Canon Discussion: The 'Gloria Scott'

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

This week we’re having a look at The ‘Gloria Scott’. I’ve typed up a few thoughts to get the discussion going—please leave your own ideas in the comments!

“...the accident of his bull terrier freezing on to my ankle one morning as I went down to chapel.” Anyone like to recreate the scene? Why did the dog go for the unfortunate Holmes? And what became of the bull terrier? It’s never mentioned again and then its master goes off to “the Terai tea planting”. (Makes me think of the “bull pup” that Watson kept. Though there are theories that he wasn’t referring to a dog…)

“....it was a bond of union when I found that he was as friendless as I.” Perhaps a little surprising that a hearty, full-blooded fellow, full of spirits and energy should have no friends. Any thoughts?

"It was a prosaic way of forming a friendship…” What do you think about Holmes’ attitude to friendship at that point in his life? He doesn’t seem to be saying that he had anything against his fellow students—just that he didn’t have contact with them, and so didn’t have the opportunity to make friends. And he could have discouraged Trevor from visiting, if he wanted. Was he open to the idea of friendship if it came along but didn’t particularly need it? Had he been hoping for a friend? Or was it Trevor in particular he liked? There do seem to be some similarities with his relationship with Watson—they were thrown together for financial reasons, and then their friendship developed over time.

"There had been a daughter, I heard, but she had died of diphtheria while on a visit to Birmingham.” Any thoughts?

"And that recommendation… was… the very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby.” So what had Holmes been planning to do with his life before the possibility of becoming a consulting detective came up? He appears to have been studying organic chemistry, which seems rather specific. And his “line of study was quite distinct from that of the other fellows” which suggests he had definite areas of interest.

'Why, it's thirty year and more since I saw you last.’ ...the laws were more harshly administered thirty years ago than now… 'It was the year '55 when the Crimean war was at its height...’ Holmes appears to have been an undergraduate in 1885. Which is somewhat surprising, as he met Watson round about 1881. I don’t think anyone has ever been able to make sense of this timeline but I await suggestions with interest!

"All this occurred during the first month of the long vacation. I went up to my London rooms…” Holmes doesn’t go to his family home after leaving Trevor’s. What’s his family situation? Is he an orphan? Parents living abroad? Doesn’t get along with them? Just needs some peace and quiet to work?

“I heard Mr. Trevor make a sort of hiccoughing noise in his throat, and jumping out of his chair, he ran into the house. He was back in a moment, and I smelt a strong reek of brandy as he passed me.” We know that old Trevor’s past weighs heavily on him, but isn’t it odd that he’s immediately terrified of Hudson? (The business of rushing off to swig brandy is rather risible.) Hudson is just as guilty as Trevor. (The crew are his, body and soul. He could buy 'em at so much a gross with a cash discount, and he did it before ever they signed on.) And Hudson and Trevor don’t seem to have parted on bad terms thirty years before. I can understand old Trevor being shocked and nervous, but I don’t see why he should automatically assume Hudson had come to blackmail him. I would have thought that Hudson would have to put some pressure on Trevor first.

"Underneath is written in a hand so shaky as to be hardly legible, 'Beddoes writes in cipher to say H. has told all. Sweet Lord, have mercy on our souls!'” I think it’s the New Annotated that points out it would be impossible for old Trevor to have written that—he had a stroke immediately after reading the note, and didn’t recover.

“...went out to the Terai tea planting, where I hear that he is doing well.” Does “I hear that he is doing well” suggest that Holmes and young Trevor are still in contact by letter? After all, Trevor has no family or other friends in England to pass news on. I don’t think there’s any reason why Holmes’ friendship with Trevor should have ended. There’s nothing Trevor could really blame him for—Holmes was pretty much just a bystander to all that happened, and was a supportive friend throughout.

Next Sunday, 7th June, we’ll be having a look at The Musgrave Ritual. Hope you can join us then.

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I always imagine Holmes family encouraging him not to return during vacations. He was such an embarrassment at house parties.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

This sounds all too likely... ^^" (^_^)

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point about the bull terrier. Surely if he'd been around he'd have bitten Hudson. A suggestion only: perhaps Holmes wasn't the only person he bit - I don't suppose Holmes was doing anything particularly anti-Trevor - and he had to be destroyed.

Of Trevor's friendlessness, I think of it as his having friendly acquainatnces and team mates, but not real friends. I did wonder if his father had had an alcohol problem (that instant recourse to brandy) and this made Trevor more reserved than he seemed superficially.

That's a very interesting question about what Holmes had in mind. Perjhaps a non-Victored Holmes would become a doctor; a researcher like Res' Dr Trevelyan.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Yes, that does seem likely - the dog was put down. Or maybe given away to someone that could control it?

Old Trevor having an alcohol problem is a distinct possibility - he's under great stress when Hudson arrives but he does go immediately to the brandy without even thinking about it. I suppose as well, Trevor Senior would be a secretive man to some extent - and that might have unconsciously rubbed off on his son. He might have instinctively avoided getting close to people.

I think you're right. Holmes would probably have gone into some kind of research. We know he spends most of his retirement studying bees.

[alafaye]

It does seem odd that Holmes had no friends--unless he managed to alienate everyone simply because of his deductions. On the other hand, it seems odd that a man who has no friends has made some rather friend like relationships as an adult, even before Watson.

I kept wondering as I read this if Holmes' landlady is related to the Hudson in this story. It would be an interesting twist.

As for why Trevor the senior would first think of blackmail...maybe Hudson had revealed something his character that would make Trevor think of blackmail? Something he hadn't revealed in his story? It also could have been on his mind for a long while, especially if his son was on the path to a good future, how the past would affect his future.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Well, Holmes does state some pretty good reasons why he didn't make friends at university. I think by nature he's just not a terribly sociable man, but I don't think he particularly dislikes people. As you say, he seemed perfectly capable of making friends, or at least having friendly acquaintances, before he met Watson. (Holmes tells Watson in MUSG, that he got some early cases via his former fellow students. They must have been doing that out of the goodness of their hearts because they admired Holmes - they had nothing personally to gain.) It seems more odd to me that young Trevor had no friends, when superficially he appears to be an extrovert.

It is intriguing that one of the characters is called Hudson... But I suppose the repetition could be Watson using familiar pseudonyms and neither landlady nor blackmailer were called Hudson ^^

Admittedly, Holmes has just recently (by accident) dragged up the past, by pointing out Trevor Senior's tattoo. So the past is at the forefront of his mind. It perhaps felt as though his guilty conscience had conjured up Hudson - I can understand him being shocked. But it surprises me that he's automatically deferential to Hudson. If as you say, there was something about Hudson that would make Trevor assume he'd come to blackmail him, I just don't see why Trevor wouldn't have put that in his confession. He's apparently so honest about everything else.

27 May 2015-2 June 2015

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User metanewsmods referenced to your post from 27 May 2015-2 June 2015 (http://metanews.livejournal.com/37719.html) saying: [...] , and that’s what it did." fandom:sanandreas Sherlock Holmes Canon Discussion: The Gloria Scott [...]