The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes: Essays on Victorian England, Volumes 1 and 2 Box Set

By Liese Sherwood-Fabre

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories are full of everyday Victorian activities and events that send the twenty-first-century reader to consult their reference books. Few, for example, are intimately acquainted with the responsibilities of a country squire, the importance of gentlemen's clubs, or the intricacies of the Victorian monetary system.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Little Elm Press
• Release date: Nov 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781952408090

Liese Sherwood-Fabre

Liese Sherwood-Fabre, a native of Texas, knew she was destined to write when she got an A+ in the second grade for her story about Dick, Jane, and Sally's ruined picnic. After obtaining her PhD from Indiana University, she joined the federal government and had the opportunity to work and live internationally for more than fifteen years-in Africa, Latin America, and Russia. Returning to the states, she seriously pursued her writing career and has published several pieces. Her debut novel Saving Hope, a thriller set in Russia was based, in part, from her observations while in that country. She has published a variety of fiction and non-fiction pieces, winning such awards as a nomination for the Pushcart Prize, first place in Chanticleer Book Reviews' Mystery/Thriller novel category, and a finalist for Silver Falchion Award for Best 2017 Non-Fiction Book.

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The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes Volumes 1 and 2

Praise for the Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes Series

These essays are gems of fascinating research and insight on the culture that produced Sir Arthur's most notable character. They are beautifully compact and illustrated and will lure the reader into revisiting the stories for fuller comprehension of the period and Conan Doyle's life and interests. Author [Dr.] Liese Sherwood-Fabre has ferreted out many sources and footnotes them thoroughly. So settle in and prepare to be enlightened and entertained.

- Carole Nelson Douglas

Bestselling Author

Copyright © 2020 by Little Elm Press, LLC

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

To my all my grandchildren--

Both here and yet to come

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Contents

Foreword

The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes

The Life of a Country Squire

Sherlock's French Connection

Inheritance and the Fate of Second Sons

John Watson, The Victorian Doctor

Getting Around in Victorian England

The Origins of Scotland Yard

The River Thames

Victorian Apiculture

A Brief History of Westminster Palace

Sherlock’s Christmas Spirit

Practicing Law in Victorian England

The Second Anglo-Afghan War

Clubbing, Victorian Style

Forty-Nine References to Tobacco

A World-Famous Address

The Abductive Reasoning of Sherlock Holmes

Going to the Dogs

Name Your Poison

If It’s a Print, It Must be True

Your Frontal Development is Showing

Spreading the Word

London on Eleven Shillings a Day

When a Museum is More than a Museum

A True Knock-Out

The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes, Volume Two

And They’re Off!

Saying I Do in Victorian England

Put up Your Dukes

Blue Ribbon Blues

En Garde!

Smoggy Old London Town

I’ve Got the Feevah!

Taking the Heat in Victorian England

Step Right Up!

Of Jute, Jam, and Journalism

London on Four Pence a Night

Nine Stories to Sink Your Teeth Into

A Traveler’s Guide to Victorian England

The New Woman Cyclist

Parson, Vicar, or Rector?

Belly Up to the Bar, Boys

I Can See Clearly Now

Genteel Woman Seeks Employment

Making Sense of the Message

The Playing Fields of Eton

Two Years at College

Sailor, Plumber, or Priest?

Not Your Type?

Care for a Cuppa?

Acknowledgments

About Liese Sherwood-Fabre, PhD

Also by Liese Sherwood-Fabre, PhD

Foreword

In November 2013, the first of my essays on the Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes, The Life of a Country Squire, went out to Sherlockian newsletters worldwide. After I had completed two years, I felt a larger audience than those receiving the newsletters would be interested in these aspects of Victorian life. After the first volume came out in 2017, I continued to write on Victorian England and have now gathered these into volume two.

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For the fans of Sherlock Holmes, I would encourage you to check out the various scions that meet to discuss the stories of the world’s most famous consulting detective. There are also numerous Sherlock Holmes conferences and conventions held on a regular basis that can provide additional opportunities to meet fellow Sherlockians.

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In such settings, Holmes and Watson still live, and it is always 1895.

The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes

Volume One

Title Page, Volume One

The Life of a Country Squire

In the short story The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, Sherlock Holmes tells Dr. Watson that his ancestors were country squires. And other than that bit of information, along with the note that his grandmother was the sister of the French portraitist Vernet, Doyle provided little with respect to his most famous character’s origins.

Knowing his father might have been country squire as well, however, provides insights into Holmes’ social level and certain expectations common to those of his rank. A country squire would have owned enough land to rent to tenants and have lived in a manor house. While the squire’s position was below a nobleman or large landowner, (1) he still ranked high in the local social structure.

In addition to running his estate and ensuring the welfare of those under his tenancy, the country squire also held the position of Justice of the Peace. In this capacity, the squire had both civil and legal duties. Within the local government, the justices supervised parish (or county) officials, in particular those in charge of the maintenance of roads and bridges and the enforcement of the Poor Laws. (2) As a legal position, Justices of the Peace served as magistrates during the Quarter Sessions, where they and a jury heard and decided on serious crimes such as theft, highway robbery, assault, burglary, rioting, drunkenness, profane swearing, and a variety of crimes against property (poaching, cutting estate timber and the like. Between these sessions, the justices would hold petty sessions where the least serious crimes were reviewed and decisions made without a jury. (3)

Because the English system did not include a prosecutor for almost all crimes, the preparation of a case rested with the constable, from collecting evidence to presenting it at trial. Justices of the peace supervised and worked closely with the village constable, issued warrants, and determined whether to move a case to trial and to which court. (4)

As a member of the gentry, Sherlock Holmes would have been in a position of privilege. If his father was a Justice of the Peace, he would have developed a familiarity with the criminal justice system and the law. For the consulting detective, the foundation for investigating and solving crimes would have come naturally to a descendant of country squires.

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(1) Daniel Pool, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew (New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc ., 1993), 46.

(2) Sally Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996), 90.

(3) Victorian Crime and Punishment, accessed February 16, 2015. http://vcp.e2bn.org/

(4) J.J. Tobias, Crime and Police in England: 1700-1900 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979), 125.

Sherlock's French Connection

In The Greek Interpreter, Sherlock Holmes gives two clues of his past. In addition to noting his ancestors were country squires, he also shares that art was in his blood, given his grandmother was the sister of Vernet, the French artist.

Some speculation exists as to which Vernet. Three generations of Vernets garnered patronage from both the French monarchy and Napoleon: Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714 – 1789); Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, known as Carle Vernet (1758 – 1836); and Émile Jean-Horace Vernet, known as Horace Vernet (1789 – 1863). (1) Simple mathematics suggests the most logical choice would be the youngest Vernet. For Sherlock and Mycroft’s mother to be between twenty and twenty-five at marriage, she would have to have been born between 1821-1826. Taking another twenty to twenty-five years or so for Sherlock’s grandmother to be born, means a birth date of about 1795 - 1800 or earlier, clearly putting her as a contemporary of Horace.

In reality, Horace Vernet had one sister: Camille Françoise Joséphine (1788-1858) who married the French painter Hippolyte Lecomte (1781-1857) and whose son, Charles Emile Hippolyte Lecomte-Vernet, was also a painter. (2)

Obviously, Doyle could not have selected a better family than the Vernet dynasty to provide Sherlock his inherited artistic tendencies. Claude-Joseph was known for his landscapes and seascapes (3); Carle for his realistic horses, based on his own knowledge as an expert horseman (4); and Horace for portraits and realistic battle scenes. (5) A little research also supplies some interesting facts for additional color in Sherlock’s ancestry. Horace Vernet was born in the Louvre, and his father, fleeing with his wife and children, barely escaped being shot during the French Revolution. Horace was also known for having an incredible memory, able to sketch a scene or face seen only once with total recall. (6)

The Vernet family had an English connection as well. Claude-Joseph married an English woman, Virginia Parker, during his time in Italy, and British visitors on the Grand Tour were his most loyal patrons. (7) It might have this British link that provided the basis for selecting the Vernet family for Sherlock’s artistic inheritance, but his great-uncle’s ability to remember a location years later seems quite Holmesian as well.

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(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Joseph_

Vernet

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolyte_Lecomte

(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Joseph_

Vernet

(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carle_Vernet

(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Vernet

(6) David Bartlet, Paris with Pen and Pencil

(7) http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/

biography/16017.html

Inheritance and the Fate of Second Sons

The brief review of the fate of Sir Charles’ estate in chapter five of the Hounds of the Baskervilles provides a short guide to English inheritance laws applied primarily to the aristocracy and other large landowners. (1) In this chapter, Dr. Mortimer notes that Henry Baskerville will inherit Baskerville Hall because it is entailed, and should he pass, the estate would then go to James Desmond, a distant cousin. Sir Henry, however, could distribute funds associated with the estate as he desired. The new baronet’s response, however, was that the majority of the estate needed to be passed to the next in line to ensure the upkeep of Baskerville Hall.

When Sir Charles died, his title of baronet and all the land associated with it passed on to his closest living male relation (his nephew Henry) and would have done so regardless of any living female relatives. Beyond the oldest male descendent, any other children received whatever their father’s will dictated. Thus, wives, daughters, and second sons could find themselves homeless if the inheritor was so inclined to turn them out (such as the fate of the Dashwood women in Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility.) With such a future,