Sherlock Holmes: Trifles – Details, episodes & analysis

"the business in the crypt" [SHOS]  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPNElHsbaBU0vzdoeHojfLo9cAgW1Pxk5V1XbJX5KCucarBBw-sHXOyadxN7FLXZ0bsbp553JQhesVNL73tfbOi729GTAgkbP7ANR3a17Px5uhpXohLSXCZC2lZC2lQOSATCTVqauTKz6ShyphenhyphentnU879sL_uh96uz9-jzhyFoZYiwyH5WwR5Mjd2Nx-kWg/s1700/490%20-%20Entombment.jpg   If you experience claustrophobia, this may not be the episode for you. Because it's all about being shut up in close spaces. And it's the monthly "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the Theorist" episode.   Denise M. Rogers walks us through the gothic theme shared between Edgar Allan Poe and some of the Sherlock Holmes stories in her Baker Street Miscellanea article "Crypts, Secret Rooms and Subterranean Passageways: Entombment as a Motif in the Canon" from Spring 1990. It's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Our Merch Store is open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift). Start shopping today.    Don't sleep on "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is "for those with ears attuned to catch the distant view-halloo!" This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers.  Check it out (Patreon | Substack).     Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts   Links

• Baker Street Miscellanea (Abebooks)
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com 

  Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  
   

"an exaggerated view of my scientific methods" [SUSS]  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjzwMNShvGojduWXuuFfV5UKjov74K3shvVb8k7YOCwfDreRUFvgMhAMDt8_pJ1hne1HvLZzg2taE6D3LRWvpZg4n7JoQlDmfM_yl9wNWtaNbpAY0VB-LlSkuO9rKnYKnPpc53eEN0Ymq9jcBqj3LAJrcWHAjQ7ikyYLex6UicFZKEn0_P2oChpMFfRqA/s1600/489%20-%20Embellishments.jpg   We consider Watson a reliable narrator. At least we hope he is. And yet there are a number of times when Sherlock Holmes accuses his Boswell of romanticizing the factual.   Is Holmes simply taking issue with how Watson writes with a more emotional and imaginative framework? Or is it possible that Watson was also exaggerating to make the stories more exciting? It's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   Our Merch Store is open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift). Start shopping today.    Don't sleep on "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is "for those with ears attuned to catch the distant view-halloo!" This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).     Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts  
  Links

• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com 

  Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0  
   

"I can't stand his lordship" [MAZA]   https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisadpwr3eTQt2D9dAIS1tEmguXj19-Ck3EkSuW6dhh2PIBlp247eWGYlWKq0yF-OLYfkh_nGN1UuQWU8TaR6GxN22FyQsD0BgFFgvwVl6KSi7E5ANXaNyiR-BagS4SmaPRlKx1FGnNftgpvLnFTVphDZHF3F1-5_-l25YkTK1iaNdbR5tg9YXvN6F-Epw/s838/480%20-%20Solecisms.jpg For hapless Americans, the titles used by peers in the Sherlock Holmes stories can be vexing indeed. One would think that Sherlock Holmes would be able to keep things straight.   Between his devil-may-care attitude toward the upper class and Conan Doyle's own lack of breeding, Damian Thompson found a decided gap in the way certain members of the peerage are titled. And it's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.   There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is about the questionable judgment of the head of the Baker Street irregulars. This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).   Our Merch Store is now open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift). Start shopping today.     Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts     Links

• Solecism (Merriam-Webster)
• The Baker Street Journal
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com 

  Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0    

 

"he is a remarkable linguist" [GREE]  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6_iHTj68e9VcKAgHARCzINz4sWw9ymdoC4rv29Zt1UDchxi3wWaw-RtGIKQVBVLWMFJGNdA89SDyFoplR077hkvjeR3-hg7d_qmML3ibe3T6QvB8I1uM6vZN-HS-Oix60BD62PPEYGFgQYhnJPfdRspIsAFScHKp1Stzx7R0_drw_yC-RN0v5w3u3-g/s1117/390%20-%20Linguist.jpg   Sherlock Holmes has been translated into scores of languages all around the world (just ask Don Hobbs). But what languages was he fluent in or have passing familiarity with?

This is the question Dean W. Dickensheet tackles in Vol. 10 No. 3 of The Baker Street Journal in his article "Sherlock Holmes - Linguist." It's the latest in our series looking at old Sherlockian scholarship and it's just a Trifle.

  All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.

Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

• The eBSJ
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com
• Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings. 

 

  Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
   

"We have three years of the past to discuss" [EMPT]  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjou-3kOltrZtfWKDoCtY4joAYrROCu9MLoT2ehNYKbiQZj_Ql9UspLG4Rtx4tik1J5PrwXK5cEKNqGhW5gtv-10xlG7IWoCEHv6yUouWvJOU38vdrLq7x6Jcz4qUuqzM0XdSbHaxGsd2G9fslxoab5abmzxNNmL6NfM_rS0dKz3jx1uAnbFeiFqpHgjrE/s866/389%20-%20Years%20of%20mystery.jpg  

Once again, we pack our Gladstone bags and prepare for an episode where we travel. This time, we head to Sussex Downs and then across the Atlantic to New York in some of the early years of Sherlock Holmes's retirement.

What brings us there is from the fertile imagination of Les Klinger, who posits a connection between Sherlock Holmes, Wilson Hargreave, and Andrew Carnegie. It's just a Trifle.

  All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.     Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

• Baker Street Rambles by Leslie S. Klinger
• Floradora (Wikipedia)
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com
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  Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
   

"his age, and an affliction" [STOC]  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sUsKVuvwJENPPa1yuSVbtgcCqlSjNylk4eQYnW53-d6GfcT9bVchqzNyt66gJPpPM9D_x24ws27I6zcf5KG0XTg2fqcbETC-gQgWjsW9EQPWbDrLglRRhaUbxgPKKX927HEONVl4b8SrhgXxMFRojPfAo4qxTVIfcZxdJeplmtASVxaG1CXFTTB7ZqY/s814/388%20-%20Elderly.jpg

The panoply of elderly individuals in the Sherlock Holmes stories is impressive: Mr. Frankland, the old crank in The Hound of the Baskervilles, the miserly Josiah Amberley in "The Retired Colourman," Old Mr. Farquhar, the previous owner of Watson's practice.

But there were many others, some of whom go almost unnoticed. What similarities do we see among them? How did Conan Doyle's writing about them change over time? It's just a Trifle.

  All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.  
Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com
• Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings. 

 

  Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
   

"the flooring was also thoroughly examined" [SPEC]  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQUku_XYEO9Cpn6dH0zxkcFZJAadN5qFQKH91WC9F5TnYZEFBoiCkwdwaYQOur3-yKq6NbEKVlX45nT-QQHNmevroiallMbg0ENnaAWxEJTyWlhPB0djTU3Y-s8UnDh0T8IObYZqILYUFORbo0oxlcic_quE0WlqPC_ntJRexFTS6PvKpbrnDznWEE8Bs/s1422/387%20-%20Linoleum.jpg  

Cocoanut matting, bearskin rug, carpets — there are a number of notable floor coverings mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes stories. But flooring itself is less notable.

Case in point: linoleum, which appears as a passing mention in just three stories, was a popular alternative at the time. What do we know about the history of linoleum, how was it manufactured, and what role did it play in the Canon? It's just a Trifle.

  All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.
Find Trifles wherever you listen to podcasts.   Links / Notes

• Previous episode mentioned:
• Episode 102: Inside 221B: On the Floor
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com
• Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings. 

  Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
   

 

"Vast sections of it have been cleared" [BLAC]  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUMncYpi3xjjkFeyGuIJy05ac-YUNbANGmjdF4KJkkG-XWMY5ZoSRpJirHOPIFB-Z84cKmz6ygB-OwA-BWhOmK7J5zoebWgVrCqD9ZOd5ElW8-Zo9ZnpjudOy3tJi3EfY8OSBf24xhcWwuE4tXd2oVVwJ2amViEvmPESW8l_sapkojRCU4avE2RDB7sp4/s1432/386%20-%20Forests.png  

When you're really down in the details about something — something trifling, perhaps — it's difficult to see the forest for the trees, as the saying goes.

Well, we've discussed trees in two previous episodes, so we thought it was time to look at the forests. There were scant mentions of forests in the Sherlock Holmes stories, but they're worth a Trifle.

You can make topic suggestions to us — if we choose something you recommend (like the one today!), we'll send you a Sherlockian prize.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.     Links / Notes

• Forest Row
• New Forest
• Weald
• Previous episodes mentioned:
• Episode 274: Trees, Part 1
• Episode 276: Trees, Part 2
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com
• Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings. 

  Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
     

"at Maiwand without losing my nerve" [STUD]  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOeDiEA630of7XE-ITigALWgSl1FjgEz0jzCBngN6u-1jKtqVzH_z5nAqXTzxvgVctjmCMJO-Tlpa08tzcVMMgm0dWVz4kPUrFKc1r6EWGRGWY6gyDz65Xkb4sONbYKADKV8YAG6keJKQn4DLwnjG81OWqkiOt4T9oRc8s3HfM0vV5g0EhLuynDySLqg/s1088/385%20-%20Maiwand.jpg Maiwand: Saving the Guns by Richard Caton Woodville, 1883 (Wikimedia Commons)  

It is generally accepted that A Study in Scarlet, when Dr. Watson first met Sherlock Holmes, took place in 1881. Watson was just back from the war in Afghanistan, where he had been wounded at the Battle of Maiwand.

But in 1940, Edgar W. Smith took a closer look at the timing between the battle, Watson's recovery time, travel to London and hotel stay, and came to a much different conclusion. He wrote it up in a pamphlet and it's just a Trifle.

You can make suggestions as well — if we choose a topic you recommend, we'll send you a Sherlockian prize.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community on Patreon or Substack today.   BONUS: a digital scan of Smith's original pamphlet is available to our  Patreon or Substack supporters.     Links / Notes

• The Long Road from Maiwand: an examination of the evidence bearing upon the dating of a certain encounter in the chemical laboratory at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in London by Edgar W. Smith (Abebooks)
• The eBSJ
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com
• Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings. 

 

  Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
     

"Stop at a telegraph-office, cabby!" [SIGN]    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7pBki-nzAjV_0CsHS-u9KB2OpE7YeJwbFBvqvi0CjZn2lGb9xqUMC4_L8wSOq3GefSmrSPgkAZ8AyQglAlV9vsS9chsi58wddxvrWKIoHg8ZkjH0x8SlRcRiZYFqkz3GovXxkocJHnctaJFecd5mbDs70yvHrhFiKM8DBPV7IGhqOcJE48XfK5nqTpyc/s1431/384%20-%20Cabby.png  

Cabbies are everywhere in London – indeed, so common in some cases that they're simply overlooked (we see you, Jefferson Hope!). Could Sherlock Holmes have passed himself off as a cabby?

There are certainly points in his career when it would have made sense. And a paper given at a Sherlock Holmes society in Denmark points in that direction. Hop on board with us in this monthly travel series episode! It's just a Trifle.

You can make suggestions as well — if we choose a topic you recommend, we'll send you a Sherlockian prize.   All of our supporters are eligible for our monthly drawings for Baker Street Journals and certain tiers receive thank you gifts. Join our community today.   Become a Patron!   Links / Notes

• "The Thomas Hogram Letters" by Sven Ranild is an expanded and translated version of a paper delivered in Copenhagen on September 19, 1987, at the Centenary Dinner of the Sherlock Holmes Klubben i Danmark and it appeared in the Summer 1991 issue of The Sherlock Holmes Journal.
• Episode 124 - Odd Jobs
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com
• Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings. 

  Music credits Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra  Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band  Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0