Chronology part 5

Moving on to dating other Holmes stories:

• REIG - April 1887. The Lyons telegram is the 14th, but the Reigate case starts on the 25th.
• SILV - July 7-12, 1887

REIG has had multiple titles over the years: "Reigate Squire", "Reigate Squires", and "Reigate Puzzle." It depends on what collection or edition you have, what the title will be. This case has one of the more interesting beginnings, because Watson mentions a great international case, concerning the Netherland-Sumatra Company and the colossal schemes of Baron Maupertuis, which Holmes investigated in France. He was apparently there for two months, working 15 hour days, for four days at a stretch. Yet Watson was not with him, and we are given no explanation for why. It could be that Watson got a medical job and couldn't go to France for that long. (I'm thinking of locum work, filling in for other doctors, rather than a practice of his own.) Brad Keefauver thinks that Watson was romancing a new wife and Holmes wanted to get away starting in February. But I don't subscribe to theories about Watson constantly getting married, let alone the idea that they were all fake marriages. It could be that Holmes asked Watson not to come, that he secretly planned to use cocaine to sustain that crazy pace, and he knew that Watson would object to the drug.

Whatever the reason, Holmes solves the case, and someone, maybe the police or the client, sends Watson a telegram on April 14th. So he promptly goes to the hotel in Lyons within 24 hours, but is relieved to find that there's "nothing formidable in his symptoms." It's odd that Watson somehow claims that Holmes is really sick, and yet not that sick. In any case, "Europe is ringing with his name," and the floor is covered in congratulatory telegrams. This proves that Holmes is internationally famous in spring of 1887, long before Watson's stories are published. Is Watson also famous, since the client or whoever knows to telegram him as Holmes's doctor and flatmate? Or did Holmes specifically ask for Watson instead of allowing any local French doctor to attend to him? Holmes does sometimes see doctors other than Watson, such as Dr. Moore Agar in DEVI and Sir Leslie Oakshott in ILLU. Often I picture that Holmes fainted and was unconscious when the telegram was sent; otherwise he would have sent one of his characteristic summons himself, like "come if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same."

Whatever Holmes's condition, Watson stays with him at the hotel for 3 days before he takes him home to Baker Street. Then he delicately negotiates to get Holmes to Colonel Hayter's house in Surrey a week after that. Watson certainly sounds like a bachelor, free to come and go to bachelor establishments. The evening they arrive in Reigate, Colonel Hayter mentions a recent local burglary on Monday, but Watson warns Holmes not to take a case. However, the next morning there's a murder, and Inspector Forrester comes to consult Holmes, so Watson gives up. Going to the murder scene, Holmes specifically asks Watson to stay behind, though he directs his statement to Colonel Hayter, possibly to avoid Watson objecting again. Holmes's behavior becomes so erratic that Inspector Forrester and others doubt that he's well. So we can hardly blame Watson for being fooled too by the malingering. But I did think, when has Holmes not behaved "queerly" in his life? He's queer in every sense. Holmes eventually solves the murder, but nearly gets strangled by the murderers. After the arrest, Holmes again asks Watson to wait with Hayter for an hour. Then he comes back to explain the case at lunch time, and he announces he's all better and would like to go home tomorrow, even though it hasn't been a whole week yet. One wonders what Watson's reaction to this was. Maybe Watson tried to strangle him after lunch.

Now onto "Silver Blaze" the famous case of the missing horse, and the dog that did nothing in the nighttime. The story begins with Holmes announcing at breakfast that he needs to go to King's Pyland, and Watson is not surprised. The mystery has been dominating recent newspapers, and Watson witnessed Holmes brooding on it for days, so clearly they live together. An hour or so later, they're on the train to Dartmoor, so I think they did stay long enough to eat breakfast. As they discuss the news accounts of the case, Holmes reveals that he had received telegrams on Tuesday evening, and Watson says today is Thursday. Monday night into Tuesday morning is when the horse went missing, and Holmes says the upcoming race is next Tuesday. I did previously discuss the problems of dating the story based on the "Wessex Cup/Plate" in Winchester. I ultimately decided to go with the 1887 date over 1888, because I could not get a hold of any Zeisler book to learn his sources. I could, of course, ignore the race by saying that it wasn't in Winchester, but somewhere else, and then I could pick any date. But that just gives me too many options, especially as I have no knowledge of horseracing seasons. Besides, 1887 is before Watson's marriage, so he's still a bachelor free to travel at a moment's notice.

Anyway, the City of Winchester article is dated August 1990, and it refers to the Hampshire Chronicle dated on July 16th, 1887, which was a Saturday looking back at the recent race. So looking back to the Tuesday, the race would be on July 12th, and the mysterious Monday would have been July 4th. As said previously, Holmes and Watson did not go to Dartmoor until Thursday morning July 7th, then they returned home the same day, but they came out to Winchester on Tuesday for the race. Watson puzzlingly says "four days later" which is off by one day. But maybe the night train Holmes spoke of was an overnight train, and they didn't get home until Friday morning. Also the 1887 article does refer to the "first day" of the race, and an objection about Jockey Club rules, so possibly something happened on Monday, and pushed the race to Tuesday. Was the race always set for Monday, and Watson retroactively changed the reference to Tuesday? I'm not sure.