“Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.”
Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1902
Tag: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Page 4 of 10)
Do you remember that I posted the definition of Venerable not long ago? I came across the word again in The Valley of Fear, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was neat that, having previously looked the word up, I knew exactly what Dr Watson meant when he said this.
“Three centuries had flowed past the old Manor House, centuries of births and homecomings, of country dances and of the meetings of fox-hunters. Strange that now in its old age this dark business should have cast its shadow upon the venerable walls!”
Dr Watson, The Valley of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1914
We walked down the quaint village street with a row of pollarded elms on each side of it.
Dr Watson, The Valley of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1914
I came across this quote in The Valley of Fear, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. As an amateur gardener, I wondered if “pollarded” might mean how the elms were pruned or cut back. That was exactly what I found. Here is a great article about Pollarding from The Daily Garden.
According to the article, pollarding is a type of pruning where all new growth is cut back, leaving the trees with a short, post-like trunk with many smaller branches that grow upwards. Some of the benefits of pollarding are short trees that won’t blow over in wind storms and less large limbs that may fall on power lines and roofs.
Here are some pictures from The Daily Garden:
Here is a flower that Dr Watson alludes to when he is describing the beauty of a woman he meets in The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I looked it up to find a picture, and it really is a pretty flower.
Usage: “Her eyes and hair were of the same rich hazel color, and her cheeks, though considerably freckled, were flushed with the exquisite bloom of the brunette, the dainty pink which lurks at the heart of the sulphur rose.”
Here are two words that I could tell the definition of by the context. But they are such cool words and used to describe Holmes’ nemesis. I had to share them with you. In The Valley of Fear, Holmes and Watson begin speaking of Professor Moriarty, and Holmes describes the Professor’s underworld genius in the quote below. The Valley of Fear is printed in my volume of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Solatium – a thing given to someone as a compensation or consolation
Traduce – to slander
Usage:
“But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law – and there lies the glory and the wonder of it. The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every delivery, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations – that’s the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion – so immune from criticism – so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your year’s pension as a solatium for his wounded character. Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said to traduce? Foul-mouthed doctor and slandered professor – such would be your respective rôles! That’s genius, Watson! But if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come.”
Sherlock Holmes, The Valley of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1914
“All this, however, is foreign to the mission on which you sent me and will probably be very uninteresting to your severely practical mind. I can still remember your complete indifference as to whether the sun moved round the earth or the earth round the sun.”
Dr Watson writing a letter to Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1902
It is no surprise to my regular readers that I have been reading my way through this large volume of Sherlock Holmes stories for quite some time. This book is a great addition to any library, but especially to that of a Holmes fan like myself. The volume is 939 pages and contains a great introduction by Barbara and Christopher Roden. As you can see in the picture of the dust jacket, there are 4 complete novels and 44 short stories. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories featuring Holmes, so the volume is only missing 12. My sister joked that those couldn’t be called the greatest adventures, so they were left out.
The four novels are:
- A Study in Scarlet
- The Sign of the Four
- The Hound of the Baskervilles
- The Valley of Fear
The short stories were printed in four collections:
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
- The Return of Sherlock Holmes
- His Last Bow
I am thoroughly enjoying reading these stories for myself. It is different to read them than to listen to them. I have picked up on small details that I had missed before. I encourage you, if you have not read Holmes (and even if you have), head over to Barnes & Noble and grab a copy of The Greatest Adventure of Sherlock Holmes. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
I’ve made it to chapter six of The Valley of Fear, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It is a kind of locked-door mystery, except in this case, instead of a door, it is a moat. But I wanted to share this quote with you from the local inspector.
“I said it was a snorter!” he cried. “A real snorter it is!”
White Mason, The Valley of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1914
(A snorter, informally, is “a thing that is an extreme or remarkable example of its kind.)
This is a fun word to roll around on your tongue. I found it in The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I have heard and read it before, but now that I’ve looked it up, I understand it much better. Even before I found the definition, I thought the word seemed like a rolling, waving word, and I find that that isn’t too far from the truth.
Undulating – to move with a wavelike motion, as with a smooth rising-and-falling or side-to-side movement; to have a wavy form or surface
Usage: “It is a wonderful place, the moor,” said [Mr Stapleton], looking round over the undulating downs, long green rollers, with crests of jagged granite foaming up into fantastic surges. “You never tire of the moor. You cannot think the wonderful secrets which it contains. It is so vast, and so barren, and so mysterious.”
These two terms are used several times in The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Dr Watson uses these often when describing the moor. I looked them up just to be sure I could imagine the setting correctly, and I found this wonderful definition at the Discovering Sherlock Holmes website by Stanford University.
Cairns and Tors – “”Cairn” is a loose term for a pile of stones, usually marking an ancient burial place. A “tor” is a natural granite outcropping on the moor, exposed by years of weathering. Granite bedrock lies under the moor, keeping water from draining away, so that the ground remains saturated.”
I found this great website with many pictures and histories of the tors around Devon in England: Tors of Dartmoor. Below is a picture of Bowden Tor. You can see the outcropping of rock and the ground below which may remain marshy in wet seasons. Dr Watson described the moor in The Hound of the Baskerville as having many tors. I wonder if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had an exact place in mind when he wrote The Hound. It must have been a lovely place to be, even when he added threat of a cursed hound.
