I've had this meme in my camera roll for a while and every time I look at it I can only see liam

A board of checkers

Today Bunny started the story called "Gift of the Emperor" and honestly, there's so many flags here that I don't know how to start this. Maybe I need a cuppa to write this.

This letters has all the vibe of a love triangle: we have a couple (Raffles and Bunny) that after a period of mutual pinning, they meet again on a ship to a very romantic-gay-famous place, they have a fight and later one of them is seen with a mysterious woman...

Until you remember that they're in that ship to steal a so precious pearl that would be almost impossible to sell it later. It's true that Bunny needs the money, but I'm sure Raffles could make a plan to steal another thing. Sounds good but AJ loves a bit of adrenaline and a good challenge.

And write he did, a light-hearted letter enough, but full of serious solicitude for me and for my health and prospects; a letter almost touching in the light of our past relations, in the twilight of their complete rupture. 

✨Letters from Raffles ✨

I need this!!!

The ship was sailing (figurative) until Bunny saw Raffles with a charming woman (Miss Werner) and didn't tell him the plan AGAIN. Communication is essential between partners in love crime and Bunny knows that:

"Then you should have let me know when you did decide. You lay your plans, and never say a word, and expect me to tumble to them by light of nature. How was I to know you had anything on?" I had turned the tables with some effect. Raffles almost hung his head. "The fact is, Bunny, I didn't mean you to know. You—you've grown such a pious rabbit in your old age!"

This Bunny has changed since "The Ides of March", and now he's in the middle of a "lapse into virtue".

Raffles entirely disagreed with me. He shook his head over my conventional view. Human nature was a board of checkers; why not reconcile one's self to alternate black and white? Why desire to be all one thing or all the other, like our forefathers on the stage or in the old-fashioned fiction? For his part, he enjoyed himself on all squares of the board, and liked the light the better for the shade. My conclusion he considered absurd.

Things are getting rummy between Raffles and Bunny, and now I have to wait until the next move.

And write he did, a light-hearted letter enough, but full of serious solicitude for me and for my health and prospects; a letter almost touching in the light of our past relations, in the twilight of their complete rupture. He said that he had booked two berths to Naples, that we were bound for Capri, which was clearly the island of the Lotos-eaters, that we would bask there together, "and for a while forget." It was a charming letter. I had never seen Italy; the privilege of initiation should be his. No mistake was greater than to deem it an impossible country for the summer. The Bay of Naples was never so divine, and he wrote of "faëry lands forlorn," as though the poetry sprang unbidden to his pen

So I'm reading Graham's Robb 'Strangers. Homosexual love in the nineteenth century', and gods, this passage has connotations. Quote: "Some form of homosexual community seems to have existed in any city large enough to provide anonymity. In most European and American cities, there was a place or even a district where homosexual men - and, more rare, women - could meet in relative safety: the waterfront in San Francisco, Broadway and Central Park in New York, parks alleyways and toilets in Toronto (from about 1890), Montmartre in Paris, Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Retiro in Madrid, the docks in Barcelona, the Boulevard Ring in Moscow, the quare in from of Copenhagen town hall, about seventeen different places in Amsterdam, and almost everywere in Naples." The gay (and forcefully outed) poet Count von Platen wrote about Naples "where love between men is so frequent that one never expects even the boldest damands to be refused'. Italy, and especially Naples, had such a reputation that queer people used to reference it to for example test the waters in a conversation, or safely advertise in search of potential partners. One could always claim to just talk about the literal place and not mean anything else

Raffles nodded again, this time with a smile that stayed in his eyes as he leant back watching me. I knew that he was thinking of other things I had stooped to, and I thought I knew what he was going to say. He had said it before so often; he was sure to say it again. I had my answer ready, but evidently he was tired of asking the same question. His lids fell, he took up the paper he had dropped, and I sculled the length of the old red wall of Hampton Court before he spoke again. "And they gave you nothing for these! My dear Bunny, they're capital, not only qua verses but for crystallizing your subject and putting it in a nutshell. Certainly you've taught ME more about it than I knew before.

Aww, Raffles does like Bunny's writing and is not shy to compliment him on it! This seems like a not too suble dig by Hornung at Doyle, "Look, at least MY character can appreciate the talents of his friend!"

"First-rate, old boy!" said Raffles (who must needs come and see me there), lying back in the boat while I sculled and steered. "I suppose they pay you pretty well for these, eh?" "Not a penny." "Nonsense, Bunny! I thought they paid so well? Give them time, and you'll get your check." "Oh, no, I sha'n't," said I gloomily. "I've got to be content with the honor of getting in; the editor wrote to say so, in so many words," I added. 

So artists and writers already got told they should be sasisfied with mere exposure in Victorian times, I see

Sherlock: Louis is mad at me, and I'm not sure why. Liam: Okay, did you talk before he got upset? Sherlock: …yes? Liam: That's probably it.

These are the cleaned up versions of the audio for "The Secret Life of Sherlock Homes" the play. Happy listening. Please credit me for the find.

And Jeremy Brett in the Granada TV series too <3

Sherlock Holmes is not actually cold and emotionless he is relentlessly passionate and loves his work and his life so much and anyone who tells you otherwise is a filthy liar. yes including Watson who he also loves

That's why both of them are very identical 😁

The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes Gives a Demonstration

Snib means to bolt, lock or fasten a door or window. Can't say it's a term I've heard of myself.

Sixty feet is 18.2 metres. That's a long way down!

"Horny" here means that his hands would have been hardened like a horn, from extended periods of manual labour. Sailors would have done a lot of rope pulling and climbing up rigging. This, along with the tar used to seal the wooden would have also made their hands quite dirty, which is why the Royal Navy salute has the palm facing rearwards.

Also, rope burn hurts.

Senegambia is a historical term for the region of African between the Senegal and Gambia rivers, covering a larger area than the two modern states of that name.

The spring return tape measure was invented in 1864, but the practice of applying length increments was not widespread at this time.

A Hippocratic smile is a rictus grin. It can be a sign of tetanus or poisoning by strychnine. It is a feature of the later discovered Wilson's disease, a genetic disorder where too much copper builds up in the body and is eventually fatal if not treated.

It can also be observed in cases of execution by hanging, although at this point, the condemned in Britain had hoods put on to stop spectators seeing this.

Norwood being in the Metropolitan Police District, Athelney Jones could justifiably be there in a case.

The French Holmes uses translates as "There are no fools so inconvenient as those who have wit!", implying that the detective knows just enough to be dangerous.

Police officers in England and Wales make a sworn attestation that they will serve the King in the office of constable. The Scottish and Northern Irish equivalents do not mention the monarch, for obvious reasons.

The Metropolitan Police were operating at this point under the Police Code written by the former head of CID, Sir Howard Vincent and first published in 1881. This included a A-Z guide of various offences and practices for the officer but did not include a standard form of wording used on an arrest. This book was informal, and it was not until 1912 that the "Judges' Rules" made an official recommendation that suspects be cautioned, but formally suggested wording only existed when charging someone.

Goethe's words translate as "We are used to people mocking what they don't understand."

arthur conan doyle & sherlock holmes

The Return Match spoilers out of context

WAIT A SECOND

Finished “Scoring off Jeeves” via Letters Regarding Jeeves

spoilers below

I kind of remember this one from the TV show though I've not watched it in at least a decade but I remembered it because the story is so...Bertie!!!!

Like of course when Jeeves is on vacation the most Bertie thing happens to Bertie

It's the most Bertie thing because it's a mix of oh no not engaged again!!! and my friend needs help and I'm going to help him and Bertie once again thinks he can psych Jeeves out and learns once again he simply cannot

So, since Jeeves is not here, Bertie ends up soaked to the bone and inadvertantly convinces his fiancee that she really needs to be his fiancee because he's pathetic and wet and she likes that in a man apparently as you meme

At least Jeeves is having a great time on his vacation. Can't wait to see how this pans out in the next story

work hard on that extra credit❓🤨 / sketch

I have the impression that Athelney Jones wants to resolve this case ASAP so he can go back home early and Holmes can bother another policeman.

Last time in Letters from Watson, @paulgadzikowski provided the awesome and terrifying news that Thaddeus Sholto is meant to be modeled on Oscar Wilde. I get the strong feeling that it's not meant to be a flattering likeness.

So I was barking up the wrong tree with physiognomy. I was also envisioning something more like this villain-of-the-week from Mission: Magic! (the spiritual predecessor to The Magic School Bus).

This says more about me than about Doyle.

Last week of The Sign of the Four ("The Tragedy of Pondicherry Lodge") is filled with Exotic Adventure elements, which weirdly, for me, makes it harder to react to. In A Study in Scarlet, Doyle goes to great pains to describe the vacant house in Lambeth. This time, it's just "a huge clump of a house, square and prosaic."

The truly important thing here is that Sherlock Holmes boxes. The rabbit hole I fell down in trying to understand boxing in Victorian society is where I've been lost for so long. Boxing was simultaneously the sport of gentlemen and the lowest-class sort of pastime, plus at the time of the novel, Queensbury Rules are still new enough that the first champion under them hasn't been crowned.

Boxing is a measure of both Holmes' physical fitness and his social flexibility. He's not afraid to go fist-to-fist against a worthy opponent.

“You see, Watson, if all else fails me I have still one of the scientific professions open to me,” said Holmes, laughing. “Our friend won't keep us out in the cold now, I am sure.”

English journalist Pierce Egan coined "the sweet science of bruising" to describe prize-fighting, way back in the 1810s. Egan also published a journal called Boxiana.

Meanwhile, my cinnamon roll Dr. Watson and Miss Morstan hold hands, and I can't help imagining that it's Watson that wants support in this situation. Nonetheless, it's a relief that we're not going to play "will they or won't they?" for thousands of words. It's the 19th century: we can play "can he or can he not afford a wife?" instead.

I have no idea at all what to make of thorns, lab equipment, and the whole Pondicherry Lodge mess, so I guess I'll see what today's chapter brings.