Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes: Volume Iv

By David B. Beckwith

James Innes Watson continues to make available stories from the manuscripts that he inherited from his great-great-grandfather Dr. John H. Watson. These are stories, that for whatever reason, Watson did not publish during his life. This collection features stories that are all mentioned in previously published cases by Conan Doyle, but all that was known about them was their somewhat enigmatic titles. Here are the cases of the Tide-waiter, the Delicate Affair of the Reigning Family of Holland, the Manor House, the Grice Patersons in the Island of Uffa, the Abbas Parva Tragedy, and the Arnsworth Castle Business. They see Holmes and Watson travel to the Channel Islands, to Amsterdam and Alsace-Lorraine, and then in England to the fen country of Suffolk and the Home Counties.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jan 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796008548

David B. Beckwith

David B. Beckwith was born in what is now Cumbria in the U.K. His family emigrated to Western Australia in 1969. David lives on a 2.1 hectare block of native bush land in a rural region bordering the city of Perth, the capital of Western Australia where in his retirement from the computer industry, he and his wife enjoy an envious lifestyle with their chickens and the resident fauna: wild rabbits, spiders (venomous), snakes (venomous), lizards, quenda (bandicoots), and brightly coloured parrots and vivid blue wrens. This is his fifth book of Holmes’s tales. Visit: david.beckwith.net.au & holmes-chronicles.com

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Copyright © 2020 by David B. Beckwith.

ISBN:      Softcover   978-1-7960-0855-5

                eBook         978-1-7960-0854-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or they are used in a purely fictional sense, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or deceased, real events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover Artwork by the author.

Rev. date: 01/13/2020

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CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

1.   The Case of the Tide-waiter

2.   The Delicate Affair of the Reigning Family of Holland

3.   The Case of the Manor House

4.   The Adventures of the Grice Patersons in the Island of Uffa

5.   The Abbas Parva Tragedy

6.   The Arnsworth Castle Business

For:

Antoinette

Christopher

Dominic

In memory of

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

PREFACE

As with Volumes I, II, and III of these books, this fourth volume contains stories that Doctor John Hamish Watson never published, there are numerous reasons why this happened. In this volume it is not so much as unsuitability, or political sensitivity, or censorship by Conan Doyle, but rather simply by withdrawal by Watson himself, and yet all of these stories are mentioned in other works he wrote.

In Volume II, I published as an Appendix the chronology of Holmes and Watson from the birth of their parents up to 1990 when James Innes Watson’s son Alexander Sherlock was born. It is due to James Watson, the great-great-grandson of Dr. Watson, that this fourth volume is now available. However, the time-chart is not rigid, and as new facts become known, or when James submits more manuscripts of his forebear to me for publication, the details may be updated. The latest version of the chronology can be found at this web-site:

www.david.beckwith.net.au

I thank my wife Antoinette, and friends Christopher and Dominic for their constructive help and assistance, and for proofreading the texts.

INTRODUCTION

James Innes Watson, great-great-grandson of Dr. John Hamish Watson.

Somewhere in the vaults of the bank of Cox & Co., at Charing Cross, there is a travel-worn and battered tin dispatch-box with my name, John H. Watson, M.D., Late Indian Army, painted upon the lid. It is crammed with papers, nearly all of which are records of cases to illustrate the curious problems which Mr. Sherlock Holmes had at various times to examine.

This is not accurate. One dispatch-box could not contain all the material that my forebear had amassed: notes about cases that were never solved (or were simply without any special interest), and cases that were solved but were never published. Accompanying the dispatch box were several other metal boxes.

The state and quality of the cases is varied. Some are fully drafted accounts, some are precise notes from which a story can be reconstructed, and finally some are a mere collection of pages from various Notebooks.

In previously published volumes of The Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes I selected from the first set of cases: accounts drafted and ready for publication after only minor editing on my part. I explained why they were never published previously, or I gave speculations as to why not.

In this collection, I have again selected from the completed accounts my forebear had made, but this time I have chosen those with two particular characteristics: they are all accounts drafted and ready for publication, but additionally they are referenced in other accounts that Dr. Watson did publish. In this introduction I will cite the published references, and offer an explanation as to why they were not published, rather than as a Foreword or an Afterword to the texts.

*

The case of the Tide-Waiter is referenced in The Noble Bachelor:

… I watched… the huge crest and monogram upon the envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend’s noble correspondent could be.

Here is a very fashionable epistle, I remarked as he entered. Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a fish-monger and a tide-waiter.

Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety, he answered.

The text itself offers no explanation for why it was never published, but I suspect Conan Doyle found the number of foreign language references to be too great.

*

The Case of the Delicate Affair of the Reigning Family of Holland, is mentioned in A Scandal in Bohemia.

From time to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of … the mission which he had accomplished so delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland and the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenbach. Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of my former friend and companion.

In the manuscript of A Scandal in Bohemia, there is considerable obfuscation by Conan Doyle, and the quotation above shows where A.C.D. struck out a specific name. As for why the story was not published, I speculate that again Conan Doyle did not like the non-English language component, or relating that Holmes was involved in preventing a war.

*

The case of the Manor House is made mention of in The Greek Interpreter when Watson meets Mycroft Homes for the first time:

I am glad to meet you, sir, said he (Mycroft), putting out a broad, fat hand like the flipper of a seal. I hear of Sherlock everywhere since you became his chronicler. By the way, Sherlock, I expected to see you round last week, to consult me over that Manor House case. I thought you might be a little out of your depth.

No, I solved it, said my friend, smiling.

It was Adams, of course.

I can offer to no explanation as to why Watson never published this case, other than perhaps the fact that Adams’s motive is somewhat in doubt. However, it is worth noting that the reported world of Holmes and Watson and the world of Conan Doyle are similar, but not the same. From the above quotation it is clear that Watson’s accounts of Holmes’s exploits pre-date September 1888 (the setting of the Greek Interpreter), yet Conan Doyle publishes Watson’s first account of Holmes, the story of a Study in Scarlet in November 1887. I find it unlikely that more than 6 years elapsed before Watson published his first chronicle, besides how can Mycroft ‘hear of Sherlock everywhere since you became his chronicler’ if Watson did not publish? And Watson’s (as yet unknown) first published account of Holmes was before the founding of the Strand Magazine in January 1891, for Mycroft’s statement to be true in 1888.

*

The Adventures of the Grice Patersons in the Island of Uffa is mentioned in Five Orange Pips:

The year ’87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my headings under this one twelve months I find ... the singular adventures of the Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa.

I am certain that many people will fail to notice the plural and the unusual preposition in the title and read it as The Adventure of Grice Patersons on the island of Uffa. When I first read my forebear’s accounts of Sherlock Holmes, this is what I did, and I thought the story must refer to a person having an adventure (or more than one) on an island. I thought Uffa must be in Hebrides. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth, it was the extinction of a British ungulate by what can best be termed as rustlers. It was surely a slip of the pen to write adventures when the singular is more appropriate, and to use in when normally on would be used.

Why did Watson not publish the tale? Perhaps because of the nature of the crime, the extermination of a breed of swine is not the stuff of a usual case of Sherlock Holmes.

*

The Abbas Parva Tragedy is referred to in the Veiled Lodger:

The case worried me at the time, Watson. Here are my marginal notes to prove it. I confess that I could make nothing of it. And yet I was convinced that the coroner was wrong. Have you no recollection of the Abbas Parva tragedy?

None, Holmes.

And yet you were with me then.

Another intriguing taunt from the pen of Dr. Watson. Schoolboy Latin will tell you that Abbas Parva means ‘Little Abbot’, so what tragedy could befall a minor official of the church? The answer is that Abbas does not mean ‘Abbot’. There are many places in Britain with names like Little Someplace, or rather Someplace Parva, and there is often a nearby place named simply Someplace, or even Someplace Magna. Having realised this, it is easier to understand that a place rather than a person can have a tragedy, and that Abbas cannot mean Abbot, as the tale tells.

So why did Watson not publish the case? I believe the quotation to be in error, for coroner, read newspaper. As you will see, the coroner believed Holmes. Watson did not publish or choose to remember the case because of the untruths told in it.

*

The final story The Arnsworth Castle Business comes again from a reference in A Scandal in Bohemia.

When a woman thinks that her house is on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box.

What does a married woman with no child reach for? In A Scandal in Bohemia the thing of value was a photograph, so we can presume that a baby or jewellery was involved in the untold Darlington Substitution Scandal, since it is neither baby, jewelry, nor photograph that is involved in the Arnsworth Castle Business, yet it is still a thing of value. I can offer no explanation why Watson chose not to publish the story, other than it provides the details of how to use a herbicide as an explosive.

The Case of the Tide-waiter

It was in October of 1888 that The Case of the Noble Bachelor occurred, and in my recounting of that tale I brought it to a close with Holmes stating to me:

Draw your chair up, and hand me my violin, for the only problem which we have still to solve is how to while away these bleak autumnal evenings.

This was to draw to a close the case of the fashionable correspondence from Lord St. Simon. The next morning brought no correspondence to 221B Baker Street. Remembering the mournful scrapings that Holmes had made the previous evening, and not wishing my colleague to lapse into a period of inactivity that might lead to his usage of the needle, I prompted:

Your morning letters of the other day, if I remember right, were from a fish-monger and a tide-waiter.

This is the tale of the case that ensued from the letter from the tide-waiter.

*

What of the letters from the tide-waiter and fish-monger? You still have them tacked to the mantelpiece I assume. I said.

The missive from the fish-monger was totally boring Watson, but what do you make of this letter. So said my good friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes as he passed me a single page of paper. I took the folded sheet, gave it a thorough examination knowing full well that it could exhibit any number of pertinent details that Holmes expected me not to discern, and indeed I found nothing of interest, so I unfolded it and read:

The Golden Shell,

Rue des Petites Hougues,

Harbour of Bordeaux,

Guernsey, Channel Islands.

4 of Octembre 1888.

M. Holmes,

Excuse this importunate letter, but now I was in a circumstance of the most curious two times.

I am fisher of the ormer shells on the island of Guernsey, I make my trade while reaping the shells when the tide is to its lower. Imagine my horror that two times I have now been held at the point of the gun by brigands and bound up, and my eyes bandaged on the beach of the island of Herm.

Two times my catch of the day has been lost. I am the simple fisher, I cannot begin to understand why these people make these things to me. They return later and set me free.

I ask for your help, I hear that we the two share the English and French blood.

I implore you! If it pleases you, help me!

Marcel Bordellin

Well, I suspect that his English is considerably better than my French! I replied, He writes as if English is not his first language, or that the writing thereof is not an everyday occurrence. But what else can I say, intriguing yes, however apart from his misfortunes, there are elements that I do not understand: ormers for one, what is this about you having French blood, and how is it that the man has heard of you, being uppermost? was my response.

I can answer only in part, said Holmes, I have French blood by descent from my Mother’s Mother: from Gascogne. As to your other questions, I have no answers, and they intrigue me too. There are also the various points of interest raised by the letter itself. Guernsey, the Channel Islands, Herm, the tidal references, even the language usage itself. I shall think on this matter, this calls for a pipe, and some more coffee I think.

So started the Case of the Tide-waiter, it was Tuesday the 9th of October 1888, and I was glad that a potential case had been drawn to Holmes’s attention. He needed a problem to occupy his mind, he became very dejected and morose if he had no case to solve. Despite all my protestations four years ago, he had taken to using cocaine: a 7% solution, taken to ease the ennui that his intellect could not tolerate. When I had discovered that he had begun this habit I was appalled, as a doctor I believed in the use of the drug for medicinal purposes, but to go to Fortnum & Mason’s to buy cocaine for relief from boredom was not to be condoned¹. Thus, I welcomed this letter from an unknown person in the Channel Islands. The day had started as any other late Autumn day. We had commenced our breakfast, then we had taken the last of our coffee and sat at our usual chairs before the fireplace – no fire was lit due to the unusually warm October weather – I was about to commence to read The Times when Holmes had passed his letter to me. Now Holmes rose and went to the speaking tube to the kitchen and summoned another pot of coffee. He then filled his pipe from his Persian slipper, and lit it, sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. I too filled and lit my pipe, then reached for the newspaper. Mrs. Hudson brought the extra coffee and milk – for neither Holmes, nor I took sugar – and she and a maid (I lose track of their given names as the staff seem to change quite often at 221B) took away the remains of our breakfast. So at last I got to read my paper, and Holmes was deep in thought. I think that I remember seeing Holmes drink some coffee, but as I was taking more notice of my paper, my pipe, and my own coffee, I did not notice how much of the second pot of coffee was drunk.

Holmes stood up, his contemplation having clearly come to some decision.

I shall go to the Library! stated Holmes, Ormers, the Channel Islands – and the tides thereof. I require data to form any postulation, I have nothing better to undertake this day.

So saying my companion went to his room, and I resumed my reading and coffee. Shortly he returned ready for the outer world, his dressing gown replaced by a three-piece suit, and a winged collar shirt. He added his top hat from the rack by the door, and as he was about to leave he turned and spoke:

"I am unsure when I shall return, it depends upon what I discover. So I bid you ‘Adieu’ as my correspondent would probably say." With that my companion departed.

At that time I was a full partner in the medical practice in York Terrace, the practice I had joined as a junior in ’81. I was required to be ‘on duty’ from noon until 8 in the evening, so I had plenty of time remaining to enjoy my pipe, and the newspapers, before I must commence work.

It was thus surprising that afternoon whilst at my practice that I should receive a telegram from Holmes. I thought that such an occurrence must be of great import for him to be unable to wait to impart his news until I returned to our rooms that evening. Between attending to my patients I read the flimsy telegram:

I WILL GO TO CI STOP WILL YOU COME STOP

LEAVE TOMORROW STOP RTN MON OR TUE STOP

H END

There was no surprise to me in its terseness, it was usual for Holmes to issue such pithy abbreviated telegrams, I had become accustomed to his Yorkshire frugality in such matters. Then I thought again of the many times when he was lavish in his expenditure, and this venture must surely be one of those circumstances. I surmised that ‘CI’ must be ‘Channel Islands’, and it must be many hundreds of miles to Guernsey and that the actual English Channel lay between the departure point and our destination. I knew that Holmes would not hope to recoup the expenses of travel and accommodation, not even for himself let alone for us both. I looked at the source of the telegram: St. Pancras, Euston Road, so I knew that Holmes had been near the British Library when he sent the message. I made my mind up, a trip south to warmer climes would be pleasant, with an intriguing puzzle to solve, and in my opinion the Channel Islands were as good as being in another country, doubtless we would have to pass through France to get there. My first thoughts were that we would proceed to Dover, and then cross the Channel to Calais, and then my geographic knowledge became a little vague.

*

I arrived home at Baker Street at twenty to nine that evening to find Holmes bursting with energy and enthusiasm, the table was already set for dinner and upon it a bottle of wine had been opened.

Here my friend, said Holmes, as he poured me a glass without asking me if I wanted one, and even before I had removed my coat. I have much to tell.

One moment Holmes, if you please. said I as I shed my hat and coat and hung them up, then turned and accepted the proffered glass.

"To the islands of La Manche ²! I toasted my friend, but slow down a little, no hurry that I know of is required!" I sat down with my glass, and Holmes could wait no longer.

Watson, Watson! he exclaimed, I have learned so much today. I simply must experience this curious part of the world that is English and yet not so! The tide-waiter’s problem is merely an excuse to visit an island where they use Pounds for money, but speak French. Well, a sort of French, and a kind of English. Their money is Guernsey Pounds, not exactly equal to ours, and Norman French that is not quite French; and they also speak also Parisian French and their English is curious. What a grand mélange to explore. And this tide-waiter, he catches curious but delicious shellfish. We depart tomorrow… he paused. … I presume too much. Will you accompany me to Guernsey?

I shall! I shall, my colleagues can cover for me, and it is nearly winter, the weather should be better and warmer in the south, warmth is good for my leg, and good weather also for the crossing of the channel. A trip away to a new place is as good as a holiday! I sipped my wine, and raised my glass again, To Guernsey!

Holmes was about to launch forth again in his enthusiasm, but a knock at the door meant Mrs. Hudson and one of her girls was there to bring in our dinner. I had not heard the seventh stair step creak during Holmes impassioned outburst. The table was laid, and we sat to eat. I fail to recall the actual meal, that is, the food that we ate, but I remember the events. Between mouthfuls Holmes and I had engaged in a stilted conversation.

You say they use Pounds, do they use shillings and pennies like us, or Pounds and cents, or centimes?

They used to use Francs and sous or centimes until about 1810 or so, now they use Sterling currency as do we with its twelve to one, twenty to one absurd divisions, but the Pound value is not exactly identical, and of course their notes and coins are different.

How different in value?

"One penny in a shilling, I did not note if that was up or down. Thirteen Guernsey pennies to a British shilling or vice versa."

And on the island they do speak English?

They do, but not as the dominant language. They speak Guernésiais that is a direct descendant from the language of the Normans, the French as spoken by William the Conqueror, not modern French.

"I learned French in Wellington College ³, but that was ‘school’ French, not like you, you lived in France I believe."

"Yes, I lived in France twice as a boy, and my Mother’s Mother was French. My Mother tried very hard to stop me speaking with a Gascon dialect, for that is where my parents still live – in Pau in Gascony. If I had the time, I could speak long about the French language and the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539 ⁴. But not now! In Guernsey the French that you learned in school will suffice, that is, if you can remember it! The people of Guernsey speak and understand modern French due to their proximity to the mainland of France and their dialectal French is one of the Langues d’Oïl akin to most of the northern dialects, unlike the Gascon dialect of Pau that is one of the Langues d’Oc akin to Occitan. Apparently on the Channel Islands there is also a growing movement to encourage the use of English, after all, Guernsey is a British Island."

We leave tomorrow?

Yes indeed, we must go to Waterloo whence to catch the train to Southampton, and then take the ferry to Cherbourg.

I was disappointed, I had been looking forward to seeing the White Cliffs of Dover, but this was not to be.

By this time our meal was over, and we had retired to our respective chairs with the remains of our wine, and taken to our pipes. I was becoming quite excited at the prospect of our trip, although I rued that I was not getting to see the White Cliffs of Dover. We sat in silence for a while.

What of the case itself Holmes? I asked.

"Tides are the curiosity, that and perhaps ormers the shellfish. I have formed an abduction ⁵, however the proposition needs more supporting data. But enough for tonight. You should pack for four nights, I am expecting that this will be a sufficient duration. We can talk about the problem of Monsieur Bordellin later, we have plenty of time before we reach Bordeaux Harbour on Guernsey. Hmm, I should have researched why that harbour is so named, but I was remiss."

When do we depart Holmes? I asked.

There is no need for haste Watson, we need to catch the night ferry from Southampton to Cherbourg. I am certain that the exemplary Bradshaws volume will have the train times departing from Waterloo tomorrow morning.

*

The next morning we were ready to depart. After breakfast, I returned upstairs to my room and quickly returned with my carpet bag of clothes, and my Gladstone containing the tools of my profession that I never journey without. I had donned a flat cap in anticipation of the sea voyage. Holmes had changed from his dressing gown into a tweed suit and was now sporting his deerstalker. We travelled down Baker Street until we reached Grosvenor Square, where we turned right into Upper Brook Street to get to Park Lane, where we went south with Hyde Park to our right. Then into Constitution Hill with Green Park to our north and Buckingham Palace Gardens to the south, then past the Palace itself and so to Birdcage Walk and into the heart of Westminster.

We passed Saint Stephen’s Tower housing the bell known as Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament: all of which looking bright and clean being then less than 30 years old; already folk were using the name Big Ben as both a synonym for the tower and the clock, forgetting that ‘Ben’ was only one of the bells. Then we crossed Westminster Bridge and so to Waterloo station.

Ensconced in our own first class carriage, Holmes and I proceeded to Southampton. When my companion is travelling, he is not sociable. He finds such situations to be necessary, but that this does not imply a time for relaxation, I believe that he is averse to being enforced into any