes involved the two of them
scrambling over a back garden wall, as CHAS did, this suddenly becomes a clever
little in-joke between the two men worthy of Holmess sense of humor.
Once one then looks at the winter setting of CHAS, it all seems to fall into
place. Watson may have supplied false dates in this story with Milvertons
"the money is not paid on the 14th, there certainly will be no marriage
on the 18th," but he had already given us a true one in "The Final
Problem." And from there we can easily work backwards.
Although the "14th . . . 18th" statement is incorrect as to the exact
dates (as Watson told us he was going to be), one can still get the timetable
of Milvertons demands and Watsons involvement from it. The wedding
is two weeks from the day Watson became involved, and Milverton wanted his money
four days before the wedding. The night Milverton dies begins the evening before
"the last day of grace" . . . four days before the wedding, and Milvertons
post-midnight demise makes January 23, 1891 three days before the wedding. Adding
those three days gives us a wedding on January 26 and subtracting the fortnight
(14 days) that Holmes says remains before the wedding when the case begins,
we can pretty surely say that "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"
began on Monday, January 12, 1891.
"The Adventure of
the Six Napoleons"
THE BUST-BUSTING SEQUENCE:
"The first case reported was four days ago," said he. "It was
at the shop of Morse Hudson, who has a place for the sale of pictures and statues
in the Kennington Road."
"The second case, however, was more serious, and also more singular. It
occurred only last night."
"The development for which my friend had asked came in a quicker and an
infinitely more tragic form than he could have imagined. I was still dressing
in my bedroom next morning . . ."
THE LENGTH OF BEPPOS SENTENCE:
"It was more than a year ago now. He knifed another Italian in the street
. . . . The man lived and he got off with a year.
THE DATES OF BUST SALES AND ARRESTS:
"When you referred in your ledger to the sale of those casts I observed
that the date was June 3rd of last year. Could you give me the date when Beppo
was arrested?"
"I could tell you roughly by the pay-list. Yes, he was paid last on May
20th."
"Mr. Horace Harker is a customer of ours. We supplied him with the bust
some months ago. We ordered three busts of that sort from Gelder & Co.,
of Stepney."
THE PRIDE OF THE YARD:
"Were not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are very proud
of you, and if you come down to-morrow, theres not a man, from the oldest
inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldnt be glad to shake you
by the hand."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
June 8, 1900.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
June 11, 1900.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
In finding the year of this case, I found myself irresistably drawn to that
statement of Lestrade from the cases conclusion. Every man at Scotland
Yard wanted to shake Holmess hand. Theyve known him for years. Hes
been successful before. And the men of the Yard havent even heard of his
solution to the Borgia pearl businesss. Why are they suddenly so "not jealous?"
Why are they so eager to shake his hand?
Only one reason seems satisfying enough, and that reason can be found in "The
Adventure of the Three Garridebs," where Watson writes: "I remember
the date very well, for it was in the same month that Holmes refused a knighthood
for services which may perhaps some day be described. I only refer to the matter
in passing, for in my position of partner and confidant I am obliged to be particularly
careful to avoid any indiscretion. I repeat, however, that this enables me to
fix the date, which was the latter end of June, 1902, shortly after the conclusion
of the South African War."
It was a June in which Holmes was offered a knighthood. It is also June in which
"Six Napoleons" takes place, if we add a year to Beppos arrest
for his jail time. The men of Scotland Yard would all know of such an event
as Holmess impending knighthood. And one would think, as Lestrade says,
that they would be very proud of their advisor of so many years. Since its
after June 3 (or else the reference to "June 3rd of last year" would
have been unnecessary) and still before the June Honours are presented, Id
have to say that this case starts on Wednesday, June 4, 1902.
"The Adventure of
the Three Students"
THE STATEMENT OF THE YEAR:
"It was in the year 95 that a combination of events, into which I
need not enter, caused Mr. Sherlock Holmes and myself to spend some weeks in
one of our great university towns, and it was during this time that the small
but instructive adventure which I am about to relate befell us. It will be obvious
that any details which would help the reader exactly to identify the college
or the criminal would be injudicious and offensive."
THE EXAMS SCHEDULE:
"I must explain to you, Mr. Holmes, that to-morrow is the first day of
the examination for the Fortescue Scholarship."
"To-day, about three oclock, the proofs of this paper arrived from
the printers."
FOOD OF THE SEASON:
"By Jove! My dear fellow, it is nearly nine, and the landlady babbled of
green peas at seven-thirty."
YOUNG GILCHRISTS ODD CLAIM:
"I have been offered a commission in the Rhodesian Police, and I am going
out to South Africa at once."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
April 5, 1895.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
March 27, 1895.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Watson shows a lot of kindliness towards the athletic young Gilchrist in his
write-up this tale, and treats the little cheater far better than he deserves.
One almost would think Holmes and Watson believe the young blackguards
announcement of self-imposed exile to South Africa to escape a charge of cheating.
Hes lying, of course, but in his choice of lies we can find one helpful
grain of truth: the date that this case began.
Like any energetic young "Animal House" college liar, Gilchrist grabbed
for his lies any fact which had recently been added to the upper layer of his
brain. And on Friday, May 3, 1895, certain territories belonging to the British
South Africa Company were finally proclaimed "Rhodesia" after the
companys general manager, Cecil Rhodes. Give Gilchrist a few days to hear
about it in a bar somewhere, as well as allowing for the proofs coming back
from the printer on the day the case started, combined with the start of the
exam the next day, and one comes to the inevitable result: This case began on
Monday, May 6, 1895, well in season for those green peas the landlady babbled
of.
"The Adventure of
the Golden Pince-Nez"
THE STATEMENT OF THE YEAR:
"When I look at the three massive manuscript volumes which contain our
work for the year 1894, I confess that it is very difficult for me, out of such
a wealth of material ... I see my notes upon the repulsive story of the red
leech and the terrible death of Crosby, the banker. Here also I find an account
of the Addleton tragedy, and the singular contents of the ancient British barrow.
The famous Smith-Mortimer succession case comes also within this period, and
so does the tracking and arrest of Huret, the Boulevard assassinan exploit
which won for Holmes an autograph letter of thanks from the French President
and the Order of the Legion of Honour. . . . none of them unites so many singular
points of interest as the episode of Yoxley Old Place."
THE STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"It was a wild, tempestuous night, towards the close of November."
THE WEATHER REPORT:
"The gale had blown itself out next day, but it was a bitter morning when
we started upon our journey."
A REFERENCE TO A PAST CASE:
"We saw the cold winter sun rise over the dreary marshes of the Thames
and the long, sullen reaches of the river, which I shall ever associate with
our pursuit of the Andaman Islander in the earlier days of our career."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
November 14, 1894.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
October 27, 1894.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Its November, its 1894, and Watson is not a happy man. The sun is
cold, the marshes dreary, and even the river is sullen to him. Why is Watson
so depressed, at a time when he and Holmes have begun anew, and are taking on
adventures and investigations at a tremendous rate? He seems to be writing wuite
a bit. Hes keeping up on his medical skills. Why is he so glum?
Theres only one thing that makes a man this mopey, and it can be seen
in his reference to the Andaman Islander . . . someone whom he probably wasnt
thinking of at all as they crossed the river. The true center of his thoughts
should be plain: Watson proposed marriage to Mary Morstan during a September
not long after that river chase he writes of in GOLD. It is likely they married
in November, a month that gives them enough time to plan their future without
interfering with holiday activity. The cause of Watsons suddenly melancholy
musings on a river than was always near at hand anyway suggest that the day
this case starts was special in some way the way a wedding anniversary
is special.
Saturday is the traditional day of weddings, and the latest Saturday in November
of 1888 was the 24th. Curiously enough, November 24th also falls on a Saturday
in 1894, giving Watson even more reason to sadly remember what would have been
his sixth anniversary, had his wife still been with him. Thus, Im dating
the beginning of this case on Friday, November 23, 1894.
"The Adventure of
the Missing Three-Quarter"
THE STATEMENT OF MONTH AND (SORT-OF) YEAR:
"We were fairly accustomed to receive weird telegrams at Baker Street,
but I have a particular recollection of one which reached us on a gloomy February
morning, some seven or eight years ago, and gave Mr. Sherlock Holmes a puzzled
quarter of an hour."
THE SCOTLAND YARD REFERRAL:
"Ive been down to Scotland Yard, Mr. Holmes. I saw Inspector Stanley
Hopkins. He advised me to come to you."
THE STATE OF HOLMESS BUSINESS:
"Even the most insignificant problem would be welcome in these stagnant
days."
"Things had indeed been very slow with us, and I had learned to dread such
periods of inaction, for I knew by experience that my companions brain
was so abnormally active that it was dangerous to leave it without material
upon which to work. For years I had gradually weaned him from that drug mania
which had threatened once to check his remarkable career."
"Well, well, I have a clear day, and I shall be happy to look into the
matter."
THE RUGBY SCHEDULE:
"To-morrow we play Oxford. Yesterday we all came up, and we settled at
Bentleys private hotel."
REFERENCE TO A PAST VILLAIN:
"I have not seen a man who, if he turns his talents that way, was more
calculated to fill the gap left by the illustrious Moriarty."
THE SEASON REITERATED:
"Come, Watson, said he, and we passed from that house of grief
into the pale sunlight of the winter day."
PUBLICATION DATE OF THE STORY:
August 1904.
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
December 8, 1896.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
December 8, 1896.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
The year of this case can quickly be narrowed with a little math and a nod to
Moriartys reign. It was plainly past 1894, as the mention of the late
Professor indicates. And since it was published in 1904, the phrase "some
seven or eight years ago" means it could not have been later than 1897.
Past scholars have taken the history of Oxford-Cambridge rugby over the word
of Watson in this case, choosing December over February, and selecting the year
by who won. But trusting Watson must always be the first choice for the Sherlockian
chronologer, or we discredit our best witness. Unless an old evening paper can
be found with the exact wording Watson has transcribed in his text, we therefore
must assume that the Oxford-Cambridge game was a special exhibition one, or
even a purely student-organized bit of fun, that occurred in February and was
not included in known records outside of the Canon.
We can eliminate the year 1895, as Watson has earlier spoken of what great form,
physically and mentally, Holmes was in that year, and in "Missing Three-Quarter,"
Watson is very concerned about Holmes returning to drug use. And while 1896
is a good possibility, the recommendation of Stanley Hopkins is a sign that
Holmes was on Hopkinss mind. And the February that well soon be
finding out Holmes was on Hopkinss mind was February 1897. (More in the
"Abbey Grange" segment.)
Having already broken with the official rugby schedules in favor of Watson,
Im going to have to climb further out on that limb to say that Overton
and his team-mates came up to London on Friday for a weekend in the city followed
by a Sunday game. February would be heating up for Holmes by the second weekend
of 1897 (as well see next story), so Im going to have to date this
one on Saturday, February 6, 1897. (But not without admitting that this has
to be the toughest case that this chronologist has encountered thus far.)
"The Adventure of
the Abbey Grange"
THE STATEMENT OF THE SEASON AND YEAR:
"It was on a bitterly cold night and frosty morning, towards the end of
the winter of 97."
HOW QUICKLY HOLMES IS CALLED IN:
"The crime was committed before twelve last night."
THE CURRENT HOPKINS COUNT:
"Hopkins has called me in seven times, and on each occasion his summons
has been entirely justified."
THE MAIDS TERM OF SERVICE:
"She has been with her all her life," said Hopkins. "Nursed her
as a baby, and came with her to England when they first left Australia, eighteen
months ago. Theresa Wright is her name, and the kind of maid you dont
pick up nowadays."
DURATION OF THE BRACKENSTALL MARRIAGE:
"He was all honey when first we met himonly eighteen months ago,
and we both feel as if it were eighteen years. She had only just arrived in
London. Yes, it was her first voyageshe had never been from home before.
He won her with his title and his money and his false London ways. If she made
a mistake she has paid for it, if ever a woman did. What month did we meet him?
Well, I tell you it was just after we arrived. We arrived in June, and it was
July. They were married in January of last year."
"I have been married about a year."
WHEN THE BOAT SAILED:
"In June of 95, only one of their line had reached a home port. It
was the Rock of Gibraltar, their largest and best boat. A reference to the passenger
list showed that Miss Fraser, of Adelaide, with her maid had made the voyage
in her. The boat was now somewhere south of the Suez Canal on her way to Australia.
Her officers were the same as in 95, with one exception. The first officer,
Mr. Jack Crocker, had been made a captain and was to take charge of their new
ship, the Bass Rock, sailing in two days time from Southampton."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
January 23, 1897.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
January 15th or 24th, 1897.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Sometimes its the exact dates that are troubling when one is putting dates
to Watsons cases, sometimes its more subtle things. Watson writes
that this case took place towards the end of winter. Theresa Wright says Mary
Fraser met Sir Eustace eighteen months before, in July, which would make it
January. Hopkins says Fraser and Wright left Australia eighteen months before
(in June), which would make it December. And neither month really qualifies
for the end of winter.
Theresa says the Brackenstalls were married in "January of last year,"
and Lady Mary says the wedding is "about a year" old. Yet both of
these women are lying throughout the investigation, so their testimony must
be looked at with a suspicious eye. Good old Watsons "towards the
end of winter" must be our best guide here, and that puts the case a little
later than January. The bitter cold and ice seem to make it more likely February
than March, but the best judge of what day it is must come from one of the worst
lies in the entire Canon of Holmes.
"One day out in a country lane I met Theresa Wright, her old maid,"
Jack Crocker says, of his reacquaintance with Mary Frasers maid. Seems
mighty coincidental, doesnt it? Especially when coming from the lips of
a man who also said, "Every day of that voyage I loved her more, and many
a time since have I kneeled down in the darkness of the night watch and kissed
the deck of that ship because I knew her dear feet had trod it."
This mans obsession with Mary Fraser was not the sort of thing that lets
a reunion come based on a casual encounter. No, Crockers visit to Abbey
Grange was most surely planned, and that planning could only have been done
with one late-winter goal in mind: February 14th, and a Valentines Day
reunion.
Thus, Im going to sentimentally date this case on Monday, February 15,
1897.
"The Adventure of
the Second Stain"
DATE OF PUBLICATION:
December 1904
TIMING OF THE PUBLICATION:
"I had intended "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" to be the
last of those exploits of my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, which I should ever
communicate to the public. This resolution of mine was not due to any lack of
material, since I have notes of many hundreds of cases to which I have never
alluded, nor was it caused by any waning interest on the part of my readers
in the singular personality and unique methods of this remarkable man. The real
reason lay in the reluctance which Mr. Holmes has shown to the continued publication
of his experiences. So long as he was in actual professional practice the records
of his successes were of some practical value to him, but since he has definitely
retired from London and betaken himself to study and bee-farming on the Sussex
Downs, notoriety has become hateful to him, and he has peremptorily requested
that his wishes in this matter should be strictly observed. It was only upon
my representing to him that I had given a promise that "The Adventure of
the Second Stain" should be published when the times were ripe, and pointing
out to him that it is only appropriate that this long series of episodes should
culminate in the most important international case which he has ever been called
upon to handle, that I at last succeeded in obtaining his consent that a carefully
guarded account of the incident should at last be laid before the public."
STATEMENT OF THE SEASON AND DAY OF THE WEEK:
"It was, then, in a year, and even in a decade, that shall be nameless,
that upon one Tuesday morning in autumn we found two visitors of European fame
within the walls of our humble room in Baker Street."
THE TIMING OF THE LETTER:
"The letterfor it was a letter from a foreign potentate was
received six days ago."
"Each member of the Cabinet was informed of it yesterday, but the pledge
of secrecy which attends every Cabinet meeting was increased by the solemn warning
which was given by the Prime Minister."
"It was taken, then, yesterday evening between seven-thirty and eleven-thirty,
probably near the earlier hour, since whoever took it evidently knew that it
was there and would naturally secure it as early as possible."
THE STATE OF HOLMESS PRACTICE:
"You are two of the most busy men in the country, and in my own small way
I have also a good many calls upon me. I regret exceedingly that I cannot help
you in this matter, and any continuation of this interview would be a waste
of time."
THE STATEMENT OF THE SEASON:
", , , And yet as we saw it that autumn morning . . ."
THE STATE OF WATSONS RELATIONSHIPS:
"Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department."
A PAST UNTOLD CASE:
"And you must have observed, Watson, how she manoeuvred to have the light
at her back. She did not wish us to read her expression. . . . You remember
the woman at Margate whom I suspected for the same reason. No powder on her
nose that proved to be the correct solution."
TIME PASSES:
"All that day and the next and the next Holmes was in a mood which his
friends would call taciturn, and others morose."
"So for three mornings the mystery remained, so far as I could follow it
in the papers. . . . Upon the fourth day there appeared a long telegram from
Paris"
"But if I have told you nothing in the last three days, it is because there
is nothing to tell. . . . Only one important thing has happened in the last
three days, and that is that nothing has happened."
THE DAYS FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
"Yesterday a lady, who has been known as Mme. Henri Fournaye, occupying
a small villa in the Rue Austerlitz, was reported to the authorities by her
servants as being insane. . . . On inquiry, the police have discovered that
Mme. Henri Fournaye only returned from a journey to London on Tuesday last.
. . . Her movements upon the Monday night have not yet been traced, but it is
undoubted that a woman answering to her description attracted much attention
at Charing Cross Station on Tuesday morning by the wildness of her appearance
and the violence of her gestures. . . . There is evidence that a woman, who
might have been Mme. Fournaye, was seen for some hours upon Monday night watching
the house in Godolphin Street."
LADY HILDAS VIGIL:
"For two days I watched the place, but the door was never left open. Last
night I made a last attempt."
TRELAWNEY HOPES TIME AWAY FROM THE BOX:
"Have you examined the box since Tuesday morning?"
"No. It was not necessary."
AN IMPORTANT BIT FROM ANOTHER STORY (NAVA):
"The July which immediately succeeded my marriage was made memorable by
three cases of interest, in which I had the privilege of being associated with
Sherlock Holmes and of studying his methods. I find them recorded in my notes
under the headings of "The Adventure of the Second Stain," "The
Adventure of the Naval Treaty," and "The Adventure of the Tired Captain."
The first of these, however, deals with interests of such importance and implicates
so many of the first families in the kingdom that for many years it will be
impossible to make it public. No case, however, in which Holmes was engaged
has ever illustrated the value of his analytical methods so clearly or has impressed
those who were associated with him so deeply. I still retain an almost verbatim
report of the interview in which he demonstrated the true facts of the case
to Monsieur Dubugue of the Paris police, and Fritz von Waldbaum, the well-known
specialist of Dantzig, both of whom had wasted their energies upon what proved
to be side-issues. The new century will have come, however, before the story
can be safely told."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
October 12, 1886.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
A Tuesday in July 1889.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Though the details of "The Adventure of the Second Stain" mentioned
in "Naval Treaty" seem almost like they come from a very different
"The Adventure of the Second Stain," there are also enough points
of similarity to accept it as the same case for chronological purposes. Watson
plainly still couldnt (or wouldnt, for the sake of a good story)
write everything, even after the turn of the century, but that which he did
is close enough to the original reference to go with his "same month as
Naval Treaty" date.
So, with the "Naval Treaty" connection, and its dating of July 29,
1887 as a starting point, certain questions regarding the "Second Stain"
mystery letter start to come up: Which foreign potentate was raging about British
colonialism in that letter which everyone so feared? The Premier seems to point
that potentates identification in the direction of Europe, but is that
mere subterfuge, one quickly seen through by Holmes? For if any potentate was
liable to get stirred up by British colonialism in July, wouldnt it be
one whos very patriotism helped the matter along in that very month?
Especially, for example, on July 4th?
Try this scenario on for size: Grover Cleveland has a bit too much to drink
before fireworks on Monday, July 4th. Afterwards, in a fit of patriotic passion,
he writes a fiery letter to the British Prime Minister. It goes into the mail
the next day, taking a little over a week to cross the Atlantic and get to the
Minister on Wednesday, July 13. Six days later, the Prime Minister comes to
221B Baker Street on Tuesday, July 19, 1887.
Hmmm, I think like it. Anybody else go for this one?
The Hound of the Baskervilles
MORTIMERS TERM OF SERVICE AT CHARING CROSS:
"Mortimer, James, M.R.C.S., 1882, Grimpen, Dartmoor, Devon. House surgeon,
from 1882 to 1884, at Charing Cross Hospital."
"And he left five years agothe date is on the stick."
"Just under the head was a broad silver band, nearly an inch across. "To
James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," was engraved
upon it, with the date 1884."
THE DATE OF SIR CHARLESS DEATH:
"This is the Devon County Chronicle of May 14th of this year. It is a short
account of the facts elicited at the death of Sir Charles Baskerville which
occurred a few days before that date."
OUT OF THE COUNTRY IN MAY:
"I had observed some newspaper comment at the time, but I was exceedingly
preoccupied by that little affair of the Vatican cameos, and in my anxiety to
oblige the Pope I lost touch with several interesting English cases."
TIME PASSES IN LONDON:
"How long will it take you to make up your mind?"
"Twenty-four hours. At ten oclock to-morrow, Dr. Mortimer, I will
be much obliged to you if you will call upon me here, and it will be of help
to me in my plans for the future if you will bring Sir Henry Baskerville with
you."
ANOTHER PAST CASE:
"Ah, Wilson, I see you have not forgotten the little case in which I had
the good fortune to help you? . . . I have some recollection, Wilson, that you
had among your boys a lad named Cartwright, who showed some ability during the
investigation."
DAY OF DEPARTURE FOR BASKERVILLE HALL:
"To go to Baskerville Hall."
"And when?"
"At the end of the week."
"Then on Saturday, unless you hear to the contrary, we shall meet at the
ten-thirty train from Paddington."
AND THE TIME UNTIL THAT DEPARTURE:
"I have made some inquiries myself in the last few days . . ."
"I can swear to one thing, and that is that we have not been shadowed during
the last two days."
A "MILVERTON" REARING HIS UGLY HEAD:
"At the present instant one of the most revered names in England is being
besmirched by a blackmailer, and only I can stop a disastrous scandal."
LENGTH OF TIME SELDEN HAD BEEN LOOSE WHEN WATSON ARRIVED:
"Theres a convict escaped from Princetown, sir. Hes been out
three days now ..."
THE DATE ON WATSONS FIRST LETTER:
" October 13th"
TIME SINCE SELDENS ESCAPE AT THAT WRITING:
"A fortnight has passed since his flight . . ."
THE DATE ON WATSONS SECOND LETTER:
"Oct. 15th."
THE DINNER DATE DAY:
"We are to dine at Merripit House next Friday . . ."
THE SEASON REITERATED:
"We hurried through the dark shrubbery, amid the dull moaning of the autumn
wind and the rustle of the falling leaves."
THE CURRENT DATE:
The extract from my private diary which forms the last chapter has brought my
narrative up to the eighteenth of October, a time when these strange events
began to move swiftly towards their terrible conclusion.
AFTER THE CASE:
"It was the end of November, and Holmes and I sat, upon a raw and foggy
night, on either side of a blazing fire in our sitting-room in Baker Street.
Since the tragic upshot of our visit to Devonshire he had been engaged in two
affairs of the utmost importance, in the first of which he had exposed the atrocious
conduct of Colonel Upwood in connection with the famous card scandal of the
Nonpareil Club, while in the second he had defended the unfortunate Mme. Montpensier
from the charge of murder which hung over her in connection with the death of
her step-daughter, Mlle. Carere, the young lady who, as it will be remembered,
was found six months later alive and married in New York."WHAT THE BARING-GOULD
ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 25, 1888.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
September 25, 1900.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
The math on this one seems pretty straightforward: 1884 plus "five years
ago" gives you 1889. October 15 minus a fortnight, plus three days (courtesy
of Watsons diary and the convict escape references), rounding it to a
nearby Saturday for the train trip to Dartmoor, and you get October 5 for the
travel day. Subtract two days without anyone following Sir Henry, back up one
day to the day they were followed, and back up one more day to Mortimers
visit with Holmes and Watson . . . the result?
Tuesday, October 1, 1889.
Baring-Gould once went with that same date, but the "What about Watsons
marriage?" crowd pressured him into a change of heart. Given Watsons
marital track record as weve seen it thus far, however, Id hate
to discount anything as plain as the above mathematics for the sake of domestic
bliss that may in doubt anyway. Tuesday, October 1, 1889, it is!
The Valley of Fear
WATSONS KNOWLEDGE OF MORIARTY:
"You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?"
PORLOCKS PAST PERFORMANCE:
"Led on by some rudimentary aspirations towards right, and encouraged by
the judicious stimulation of an occasional ten-pound note sent to him by devious
methods, he has once or twice given me advance information which has been of
valuethat highest value which anticipates and prevents rather than avenges
crime."
THE STATEMENT OF THE MONTH AND DAY:
"Being the seventh of January, we have very properly laid in the new almanac."
THE STATEMENT OF THE DECADE:
"Those were the early days at the end of the 80s, when Alec
MacDonald was far from having attained the national fame which he has now achieved."
MACDONALDS PAST PERFORMANCE:
"Twice already in his career had Holmes helped him to attain success .
. ."
THE LENGTH OF THE MORIARTY STUDY COURSE:
"Sometime when you have a year or two to spare I commend to you the study
of Professor Moriarty."
THE STATE OF HOLMESS CAREER ACTIVITY:
"A long series of sterile weeks lay behind us, and here at last there was
a fitting object for those remarkable powers . . ."
WATSONS LITERARY FAME:
"I am sure we are honoured by your presence and to show you all we know,"
said White Mason cordially. "Come along, Dr. Watson, and when the time
comes well all hope for a place in your book."
"We thought that it was probably you, as your friendship with Mr. Sherlock
Holmes is so well known."
"He took a good look at us all, and then to my amazement he advanced to
me and handed me a bundle of paper. Ive heard of you . . . You are
the
historian of this bunch. Well, Dr. Watson, youve never had such a story
as that pass through your hands before, and Ill lay my last dollar on
that. Tell it your own way; but there are the facts, and you cant miss
the public so long as you have those. "Ive been cooped up two days,
and Ive spent the daylight hours as much daylight as I could get
in that rat trap in putting the thing into words. Youre welcome
to them you and your public. Theres the story of the Valley of
Fear."
THE YEARS OF DOUGLASS LIFE:
"He had been engaged five years before, when Douglas first came to Birlstone."
"How long were you with Douglas in California?"
"Five years altogether."
"Then when he left so suddenly for Europe . . ."
"That was six years ago?"
"Nearer seven."
"And then you were together five years in California, so that this business
dates back not less than eleven years at the least?"
"That is so."
"I guessed Id fight through it all right on my own, my luck was a
proverb in the States about 76."
IMPRISONMENT OF THE SCOWRERS:
"For ten years they were out of the world, and then came a day when they
were free once more . . ."
THE TIME OF THE INTENDED READING:
"And now, my long-suffering readers . . . I wish you to journey back some
twenty years in time . . ."
"It was the fourth of February in the year 1875."
BIRDY EDWARDSS AGE AT THAT TIME:
"He is . . . not far, one would guess, from his thirtieth year."
THE TIME OF THE EPILOGUE:
"Two months had gone by, and the case had to some extent passed from our
minds."
"They started together for South Africa in the Palmyra three weeks ago
. . . The ship reached Cape Town last night."
HOLMESS VOW TO BEAT MORIARTY:
"I dont say that he cant be beat. But you must give me time
you must give me time!"
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
January 7, 1888.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
January 7, 1888.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
We start this tale with a very clear month and day: January 7. The year would
then seem a simple calculation using all the dates of John Douglas/Birdy Edwards.
He took down the Scowrers in 1875. Scowrer associates who werent imprisoned
chased him from Chicago (his bit of luck in 1876). He spent five years in California
(making it 1881), then "nearly seven" in England, making it early
1888.
As A Study in Scarlet was published in December of 1887, Watson would have been
undergoing his first flush of notoriety as an author in January of 1888, and
although the general public wouldnt have taken to him just yet, you can
bet the men of Scotland Yard were all reading about their friends Lestrade and
Gregson. Some, like MacDonald, probably even looked forward to a place in Watsons
next book, as his comments show. No mention of short stories just yet!
The Moriarty question is worth mentioning in dating this tale, as Watsons
seeming ignorance of him in "The Final Problem" in 1891 seems to weigh
heavily against this cases authenticity. But looking at Scotland Yards
treatment of Holmess view of Moriarty between the two stories is enlightening
on that point. In "The Valley of Fear," the men of the Yard think
Holmes has "a bee in his bonnet" about Moriarty. Its pretty
much a joke to them, and Moriarty himself isnt taking Holmes seriously
either. Moriarty might even still have his university chair at this time. Holmes
is rather frustrated about the whole thing, as his comments at the tales
end demonstrate.
By the time of "The Final Problem," however, Holmes seems to have
convinced the police of Moriartys guilt and the now "ex-Professor"
himself now views Holmes as a threat. (One wonders if Holmes wasnt responsible
for those "dark rumors" which cost Moriarty his University job.) But
years have passed, in which a married-and-gone Watson has had time to forget
about the "scientific criminal" that no one ever took Holmes seriously
about. Watsons quote of Holmes saying, "You never heard . . . ?"
was probably a paraphrase of "You dont remember . . . ?"
Whatever Watsons reasons for the slip, this case seems pretty solid in
starting on Saturday, January 7, 1888.
"The Adventure of
Wisteria Lodge"
STATEMENT OF THE MONTH AND YEAR:
"I find it recorded in my notebook that it was a bleak and windy day towards
the end of March in the year 1892."
"It is late in March, so quarter-day is at hand."
"It was a cold, dark March evening, with a sharp wind and a fine rain beating
upon our faces, a fit setting for the wild common over which our road passed
and the tragic goal to which it led us."
"It was about five oclock, and the shadows of the March evening were
beginning to fall, when an excited rustic rushed into our room."
THE INVITATION AND THE VISIT:
"Within two days of our meeting he came to see me at Lee. One thing led
to another, and it ended in his inviting me out to spend a few days at his house,
Wisteria Lodge, between Esher and Oxshott. Yesterday evening I went to Esher
to fulfil this engagement."
DURATION OF THE INVESTIGATION:
"Day succeeded day, and my friend took no step forward. One morning he
spent in town, and I learned from a casual reference that he had visited the
British Museum."
"Im sure, Watson, a week in the country will be invaluable to you."
"I must admit, however, that I was somewhat surprised when, some five days
after the crime, I opened my morning paper to find in large letters . . ."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
March 24, 1890.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
March 6, 1902.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Its March, that much seems pretty plain. Its March when the case
begins, and its March five days later when the case ends. Quarter-day,
March 25, is "at hand." Getting as close as we can "towards the
end of March," remaining before quarter-day, and having five days left
for the investigation, Thursday, March 24, 1892 seems the best candidate for
this cases beginning.
Thats the easy part with this case. The hard part is explaining just how
it is that Sherlock Holmes is at Baker Street during the time he was thought
dead to all of his countrymen but one, and was, in reality, travelling through
Asia. Personally, Ive always been of the opinion that Watson didnt
take Holmess death all that well. He even attempted to carry on the consulting
detective business himself for a while, which added to the strain placed upon
him. His wife wasnt in the best of health, as she doesnt seem to
have lived through Holmess hiatus. And Mycroft has Mrs. Hudson keeping
Holmess rooms just as if the detective still lives there. Put all that
together, and what do you get?
Watson cracked. In Watsons mind, Holmes was with him during the investigation
of "Wisteria Lodge." (And a couple of Chronology Corners from now,
well see that Holmes wasnt the only person in the story whose presence
was a Watsonian delusion.) It explains why Baynes seems to be doing all the
work in this case, and Holmess peculiar distance from it ... he was, in
fact, very, very distant from it altogether. (For those of you who hate to see
poor Watson gone temporarily insane, call it an astral projection from the real
Holmes who was meditating in Tibet. That works, too.)
"The Adventure of
the Cardboard Box"
THE STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"It was a blazing hot day in August."
THE STATE OF WATSONS FINANCES:
"A depleted bank account had caused me to postpone my holiday ..."
SOME CURRENT EVENTS:
"Parliament had risen. Everybody was out of town, and I yearned for the
glades of the New Forest or the shingle of Southsea.
THE DAY OF THE CASE:
"To-day is Friday. The packet was posted on Thursday morning. The tragedy,
then, occurred on Wednesday or Tuesday, or earlier."
WATSONS PUBLISHED WORKS:
"The case," said Sherlock Holmes as we chatted over our cigars that
night in our rooms at Baker Street, "is one where, as in the investigations
which you have chronicled under the names of A Study in Scarlet
and of The Sign of Four, we have been compelled to reason backward
from effects to causes."
THE BOAT SCHEDULE:
"It had been ascertained at the shipping offices that Browner had left
aboard of the May Day, and I calculate that she is due in the Thames to-morrow
night."
"I went down to the Albert Dock yesterday at 6 P.M., and boarded the S.
S. May Day, belonging to the Liverpool, Dublin, and London Steam Packet Company."
A PREVIOUS CASE WITH LESTRADE:
"He is a big, powerful chap, clean-shaven, and very swarthysomething
like Aldridge, who helped us in the bogus laundry affair."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
August 31, 1889.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
August 10, 1888.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
The curious thing about "Cardboard Box" is the way Watson is living
the bachelor life at Baker Street, complaining of his weak bank account and
reminiscing about his days in the military, yet hes already written both
STUD and SIGN. That fact alone means the tale could not have occurred before
August of 1889 (according to my own dating of SIGN), but however you date it,
Watson did pick up a wife in SIGN, and that wife is now absent.
As CARD was originally published as the second story of the Memoirs series,
during Holmess 1891-1894 hiatus (in the beginning of which, Watson also
had a wife), the latest August in which the events could have taken place would
be that of 1890.
So when was it, August 1889 or August 1890? And why was Watson at Baker Street
while his wife was obviously a part of the "everybody" who was out
of town? For the answers, we need only look to Cox and Company, and the sadly
empty account Watson kept there along with his tin dispatch box.
In "The Sign of the Four," when Watson met Mary Morstan, he complained
of being "an army surgeon with a weak leg and a weaker banking account."
And once he let romance sweep him into marriage and active medical practice,
his fortunes did not immediately change. By August of 1889, the good doctor
needed an influx of capital and, as luck would have it, an opportunity presented
itself. This opportunity, however, would require him both to stay in town during
his planned holiday *and* require him to curry Holmess favor a bit, so
a stay at Baker Street would definitely be in order.
Using that rationale, I would have to place this cases beginning on Friday,
August 30, 1889 the day Watsons literary agent signed to contract
to publish The Sign of the Four.
P.S. The brisk and capable Dr. Wood has pointed out to me that the possibilities
for a train ride between Liverpool and New Brighton werent likely before
1891. Yet with "Cardboard Box" being published in January 1893 and
the whole Holmes hiatus thing, that fact seems to leave us with another Watsonian
faux pas. But in pondering this conundrum, it suddenly struck me that Watson
isnt the man who claimed a train went from Liverpool to New Brighton.
The man who made that statement was Jim Browner, a drunkard whose head was known
to "have all Niagara whizzing and buzzing" in it. Maybe the kill-crazed
Browner *thought* he was on a train instead of a river ferry, with all the noises
in his head. Maybe he like to refer to seats as "cars." Whatever the
case, I must trust Watson over a madman transcribed by a Scotland Yard clerk
of unknown abilities.
"The Adventure of
the Red Circle"
THE STATE OF HOLMESS BUSINESS:
"I really have other things to engage me."
"So spoke Sherlock Holmes and turned back to the great scrapbook in which
he was arranging and indexing some of his recent material."
A PREVIOUS CASE:
"You arranged an affair for a lodger of mine last year," she said
"Mr. Fairdale Hobbs."
LUCCAS ARRIVAL:
"You say that the man came ten days ago and paid you for a fortnights
board and lodging?"
"He has been there for ten days, and neither Mr. Warren, nor I, nor the
girl has once set eyes upon him."
HOLMESS DAILY ROUTINE:
"He took down the great book in which, day by day, he filed the agony columns
of the various London journals."
THE SCHEDULE OF PERSONAL ADS:
"That is two days after Mrs. Warrens lodger arrived."
"Yes, here we are three days later."
"Nothing for a week after that. Then comes something much more definite
..."
"That was in yesterdays paper, and there is nothing in to-days."
MRS. WARRENS TIME AT HER CURRENT RESIDENCE:
"Well, weve lived there fifteen years and no such happenings ever
came before."
STATEMENT OF THE SEASON:
". . . the gloom of a London winter evening had thickened into one gray
curtain . . ."
THE LUCCAS AMERICAN PERIOD:
"We fled together, were married at Bari, and sold my jewels to gain the
money which would take us to America. This was four years ago, and we have been
in New York ever since."
THE STATEMENT OF THE NIGHT, BY COMPOSER:
"By the way, it is not eight oclock, and a Wagner night at Covent
Garden! If we hurry, we might be in time for the second act."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 24, 1902.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
Winter 1895-1901.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
"Winter" is the only plain reference to the date Watson gives us in
this tale, and a very weak reference it is. Holmes mentions "Wagner night
at Convent Garden," but was he necessarily referring to Richard Wagner?
For all we know he could have known a cellist named Violet Wagner whose part
in the orchestra he especially liked to hear no matter what was being played.
So we must once again turn to the subtler details to date this case.
Holmes claims he has "other things to engage me," but does he really
mean other cases? Given the focussed, driven aspect of Holmess personality,
would he be pasting clippings into his scrapbook if he really had a case to
occupy him? In fact, the very act of clipping agony columns to past in a scrapbook
fairly sings of a younger Holmes, just starting out in his career, taking in
all possible data which might be useful to him. For the later, busier Holmes
of the 1890s, clipping agony columns surely didnt balance benefits versus
time spent enough to really be of profit to him.
Another sign of a younger Holmes is the way Sherlock is excited to meet the
Pinkerton, Mr. Leverton, who seems to be the famous one in that exchange. Leverton
doesnt appear to have heard of Holmes at all, while Holmes is quite the
fan.
A third element that marks this as an earlier case is Inspector Gregson. Gregson
doesnt make any documentable appearances after Holmess hiatus that
ended in 1894. He is the first detective in the Canon to summon Holmes. He is
Scotland Yards smartest in Holmess opinion, and the two men get
along wonderfully. Which leads one to wonder why Holmes was working with Lestrade
alone at the time of "The Final Problem." We see Gregson investigating
organized crime in REDC and suddenly hes gone in FINA, a tale of Holmess
biggest battle against organized crime. Might Gregson have been killed by Moriarty
during the late 1880s? I think so. Past "Greek Interpreter" in 1888,
Watson only mentions Gregson in "Wysteria Lodge" in 1892 a
case wherein Watson was hallucinating the presence of Holmes himself, another
of Moriartys victims. I think the Gregson of 1892 might have even been
a ghost from Watsons distraught mind overlaid upon another Scotland Yarder.
Yet why is this younger Holmes so reluctant to look into Mrs. Warrens
case? In those days he was all for the commonplace matters and not being put
off by anyones personal qualities. The best excuse I can find for young
Holmes looking to spend a lazy day at Baker Street is that its his birthday,
and with that, and the previous considerations in mind, Im going to place
this one on Tuesday, January 6, 1885.
"The Adventure of
the Bruce-Partington Plans"
THE EXPLANATION OF THE DATE:
"In the third week of November, in the year 1895, a dense yellow fog settled
down upon London. From the Monday to the Thursday I doubt whether it was ever
possible from our windows in Baker Street to see the loom of the opposite houses.
The first day Holmes had spent in cross-indexing his huge book of references.
The second and third had been patiently occupied upon a subject which he had
recently made his hobby the music of the Middle Ages. But when, for the
fourth time, after pushing back our chairs from breakfast we saw the greasy,
heavy brown swirl still drifting past us and condensing in oily drops upon the
window-panes . . ."
THE DAYS OF WESTS LIFE AND DEATH:
"Cadogan West was the young man who was found dead on the Underground on
Tuesday morning."
"He left Woolwich suddenly on Monday night."
REITERATION OF THE MONTH:
"All the long November evening I waited, filled with impatience for his
return."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
November 21, 1895.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
November 21, 1895.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Occasionally Watson likes to give us poor chronologists a break, and "Bruce-Partington
Plans" is just such an occasion.
November of 1895 starts on a Friday, so the Thursday falling in the third week
of that month is indisputably Thursday, November 21, 1895. Were all Watsons
records like this, Sherlockian chronologers would be out of a job.
"The Adventure of
the Dying Detective"
THE MARRIAGE TO GUIDE US:
"I listened earnestly to her story when she came to my rooms in the second
year of my married life . . ."
LENGTH OF HOLMESS ILLNESS:
"For three days he has been sinking, and I doubt if he will last the day."
"For these three days neither food nor drink has passed his lips."
"Poor Victor was a dead man on the fourth day a strong, hearty young
fellow."
THE STATEMENT OF THE DAY:
"He took to his bed on Wednesday afternoon and has never moved since."
"Do you remember a boxan ivory box? It came on Wednesday."
THE STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick room was a gloomy spot,
but it was that gaunt, wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill
to my heart."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
November 19, 1887.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
November 29, 1890.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
"The Adventure of the Dying Detective" was it just another
case, or the last one Holmes ever undertook at Baker Street?
Previous chronologists have tried to shoehorn this case into the 1880s, thinking
that the "second year" of Watsons married life puts it past
the end of Holmess career when Watsons latest marriage is used as
a guide. But at its most basic level, the phrase "in the second year"
simply means that the case fell after his first wedding anniversary, which leaves
it as hardly any impediment to that later period at all.
And there is much about "The Dying Detective" that feels like a later
story: Holmess certainty of his friends reactions to his illness.
His use of Morton instead of Lestrade, a good friend in those later days who
might not have let him pull his charade on Watson. The sureness with which Watson
expects he can get any doctor in London to treat Sherlock Holmes. And the simple
fact that all the other tales in His Last Bow (with the notable exception of
CARD, for well-known reasons) occur in the later period of Holmess career.
We know from "Illustrious Client" that Watson had moved out of Baker
Street by September of 1902. As Holmes says later that Watson deserted him for
a wife, we know that Watsons move was at least preparatory for a marriage,
if not due to the marriage itself. In September of 1903, Holmes is investigating
"The Adventure of the Creeping Man," which is "One of the very
last cases handled by Holmes before his retirement from practice."
But not "the" last case.
One intriguing fact about "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" is
that Holmes might not have really been investigating anything at all when it
came upon him. He seems to have aired some opinions about Victor Savages
death, which Victors uncle has taken exception to, but we have no real
evidence that Holmes was ever wandering dockside alleys looking into anything.
Indeed, his later fictions en route to convincing Mrs. Hudson and Dr. Watson
of his illness would make the Rotherhithe story seem just another ruse.
In September of 1903, Watson has begun publishing the "Return" stories,
so the public knows Holmes is alive again. With that unwanted publicity, any
thoughts of retirement Sherlock Holmes was holding onto probably took center
stage. By November of 1903, he might have even been packing for Sussex (which,
given the litter upon his bedroom mantlepiece, wouldnt be surprising).
But when a criminal attempts your life by sending you a poisoned box in the
mail, you just have to do something about it.
"It was clear to me, however, that by pretending that he had really succeeded
in his design I might surprise a confession," Holmes explains at the cases
end. "That pretence I have carried out with the thoroughness of the true
artist."
It is his last little cock-a-doodle-doo of victory, to be followed by one last
victory dinner at Simpsons.
Since Holmes took to his bed on Wednesday afternoon, then was "sinking"
and not eating or drinking for three whole days, Im going to also buck
the chronology crowd on the day of this one and say Sunday was the day Mrs.
Hudson came to Watson for help. And as Holmes wouldnt be too excited about
staying in a Strand-Magazine-filled London for any longer than he had to, Im
going to set it on the first Sunday of the month it occurred: November 8, 1903.
(An interesting corroboration of sorts: while no new Holmes cases were published
in 1912 or 1914-1916, "Dying Detective" appeared in November 1913
on the tenth anniversary of the actual case.)
"The Disappearance
of Lady Frances Carfax"
ONE EXCELLENT QUESTION FROM HOLMES:
"Why the relaxing and expensive Turkish rather than the invigorating home-made
article?"
AND AN EXCELLENT ANSWER FROM WATSON:
"Because for the last few days I have been feeling rheumatic and old. A
Turkish bath is what we call an alterative in medicine a fresh starting-point,
a cleanser of the system."
ANOTHER EXCELLENT QUESTION FROM HOLMES:
"You say that you have had it because you need a change. Let me suggest
that you take one. How would Lausanne do, my dear Watson first-class
tickets and all expenses paid on a princely scale?"
WATSONS TRIP BEGINS:
"Two days later found me at the Hotel National at Lausanne, where I received
every courtesy at the hands of M. Moser, the well-known manager."
GREENS TIME ON THE JOB IN LONDON:
"For two days the Hon. Philip Green (he was, I may mention, the son of
the famous admiral of that name who commanded the Sea of Azof fleet in the Crimean
War) brought us no news."
LIFESPAN OF AN OLD NURSE:
"We brought her round here, called in Dr. Horsom, of 13 Firbank Villas
mind you take the address, Mr. Holmes and had her carefully tended,
as Christian folk should. On the third day she died . . ."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
July 1, 1902.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
August 1895 or 1897-1901.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
The hard chronological evidence in "Lady France Carfax" is scant indeed:
No years. No months. No days of the week. What we do get, however, is a Watson
living at Baker Street who feels old and in need of a change. We also have a
Holmes who wants to know why anyone would favor a Turkish bath to the convenience
and efficiency of the homemade article. Is that enough evidence to fix a date
for this case? It just might be.
September 3 of 1902, we find Holmes and Watson enjoying a Turkish bath at a
time when Watson has moved out to his own rooms in Queen Anne Street, in "Illustrious
Client." Holmes has obviously been intrigued by Watsons earlier recommendation.
In June of that same year, Holmes refuses a knighthood and Watson gets shot
in the leg by Killer Evans. Its the kind of thing that gets you thinking,
"Im too old for this business," and Id wager that in July
of 1902, thats exactly what Watson was thinking. It was time for a "fresh
starting point."
Holmes, on the other hand, probably feeling more than a little guilt for getting
Watson shot. And what would please Watson more than a first-class trip to Europe
and the chance to rescue a damsel in distress?
Giving Watsons wound a bit of time to heal, taking Saturday as the day
Watson might pick for a thoroughly cleansing bath prior to a big night on the
town, and considering Monday as a natural day for arriving in Lausanne to begin
an investigation, Id have to place this case on Saturday, July 26, 1902.
"The Adventure of
the Devils Foot"
THE DAY PERMISSION WAS GRANTED:
"It was, then, with considerable surprise that I received a telegram from
Holmes last Tuesday . . ."
THE STATEMENT OF THE SEASON, YEAR, AND MONTH:
"It was, then, in the spring of the year 1897 that Holmess iron constitution
showed some symptoms of giving way in the face of constant hard work of a most
exacting kind, aggravated, perhaps, by occasional indiscretions of his own.
In March of that year Dr. Moore Agar, of Harley Street, whose dramatic introduction
to Holmes I may some day recount, gave positive injunctions that the famous
private agent lay aside all his cases and surrender himself to complete rest
if he wished to avert an absolute breakdown."
TIME OF THE WRITING:
"Now, after thirteen years, I will give the true details of this inconceivable
affair to the public."
DATE OF PUBLICATION:
December 1910.
DAY THE CASE BEGINS:
"These were the two men who entered abruptly into our little sitting-room
on Tuesday, March the 16th, shortly after our breakfast hour . . ."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
March 16, 1897.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
April 17, 1897.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Heres a tale where the quirkiness of Ernest B. Zeislers chronology
really comes through. Watson tells us that the case began on "Tuesday,
March the 16th" in "the spring of the year 1897." Could it be
any more plainly stated?
Yet out of all that, Zeisler homes in on the word "spring." March
16th is not spring, he contends. He then accepts Watsons judgement of
when spring is over Watsons judgement of when Tuesday, March 16th, is.
Personally, I think Watson was probably better with days and dates than vernal
equinoxes. But Zeisler, being a "millenium isnt until 2001"
kind of guy, just cant let our good doctor call March 16th spring.
I can.
Tuesday, March 16, 1897, it is.
"His Last Bow"
THE STATEMENT OF DAY AND MONTH:
"It was nine oclock at night upon the second of Augustthe most
terrible August in the history of the world."
THE STATEMENT OF THE MONTH AND YEAR:
"Well, I chose August for the word, and 1914 for the figures, and here
we are."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
August 2, 1914.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
August 2, 1914.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
While "His Last Bow" might be a harbinger of war as far as its place
in history, when it comes to chronology this tale is a moment of truce between
every Sherlockian chronologist past and present. Its is the only tale
where every blessed one of them agrees to the year, month, and day of the case.
Its hard to argue with both Watson and the start of World War One, and
I shant attempt it either.
Sunday, August 2, 1914 it is.
"The Adventure of
the Illustrious Client"
THE WORLDS MOST PERFECT DATE STATEMENT:
"On the upper floor of the Northumberland Avenue establishment there is
an isolated corner where two couches lie side by side, and it was on these that
we lay upon September 3, 1902, the day when my narrative begins."
THE PLACE OF WATSONS RESIDENCE:
"I was living in my own rooms in Queen Anne Street at the time . . ."
THE STATE OF WATSONS CAREER:
"I had some pressing professional business of my own, but I met him by
appointment that evening at Simpsons, where, sitting at a small table
in the front window and looking down at the rushing stream of life in the Strand."
AND A SECOND MENTION OF SIMPSONS:
"I did not see Holmes again until the following evening when we dined once
more at our Strand restaurant."
THAT "KENNEDY ASSASSINATION" MOMENT:
"I think I could show you the very paving-stone upon which I stood when
my eyes fell upon the placard, and a pang of horror passed through my very soul.
It was between the Grand Hotel and Charing Cross Station, where a one-legged
news-vender displayed his evening papers. The date was just two days after the
last conversation."
TIME OF HOLMESS INVALIDITY:
"For six days the public were under the impression that Holmes was at the
door of death."
"On the seventh day the stitches were taken out, in spite of which there
was a report of erysipelas in the evening papers. The same evening papers had
an announcement which I was bound, sick or well, to carry to my friend. It was
simply that among the passengers on the Cunard boat Ruritania, starting from
Liverpool on Friday, was the Baron Adelbert Gruner . . . ."
"Friday! Only three clear days."
THE TIME UNTIL FINAL RESOLUTION:
"Three days later appeared a paragraph in the Morning Post to say that
the marriage between Baron Adelbert Gruner and Miss Violet de Merville would
not take place."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 3, 1902.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
September 13, 1902.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
When Watson says "September 3, 1902" at the beginning of a case, I
have to go with Wednesday, September 3, 1902. As always, the good Zeisler wants
to contradict Watsons best fact based on a more trivial fact, counting
off the days from the cases beginning and deciding what beginning date
fits the "Friday" reference. Too many details lie in figuring that
day count, and all takes is one of them to be off to make the Zeisler thesis
wrong. Better to go with Watsons solid date, dont you think?
"The Adventure of
the Blanched Soldier"
STATEMENT OF THE MONTH AND YEAR:
"I find from my notebook that it was in January, 1903, just after the conclusion
of the Boer War ... The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife,
the only selfish action which I can recall in our association. I was alone."
CONFIRMATION OF MONTH AND YEAR:
"When I joined up in January, 1901just two years ago . . ."
DODDS VISIT TO TUXBURY OLD PARK:
"That was what took me down on Monday."
DELAY OF GAME AND OTHER CASES:
"It happened that at the moment I was clearing up the case which my friend
Watson has described as that of the Abbey School, in which the Duke of Greyminster
was so deeply involved. I had also a commission from the Sultan of Turkey which
called for immediate action, as political consequences of the gravest kind might
arise from its neglect. Therefore it was not until the beginning of the next
week, as my diary records, that I was able to start forth on my mission . .
."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
January 7, 1903.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
January 7, 1903.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
January 1903, the month and year of this case, come from our most unimpeachable
source Holmes himself and are backed up by the historical details
of the Boer War and its end in May of 1902. The day it begins is easily determined
by adding Dodds two nights at Tuxbury Old Place to his arrival there on
a Monday: thus Holmes begins the case on a Wednesday. But which Wednesday in
January of 1903?
Other chronologists have gone for the first Wednesday of that month, Zeisler
doing his usual detailed lunar calculations based on a comment from Dodd about
a half-moon. The thing I find hard to accept about an early January date for
this case, however, is Holmess involvement in the Abbey School case. As
the spring term of the Abbey School may not have even begun by January seventh,
the lads there would have had hardly any time to get into trouble that required
Holmes to clear up. Thus, I would think the second half-moon of the month, which
appeared later in the evening on the twentieth according to Zeisler, would be
the more likely candidate (even if it means a late supper for the residents
of Tuxbury Old Park).
Thus, Im going to place this case as beginning on Wednesday, January 21,
1903.
"The Adventure of
the Mazarin Stone"
WATSONS ABSENCE FROM BAKER STREET:
"It was pleasant to Dr. Watson to find himself once more in the untidy
room of the first floor in Baker Street which had been the starting-point of
so many remarkable adventures."
A CERTAIN TIMELESSNESS:
"It all seems very unchanged, Billy. You dont change, either. I hope
the same can be said of him?"
THE STATEMENT OF THE SEASON:
"It was seven in the evening of a lovely summers day . . ."
A REFERENCE TO A PAST WAX DUMMY:
"We used something of the sort once before."
"Before my time," said Billy.
THE STATE OF WATSONS PRACTICE:
"You bear every sign of the busy medical man, with calls on him every hour."
THE CAREER OF NEGRETTO SYLVIUS:
"Its all here, Count. The real facts as to the death of old Mrs.
Harold, who left you the Blymer estate, which you so rapidly gambled away. .
. And the complete life history of Miss Minnie Warrender. . . . Here is the
robbery in the train de-luxe to the Riviera on February 13, 1892. Here is the
forged check in the same year on the Credit Lyonnais."
"No; youre wrong there."
"Then I am right on the others!"
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
Summer 1903.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
Summer 1903.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
"The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" is perhaps the most sadly neglected
case in the world of Sherlockian chronology. While the elder chronologists have
jumped through hoops to date many another case on scant facts, they seem to
collectively toss up their hands at this one and say, "Why bother!"
Well, if their Associated Shades are reading this from some Sherlockian houseboat
on the river Styx, Im going to tell them why. For the same reason one
tries to date any story in the Canon . . . because its there. And while
it may be disrespectful to call ones elders "gurly men chronologists"
ala Hans and Franz, Im going to do just that. And then Im going
to date this case, if I have to give myself brain fever to do it. So here goes
nothing . . .
First, we know that the story takes place after February 13, 1892. Watson is
returning to Baker Street after an absence, an absence of long enough that hes
surprised to find it unchanged. Billy is still there, as well.
While Watson did desert Holmes for a wife in 1902, he wasnt gone from
Baker Street long enough for him to be quite so amazed in returning to Baker
Street at any time before Holmes left those rooms for Sussex. No, Watsons
reaction harkens back to a time when he was still surprised to find 221B unchanged
after its chief tenant had been dead for three years. A time of air guns and
wax dummies. And a time when the flat disc gramophone was just taking off.
The year 1894.
"Before my time," Billy says of the use of a wax dummy in "Empty
House," yet we saw in "The Valley of Fear" that the page was
around during Moriartys career. If Billy was Holmess employee, rather
than Mrs. Hudsons, it would make sense that he would be let go at Holmess
"death" and hired back shortly after the events of "Empty House"
thus the first dummy was before his time (and after his time as well).
Billys return and Watsons first encounter with him also explains
Watsons reiteration of how unchanged 221B is, even though we know the
doctor has been here before since Holmess return.
So its summer of 1894, yet early enough in summer that Watson and Billy
are just becoming reacquainted as Sherlock Holmes rebuilds his life. As busy
as 1894 was for Holmes and Watson, that would be extremely early . . . something
possibly as early as June 1. And as June 1, 1894 fell on a Friday, which times
out nicely with Sylviuss projected timetable for cutting the diamond up
in Amsterdam by Sunday, Im going to place "Mazarin Stone" on
that very date.
"The Adventure of
the Three Gables"
WATSONS CONTACT WITH HOLMES:
"I had not seen Holmes for some days and had no idea of the new channel
into which his activities had been directed."
"I saw no more of Holmes during the day . . ."
REFERENCE TO AN OLD, OLD CASE:
"I believe that my late husband, Mortimer Maberley, was one of your early
clients."
"I remember your husband well, madam, though it is some years since he
used my services in some trifling matter."
STATE OF HOLMESS CASELOAD:
"He is one of the Spencer John gang and has taken part in some dirty work
of late which I may clear up when I have time."
THE DECLINE OF DOUGLAS MABERLY:
"In a single month I seemed to see my gallant boy turn into a worn-out
cynical man."
THE DEATH OF DOUGLAS MABERLY:
"He was attache at Rome, and he died there of pneumonia last month."
ARRIVAL OF DOUGLASS THINGS:
"Milano. Lucerne. These are from Italy."
"They are poor Douglass things."
"You have not unpacked them? How long have you had them?"
"They arrived last week."
THE DETAILS OF THE MABERLY HOUSE:
"I have been in this house more than a year now, and as I wished to lead
a retired life I have seen little of my neighbours. Three days ago I had a call
from a man who said that he was a house agent."
"Yesterday the man arrived with the agreement all drawn out."
"You have been in this house a year."
"Nearly two."
THE QUICK WORK OF THE STOCKDALE BUNCH:
"Your letter to me had the 10 P. M. postmark. And yet Susan passes the
word to Barney. Barney has time to go to his employer and get instructions;
he or she I incline to the latter from Susans grin when she thought
I had blundered forms a plan. Black Steve is called in, and I am warned
off by eleven oclock next morning."
THE BUSTLING, RUBICUND INSPECTORS TIME ON THE FORCE:
"In twenty-five years experience I have learned my lesson."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
May 26, 1903.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
Near June 1, 1896.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Sherlock Holmes isnt acting very much like Sherlock Holmes in this case.
He lets Mrs. Maberly search for clues for him. He goes to Langdale Pike for
what amounts to the solution to the case. A prize-fighter is involved, but Holmess
own boxing connections are never brought up. Holmes seems something of a sociality
in the way he knows of young Maberly without consulting his commonplace book.
Baker Street is never specifically mentioned. Theres just something very
wrong about it all, and it should be fairly apparent what that something is:
Sherlock Holmes is not actually involved in this case.
In an earlier Chronology Corner, we saw how Watson was hallucinating Holmess
presence in March of 1892 during "Wisteria Lodge," and in "The
Adventure of the Three Garridebs," hes taken it a step further. No
mere hallucination could account for Holmess bizarre behaviour in this
case. I would propose that in his attempts to come to grips with Holmess
loss, Dr. Watson used the royalties from his now successful writing career to
set up shop with a new detective as a partner, a pseudo-Sherlock.
"I remember your husband well, madam," the faux-Sherlock lies to Mrs.
Maberly at one point, "though it is some years since he used my services
in some trifling matter." Luckily for "Sherlock," she had not
met Holmes before, as her husband had been one of his early clients.
Mrs. Maberlys son has died of pneumonia a month earlier in Rome, which
isnt exactly a cold city. The average minimum temperature there in January
doesnt even hit the freezing mark. Sure, one can die of pneumonia any
time of the year, but a vital young man like Maberly, even a beaten, heartbroken
one probably could use the extra encouragement of winter to die in such a way
in Rome.
Christmas is a time for marriage proposals, and an especially tragic time for
a rejection. Maberly persists after the object of his affection, insisting that
she be his and his alone. A week later, on New Years Eve, Douglas Maberly
is beaten outside of his former loves window, winding up lying on that
cold London street long enough to catch a chill that will start him on his downward
trend. His mother accompanies him to Rome, getting her first taste of travel
but seeing her "gallant boy turn into a worn-out cynical man." Once
in Rome, all the son does is decline and write, sending the book off to Isadora
the moment his pen leaves the last page. Without his vengeful purpose of writing
left to sustain him further, Douglas Maberly dies.
His mother returns to London, hires fresh servants (at which time the spy, Susan,
enters her household), and a month later, consults "Sherlock Holmes"
on Wednesday, March 15, 1893.
Why March 15? You surely didnt think the prophecy "Beware the ides
of March!" was about a mere Roman emperor, did you? It was a warning that
future generations would have to endure "The Adventure of the Three Gables."
"The Adventure of
the Sussex Vampire"
DATE OF THE FIRST NOTE:
"Nov. 19th. "
THE PAST CASE REFERENCES:
"I leaned back and took down the great index volume to which he referred.
Holmes balanced it on his knee, and his eyes moved slowly and lovingly over
the record of old cases, mixed with the accumulated information of a lifetime."
"Voyage of the Gloria Scott . . . Victor Lynch, the forger. Venomous lizard
or gila. Remarkable case, that! Vittoria, the circus belle. Vanderbilt and the
Yeggman. Vipers. Vigor, the Hammersmith wonder. Hullo! Hullo! Good old index.
You cant beat it. Listen to this, Watson. Vampirism in Hungary. And again,
Vampires in Transylvania."
"Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson. It was a ship
which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world
is not yet prepared."
LENGTH OF THE FERGUSON MARRIAGE:
"This gentleman married some five years ago a Peruvian lady the daughter
of a Peruvian merchant, whom he had met in connection with the importation of
nitrates."
BALLPARK OF THE FIRST FERGUSON MARRIAGE:
"The gentleman had been married twice and he had one son by the first wife.
This boy was now fifteen . . . ."
THE WATSONIAN REST PERIOD:
"Send him that wire and let the matter rest till morning."
PERIOD OF THE DOGS AFFLICTION:
"It may have been four months ago."
AGE OF THE BABY AND THE ATTACK:
"This was a small matter, however, compared with her conduct to her own
child, a dear boy just under one year of age. On one occasion about a month
ago this child had been left by its nurse . . ."
THE SIMULTANEOUS SPORTS CAREERS:
"Watson played Rugby for Blackheath when I was three-quarter for Richmond."
DURATION OF THE FERUSON RELATIONSHIPS:
"I gather that you did not know your wife well at the time of your marriage?"
"I had only known her a few weeks."
"How long had this maid Dolores been with her?"
"Some years."
STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"It was evening of a dull, foggy November day when, having left our bags
at the Chequers, Lamberley, we drove through the Sussex clay of a long winding
lane and finally reached the isolated and ancient farmhouse in which Ferguson
dwelt."
AGE OF THE HOUSE:
"Here, in a huge old-fashioned fireplace with an iron screen behind it
dated 1670 . . ."
DATE OF HOLMESS WRAP-UP:
"Nov. 21st.
"Referring to your letter of the 19th, I beg to state that I have looked
into the inquiry of your client, Mr. Robert Ferguson, of Ferguson and Muirhead,
tea brokers, of Mincing Lane, and that the matter has been brought to a satisfactory
conclusion."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
November 19, 1896.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
November 19, 1896 or 1901.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
When looking for the year of "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire,"
the best source to begin our search would have to be Holmess good old
index. That eclectic compendium of criminal data has much to tell the observant
scholar, so lets observe.
"Voyage of the Gloria Scott" comes first. As Holmess very first
case, that comes as no surprise, but it also tells us there is a certain time-related
sequence to the events therein. But at what point did Holmes include "Vampirism
in Transylvania"? Well, a good many of his own cases fill the pages before
we get to it. Given the relative low occurrence of the letter "V"
in phone books, dictionaries, etc., we can safely say that piece wasnt
placed there early in his career. Later in his career, we would expect such
data to come less from his studies than from newspapers and periodicals. And
why would newspapers and periodicals suddenly be writing about vampires?
Bram Stokers Dracula, first published in 1897, would seem the logical
inspiration for a sudden return of ancient myths to current events. So if the
vampire reference tends to make the case post 1897, where to go from there?
Well, the history of Peru doesnt look too good up until the early 1890s.
Things didnt really stabilize there until 1895, when a new president stepped
in after a year of power struggles. Throw in the five year marriage of the Fergusons,
and the most likely year for this case quickly starts to look like 1901, a time
when Watson and Holmes were both still at Baker Street.
Given that marvelous London mail service, and the November 19th letters
delivery by the last post, this one looks like Tuesday, November 19, 1901 to
me.
"The Adventure of
the Three Garridebs"
STATEMENT OF THE MONTH AND YEAR:
"I repeat, however, that this enables me to fix the date, which was the
latter end of June, 1902, shortly after the conclusion of the South African
War. Holmes had spent several days in bed, as was his habit from time to time
. . ."
TIME OF HOLMESS VISIT TO LITTLE RYDER:
"Well, we shall be round about six."
STATEMENT OF THE SEASON:
"It was twilight of a lovely spring evening, and even Little Ryder Street,
one of the smaller offshoots from the Edgware Road, within a stone-cast of old
Tyburn Tree of evil memory, looked golden and wonderful in the slanting rays
of the setting sun."
MEETING OF THE GARRIDEBS:
"I went after him two days ago and explained the whole matter to him."
"He called last Tuesday."
CRIME AND SENTENCING FOR KILLER EVANS:
"You shot this man Prescott, did you not?"
"Yes, sir, and got five years for it."
OTHER KILLER EVANS FACTS:
"Aged forty-four. . . . Came to London in 1893. Shot a man over cards in
a night-club in the Waterloo Road in January, 1895. Man died, but he was shown
to have been the aggressor in the row . . . . Killer Evans released in 1901."
NATHAN GARRIDEBS TENANCY:
"Our client, as he told us, has been there five years. It was unlet for
a year before then."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
June 26, 1902.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
June 26, 1902.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
A combination of three factors give us the date of "The Adventure of the
Three Garridebs":
1. The case starts two days after the Tuesday meeting of the Garridebs.
2. The case starts in the second half of June 1902.
3. Watson refers to it as spring.
Putting those three factors together gives us one date, and one date only: Thursday,
June 19, 1902.
The sun seems to be setting as Holmes gets to Garridebs apartment at the
pre-arranged time of six oclock, which doesnt correspond to near-equinox
June whatsoever. This, however, we simply must ascribe to Holmess tardiness.
"The Problem of
Thor Bridge"
STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"It was a wild morning in October, and I observed as I was dressing how
the last remaining leaves were being whirled from the solitary plane tree which
graces the yard behind our house."
WATSONS PLACE OF RESIDENCE:
"I descended to breakfast prepared to find my companion in depressed spirits
. . ."
HOLMESS RECENT PAST:
"After a month of trivialities and stagnation the wheels move once more."
RECENT HIRINGS AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
"There is little to share, but we may discuss it when you have consumed
the two hard-boiled eggs with which our new cook has favoured us. Their condition
may not be unconnected with the copy of the Family Herald which I observed yesterday
upon the hall-table."
THE DATE ON THE LETTER AND THE APPOINTMENT SET:
"October 3rd."
"Well, Ill come at eleven to-morrow . . ."
J. NEIL GIBSONS CURRENT FINANCIAL RANKING:
"This man is the greatest financial power in the world."
NEIL GIBSONS TIME IN HAMPSHIRE:
"He bought a considerable estate in Hampshire some five years ago."
LENGTH OF MARIA PINTO GIBSONS LOVE:
"She adored me in those English woods as she had adored me twenty years
ago on the banks of the Amazon."
THE SEASON REITERATED:
"The sun was setting and turning the rolling Hampshire moor into a wonderful
autumnal panorama."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
October 4, 1900.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
October 4, 1901.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Twenty years before "The Adventure of Thor Bridge," a young, passionate
J. Neil Gibson was supposedly gold-hunting on the banks of the Amazon River.
As hes romancing a city officials daughter, we can probably assume
he was hunting gold that other people had already found, hence his time spent
in the city, rather than the jungle. In the fifteen years that followed, he
returned to the United States and was elected to the U.S. Senate for a number
of years. After that (as one wouldnt think he could get elected with such
activities in his past) Gibson broke "communities, cities, even nations"
in his rabid pursuit of profit, ruining "ten thousand men" in the
process. Having surely made enough enemies in America, Gibson moved to England
for five years.
And when Dr. Watson first meets him, J. Neil Gibson is looking a lot like Abraham
Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. As a boy of no more than fourteen
at the time of the shocking assassination, Gibson would still regard Lincoln
as pure hero, and carry that regard into manhood, doing things like running
for Congress and growing a beard to complete his resemblance the Great Emancipators
best known image, even while indulging in ruthless business practices that were
far from Lincolns style.
But J. Neil Gibsons superficial Lincoln-worship didnt just stop
with Congress or a beard. He would also propose to a girl of local social prominence
named Mary ("Maria" being the Manaos, Brazil equivalent) at age twenty-nine,
just as Lincoln had. Twenty years later, Gibson would regret his arbitrary Lincoln
emulating, even though the girl had seemed a perfect catch at the time.
Following this Lincoln-inspired path of J. Neil Gibsons life, I would
place this case in the year 1900, when October 3 fell on a Wednesday, and the
case began the following day: Thursday, October 4, 1900.
(This would mean, of course, that the cook had to leave the house to pick up
a copy of the Family Herald, which was published on Wednesday, but for the reader
ardent enough to screw up breakfast the next morning because she just has to
read the latest "love romance," that should pose no problem.)
"The Adventure of
the Creeping Man"
STATEMENT OF THE WEEKDAY, MONTH, AND YEAR:
"It was one Sunday evening early in September of the year 1903 that I
received one of Holmess laconic messages . . ."
TIME UNTIL THE WRITING:
"Mr. Sherlock Holmes was always of opinion that I should publish the singular
facts connected with Professor Presbury, if only to dispel once for all the
ugly rumours which some twenty years ago agitated the university and were echoed
in the learned societies of London."
DATES FROM THE ADMIRABLE BENNETT:
"Thus I have it here that it was on that very day, July 2d, that Roy attacked
the professor as he came from his study into the hall. Again, on July 11th,
there was a scene of the same sort, and then I have a note of yet another upon
July 20th."
"I have said, sir, that it was the night before lastthat is, September
4th."
"There was a period of excitement upon August 26th."
"This excellent young mans diary shows that there was trouble upon
July 2d, and from then onward it seems to have been at nine-day intervals, with,
so far as I remember, only one exception. Thus the last outbreak upon Friday
was on September 3d, which also falls into the series, as did August 26th, which
preceded it."
AND ONE FROM HOLMES:
"The date being September 5th . . ."
THE FOLLOWING DAY:
"To-morrow, Mr. Bennett, will certainly see us in Camford."
"Monday morning found us on our way to the famous university town."
THE DAY OF HOLMESS RETURN:
"Unless I am mistaken, next Tuesday may mark a crisis. Certainly we shall
be in Camford on that day."
"I saw nothing of my friend for the next few days, but on the following
Monday evening I had a short note asking me to meet him next day at the train."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 6, 1903.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
September 6, 1903.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
For a somewhat outlandish tale, "The Adventure of the Creeping Man"
could give us no clearer set of dates, all nicely corresponding to the days
of the week cited. It was a Sunday early in September of 1903 and "the
night before last" was the 4th, so it must be Sunday, September 6, 1903.
"The Adventure of
the Lions Mane"
STATEMENT OF THE MONTH AND YEAR:
"Towards the end of July, 1907, there was a severe gale, the wind blowing
up-channel, heaping the seas to the base of the cliffs and leaving a lagoon
at the turn of the tide. On the morning of which I speak the wind had abated,
and all Nature was newly washed and fresh."
THE DAY OF THE WEEK:
"Tuesday was to-day, and I had meant to meet him to-night."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
July 27, 1909.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
July 27, 1909.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
In dating previous cases, Ive always followed the motto, "Trust Watson."
One can hardly do less with Holmes, as the detective himself would have to be
an even more precise observer and this case is all Holmes. If Sherlock
Holmes says there was a gale in late July of 1907, then we can surely assume
there was a gale in late July of 1907, even if standard weather historians have
missed it. Thus, we can place this case on Tuesday, July 30, 1907, and let disbelievers
like Baring-Gould and Zeisler think what they like.
"The Adventure of
the Veiled Lodger"
THE LENGTH OF HOLMESS CAREER:
"When one considers that Mr. Sherlock Holmes was in active practice for
twenty-three years, and that during seventeen of these I was allowed to cooperate
with him and to keep notes of his doings, it will be clear that I have a mass
of material at my command."
THE STATEMENT OF THE YEAR:
"One forenoon it was late in 1896 I received a hurried note
from Holmes asking for my attendance."
LENGTH OF THE VEILED LODGING:
"You say that Mrs. Ronder has been your lodger for seven years and that
you have only once seen her face."
THE DAYS OF RONDER:
"He was the rival of Wombwell, and of Sanger, one of the greatest showmen
of his day."
THE PERIOD OF THE TRAGEDY:
"On this particular night, seven years ago, they both went, and a very
terrible happening followed, the details of which have never been made clear."
WATSONS LOCATION DURING THE TRAGEDY:
"And yet you were with me then."
THE DOINGS OF THE CIRCUS:
"They were on their way to Wimbledon, travelling by road, and they were
simply camping and not exhibiting, as the place is so small a one that it would
not have paid them to open."
THE DELAY OF THE INVESTIGATION:
"It was six months before she was fit to give evidence, but the inquest
was duly held, with the obvious verdict of death from misadventure."
THE END OF LEONARDO:
"He was drowned last month when bathing near Margate. I saw his death in
the paper."
WATSON CHECKS UP ON HOLMES:
"Two days later, when I called upon my friend, he pointed with some pride
to a small blue bottle upon his mantelpiece."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
October 1896.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
October 1896.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
Finding the date of "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" seems to
be intimately connected to finding the date of the original Abbas Parva tragedy.
Previous chronologists have used Watsons presence at Baker Street as a
key indicator in this search, but the true answers lie far from that locale,
as far away as the circus itself where the tragedy occurred.
Mrs. Ronders worsening mental state would have to be attributed to a powerful
combination of two events: the death notice of Leonardo the strong man and the
coming anniversary of the tragedy itself. So when did the tragedy occur? Though
we generally think of circuses running in a season from March to October, Ive
run into at least one source that mentions Boxing Day, December 26, as the official
start of the circus season. While that may seem plenty early, Ronders
fellow showman George Sanger ran his circus for a nine-month season, which
if it indeed began in late December to catch the holiday crowds would
bring it to an end as October rolled around.
If October meant the end of the cirus season for Ronders Wild Beast Show,
it would make sense that Eugenia and Leonardo wanted to kill Ronder before the
seasons end, sometime in late September. If the tragedys anniversary
fell in late September, and Eugenia Ronders dread of it began earlier
in the month, Leonardos death while swimming would have occurred, quite
naturally, in August, a fine month for swimming.
As the Ronder show was "camping and not exhibiting" on the night of
the tragedy, one would expect it to be a Sunday night the traditional
night off for circuses of the day as even near a small town, a slavedriver
like Ronder would hope to pick up a few coins. With the Wimbledon shows still
ahead of them, that would most likely place the tragedy on Sunday, September
22, 1889.
"On this particular night, seven years ago," Holmes says with enough
appropriate drama to make one believe that the day Mrs. Merrilow has come to
see them is the actual anniversary of the tragedy: Tuesday, September 22, 1896.
(Watson says "it was late in 1896," yes, but the remark is so casual
as to let one believe in could be anywhere in the later half of 1896, and September
certainly qualifies.)
"The Adventure of
Shoscombe Old Place"
A CURRENT MATTER AND A PAST ONE
"In the St. Pancras case you may remember that a cap was found beside the
dead policeman. The accused man denies that it is his. But he is a picture-frame
maker who habitually handles glue."
"My friend, Merivale, of the Yard, asked me to look into the case. Since
I ran down that coiner by the zinc and copper filings in the seam of his cuff
they have begun to realize the importance of the microscope."
WATSONS FORMER VACATION HOME
"I know it well, for my summer quarters were down there once."
SIR ROBERTS RIDING PAST:
"He is about the most daredevil rider in England second in the Grand
National a few years back."
STATEMENT OF THE MONTH:
"Thus it was that on a bright May evening Holmes and I found ourselves
alone in a first-class carriage and bound for the little "halt-on-demand"
station of Shoscombe."
THE RECENCY OF SIR ROBERTS LATEST OUTRAGE:
"We only found it out yesterdayafter I had written to you. Yesterday
Sir Robert had gone to London, so Stephens and I went down to the crypt.
LENGTH OF SERVICE OF THE MAID:
"There is her maid, Carrie Evans. She has been with her this five years."
DAYS AND NIGHTS OF MR. JOHN MASON:
"Because I have seen him, Mr. Holmes. It was on that second night."
"We only found it out yesterday after I had written to you. Yesterday
Sir Robert had gone to London, so Stephens and I went down to the crypt."
"We expect him back to-day."
"When did Sir Robert give away his sisters dog?"
"It was just a week ago to-day."
THE TIMING OF SIR ROBERTS STORY:
"Well, Mr. Holmes, my sister did die just a week ago."
"If I could stave things off for three weeks all would be well."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
May 6, 1902.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
May 6, 1902.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
"The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" begins in May, according to
Watson, and two weeks and one day before the Derby, according to Sir Roberts
desire for three weeks time when his sister died. To figure out which
year Sir Roberts Derby took place, one could calculate the phases of the
moon, the times the moon would rise on all the appropriate evenings and the
amount of light each of those moonrises would project through recorded cloud
cover in Berkshire. Or one could take the route Holmes takes in this case and
just go fishing.
Wait a minute . . . Holmes goes fishing during this case? He hasnt been
fishing since Trevor senior first put him on to the detective biz, way back
in "The Gloria Scott"! Sherlock Holmes suddenly deciding to go fishing
while on the job is a perfect example of what a 9-to-5 office denizen would
call "vacation mode." He can see the finish line, and hes starting
to slack off in anticipation of it. Hes headed for that life of nature
in Sussex, and sees an opportunity to slip a little nature in early.
On that basis, and that basis alone, this case has to take place in 1903, the
detectives last year in active practice. Derby Day in 1903 took place
on June 3, which then places the cases beginning two weeks and a day earlier
on Tuesday, May 26, 1903.
"The Adventure of
the Retired Colourman"
THE YEARS OF HIS LIFE:
"He made his little pile, retired from business at the age of sixty-one
. . ."
"Retired in 1896, Watson. Early in 1897 he married a woman twenty years
younger than himself a good-looking woman, too, if the photograph does
not flatter. A competence, a wife, leisure it seemed a straight road
which lay before him. And yet within two years he is, as you have seen, as broken
and miserable a creature as crawls beneath the sun."
"The couple went off together last week."
HOLMESS OTHER CASE:
"You know that I am preoccupied with this case of the two Coptic Patriarchs,
which should come to a head to-day."
THE STATEMENT OF THE SEASON:
"And so it was that on a summer afternoon I set forth to Lewisham, little
dreaming that within a week the affair in which I was engaging would be the
eager debate of all England."
THE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR:
"On that particular evening old Amberley, wishing to give his wife a treat,
had taken two upper circle seats at the Haymarket Theatre."
"Carina sings to-night at the Albert Hall."
WATSONS PLACE OF RESIDENCE:
"In the morning I was up betimes, but some toast crumbs and two empty egg-shells
told me that my companion was earlier still."
THE SCHEDULE OF THE PAPER:
"A couple of days later my friend tossed across to me a copy of the bi-weekly
North Surrey Observer."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
Thursday, July 28, 1898.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
July or August 1898.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAYS TIMETABLE:
The summer of 1898 was not a good time for Sherlock Holmes. In mid-August, his
too-late deciphering of the "Dancing Men" code had resulted in a mans
death and the horrible wounding of his wife. Was that event the cause of his
melancholy at the beginning of "Retired Colourman" and words like
"But is not all life pathetic and futile?" I think so.
Other chronologers have used the closing of Barries "The Little Minister"
at the Haymarket theater as their base in dating this case, but as the ticket
Amerberly shows Watson is for a seat that didnt exist in the Haymarket
as we know it, that seems a bit more unreliable than Holmess sincere depression
occurring so near to a tragedy which he himself could have stopped.
As bi-weekly newspapers tend to have a mid-week edition in my experience, and
five days (one for Carina, one for Little Purlington, one for the arrest, and
two for the paper to come out) prior to that gives us Saturday, the perfect
evening for Holmes to distract himself with a concert, Im going to place
this case on Saturday, August 20, 1898.