Chronology part 14

Chronology of 1895.

• 3STU - spring, maybe May, 1895
• BLAC - July, 1895
• LADY - summer 1895 or 1896
• BRUC - 3rd week of November 1895

The famous Vincent Starrett 221B poem, full of nostalgia about bygone Victorian days, ends with the wish that "it's always 1895" for Holmes and Watson. I wonder if Starrett picked that year just for the rhyme, or if he really thinks that 1895 is when Holmes and Watson would be happiest at 221B. Why that year and not another? Anyway, it's time to finally tackle the cases occuring in 1895.

Watson begins "The Three Students" adventure with this odd statement, "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." Why so vague on the "combination of events" that made you leave London? Why not just tell us if it's for a case, or if it's for a rest cure like in DEVI? He could even say that they needed to leave town so that 221B could be renovated with indoor plumbing or electric lights, or the weird stuff from MAZA. Watson's vagueness, and the fact that Oscar Wilde's trials occurred in the spring of 1895, has led slash-friendly readers to see a connection; maybe Holmes and Watson wished to lie low so they wouldn't be suspected of being a homosexual couple. Indeed, my unfinished story Madness depends on Holmes and Watson reacting to Oscar Wilde's scandal. More traditional readers may insist that they're only friends, but it's the appearance of impropriety that matters; rumours can be damaging without proof. See how Watson gets outraged and panicky in the movie The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, when Holmes has lied about their relationship.

But ignoring that, Holmes and Watson are staying at a university for some weeks. (So that is why I punt SOLI to 1898 so it won't clash with 3STU.) Sherlockians have used this story, GLOR, MUSG, MISS, and CREE to try to figure out if Holmes attended Oxford or Cambridge. I don't really care which, and in fanfic I have most often written Holmes going to both at different times. Watson also says he's going to disguise which university this is because of the scandal of a cheating student. So even if you find clues in this story, Watson could be planting those clues on purpose to misdirect you. Anyway, they live in furnished lodgings together while Holmes does research on English charters at the nearby library. What is Watson supposed to do while Holmes is researching for hours every day? He's supposed to entertain himself for weeks? In NORW, Holmes secretly paid to have Watson move back to 221B, so he no longer has a practice. Plus Watson is forbidden to publish new cases until 1901, so basically he becomes a "kept man" with no job, living off his wound pension and his royalties from the published stories. Wouldn't this hurt Watson's pride, and wouldn't staying with Holmes at this university emphasize even more how much of a "kept man" he is? Unless he's worried that Holmes will use drugs again if he's not closely watched, but Watson gives no hint of that concern in 3STU. I'm just saying, unless they're a couple having intimate relations at night, I don't see why Watson would need to stay with Holmes during this time. Do friends often go on long holidays together if one of the friends is going to work the whole time?

But back to the case. They have made the acquaintance of Mr. Hilton Soames, a tutor and lecturer in Greek. I personally think they made his acquaintance over the course of their weeks here, but some Sherlockians read it as Holmes knowing Soames from years ago, when he attended this university in the past. Anyway, one evening, Soames visits them in a crisis and begs Holmes to investigate. Holmes says that he's busy and tells Soames to consult the police, but Soames insists that they need to avoid a public scandal. Watson comments on Holmes's poor temper lately. "Without his scrapbooks, his chemicals, and his homely untidiness, he was an uncomfortable man." So that means Holmes is not allowed to be untidy in their temporary lodgings. Is Watson there to keep the place clean and neat?

Anyway, Soames explains about the big Fortescue Scholarship exam tomorrow, and that he received the Greek exam papers today to proofread. He locked the papers in his office when he left at tea-time, but when he returned, the door was unlocked and he saw signs that somebody had been inside, copying the test. Soames wants to catch the cheater rather than cancel the exam tomorrow. Holmes is now more interested in the mystery, especially the behaviour of Bannister, the servant who inadvertently left the key in the door. Bannister became upset and collapsed into a chair. Soames left him there, locked up the papers, and rushed to get Holmes's help.

Holmes questions Soames, then they go to the crime scene at about twilight; Holmes rather rudely tries to make Watson stay behind until Watson insists on coming along. At the building, Holmes looks at the office window on tiptoe and will later say that the height is significant because he is 6 feet tall. So Watson has been exaggerating his height all this time? Inside, Holmes examines the pencil shavings, the clay pellet, and the scratch on the table. He even checks the bedroom leading from the office, and he finds another clay pellet, proof that the cheater hid in there when Soames suddenly returned to his office. Soames is horrified at the thought.

Holmes then questions him about the three suspects; there are only three students scheduled to take this exam tomorrow, and they all live in the same building above Soames's office. One student is on each floor. It must be a small building, or there are other rooms like closets, kitchens, etc, that we are ignoring as irrelevant. The Indian student Daulat Ras came in to ask Soames a question earlier in the afternoon, but the exam papers were all rolled up at the time, so he wouldn't have known what they were. The other two students are Gilcrest, an athlete, and Miles McLaren, who has been a bad student lately. Holmes questions Bannister about his fainting spell, then they take a walk in the "quadrangle." (Sherlockians pounce on that term as proof that the university is Oxford, not Cambridge.)

Holmes tries to see each of the 3 students, posing as a visitor merely interested in the old architecture of the buildings, but McLaren refuses to let them in. After all, he's trying to study for an exam tomorrow. Holmes asks Soames how tall McLaren is, then decides to leave for the night. Soames is upset, but Holmes tells him to change nothing about the exam; he'll talk to him early tomorrow. Then Holmes and Watson visit all 4 stationery stores in town, but they fail to find a match for the pencil shavings. They head back to their lodgings at 9 PM for a late dinner. Holmes jokes that the landlady will be peeved with them.

The next morning, they skip breakfast, and Holmes shows Watson that he found a match for the clay pellets. In Soames's office, Holmes tries to get Bannister to confess that he helped hide the cheater, but Bannister won't budge. They summon Gilchrist next, and Holmes explains how he solved the mystery. The cheater had to be a tall man, tall enough to glance in the office window and recognize the exam papers. Then the cheater saw the key in the door and decided to take his chance. Gilchrist admits to cheating, but he shows Soames a letter that he already wrote, withdrawing from the exam. Instead he'll go to South Africa to join the Rhodesian police. Gilchrist reveals that Bannister was a loyal butler of his late father, and gave him good advice yesterday. Everybody's happy with that result. But eesh, Rhodesia is a colony with a terrible history. Brad Keefauver dates this case in May, based on the date that the colony adopted the name Rhodesia.

BLAC is another Return story that Watson definitely dates to 1895. He says that Holmes was never in better mental or physical condition. Holmes had an "immense" practice, and Watson teases us with illustrious clients and more unrecorded cases. He also calls the BLAC "the tragedy of Woodman's Lee", concerning the murder of Captain Peter Carey. Speaking of captains, Holmes has been going out in disguise as Captain Basil since the first week of July, and Watson mentions his "five small refuges" in London where he can change disguises. One morning at breakfast, Holmes strides in with a huge spear under his arm; at the butcher's shop, he used the spear to repeatedly try to impale a pig's corpse. (I'm not sure why the butcher let Holmes do this; maybe he gave him money and explained that the experiment was for a case.)

Holmes explains to Watson that he was trying to recreate the murder at Woodman's Lee, where Carey was transfixed to a wall by a harpoon; it's hard to spear someone like that with a single blow. Soon Inspector Hopkins joins them at breakfast; he had wired to Holmes last night for help on the case. This is actually the first published case with Stanley Hopkins. BLAC was published in February 1904, then later GOLD, MISS, and ABBE in the same year. Holmes claims in ABBE that Hopkins has called in Holmes for 7 cases total, but we only know of these 4 that Watson published. Watson describes young Hopkins as only 30, and Holmes has high hopes for him.

Hopkins summarizes the case for Watson's benefit. Peter Carey was born in 1845 and was 50 years old when he died, so that corroborates 1895 as the year. He was a successful whaling ship captain, but retired in 1884. He travelled for a while, then six years ago he bought the Woodman's Lee property, and he died there exactly a week ago. Carey had a wife and a 20-year-old daughter, so the marriage must have begun in the 1870s. The man was "an intermittent drunkard" and when he was drunk, he was an abusive fiend, literally whipping his wife and daughter out of the house at night. Fuck him. Also, I guess Holmes was wrong when he said in COPP that screams in London would arouse neighbours to stop abuse and get justice for a victim. Well, a vicar tried to scold Carey about his abuse, so Carey savagely assaulted him. How sad that Carey got an official summons for assaulting the vicar, but not for assaulting his wife and daughter multiple times. Fuck Victorian society for making women the property of men. Anyway, Carey's abusive fiendishness is the reason for his nickname of Black Peter. Hopkins also says it's because Carey was "swarthy" with a big beard.

Anyway, Carey had constructed a cabin on his property to resemble the cabin he had on his ship. He slept there every night rather than sleep in the normal house with his family. He kept the key and wouldn't allow anyone else into his cabin. However, on Monday at 1 AM, a local stonemason saw a silhouette on the window that he swears was not Carey; the beard was different. Hopkins dismisses this as irrelevant because the murder actually happened on Wednesday around 2 AM. So this information, with "the first week of July" reference above means that the murder took place on Wednesday July 3rd, and Holmes went about as Captain Basil for a week based on just the news accounts. Today is Wednesday July 10th, and Hopkins only asked for help last night on the 9th.

So anyway, they investigate the case for a couple days, including the red herring John Hopley Neligan, who was looking for evidence to exonerate his father for stealing securities from a bank years ago. His father headed to Norway on a yacht in 1883, but it vanished in storms. Some of the securities were sold by Peter Carey, so Neligan wanted to investigate this. Hopkins thinks the guy is guilty because his initials match a notebook in the cabin, but Holmes doubts the lad is strong enough to harpoon somebody to a wall. Initials do prove to be important when Holmes finds the true murderer, who has the same initials as Peter Carey; Hopkins had found a tobacco pouch in the cabin, but he had assumed it belonged to Carey, not his murderer.

Holmes invites Hopkins to breakfast at 9:30 AM on July 12th, but he also arranges for 3 suspects to come over at 10 AM. They are 3 seafaring men looking to be hired by Captain Basil for a voyage. Holmes rejects the first 2 men when he hears their names; however, he doesn't send them back downstairs. Instead he pays them each half a sovereign and says, "Just step into this room and wait there for a few minutes." What room is that? I've already mentioned this before when discussing 221B's layout. I'm still puzzled on whether Holmes is actually making them wait in his own bedroom or not. Finally, Patrick Cairns arrives, and Holmes surprise-arrests him like he did to Jefferson Hope in STUD. They even tie up his ankles too, then try to resume breakfast.

Holmes explains that Cairns is the murderer, but Cairns protests that it was in self-defence because Carey was drew a knife to attack him. Cairns was a harpooner on Carey's ship back in 1883 when they rescued Neligan's father from shipwreck, but later he saw Carey throw Neligan's father overboard so he could steal the securities. Cairns came to meet Carey starting on Monday July 1st and attempted to blackmail him about murdering Neligan. Carey seemed willing to pay the blackmail, but by Wednesday morning he had changed his mind and was belligerent. Cairns claims that he had to harpoon Carey to save his own life. Hopkins thanks Holmes for solving the case, and Holmes says he better take the prisoner away. "Mr. Patrick Cairns occupies too large a proportion of our carpet." But Hopkins stays long enough for Holmes to explain how he solved the case. Overall, BLAC is a depressing story of greed and murder. The only good part of the case is that Neligan will go free and finally know who murdered his father 12 years ago.

LADY was first published in December 1911, and it has almost no clues as to dates. Watson just drops us straight into a conversation about his recent visit to the Turkish bath, saying that he feels rheumatic and old. He also avoids answering Holmes's question about who shared his cab, which makes Sherlockians speculate on whether he's met a woman to be the 2nd Mrs. Watson yet. After Watson's remark about needing a change for health, Holmes sends him on a case in Lausanne, Switzerland, to find the missing Lady Frances Carfax. At first he says that his client is the lady's former governess Miss Dobney, but Holmes also implies that all expenses will be paid by the rich Carfax family who are "anxious" about her. But why would they pay, when Susan Dobney is the one who cared enough to consult a detective? (At one point later, Watson even claims that Philip Green is their client; it's quite confusing.) Holmes claims that he can't leave England just now. "Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes." (But Holmes readily leaves England for several cases in France for example, and he certainly left during FINA and during the Hiatus for 3 years.)

On his own, Watson does well enough to trace Lady Frances's hotel stays and to discover that she made friends with the Shlessingers, a missionary and his wife. Watson also traces the maid Marie Devine, and he thinks Holmes must be joking when he asks about Dr Shlessinger's left ear. So of course Holmes shows up in disguise in Montpellier, breaks up a fight, and berates Watson for blundering through the case. Then why did you send him at all, Holmes? And why did you go to France, when you already know that the Shlessingers brought her back to England? Just send Watson a telegram to come home, rather than ask him about ears! Anyway, Shlessinger is actually an Australian criminal named Henry Peters aka Holy Peters who preys on lonely women seeking comfort in religion. His accomplice Annie Fraser poses as his wife.

The only date is when Holmes tells Watson that someone bit Holy Peters's ear during a saloon fight in Adelaide in 1889. So the case at least needs to be after 1889, and moreover, it's probably after Holmes's return in 1894. You see, Watson consults Thomas Cook's travel agency about Lady Frances's itinerary, and according to a note in the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Cook's opened their Lausanne office in April 1891, too late for Watson to be there pre-FINA. (Michael Kaser is the person who gave the April 1891 tidbit.) So it's post-return and Watson is living with Holmes; it must be before Watson moves to Queen Anne Street in ILLU. Incidentally, ILLU is the other only case with a Turkish bath, and it's dated September 3, 1903. In LADY, Holmes asks Watson why he would choose a Turkish bath over an English bath, but by ILLU, Holmes enjoys indulgent Turkish baths too. So that narrows the date only to 1894-1903.

At least Holmes is polite enough to telegram Mrs. Hudson to warn her that he and Watson are coming home tomorrow. They arrive about 7:30 PM and have their dinner before Holmes consults Lestrade about Lady Frances. Holmes tries using his own organisation (the Irregulars?) and also advertises, but cannot find any clue for a week, until Peters pawns some of Lady Frances's jewelry. Holmes writes a note for the pawnbroker's shop, and has Green wait there for 2 days until Annie Fraser comes to pawn more jewelry on the 3rd day. Green follows her and overhears a crucial clue at the undertaker; he worries even more when he sees a coffin delivered to her house. Green soon reports to Holmes, who sends Green to Scotland Yard to get a warrant.

Notice how many times we get telegrams and notes being sent? It means that 221B doesn't have a telephone installed yet. Otherwise Holmes could call Scotland Yard directly and ask to speak to Lestrade himself. He wouldn't need a messenger, even to give Green busy work. Holmes often speaks with urgency in this case; he worries that Lady Frances could be killed at any minute, if she's not already dead. He assures Green that "not a moment will be lost." But Holmes is still slowed down by his lack of technology. Another Sherlockian named Dr. Theodore Gibson (cited by D. Martin Dakin) pointed out that if there was a telephone in Baker Street, then Holmes and Watson could have phoned Scotland Yard the next morning to rush the warrant and get immediate help in rescuing Lady Frances. The 221B telephone first appears in 1898 in RETI, so LADY needs to occur before then. So now I've got a manageable range of 1894 to 1898.

Anyway, Holmes does the best he can, storming the house with Watson and no warrant. Holmes draws his revolver instead, and Peters calls them burglars; Holmes agrees and calls Watson a "dangerous ruffian" too. They search for and open the coffin, only to find the old woman Rose Spender inside. Peters claims that Rose is his wife's former nurse that they recently rescued from a workhouse. Holmes and Watson retreat when a policeman tells them they can't stay without a warrant. So they investigate the 90-year-old Rose Spender and the doctor who certified her death. They check on the police warrant, which won't be ready until tomorrow at 9 AM. Still confused about where Lady Frances is, Holmes spends a sleepless night worrying until inspiration strikes at 7:20 the next morning. He fetches Watson and once again they storm the Peters house before the funeral. This time they open the coffin and find Lady Frances inside, on top of Rose. If there had been a telephone, Holmes could have called Lestrade and/or Green to meet them at the house and help with screwdrivers or whatever. Luckily, Watson is able to save Lady Frances despite the chloroform. He uses some kind of artificial respiration and injected ether (which the New Annotated notes is a powerful cardiac stimulant) to revive her. Lestrade arrives later and so does Green, but it's a pity that Peters and Fraser got away while everyone was focused on the urgent crisis of Lady Frances.

On LADY, I think I decided on summer because Holmes tries to portray Watson's trip abroad as if it's a nice holiday for him, to make him feel better and less rheumatic. That would be spring or summer, but spring's already used up by 3STU in 1895. I think I settled on 1895 or 1896 because other cases were already filling up 1897 and 1898. So that's where I'm leaving LADY. Still vague, but better than 1894-1903.

By contrast, BRUC has much more definite information. Watson says it's the 3rd week of November in 1895. After days of dense fog, the case starts on a Thursday morning. Looking at the calendar, we could even date it to November 21, 1895. A frustated Holmes complains that London criminals aren't taking advantage of the fog, but he'll soon get a case where villains definitely took advantage of fog to conceal a murder. Sherlock is surprised by a telegram from his brother Mycroft about Cadogan West. This is the 2nd major appearance of Mycroft Holmes, after GREE and his brief mention in FINA. Watson still thinks Mycroft is some government auditor, but Sherlock reveals with a laugh that Mycroft is much more important than that. He claims that he didn't know Watson well enough to tell the truth in GREE, back in 1888. Maybe it would be better to say that Mycroft swore him to secrecy then, but now Mycroft's okay with Watson knowing about his so-called omniscience. If he really knew everything, he wouldn't need to consult his brother.

Anyway, Watson finds the recent news article about Arthur Cadogan West being found dead by the Underground tracks on Tuesday morning at 6 AM. He was a young clerk working at Woolwich Arsenal (Royal Arsenal, for military manufacturing and research). According to his fiancée Violet Westbury, he disappeared into the fog on Monday night at 7:30 PM. People at the inquest assume that Cadogan West fell from the train somehow, but there's no ticket on him. There was no robbery, and there were technical papers found on his body.

Soon Lestrade and Mycroft arrive to discuss the case with Sherlock. Mycroft explains about the stolen plans for the Bruce-Partington submarine and he urges Sherlock to go find the missing papers. He stresses the importance of the case and dangles the possibility of a knighthood for solving it. Holmes will investigate the case for its own sake, though he asks Mycroft for more facts. Lestrade ventures a plausible theory that Cadogan West was going to sell the plans, but he got in a fight with the buyer, who killed him for the papers and pushed him from the train. Mycroft feels this is wrong though, and urges his brother to go detect.

Lestrade takes Holmes and Watson to Aldgate Station where the body was found. Holmes is inspired by the points (switches) and the curve of the track, but he doesn't explain himself yet. He telegrams Mycroft for a current list of spies. Speaking of spies, this story involves Hugo Oberstein, who was mentioned in SECO. BRUC must take place after SECO, but we've already established the dates for both of these cases. Some people might wonder why Sherlock needs to ask Mycroft, when he already knew all the spies in SECO, but I think Holmes just needed an updated list since Eduardo Lucas died in SECO. Besides, that was back in 1888, many years ago. Holmes tells Watson that Cadogan West was killed elsewhere, then placed on the roof of the train. The body fell off when the train came around the curved track, pitching and swaying on the points. This explains the lack of blood and the missing train ticket.

Holmes and Watson go to Woolwich to talk to Sir James Walter, but he's suddenly dead, and it's never made clear whether he killed himself or was murdered. His brother Valentine tries to suggest that Sir James died of shame due to the horrible scandal of the stolen plans. Next they go see Cadogan West's mother, but they run into Violet Westbury, who protests Arthur's innocence and patriotism. Then they swing by the Arsenal office itself and speak to the senior clerk Sidney Johnson. He shows them the safe and says that actually some of the returned papers might be essential to building the submarine. At the train station, the ticket seller says that Cadogan West took the 8:15 PM train to London on Monday night, so that's what he did after he left Violet in the fog. (I guess he lost that ticket before he got killed that night, or the ticket didn't match the train he was found near.)

Holmes and Watson return to Baker Street; Mycroft has replied to Sherlock's telegram. Giving the names and addresses of the spies, Mycroft even adds that Hugo Oberstein has left town recently. Holmes checks the addresses on a map, then leaves Watson at home for now. At 9 PM, he sends a message for Watson to meet him at a restaurant with burglary tools. At Goldini's, Holmes explains that Oberstein's house is right next the Underground (at the part where it's above-ground), so he could easily place the body on a train as it passes by. So that's what the burglary tools are for; they're going to break in to Oberstein's house in Kensington. Watson protests and wants to get a warrant, but Holmes talks him into it, as usual.

"I knew you would not shrink at the last," said he, and for a moment I saw something in his eyes which was nearer to tenderness than I had ever seen."

Good old Watson, he practically beams. So they break in and search the house. Holmes finds snippets from the agony columns which show Oberstein offering to buy the plans from some traitor. That gives him an idea on how to arrest the traitor, so they leave and place an advert for tomorrow's newspaper. The next day at breakfast, Sherlock explains to Mycroft and Lestrade what they did. (This would be Friday morning Nov 22.) Lestrade warns him about going too far with burglary, but Holmes shrugs it off. Mycroft is pleased, and Sherlock shows them that he has baited a trap for the traitor tonight. Mycroft and Lestrade will meet them at 8 PM so they can get into Oberstein's house ahead of the traitor. There's a funny moment when Mycroft refuses to climb the railings, so Watson has to go open the front door for him. Anyway, after their wait, they find the traitor is Colonel Valentine Walter. After arresting him and shaming him, they force him to set up a trap so they can bring Oberstein back with the Bruce-Partington plans tomorrow on Saturday. It works, so the spy goes to prison for 15 years, while Colonel Walter dies in prison after only 2 years. So the case took 3 days overall. Some weeks afterward, Holmes also receives an emerald tie-pin, and Watson implies that it came from the Queen. That would be in December, so maybe it's a Christmas present as much as a "thank you for saving our submarine" present.