Discussion Post: The Reigate Squires

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

This week, the canon story we’re looking at is The Reigate Squires (aka The Reigate Puzzle), and the chosen topic is Firearms in Victorian England.

A few facts:

🔫 There were no legal restrictions on gun ownership during the Victorian era. [news.bbc.co.uk]

🔫 In 1870 a licence was introduced for anyone who wanted to carry a gun outside their home. This was instated in order to raise revenue. A licence was not required to buy a gun. The licences cost 10 shillings (equivalent to about £31 in 2005)[£43 or $62 today], lasted one year and could be bought over the counter at Post Offices. [Wikipedia]

🔫 British police officers have never officially been armed with guns. However… the image of an unarmed police force has been nurtured throughout the past 160 years, [the article was written in 1993] even when the reality was very different. Following a spate of armed burglaries in the 1880s, the Metropolitan Police allowed officers to carry a pistol on night duty if they wished. This policy was kept secret and officers were instructed to keep the gun hidden. [Peter Waddington. independent.co.uk]

🔫 There was… a surge in gun crime in the 1880s, and hardened burglars "increasingly went armed" (White 343). [Jacqueline Banerjee, PhD. The Victorian Web [White, Jerry. London in the Nineteenth Century: "A Human Awful Wonder of God!" London: Cape, 2007.]]

🔫 Going off at a slight tangent: clay shooting was invented during the Victorian era. Glass balls were used in the 1860s, in about 1880 the 'terracotta pigeon' appeared and an improved clay, 'the composition target', was introduced in the mid 1880s. [bristolclayshooting.com]



Some useful resources:

Britain's changing firearms laws news.bbc.co.uk

How Safe Was Victorian London? by Jacqueline Banerjee, PhD, Contributing Editor on The Victorian Web

Guns won't protect the police by Peter Waddington on independent.co.uk

Cane Guns; Victorian concealed firearms of gentlemen & cads by RS Fleming on katetattersall.com

The Etiquette of the Shooting Party from Manners and Rules of Good Society: or, Solecisms to be Avoided by Member of the Aristocracy (1888) Posted on edwardianpromenade.com

A late-Victorian or Edwardian hunting party Photograph on The Victorian Web

A Brief History of Clay Shooting bristolclayshooting.com



Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.

Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.

Comments

[garonne.livejournal.com]

Very interesting! I often wondered if Watson was really allowed to carry around that old service revolver or not.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Good stuff. Thank you.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I'd always vaguely assumed that he was - as he's so open about it. And Holmes too, when he uses a gun. Though of course ACD never let facts stand in the way of a good story ^^"

I was rather surprised that there were no legal restrictions at all on owning a gun though. And that when licences were brought in, you just went and got one at the Post Office. (I don't wish to treat the subject of guns lightly but I am greatly taken with the thought of Holmes and Watson popping down to the Post Office to get their gun licences renewed.)

The subject has got me thinking about Lestrade though. In HOUN, is he carrying a gun with or without his superiors' knowledge? He is there as a policeman, not as a private individual.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

I had no idea about that, and thank you very much for these links.

Is it just me, that I rather like Holmes' away matches, out of London?

[sanguinity]

I find it very strange that this story isn't adapted more, given that it's essentially Holmes & Watson Comedy Hour from one end to the other. I mean, I know that I have a strong partiality for Holmes & Watson shenaningans (and that H/W writers as a group are likely outliers on that point) but to my eye, there are far less entertaining stories in canon that get adapted far more often.

Thoughts as to why?

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about it, but I agree with you. There's a lot of physical comedy, too, which I think would do nicely on the stage.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I find that I'm learning something new every week ^^"

And though I love Baker Street and Holmes being in London, I do enjoy the novelty of Holmes and Watson going further afield. 3STU and HOUN come immediately to mind.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's because of the comedic aspect? And perhaps producers shy away from Holmes being vulnerable - in REIG being attacked by the Cunninghams and having to be rescued.

REIG is similar in some ways to DEVI - Holmes is recuperating, Watson is protective of him, a case comes to Holmes anyway, Holmes' life is in danger but he's saved. But it has to be said that DEVI is the better story.

Perhaps if producers are prepared to show Holmes being vulnerable, they prefer the high drama of DEVI - we see the horror of the drug through Watson's eyes, they both almost do die, and it's only Watson's desperate need to save Holmes that saves the both of them in the nick of time. The same situation in REIG is almost risible. Holmes is in no serious danger of dying - three saviours are only down the landing. Maybe that might seem like an anti-climax in an adaptation?

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

This is a favorite story of mine, too, and I'd love to see it adapted more often. Or...at all, really. I've never seen an adaptation of this one. And the only fic I've read that uses this story got so very dark that I had to back out as I wasn't the right reader for it.

Perhaps this mystery is overlooked because, if you're going to have Holmes fake or exaggerate an illness around Watson again, it's probably better to hold that back for Dying Detective or Illustrious Client, or indeed Final Problem with the faked death, since those situations are more extreme and therefore more dramatic.

I prefer this version for precisely that reason, actually. I can forgive Holmes for causing a minute of concern and fear because he needed an immediate diversion. I have less tolerance for the more extended and emotionally damaging manipulations of DYING and FINA, which of course are far more frequently adapted.

I really like the way Watson deals with Holmes's recuperation in this story, and especially how he acquiesces to letting a case hijack it and plays the stooge for Holmes no questions asked, but presumably with some very eloquent silent looks between them! I also love the chance to meet one of Watson's old friends -- we encounter so very few over the course of the canon, I do treasure Colonel Hayter and I love that he and Holmes quickly find that they get on quite well. There's just a lot of warmth around this story :)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

"Wacky hijinks ensue this week as Holmes makes Watson think he has beri-beri!"

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I think I'd agree with you that adapters are going for the adventures that are playing for higher stakes. REIG perhaps has elements that can all be found in other stories in a more dramatic form. So unless the producers are methodically going through the whole canon, it will never get used.

I do love though how Holmes and Watson's relationship is portrayed, and it's nice to meet Colonel Hayter - pity we didn't get more of him ^^

Fic for you

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

The Reigate Skeleton.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6540835/chapters/14963701