Canon Discussion: The Musgrave Ritual

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

This week we’re looking at The Musgrave Ritual. As usual I’ve typed up a few thoughts to get the discussion going.

Our chambers were always full of chemicals and of criminal relics which had a way of wandering into unlikely positions, and of turning up in the butter-dish or in even less desirable places. I first read these stories in early adulthood and the understated humour rather went over my head at the time. This story has such a charming opening – Watson’s exasperation makes me smile so much. It’s lovely to learn a little bit more about Holmes. His terrible untidiness and bizarre habits (shooting at the wall…) make him seem so human.

"There are cases enough here, Watson," said he, looking at me with mischievous eyes. Once again that infamous “cold mask” appears to have slipped. That looks like affection to me. I don’t really think someone had to be shot by a pseudo-Garrideb in order to come to the realisation that Holmes loved him.

”He was not generally popular among the undergraduates, though it always seemed to me that what was set down as pride was really an attempt to cover extreme natural diffidence.” I find it rather touching that Holmes seems to understand outsiders – I’m thinking of Trevor as well, of course, who had no other friends.

“…principally through the introduction of old fellow-students… Holmes though unsociable, doesn’t truly appear to be an outsider himself. This statement implies that his fellow-students were passing clients onto him through the goodness of their hearts, just to help out.

Must admit when I first read this story I assumed Brunton had stayed for 20 years in his position because he’d been looking for the treasure for 20 years. Does seem unlikely I suppose. But how long had he been searching? We know at least for a few months: ”Brunton did ask me about the height of the tree some months ago…” He may have only known about the Ritual for a few years – from when Musgrave went through the Ritual when he came of age. (Holmes and Musgrave haven’t seen each other for four years, so presumably they’re in their early or mid-twenties.)

I do wonder what the Ritual was for. If the crown had been buried in the grounds, I can understand the need for a map. But it was inside the house, underneath a cellar. Surely an aide-memoire wouldn’t be necessary, either in written form or one learnt by rote. The holder of the secret would just need to find a quiet place where he couldn’t be overheard, and say: “It’s in the cellar.” And the Ritual doesn’t strike me as being a hastily written coded message from a dying Musgrave to his absent heir. It’s been carefully and calmly thought about and worked out. The only reason I can think of, is that the 17th century Musgrave assumed he would only have charge of the crown for a few years (it would be collected in his lifetime, so he didn’t need to tell anyone else about it) but just in case something should happen to him, he left these clues. Perhaps the Ritual was a coded message for his relative Sir Ralph when he returned with Charles II, or for the specific person who handed the crown over.

”…we ransacked every room and cellar without discovering the least sign of the missing man.” As it says in The New Annotated, why wasn’t the cellar with the muffler marking Brunton’s presence searched? Musgrave knows that particular cellar is there.

The key to the chest puzzles me. Presumably the night he died was the first time Brunton had ever seen the chest – he needed a second person to help lift up the slab to get into the hole. So he wouldn’t even have known for certain he needed a key, let alone specifically which key was required. If there was a key that was known to be associated with the Ritual, surely Musgrave would have noticed it was missing. (He knew that Brunton had been interested in the Ritual and he took a copy to show Holmes. Surely if there was a key, he would have looked for that too.) Could the key already have been in the lock? Does rather seem to take away the point of having a lock.

The New Annotated also points out that it seems strange no-one had found the treasure before. It’s in a cellar that’s being used for storing wood, and there’s a big ring in the slab, suggesting the stone can be pulled up. I suppose the answer to that is maybe the crown had been found before. Presumably the only people going into the cellar regularly would be servants, and they might be reluctant to go investigating. And it would take an awful lot of effort to pull up the slab. But a Musgrave may have eventually had a look, found the chest. Tried a few old keys and then been disappointed when he found merely rusted metal and dull stones in it. Perhaps left the key in the lock, thought about clearing everything out of the hole in the near future, but then it’s been left and forgotten about again. After all, no-one knew there was any treasure to be looked for.

Next Sunday, 2nd Feb, we’ll be looking at The Reigate Squires (AKA The Reigate Puzzle). Hope you can join us for that.

By the way, just a reminder that any member can post a discussion post – I have no monopoly on them. (I would like to assure thesmallhobbit that this isn’t a hint.) If ever anyone else wants to have a go, just let me know in advance and I will step aside that week.

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

The ritual reminds me of the toast to Bonnie Prince Charlie - the King over the Water, so it seems plausible that the intention was that the original Musgrave's heirs would understand what the reference was to. Unfortunately the Musgrave heirs seem to have been a fairly unimaginative lot, so no-one followed up on the meaning of the ritual.

I'm not surprised that the servants didn't question the ring in the slab. It had always been there, no-one needed to look further and, as you say, they had better things to do. And for a lot of the time it was covered with wood etc.

What does confuse me is why, in the intervening years, the trees haven't grown.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Just possibly, this particular clue, at least, dates from much later than the seventeenth century? After all, it's Musgrave who says the spelling of the middle of the seventeenth century; and since we're not told he studied history, the author doesn't have the same obligation to make him right, as he does Holmes.

What really startled me when I first read the story - indeed, when I last read it - was Musgrave's extreme reaction to such a small transgression of Brunton's. Even though he personally disliked Brunton, and he does seem to, his reaction seems definitely not on. Since people didn't get fired for sexual harassment (Or did they?), do you think he might have been seizing the chance to get rid of someone who caused domestic strife?

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

You're right that sacking Brunton does seem like an overreaction, especially after 20 years service. But I think if Musgrave wanted to get rid of him, he could have just dismissed him at any time. He didn't need any excuse - I doubt at the time workers had many rights. I wonder if finding Brunton looking at his family's papers was just the last straw for Musgrave. He was fed up with all the drama surrounding the butler's behaviour. Also, we've got to remember that Musgrave is a young man who has had to take on lots of responsibility after his father died. Perhaps Musgrave felt he had to make a show of strength - he couldn't allow any transgressions from his staff.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

That does strike me as a very good explanation. Thanks.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Given the nature of what the treasure is, then I think for the purposes of the story, the document does need to date from the late 1640s.

As for sacking Brunton, I suspect also in part, was the fact that a butler was probably the most trusted of the servants and therefore this was a major break in that trust.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Well, I think in general trees reach a maximum height and then don't grow any taller, so I assume they were already about their full height when the Ritual was drawn up.

(I've just been looking up the "King over the Water" toast ^^) You've got to be sympathetic to the heirs - they had no idea anything had been hidden. It is a bit of an imaginative leap to realise the Ritual's a treasure map. And I still don't think the Ritual was meant for the original Musgrave's heirs. I think it was a coded message for someone who was aware the crown was hidden somewhere on the estate - a member of Charles the Second's entourage. But the original Musgrave died and the message wasn't discovered until the heir went through his papers.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

That would probably be true as far as the oak was concerned, but I think the elm would have still been growing (this is the result of several pointless minutes spent googling tree growing).

But I agree with you about the heirs not being aware of what the ritual was about. It just seems surprising that given such precise directions no-one went to investigate.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Must admit I did a fair bit of tree googling too. (A noble old sport ^_^) Kept coming up with Dutch elm disease... But it is odd - if the tree had been smaller at the time, the directions presumably wouldn't have taken you right into the house.

Perhaps Musgrave's trigonometry skills weren't that good - he got the wrong answer, which was accidentally the right answer for the height of the tree in the 17th century! (Perhaps not. It would have been a very tall tree, come the 1800s ^_^)

Sunday, January 26, 2014

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User carolyn_claire referenced to your post from Sunday, January 26, 2014 (http://holmesian-news.livejournal.com/343463.html) saying: [...] by Canon Discussion: The Musgrave Ritual [...]

[dustbunny105.livejournal.com]

I always wished that the state of their room came up more often in regards to visitors, especially considering the standing (to say nothing of the self-importance) of some of their clients. I mean, I'm not exactly tidy myself, but I'm not sure how well I'd react to calling on someone in a professional sense and then sitting among towers of old documents in a room with bullet holes in the walls while he fills his pipe with tobacco from a slipper.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Do you know, in all these years that's never occurred to me... That's an excellent point. You never hear Watson mention the client looking round with a "what a tip" expression on their face ^_^

Presumably at the beginning of "The Musgrave Ritual", it's before Watson has got married and both men are pretty young. Perhaps Holmes became tidier as he got older, and more aware of keeping up a professional facade. But it must have really put people off in the early days before Holmes' reputation spread.

[dustbunny105.livejournal.com]

It does make one wonder if anybody ever came by for a consultation, took a look at the place and went, "On second thought, never mind." If nothing else, I imagine the fact that he leaves papers lying about in the open would be rather off-putting to anyone desirous of discretion.

Fair point that the mess might be the habit of a younger Holmes, though I wonder how far any acquired cleanliness might stretch. We know from EMPT that at least the Persian slipper stays, and one of Watson's first observations is that there's "an unwonted tidiness" about the place (though his further description of the "old landmarks" certainly sounds more put together than what he describes here in MUSG). And while his comment that Holmes is only moved to clean up after himself once annually or biannually is pretty probably hyperbolic, it does give the impression that this is a long-ongoing state of affairs.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I think you're probably right - Holmes' untidiness does sound like part of his personality, rather than just a bad habit. But I suppose as his reputation grew, people would be more likely to overlook his eccentricities. (Or it even perhaps added to his image ^^)

Btw, no pressure (^^") but I hope you'll continue to take part in the group - writing 60s, taking part in the discussions or writing a discussion post ^^ (In the last case, just make sure you give me some notice.)