1894

1894 – the year that Sherlock Holmes returned to London, after the Great Hiatus that followed the plunge into the Reichenbach Falls. Doctor Watson, though astounded at his friend's reappearance, nonetheless retained his composure enough to record the adventures that he shared with the famous sleuth in that year. Though he alludes to many of them, he never presented these to his literary agent, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.Hugh Ashton has come into possession of one of the notebooks where Watson wrote up these cases, and has presented five of the adventures that Watson mentioned in The Golden Pince-Nez: The Red Leech, The Addleton Tragedy, The Ancient British Barrow, The Smith-Mortimer Succession, and The Boulevard Assassin.In addition, the volume contains the adventure of The Two Coptic Patriarchs, as mentioned in The Retired Colourman.The book has been produced following the style of the Strand magazine, and the cover features a facsimile of the memorandum book of Doctor Watson in which the adventures were first written, including the mark of a glass from which Watson no doubt refreshed himself while engaged in his literary labours.Here, then, are some of Holmes’ adventures in 1894, the year in which most biographers agree he returned to London from his apparent death, to defeat Colonel Sebastian Moran, and to once again confound the wiles of the criminals and evil-doers of the realm.The Adventure of the Red Leech: Though Lestrade brings the case to Holmes’ attention, he plays a relatively small part in the unmasking of the villain. Watson’s skills as a physician are evident here, though with his usual modesty he fails to draw attention to them.The Adventure of the Addleton Tragedy: Though not a tragedy in the usual sense of the word, both Holmes and Watson describe the events set down here as a tragedy, though each man ascribes a different meaning here.The Adventure of the Ancient British Barrow: Holmes and Watson leave London to explore the past. This adventure is set in the East Anglian countryside. Holmes’ deductive skills and his scientific expertise are shown here, as is his interest in history and archeology.The Adventure of the Smith-Mortimer Succession: Holmes as a gambler is an unusual depiction of the great detective, but the result of Holmes’ efforts in this case rests on a throw of the dice.The Adventure of the Boulevard Assassin: More of a police adventure than a criminal investigation, Holmes and Watson act as special constables assisting Inspector Stanley Hopkins in his pursuit of an international terrorist.The Adventure of the Two Coptic Patriarchs: Mentioned in the Adventure of the Retired Colourman, Holmes uncovers a most ingenious attempt at a crime.In my opinion, these cases are as interesting as those that were published by Watson through Sir Arthur, and it must have been fear of exposure of the principals that prevented them from being published in Watson’s lifetime. In the case of Addleton, it is an interesting irony that Holmes demolishes the idea of Spiritualism, given Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s later espousal of it.