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sherlock60This week we are reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapters 1 through 4. It carries the theme of family lore.
One of the more remembered cases of Holmes, I think. I always loved it as a child. We open with a Holmes who is awake for once earlier than Watson and a cane left on the hearth rug. It's well used and old fashioned, dated 1884 and from CCH to a Mortimer. Holmes presses Watson to see what he makes of it and though Watson gives it a good try -- thinking that perhaps the cane was gift from a hunting company to an older surgeon for thanks for his help, Holmes proves it all wrong.
They are soon interrupted by the owner -- a country surgeon who had left Charring Cross Hospital on the occasion of his marriage and has a large dog (the CCH and the reason for the gift and damage). He has come to ask Holmes for some advice. We first start with an old country story about a landed gentry who behaved terribly toward a local maid and was reported to have been taken down by a hell hound. A recent descendant of the gentry was murdered -- the reason for Mortimer's visit. But more than a few facts reported in the papers, Mortimer brings to light several details that mean that something sinister is at work and that the death was not quite random or natural; foot prints that show that the descendant had stood for some time, unusually, at a turn on his usual nocturnal walk. And then he began running and thereafter died, from a heart attack Holmes proposes.
The only living relative -- Henry -- is arriving within the day; Mortimer wishes to know what to do. Holmes sends him off with the notice that he'll know within 24 hours if something is wrong.
Naturally, within 24 hours, something is. The hotel Henry chose the night before, one told to no one, had note for him in the morning. A warning to not go to the moor. Holmes proves that it was likely someone middle class as evidence from the story the words were taken from, and from someone who wished to appear to be lower class, to hide his identity. Further, Henry has lost a new boot.
Curiouser, curiouser.
Holmes sends them off with a caution to be vigilant, but follows after -- discovering that someone is following Henry.
One of the more remembered cases of Holmes, I think. I always loved it as a child. We open with a Holmes who is awake for once earlier than Watson and a cane left on the hearth rug. It's well used and old fashioned, dated 1884 and from CCH to a Mortimer. Holmes presses Watson to see what he makes of it and though Watson gives it a good try -- thinking that perhaps the cane was gift from a hunting company to an older surgeon for thanks for his help, Holmes proves it all wrong.
They are soon interrupted by the owner -- a country surgeon who had left Charring Cross Hospital on the occasion of his marriage and has a large dog (the CCH and the reason for the gift and damage). He has come to ask Holmes for some advice. We first start with an old country story about a landed gentry who behaved terribly toward a local maid and was reported to have been taken down by a hell hound. A recent descendant of the gentry was murdered -- the reason for Mortimer's visit. But more than a few facts reported in the papers, Mortimer brings to light several details that mean that something sinister is at work and that the death was not quite random or natural; foot prints that show that the descendant had stood for some time, unusually, at a turn on his usual nocturnal walk. And then he began running and thereafter died, from a heart attack Holmes proposes.
The only living relative -- Henry -- is arriving within the day; Mortimer wishes to know what to do. Holmes sends him off with the notice that he'll know within 24 hours if something is wrong.
Naturally, within 24 hours, something is. The hotel Henry chose the night before, one told to no one, had note for him in the morning. A warning to not go to the moor. Holmes proves that it was likely someone middle class as evidence from the story the words were taken from, and from someone who wished to appear to be lower class, to hide his identity. Further, Henry has lost a new boot.
Curiouser, curiouser.
Holmes sends them off with a caution to be vigilant, but follows after -- discovering that someone is following Henry.
