120-432: " The Boscombe Valley Mystery ", one of the fifty-six short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , is the fourth of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes . It was first published in the Strand Magazine in October 1891. John Turner, a widower and a major landowner who has a daughter named Alice, lives in Herefordshire with a fellow expatriate from Australia , Charles McCarthy,
240-530: A knighthood "for services which may perhaps some day be described". However, he does not actively seek fame and is usually content to let the police take public credit for his work. The first set of Holmes stories was published between 1887 and 1893. Conan Doyle killed off Holmes in a final battle with the criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty in " The Final Problem " (published 1893, but set in 1891), as Conan Doyle felt that "my literary energies should not be directed too much into one channel". However,
360-599: A Mark III Adams revolver , issued to British troops during the 1870s). Holmes and Watson shoot the eponymous hound in The Hound of the Baskervilles , and in "The Adventure of the Empty House", Watson pistol-whips Colonel Sebastian Moran . In " The Problem of Thor Bridge ", Holmes uses Watson's revolver to solve the case through an experiment. Bushranger Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in
480-556: A bushranger was "an open villain who subsists by highway robbery, and will sooner be killed than taken alive". Over 2,000 bushrangers are estimated to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and drawing to a close after Ned Kelly 's last stand at Glenrowan . Bushranging began soon after British settlement with the establishment of New South Wales as a penal colony in 1788. The majority of early bushrangers were convicts who had escaped prison, or from
600-481: A central theme of " The Yellow Face "). Though Holmes is famed for his reasoning capabilities, his investigative technique relies heavily on the acquisition of hard evidence. Many of the techniques he employs in the stories were at the time in their infancy. The detective is particularly skilled in the analysis of trace evidence and other physical evidence, including latent prints (such as footprints, hoof prints, and shoe and tire impressions) to identify actions at
720-488: A convict uprising, declared martial law in an effort to suppress Howe's influence. Most of the gang had either been captured or killed by 1818, the year Howe was clubbed to death by a soldier. Vandemonian bushranging peaked in the 1820s with hundreds of bolters at large, among the most notorious being Matthew Brady 's gang, cannibal serial killers Alexander Pearce and Thomas Jeffrey , and tracker-turned-resistance leader Musquito . Jackey Jackey (alias of William Westwood)
840-746: A corner on the Macintyre (1894) and Bailed Up (1895), both set in Inverell , the area where Captain Thunderbolt was once active. Although not the first Australian film with a bushranging theme, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)—the world's first feature-length narrative film —is regarded as having set the template for the genre. On the back of the film's success, its producers released one of two 1907 film adaptations of Boldrewood's Robbery Under Arms (the other being Charles MacMahon's version ). Entering
960-402: A crime scene, using tobacco ashes and cigarette butts to identify criminals, utilizing handwriting analysis and graphology , comparing typewritten letters to expose a fraud, using gunpowder residue to expose two murderers, and analyzing small pieces of human remains to expose two murders. Because of the small scale of much of his evidence, the detective often uses a magnifying glass at
1080-627: A fictional character but an actual individual; numerous literary and fan societies have been founded on this pretence . Avid readers of the Holmes stories helped create the modern practice of fandom . The character and stories have had a profound and lasting effect on mystery writing and popular culture as a whole, with the original tales, as well as thousands written by authors other than Conan Doyle , being adapted into stage and radio plays, television, films, video games, and other media for over one hundred years. Edgar Allan Poe 's C. Auguste Dupin
1200-503: A glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation. After confirming Watson's assessment of the wound, Holmes makes it clear to their opponent that the man would not have left the room alive if he genuinely had killed Watson. Holmes' clients vary from the most powerful monarchs and governments of Europe, to wealthy aristocrats and industrialists , to impoverished pawnbrokers and governesses . He
1320-693: A group of armed locals in Bobin, NSW , and the death of his brother, Joe Governor, near Singleton, NSW a few days later. Jack Underwood (who had been caught shortly after the Breelong Massacre) was hanged in Dubbo Gaol on 14 January 1901, and Jimmy Governor was hanged in Darlinghurst Gaol on 18 January 1901. The final phase of bushranging was sustained by the so-called "boy bushrangers"—youths who sought to commit crimes, mostly armed robberies, modelled on
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#17330945107881440-469: A half years, one of the longest careers of any bushranger. He sometimes operated alone; at other times, he led gangs, and was accompanied by his Aboriginal 'wife', Mary Ann Bugg , who is credited with helping extend his career. The increasing push of settlement, increased police efficiency, improvements in rail transport and communications technology, such as telegraphy , made it more difficult for bushrangers to evade capture. In 1870, Captain Thunderbolt
1560-672: A hotel, and hopes that Holmes has found a way to prove James's innocence. She also believes that she was the subject of the argument between the McCarthys – Charles wanted his son to marry her, but James had refused. Alice had taken James' side out of respect for him, and her father was also against the union. Holmes asks Alice if he could meet her father, but she says his health worsened after the death of Charles, whom he had known since they were in Victoria . Holmes decides to see James. Holmes mistakenly surmises that James knows who killed his father and
1680-404: A knowledge of Latin . The detective cites Hafez , Goethe , as well as a letter from Gustave Flaubert to George Sand in the original French. In The Hound of the Baskervilles , the detective recognises works by Godfrey Kneller and Joshua Reynolds : "Watson won't allow that I know anything of art, but that is mere jealousy since our views upon the subject differ." In " The Adventure of
1800-478: A person's clothes and personal items are also commonly relied on; in the stories, Holmes is seen applying his method to items such as walking sticks, pipes, and hats. For example, in "A Scandal in Bohemia", Holmes infers that Watson had got wet lately and had "a most clumsy and careless servant girl". When Watson asks how Holmes knows this, the detective answers: It is simplicity itself ... my eyes tell me that on
1920-446: A salesman with a wager: "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet ... I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of him, that man would not have given me such complete information as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a wager." Maria Konnikova points out in an interview with D. J. Grothe that Holmes practises what
2040-502: A self-made book of kangaroo skin and written in kangaroo blood. In it was a dream diary and plans for a settlement he intended to found in the bush. Sometime bushranger Francis MacNamara, also known as Frank the Poet , wrote some of the best-known poems of the convict era. Several convict bushrangers also wrote autobiographies, including Jackey Jackey, Martin Cash and Owen Suffolk . Jack Donahue
2160-636: A shootout with the police. Ned Kelly, the only gang member to survive, was hanged at the Melbourne Gaol on 11 November 1880. In July 1900, the Governor brothers—a trio group consisting of an Aboriginal fencing contractor named Jimmy Governor and his associates, Joe Governor and Jack Underwood—perpetrated the Breelong Massacre, wounding one and killing five members of the Mawbey family. The massacre sparked
2280-576: A strong aptitude for acting and disguise. In several stories (" The Sign of Four ", " The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton ", " The Man with the Twisted Lip ", " The Adventure of the Empty House " and " A Scandal in Bohemia "), to gather evidence undercover, he uses disguises so convincing that Watson fails to recognise him. In others (" The Adventure of the Dying Detective " and " A Scandal in Bohemia "), Holmes feigns injury or illness to incriminate
2400-529: A ten-year sentence in HM Prison Pentridge . Within a year of his release in 1879, he and his gang held up the town of Wantabadgery in the Riverina . Two of the gang (including Moonlite's "soulmate" and alleged lover, James Nesbitt) and one trooper were killed when the police attacked. Scott was found guilty of murder and hanged along with one of his accomplices on 20 January 1880. Among the last bushrangers
2520-493: A thumbprint to solve a crime in " The Adventure of the Norwood Builder " (generally held to be set in 1895), the story was published in 1903, two years after Scotland Yard's fingerprint bureau opened. Though the effect of the Holmes stories on the development of forensic science has thus often been overstated, Holmes inspired future generations of forensic scientists to think scientifically and analytically. Holmes displays
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#17330945107882640-637: A trooper in 1830. That same year, west of the Blue Mountains , convict Ralph Entwistle sparked a bushranging insurgency known as the Bathurst Rebellion . He and his gang raided farms, liberating assigned convicts by force in the process, and within a month, his personal army numbered 80 men. Following gun battles with vigilante posses, mounted policemen and soldiers of the 39th and 57th Regiment of Foot , he and nine of his men were captured and executed. Convict bushrangers were particularly prevalent in
2760-421: A widower who has a son named James. Charles has been found dead near Boscombe Pool; it was reported that he was there to meet someone. Two witnesses testify that they saw Charles walking into the woods followed by James, who was carrying a gun. Patience Moran, daughter of a lodgekeeper, says that she saw the two arguing and that, when James raised his hand as if to hit his father, she ran to her mother; and while she
2880-556: Is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle . Referring to himself as a " consulting detective " in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard . The character Sherlock Holmes first appeared in print in 1887's A Study in Scarlet . His popularity became widespread with
3000-478: Is an Australian cry and that the apparent reference to "a rat", overheard by James, in fact comprised the last syllables of " Ballarat ", a place in Australia. The person Charles was meeting was, therefore, someone he knew from Australia. John Turner, Alice's father, then comes to their room (coincidentally being announced by a hotel employee right as Watson is about to name him as the killer, after correctly interpreting
3120-405: Is as inhuman as a Babbage 's Calculating Machine and just about as likely to fall in love." Holmes says of himself that he is "not a whole-souled admirer of womankind", and that he finds "the motives of women ... inscrutable. ... How can you build on such quicksand? Their most trivial actions may mean volumes". In The Sign of Four , he says, "Women are never to be entirely trusted—not
3240-621: Is considered a classic of Australian colonial literature. It also cited as an important influence on the American writer Owen Wister 's 1902 novel The Virginian , widely regarded as the first Western . Bushrangers were a favoured subject of colonial artists such as S. T. Gill , Frank P. Mahony and William Strutt . Tom Roberts , one of the leading figures of the Heidelberg School (also known as Australian Impressionism ), depicted bushrangers in some of his history paintings, including In
3360-422: Is generally acknowledged as the first detective in fiction and served as the prototype for many later characters, including Holmes. Conan Doyle once wrote, "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed ... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?" Similarly, the stories of Émile Gaboriau 's Monsieur Lecoq were extremely popular at
3480-402: Is his most significant relationship. When Watson is injured by a bullet, although the wound turns out to be "quite superficial", Watson is moved by Holmes's reaction: It was worth a wound; it was worth many wounds; to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught
3600-472: Is implied that wealthy clients habitually pay Holmes more than his standard rate. In " The Adventure of the Priory School ", Holmes earns a £6,000 fee (at a time where annual expenses for a rising young professional were in the area of £500). However, Watson notes that Holmes would refuse to help even the wealthy and powerful if their cases did not interest him. As Conan Doyle wrote to Joseph Bell, "Holmes
3720-620: Is kept alive by the photograph of Adler that Holmes received for his part in the case. Shortly after meeting Holmes in the first story, A Study in Scarlet (generally assumed to be 1881, though the exact date is not given), Watson assesses the detective's abilities: In A Study in Scarlet , Holmes claims to be unaware that the Earth revolves around the Sun since such information is irrelevant to his work; after hearing that fact from Watson, he says he will immediately try to forget it. The detective believes that
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3840-524: Is known only in select professional circles at the beginning of the first story, but is already collaborating with Scotland Yard . However, his continued work and the publication of Watson's stories raise Holmes's profile, and he rapidly becomes well known as a detective; so many clients ask for his help instead of (or in addition to) that of the police that, Watson writes, by 1887 "Europe was ringing with his name" and by 1895 Holmes has "an immense practice". Police outside London ask Holmes for assistance if he
3960-540: Is known to charge clients for his expenses and claim any reward offered for a problem's solution, such as in " The Adventure of the Speckled Band ", " The Red-Headed League ", and " The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet ". The detective states at one point that "My professional charges are upon a fixed scale. I do not vary them, save when I remit them altogether." In this context, a client is offering to double his fee, and it
4080-441: Is maintained by their landlady, Mrs. Hudson . Holmes works as a detective for twenty-three years, with Watson assisting him for seventeen of those years. Most of the stories are frame narratives written from Watson's point of view, as summaries of the detective's most interesting cases. Holmes frequently calls Watson's records of Holmes's cases sensational and populist, suggesting that they fail to accurately and objectively report
4200-707: Is nearby. A British prime minister and the King of Bohemia visit 221B Baker Street in person to request Holmes's assistance; the President of France awards him the Legion of Honour for capturing an assassin; the King of Scandinavia is a client; and he aids the Vatican at least twice. The detective acts on behalf of the British government in matters of national security several times and declines
4320-443: Is no known contemporaneous source for this; the earliest known reference to such events comes from 1949. However, the recorded public reaction to Holmes's death was unlike anything previously seen for fictional events. After resisting public pressure for eight years, Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles (serialised in 1901–02, with an implicit setting before Holmes's death). In 1903, Conan Doyle wrote " The Adventure of
4440-468: Is now called mindfulness, concentrating on one thing at a time, and almost never "multitasks". She adds that in this he predates the science showing how helpful this is to the brain. Holmes observes the dress and attitude of his clients and suspects, noting skin marks (such as tattoos), contamination (such as ink stains or clay on boots), emotional state, and physical condition in order to deduce their origins and recent history. The style and state of wear of
4560-404: Is protecting someone. It emerges that Alice is right about the cause of the argument between James and Charles. What she does not know is that James actually loves her but could not follow his father's demand because he had married a barmaid before Alice had returned from boarding school . This burdened him, but he could not tell his father about his marriage because he would have been kicked out of
4680-470: Is really very showy and superficial." Nevertheless, Holmes later performs the same 'trick' on Watson in " The Cardboard Box " and " The Adventure of the Dancing Men ". Though the stories always refer to Holmes's intellectual detection method as " deduction ", Holmes primarily relies on abduction : inferring an explanation for observed details. "From a drop of water," he writes, "a logician could infer
4800-547: Is replaced by a local policeman, Inspector Lanner, and Charles McCarthy's first name has been changed to Bill. John Turner dies immediately after confessing to Holmes. In the 1991 TV adaption starring Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke , Boscombe Valley is in Cheshire in the northwest of England. Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard does not appear; instead Holmes cooperates with one Inspector Summerby. A young James Purefoy stars as James McCarthy. "The Boscombe Valley Mystery"
4920-427: Is the frequent subject of pastiche writing. The beginning of the story describes the high regard in which Holmes holds her: To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. ... And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman
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5040-519: The American Old West , and their crimes typically included robbing small-town banks, bailing up coach services and plundering stations (pastoral estates). They also engaged in many shootouts with the police, resulting in deaths on both sides. The number of bushrangers declined in the 1870s due to better policing and improvements in rail transport and communication technology, such as telegraphy . The last major phase of bushranging occurred towards
5160-569: The BBC Light Programme in 1966, as part of the 1952–1969 radio series starring Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson. "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" was adapted as an episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater titled "The Boscombe Pool Mystery". The episode, which featured Kevin McCarthy as Sherlock Holmes and Court Benson as Dr. Watson, first aired in May 1977. "The Boscombe Valley Mystery"
5280-512: The Diogenes Club . Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from his fellow university students. A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession. In the first Holmes tale, A Study in Scarlet , financial difficulties lead Holmes and Dr. Watson to share rooms together at 221B Baker Street , London. Their residence
5400-647: The Parliament of New South Wales passed a bill, the Felons Apprehension Act 1865 , that effectively allowed anyone to shoot outlawed bushrangers on sight. By the time that the Clarke brothers were captured and hanged in 1867, organised gang bushranging in New South Wales had effectively ceased. Captain Thunderbolt (alias of Frederick Ward) robbed inns and mail-coaches across northern New South Wales for six and
5520-557: The University of Edinburgh Medical School , is also cited as an inspiration for Holmes. Littlejohn, who was also Police Surgeon and Medical Officer of Health in Edinburgh, provided Conan Doyle with a link between medical investigation and the detection of crime. Other possible inspirations have been proposed, though never acknowledged by Doyle, such as Maximilien Heller , by French author Henry Cauvain. In this 1871 novel (sixteen years before
5640-606: The gold rush era of the mid-19th century, with many bushrangers roaming the goldfields and country districts of New South Wales and Victoria , and to a lesser extent Queensland . As the outbreak worsened in the mid-1860s, the concept of outlawry was introduced to curtail the careers of the Gardiner–Hall gang , Dan Morgan , and the Clarke gang , among others. These " Wild Colonial Boys ", mostly Australian-born sons of convicts, were roughly analogous to British highwaymen and outlaws of
5760-471: The "science" of his craft: Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it [ A Study in Scarlet ] with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid . ... Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. The only point in
5880-399: The 1860s, including the 1862 Escort Rock robbery , Australia's largest ever gold heist. The gang also engaged in many shootouts with the police, resulting in deaths on both sides. Other bushrangers active in New South Wales during this period, such as Dan Morgan , and the Clarke brothers and their associates, murdered multiple policemen. As bushranging continued to escalate in the 1860s,
6000-430: The Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia, and applied to transported convicts who had escaped into the bush to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up " robbery under arms " as a way of life, using the bush as their base. Bushranging thrived during
6120-480: The British war effort. Only one other adventure, " The Adventure of the Lion's Mane ", takes place during the detective's retirement. Watson describes Holmes as " bohemian " in his habits and lifestyle. Said to have a "cat-like" love of personal cleanliness, at the same time Holmes is an eccentric with no regard for contemporary standards of tidiness or good order. Watson describes him as in his personal habits one of
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#17330945107886240-611: The Bruce-Partington Plans ", Watson says that "Holmes lost himself in a monograph which he had undertaken upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus ", considered "the last word" on the subject—which must have been the result of an intensive and very specialized musicological study which could have had no possible application to the solution of criminal mysteries. Holmes is a cryptanalyst , telling Watson that "I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing, and am myself
6360-677: The Bushranger (1830), William Thomas Moncrieff 's Van Diemen's Land: An Operatic Drama (1831), The Bushrangers; or, Norwood Vale (1834) by Henry Melville , and The Bushrangers; or, The Tregedy of Donohoe (1835) by Charles Harpur . In the late 19th century, E. W. Hornung and Hume Nisbet created popular bushranger novels within the conventions of the European "noble bandit" tradition. First serialised in The Sydney Mail in 1882–83, Rolf Boldrewood 's bushranging novel Robbery Under Arms
6480-411: The Empty House "; set in 1894, Holmes reappears, explaining to a stunned Watson that he had faked his death to fool his enemies. Following "The Adventure of the Empty House", Conan Doyle would sporadically write new Holmes stories until 1927. Holmes aficionados refer to the period from 1891 to 1894—between his disappearance and presumed death in "The Final Problem" and his reappearance in "The Adventure of
6600-675: The Empty House"—as the Great Hiatus. The earliest known use of this expression dates to 1946. In His Last Bow , the reader is told that Holmes has retired to a small farm on the Sussex Downs and taken up beekeeping as his primary occupation. The move is not dated precisely, but can be presumed to be no later than 1904 (since it is referred to retrospectively in " The Adventure of the Second Stain ", first published that year). The story features Holmes and Watson coming out of retirement to aid
6720-427: The Governor brothers to engage in a crime spree across northern New South Wales, triggering one of the largest manhunts in Australian history, with 2,000 armed civilians and police covering 3,000 km of northern New South Wales in a search for the brothers. The Governor brothers were pursued by authorities for a total of three months, consequently being brought down on 27 October with the arrest of Jimmy Governor by
6840-586: The London slavey. In the first Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet , Dr. Watson compares Holmes to C. Auguste Dupin , Edgar Allan Poe's fictional detective, who employed a similar methodology. Alluding to an episode in " The Murders in the Rue Morgue ", where Dupin determines what his friend is thinking despite their having walked together in silence for a quarter of an hour, Holmes remarks: "That trick of his breaking in on his friend's thoughts with an apropos remark ...
6960-514: The Missing Three-Quarter ", Watson says that although he has "weaned" Holmes from drugs, the detective remains an addict whose habit is "not dead, but merely sleeping". Watson and Holmes both use tobacco, smoking cigarettes, cigars, and pipes . Although his chronicler does not consider Holmes's smoking a vice per se , Watson—a physician—does criticise the detective for creating a "poisonous atmosphere" in their confined quarters. Holmes
7080-418: The absence of stimulating cases. He sometimes used morphine and sometimes cocaine , the latter of which he injects in a seven-per cent solution; both drugs were legal in 19th-century England. As a physician, Watson strongly disapproves of his friend's cocaine habit, describing it as the detective's only vice, and concerned about its effect on Holmes's mental health and intellect. In " The Adventure of
7200-484: The address of 221B Baker Street , London, where many of the stories begin. Though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is arguably the best-known. By the 1990s, over 25,000 stage adaptations, films, television productions, and publications had featured the detective, and Guinness World Records lists him as the most portrayed human literary character in film and television history. Holmes's popularity and fame are such that many have believed him to be not
7320-503: The author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyse one hundred and sixty separate ciphers." Holmes also demonstrates a knowledge of psychology in "A Scandal in Bohemia", luring Irene Adler into betraying where she hid a photograph based on the premise that a woman will rush to save her most valued possession from a fire. Another example is in " The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle ", where Holmes obtains information from
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#17330945107887440-408: The authorities, admired for their bravery, rough chivalry and colourful personalities. However, in stark contrast to romantic portrayals in the arts and popular culture, bushrangers tended to lead lives that were "nasty, brutish and short", with some earning notoriety for their cruelty and bloodthirst. Australian attitudes toward bushrangers remain complex and ambivalent. The earliest documented use of
7560-541: The best of them", a feeling Watson notes as an "atrocious sentiment". In "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", Holmes writes, "Women have seldom been an attraction to me, for my brain has always governed my heart." At the end of The Sign of Four , Holmes states that "love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true, cold reason which I place above all things. I should never marry myself, lest I bias my judgement." Ultimately, Holmes claims outright that "I have never loved." But while Watson says that
7680-410: The case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unravelling it. Nevertheless, when Holmes recorded a case himself, he was forced to concede that he could more easily understand the need to write it in a manner that would appeal to the public rather than his intention to focus on his own technical skill. Holmes's friendship with Watson
7800-406: The cause of their argument, despite the coroner 's warning that it could be damaging to his case if he does not reveal it. James also remembers that his father's last words were something about "a rat", but James is uncertain of their meaning in the situation. He also thinks he saw a cloak on the ground, which vanished while he was helping his father. Alice meets Holmes, Lestrade and Dr. Watson in
7920-602: The city's underclass. These agents included a variety of informants , such as Langdale Pike, a "human book of reference upon all matters of social scandal", and Shinwell Johnson, who acted as Holmes's "agent in the huge criminal underworld of London". The best known of Holmes's agents are a group of street children he called "the Baker Street Irregulars ". Holmes and Watson often carry pistols with them to confront criminals—in Watson's case, his old service weapon (probably
8040-568: The colonial authorities, the Government tried to bring an end to any such collaboration by rewarding Aborigines for returning convicts to custody. Aboriginal trackers would play a significant role in the hunt for bushrangers. Colonel Godfrey Mundy described convict bushrangers as "desperate, hopeless, fearless; rendered so, perhaps, by the tyranny of a gaoler, of an overseer, or of a master to whom he has been assigned." Edward Smith Hall , editor of early Sydney newspaper The Monitor , agreed that
8160-486: The convict system was a breeding-ground for bushrangers due to its savagery, with starvation and acts of torture being rampant. "Liberty or Death!" was the cry of convict bushrangers, and in large numbers they roamed beyond Sydney, some hoping to reach China , which was commonly believed to be connected by an overland route. Some bolters seized boats and set sail for foreign lands, but most were hunted down and brought back to Australia. Others attempted to inspire an overhaul of
8280-401: The convict system, or simply sought revenge on their captors. This latter desire found expression in the convict ballad " Jim Jones at Botany Bay ", in which Jones, the narrator, plans to join bushranger Jack Donahue and "gun the floggers down". Donahue was the most notorious of the early New South Wales bushrangers, terrorising settlements outside Sydney from 1827 until he was fatally shot by
8400-441: The decline in penal transportations to Australia in the 1840s. It had ceased by the 1850s to all colonies except Western Australia , which accepted convicts between 1850 and 1868. The best-known convict bushranger of the colony was the prolific escapee Moondyne Joe . The Australian gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s marked the next distinct phase of bushranging, as the discovery of gold gave bushrangers access to great wealth that
8520-423: The detective becomes engaged under false pretenses in order to obtain information about a case, abandoning the woman once he has the information he requires. Irene Adler is a retired American opera singer and actress who appears in " A Scandal in Bohemia ". Although this is her only appearance, she is one of only a handful of people who bests Holmes in a battle of wits, and the only woman. For this reason, Adler
8640-404: The detective has an "aversion to women", he also notes Holmes as having "a peculiarly ingratiating way with [them]". Watson notes that their housekeeper Mrs. Hudson is fond of Holmes because of his "remarkable gentleness and courtesy in his dealings with women. He disliked and distrusted the sex, but he was always a chivalrous opponent." However, in " The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton ",
8760-577: The detective. A statement of Holmes' age in " His Last Bow " places his year of birth at 1854; the story, set in August 1914, describes him as sixty years of age. His parents are not mentioned, although Holmes mentions that his "ancestors" were " country squires ". In " The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter ", he claims that his grandmother was sister to the French artist Vernet, without clarifying whether this
8880-488: The development of the character in 1912, Conan Doyle wrote that "In the first one, the Study in Scarlet , [Holmes] was a mere calculating machine, but I had to make him more of an educated human being as I went on with him." Despite Holmes's supposed ignorance of politics, in "A Scandal in Bohemia" he immediately recognises the true identity of the disguised "Count von Kramm". At the end of A Study in Scarlet , Holmes demonstrates
9000-513: The doctor that during two years at college he made only one friend: "I was never a very sociable fellow, Watson ... I never mixed much with the men of my year." The detective goes without food at times of intense intellectual activity, believing that "the faculties become refined when you starve them". At times, Holmes relaxes with music, either playing the violin or enjoying the works of composers such as Wagner and Pablo de Sarasate . Holmes occasionally uses addictive drugs, especially in
9120-403: The eastern colonies. Its origins in a convict system bred a unique kind of desperado, most frequently with an Irish political background. Native-born bushrangers also expressed nascent Australian nationalist views and are recognised as "the first distinctively Australian characters to gain general recognition." As such, a number of bushrangers became folk heroes and symbols of rebellion against
9240-527: The end of the decade, epitomised by the Kelly gang in Victoria, led by Ned Kelly , Australia's best-known bushranger and outlaw. Although bushrangers appeared sporadically into the early 20th century, most historians regard Kelly's capture and execution in 1880 as effectively representing the end of the bushranging era. Bushranging exerted a powerful influence in Australia, lasting for over a century and predominating in
9360-411: The exploits of their bushranging "heroes". The majority were captured alive without any fatalities. In Australia, bushrangers often attract public sympathy (cf. the concept of social bandits ). In Australian history and iconography bushrangers are held in some esteem in some quarters due to the harshness and anti-Catholicism of the colonial authorities whom they embarrassed, and the romanticism of
9480-614: The first "golden age" of Australian cinema (1910–12), director John Gavin released two fictionalised accounts of real-life bushrangers: Moonlite (1910) and Thunderbolt (1910). The genre's popularity with audiences led to a spike of production unprecedented in world cinema. Dan Morgan (1911) is notable for portraying its title character as an insane villain rather than a figure of romance. Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner, Captain Starlight, and numerous other bushrangers also received cinematic treatments at this time. Alarmed by what they saw as
9600-516: The first appearance of Sherlock Holmes), Henry Cauvain imagined a depressed, anti-social, opium-smoking polymath detective, operating in Paris. It is not known if Conan Doyle read the novel, but he was fluent in French. Details of Sherlock Holmes' life in Conan Doyle's stories are scarce and often vague. Nevertheless, mentions of his early life and extended family paint a loose biographical picture of
9720-596: The first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine , beginning with " A Scandal in Bohemia " in 1891; additional tales appeared from then until 1927, eventually totalling four novels and 56 short stories . All but one are set in the Victorian or Edwardian eras between 1880 and 1914. Most are narrated by the character of Holmes's friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson , who usually accompanies Holmes during his investigations and often shares quarters with him at
9840-486: The glorification of outlawry, state governments imposed a ban on bushranger films in 1912, effectively removing "the entire folklore relating to bushrangers ... from the most popular form of cultural expression." It is seen as a major reason for the collapse of a booming Australian film industry. One of the few Australian films to escape the ban before it was lifted in the 1940s is the 1920 adaptation of Robbery Under Arms . Also during this lull appeared American takes on
9960-519: The guilty. In the latter story, Watson says, "The stage lost a fine actor ... when [Holmes] became a specialist in crime." Guy Mankowski has said of Holmes that his ability to change his appearance to blend into any situation "helped him personify the idea of the English eccentric chameleon, in a way that prefigured the likes of David Bowie ". Until Watson's arrival at Baker Street, Holmes largely worked alone, only occasionally employing agents from
10080-611: The hints Holmes has offered him), entering with a limp, and, realising that Holmes has deduced the crime, confesses. In his confession, John explains that he was a member of the Ballarat Gang, a group of bushrangers in Australia. They robbed a gold convoy in which Charles was the wagon driver, and John spared his life despite knowing that Charles could later identify him. The loot made the surviving gang members rich, and they moved to England. Resolved to change, John parted ways with his friends. He bought land and got married, and then Alice
10200-405: The house and left unable to support himself. When his wife heard of his troubles, however, she confessed that she was already married before they met, and therefore their marriage is invalid. Holmes, Watson and Lestrade go to the farm, and examine Charles's and James's boots. They then head to Boscombe Pool, following the track from the courtyard. After examining the ground, Holmes finds evidence of
10320-403: The inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of
10440-462: The law as a means for righting a wrong, contending that "there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge." His companion condones the detective's willingness to do this on behalf of a client—lying to the police, concealing evidence or breaking into houses—when he also feels it morally justifiable. Except for that of Watson, Holmes avoids casual company. In "The Gloria Scott " , he tells
10560-405: The lawlessness they represented. Some bushrangers, most notably Ned Kelly in his Jerilderie letter , and in his final raid on Glenrowan , explicitly represented themselves as political rebels. Attitudes to Kelly, by far the most well-known bushranger, exemplify the ambivalent views of Australians regarding bushranging. The impact of bushrangers upon the areas in which they roamed is evidenced in
10680-469: The mind has a finite capacity for information storage, and learning useless things reduces one's ability to learn useful things. The later stories move away from this notion: in The Valley of Fear , he says, "All knowledge comes useful to the detective", and in "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", the detective calls himself "an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles". Looking back on
10800-407: The most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction. [He] keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle , his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece. ... He had a horror of destroying documents. ... Thus month after month his papers accumulated, until every corner of the room
10920-407: The names of many geographical features in Australia, including Brady's Lookout , Moondyne Cave , the township of Codrington , Mount Tennent , Thunderbolts Way and Ward's Mistake . The districts of North East Victoria are unofficially known as Kelly Country. Some bushrangers made a mark on Australian literature . While running from soldiers in 1818, Michael Howe dropped a knapsack containing
11040-550: The penal colony of Van Diemen's Land (now the state of Tasmania ), established in 1803. The island's most powerful bushranger, the self-styled "Lieutenant Governor of the Woods", Michael Howe , led a gang of up to one hundred members "in what amounted to a civil war" with the colonial government. His control over large swathes of the island prompted elite squatters from Hobart and Launceston to collude with him, and for six months in 1815, Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Davey , fearing
11160-499: The possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other." However, Holmes does employ deductive reasoning as well. The detective's guiding principle, as he says in The Sign of Four , is: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Despite Holmes's remarkable reasoning abilities, Conan Doyle still paints him as fallible in this regard (this being
11280-425: The presence of another man, besides Charles and James, whom he believes to be the murderer. Holmes deduces that the killer is left-handed (because Charles was struck neatly on the left side of his head from behind, where a right-handed man would have struck him on the other side), and that the stranger is tall, has a limp and smokes cigars. Lestrade is not convinced. At the hotel, Holmes explains to Watson that "Cooee"
11400-533: The properties of landowners to whom they had been assigned as servants. These bushrangers, also known as "bolters", preferred the hazards of wild, unexplored bushland surrounding Sydney to the deprivation and brutality of convict life. The first notable bushranger, African convict John Caesar , robbed settlers for food, and had a brief, tempestuous alliance with Aboriginal resistance fighters during Pemulwuy's War . While other bushrangers would go on to fight alongside Indigenous Australians in frontier conflicts with
11520-480: The reaction of the public surprised him very much. Distressed readers wrote anguished letters to The Strand Magazine , which suffered a terrible blow when 20,000 people cancelled their subscriptions to the magazine in protest. Conan Doyle himself received many protest letters, and one lady even began her letter with "You brute". Legend has it that Londoners were so distraught upon hearing the news of Holmes's death that they wore black armbands in mourning, though there
11640-478: The rise of the colonial-born sons of poor ex-convicts who were drawn to a more glamorous life than mining or farming. Much of the activity in the colony was in the Lachlan Valley , around Forbes , Yass and Cowra . The Gardiner–Hall gang , led by Frank Gardiner and Ben Hall and counting John Dunn , John Gilbert and Fred Lowry among its members, was responsible for some of the most daring robberies of
11760-454: The scene and an optical microscope at his Baker Street lodgings. He uses analytical chemistry for blood residue analysis and toxicology to detect poisons; Holmes's home chemistry laboratory is mentioned in " The Naval Treaty ". Ballistics feature in "The Adventure of the Empty House" when spent bullets are recovered to be matched with a suspected murder weapon, a practice which became regular police procedure only some fifteen years after
11880-406: The story was published. Laura J. Snyder has examined Holmes's methods in the context of mid- to late-19th-century criminology, demonstrating that, while sometimes in advance of what official investigative departments were formally using at the time, they were based upon existing methods and techniques. For example, fingerprints were proposed to be distinct in Conan Doyle's day, and while Holmes used
12000-403: The term appears in a February 1805 issue of The Sydney Gazette , which reports that a cart had been stopped between Sydney and Hawkesbury by three men "whose appearance sanctioned the suspicion of their being bush-rangers". John Bigge described bushranging in 1821 as "absconding in the woods and living upon plunder and the robbery of orchards." Charles Darwin likewise recorded in 1835 that
12120-503: The time Conan Doyle began writing Holmes, and Holmes's speech and behaviour sometimes follow those of Lecoq. Doyle has his main characters discuss these literary antecedents near the beginning of A Study in Scarlet , which is set soon after Watson is first introduced to Holmes. Watson attempts to compliment Holmes by comparing him to Dupin, to which Holmes replies that he found Dupin to be "a very inferior fellow" and Lecoq to be "a miserable bungler". Conan Doyle repeatedly said that Holmes
12240-499: The true history of their fathers. En route to the murder scene Holmes tells Watson that "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross , in Herefordshire." There is no real location matching this description. Leslie S. Klinger , in his The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes , calls it "a disguised name" and lists possible locations for the setting of the story as posited by other researchers. "The Boscombe Valley Mystery"
12360-447: The union. After much pressure, John agreed to meet Charles secretly at the Pool to resolve the matter. Seeing Charles and James there arguing, John hid, intending to wait until James left. However, he became angry when he heard the nature of the argument and killed Charles to preserve his freedom and spare his daughter. James heard his father's death cry and returned, but John was able to hide in
12480-400: The woods to hunt, not to follow his father. He later heard his father calling " Cooee " and found him standing by the pool, surprised to see him. They argued heatedly, and James decided to return to their farm. Shortly after that he heard his father cry out and returned to find him lying on the ground. James insists that he tried to help him, but his father died in his arms. James refuses to give
12600-434: The woods. He had to return later to retrieve the cloak that he had dropped in his haste. John signs his statement, and Holmes vows to keep it secret unless it is needed to free James. In the end, Holmes's objections are sufficient to acquit James, and John dies seven months after the meeting with Holmes and Watson. Meanwhile, Watson surmises that James and Alice will likely marry and live in happiness without ever discovering
12720-406: Was Claude Joseph , Carle , or Horace Vernet . Holmes' brother Mycroft , seven years his senior, is a government official. Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. Sherlock describes his brother as the more intelligent of the two, but notes that Mycroft lacks any interest in physical investigation, preferring to spend his time at
12840-545: Was adapted by Edith Meiser as an episode of the radio series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson. Meiser also adapted the story for The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for a 1940 episode with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson. In 1943, the BBC Home Service dramatised the story with Arthur Wontner as Holmes and Carleton Hobbs as Watson. A different radio adaptation aired on
12960-525: Was adapted in 1990 for BBC Radio 4 by Bert Coules , as part of the 1989–1998 radio series starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. It also featured Samuel West as James McCarthy and Donald Gee as Inspector Lestrade. A 2011 episode of the radio series The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was adapted from the story, with John Patrick Lowrie as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Watson. Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes ( / ˈ ʃ ɜːr l ɒ k ˈ h oʊ m z / )
13080-538: Was based on the story. In the short film, Georges Tréville played Sherlock Holmes and Mr Moyse played Dr. Watson. Another short film based on the story was released in 1922 as part of the Sherlock Holmes Stoll film series , with Eille Norwood as Sherlock Holmes and Hubert Willis as Dr. Watson. The 1968 television series Sherlock Holmes , starring Peter Cushing as Holmes and Nigel Stock as Dr. Watson, dramatised this story for its sixth episode. Lestrade
13200-411: Was born. Some time later, Charles tracked down John and threatened to blackmail him unless he and his son were provided for. In response, John gave Charles the farm and money, hoping this would satisfy him. However, this was not enough, and Charles eventually demanded the marriage of James and Alice. Although he liked James, John did not want Charles' "cursed blood" mixed with his family's, so he resisted
13320-569: Was fatally shot by a policeman, and with his death, the New South Wales bushranging epidemic that began in the early 1860s came to an end. The scholarly, but eccentric Captain Moonlite (alias of Andrew George Scott) worked as an Anglican lay reader before turning to bushranging. Imprisoned in Ballarat for an armed bank robbery on the Victorian goldfields, he escaped, but was soon recaptured and received
13440-463: Was inspired by the real-life figure of Joseph Bell , a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh , whom Conan Doyle met in 1877 and had worked for as a clerk. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing broad conclusions from minute observations. However, he later wrote to Conan Doyle: "You are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it". Sir Henry Littlejohn , Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at
13560-553: Was portable and easily converted to cash. Their task was assisted by the isolated location of the goldfields and the decimation of the police force with many troopers abandoning their duties to join the gold rush. In Victoria, several major gold robberies occurred in 1852–53. Three bushrangers, including George Melville, were hanged in front of a large crowd for their role in the 1853 McIvor Escort Robbery near Castlemaine . Bushranging numbers also flourished in New South Wales with
13680-847: Was published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in October 1891, and in the United States in the US edition of the Strand in November 1891. The story was published with ten illustrations by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine . It was included in the short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , which was published in October 1892. One of the short films in the Sherlock Holmes Éclair film series (1912)
13800-471: Was sent from New South Wales to Van Diemen's Land in 1842 after attempting to escape Cockatoo Island . In 1843, he escaped Port Arthur , and took up bushranging in Tasmania's mountains, but was recaptured and sent to Norfolk Island , where, as leader of the 1846 Cooking Pot Uprising , he murdered three constables, and was hanged along with sixteen of his men. The era of convict bushrangers gradually faded with
13920-412: Was stacked with bundles of manuscript which were on no account to be burned, and which could not be put away save by their owner. While Holmes is characterised as dispassionate and cold, he can be animated and excitable during an investigation. He has a flair for showmanship, often keeping his methods and evidence hidden until the last possible moment so as to impress observers. Holmes is willing to break
14040-411: Was telling her mother what she saw, James rushed to their house seeking help. The Morans followed James back to the Pool, where they found his father dead. James was arrested and charged with murder. Alice believes that James is innocent and has contacted Inspector Lestrade , who in turn seeks help from Sherlock Holmes . James confirms the testimonies of the witnesses but explains that he was going into
14160-439: Was the Kelly gang in Victoria, led by Ned Kelly , Australia's most famous bushranger. After murdering three policemen in a shootout in 1878, the gang was outlawed, and after raiding towns and robbing banks into 1879, earned the distinction of having the largest reward ever placed on the heads of bushrangers. In 1880, after failing to derail and ambush a police train, the gang, clad in bulletproof armour they had devised, engaged in
14280-526: Was the first bushranger to have inspired bush ballads , including "Bold Jack Donahue" and " The Wild Colonial Boy ". Ben Hall and his gang were the subject of several bush ballads, including " Streets of Forbes ". Michael Howe inspired the earliest play set in Tasmania, Michael Howe, The Terror of Van Diemen's Land , which premiered at The Old Vic in London in 1821. Other early plays about bushrangers include David Burn 's The Bushrangers (1829), William Leman Rede 's Faith and Falsehood; or, The Fate of
14400-508: Was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory. Five years before the story's events, Adler had a brief liaison with Crown Prince of Bohemia Wilhelm von Ormstein. As the story opens, the Prince is engaged to another. Fearful that the marriage would be called off if his fiancée's family learns of this past impropriety, Ormstein hires Holmes to regain a photograph of Adler and himself. Adler slips away before Holmes can succeed. Her memory
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