Phi unit 3

presented by stanford continuing studies

of 12 2

with the support of Stanford Alumni Association Stanford University Libraries

Sherlock Holmes,

Consulting Detective

12 issues of SHERLOCK

HOLMES adventures

brought to you by Stanford University in 2006.

February 3

2006

A SHERLOCK HOLMES ADVENTURE: THE SPECKLED BAND

We are making every effort to insure that mailed copies arrive at your home on Friday every week.

If your copy has not arrived by the following Monday, please contact us at [email protected]

or at 650-724-2933, and we will mail you another copy immediately.

Dear Readers and Friends,

Ever since Stanford's serial reading series be-gan in 2002, it has been fired by the generos-ity, talent and energy of a remarkable group of people at Stanford. Stanford Continuing Studies, with the enthusiastic support of Charles Junkerman, Dean and Associate Provost of Continu- ing Studies, has assumed the bulk of the considerable financial responsibility of this project. With the sup- port of the Stanford Alumni Association and Stan- ford University Libraries, we anticipate being a part of your reading lives for years to come.

Many at Stanford have given cheerfully of their intelligence, their creativity, and their time to bring this series to your home. Linda Paulson dreamed up and has directed the project from its beginning. Mary Eichbauer, Ph.D., created the notes, searched out graphics, and wrote the number summaries. John Mustain, Rare Books Librarian in Stanford's Special Collections, has been our resident Conan Doyle col- lector, as well as our expert librarian. Larissa Brookes, Tom Farrell, Janet Sakai, Larry Scott, Lauren Scott, Christy Smith, Stu Snydman, and Peter Whidden made sure that every text and image was tenderly treated and clearly scanned. Anna Cobb took 100- year-old text and graphics and brought them together into compelling harmony on paper and on the website. Aerin Wilson took text, graphics, and design and cre- ated the website. Christine Soldahl and Diana Nem- erovsky coordinated all electronic aspects of the proj-

ect. Ben Knelman, a Stanford senior, has answered every single email and voicemail message from friends and readers.

The enthusiasm that has already greeted this proj- ect can only be a tribute to Arthur Conan Doyle and to the remarkable vitality of his fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Linda Paulson, Associate Dean and Director, Master of Liberal Arts Program Director, Discovering Sherlock Holmes

m

MARCO BARRICELLI of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival &

the American Conservatory Theater

will offer a free dramatic reading of

"THE SPECKLED BAND" Sunday, February , , : p.m.

Kresge Auditorium

on the Stanford University campus.

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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

...the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. (1) The county of Surrey is located south and southwest of London. The town of Leatherhead, mentioned later by Miss Stoner, is a bit more than 20 miles from Baker Street. There is no town called Stoke Moran, but there is a Stoke D’Abernon a few miles from Leatherhead.

It is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I have reasons to know that there are widespread ru- mours as to the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even more terrible than the truth. (1) Not only did Conan Doyle possess a great talent for creating intriguing plots, he knew how to tempt the reader into the story with hints of the horrors to come.

“Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,” said he, “but it’s the common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she retorted upon me, and I on you.” (1) Holmes means that Mrs. Hudson woke him up, and now he is waking Watson.

I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a logical basis, with which he unravelled the problems which were submitted to him. (1) Conan Doyle has Watson insert a bit of background for those intermittent readers of The Strand Magazine who might not have read a Holmes story before.

“I am glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot coffee, for I observe that you are shivering.” (1) True to his character, Holmes observes the young wom- an’s shivering, but fails to divine its emotional cause.

“...a good drive in a dog-cart....” (2) A dog-cart is a generic term for a rustic, one-horse cart meant to convey one or two people.

“...and came in by the first train to Waterloo.” (2) Waterloo Station serves the south and southwest rail

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

corridor from London. Miss Stoner must have taken a cab across the Thames for about four miles to reach Baker Street from Waterloo.

“...and the estates extended over the borders into Berk- shire in the north, and Hampshire in the west.” (3) That is, the estate was so large it extended into two neighboring counties.

“...in the days of the Regency.” Between 1811 and 1820, the future King George IV ruled as Regent for his father, George III, who suffered from periodic insanity.

“...and went out to Calcutta....” (3) The capital of Britain’s Indian colony.

“Violence of temper approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the fam- ily, and in my stepfather’s case it had, I believe, been intensified by his long resi- dence in the tropics.” (3) The self-justifying mythology sur- rounding British colonial rule of In- dia centered on the terrible “trials” the British suffered for the sake of “civilizing” the Indian people. Chief among these “trials” was the tropical climate (with its at- tendant diseases, like malaria), which was considered to be bad for the British “constitution,” and sometimes to be the cause of madness.

“He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, and he would give these vagabonds leave to en- camp upon the few acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end.” (3-4) The “gipsies” (more commonly, “gypsies”), or “Roma,” as they prefer to be called today, are a nomadic people from northern India who migrated west to Europe in the 14th century. In Conan Doyle’s time, their true origins were unknown, but there were many theories. Their dark skin, itinerant lives, and different customs made them convenient scapegoats for problems with- out an obvious cause: thefts, well-poisoning, livestock deaths, etc. The fact that Dr. Roylott lives with the gypsies would make him suspect in the eyes of many

of Conan Doyle’s readers.

“He has a passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon....” (4) While cheetahs do exist in India, baboons are found only in Africa.

“...and met there a half-pay major of marines....” (4) In other words, the major was no longer on active duty when Julia met him.

“...and though he poured brandy down her throat....” (5) In Victorian times, brandy was considered a restorative medicine.

“His name is Armitage–Percy Armitage–the second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading.” (6) Reading is a city in the county of Berkshire, also known as Royal Berkshire, in the Thames Valley, about 20 miles due west of central London. Crane Water is a pictur- esque name for an imaginary town.

His costume was a peculiar mixture of the professional and of the agri- cultural, having a black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, with a hunting-crop swing- ing in his hand. (7) The top-hat and frock-coat are suitable for town, while the gaiters (high spats buttoned over the shoe and lower part of the trouser leg to protect them from mud) and the riding crop suggest the country.

“An Eley’s No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can

twist steel pokers into knots.” (8) It is uncertain what kind of revolver

Holmes is asking Watson to carry, since the Eley Brothers manufactured ammunition, not guns.

“Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.” (15) Holmes rarely quotes Scripture, although he often comments on the justice or injustice of a criminal’s fate. Here, he expresses sentiments that recur several times in the King James Bible. Ecclesiastes (10:8): “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.”

John Alan Maxwell illustrated the 1930 reprint of “The Speckled Band” in the American magazine The Golden Book.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

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