Height difference

[mightymads]

We know that Holmes is taller than Watson, Holmes being “rather over six feet” (STUD) and Watson “middle-sized” (CHAS). But what exactly is the height difference? Sidney Paget always drew them roughly of the same height:



Watson seems to be shorter only by a couple of inches, so maybe he is just under six feet tall, like 5”11? There is evidence in the canon too that the height difference between them is not that big:

He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck. (IDEN)

Holmes ascended the stair first, and as he opened the door of our room he gave a start of surprise. Looking over his shoulder, I was equally astonished. (GREE)

If Holmes were considerably taller, surely it would be difficult for Watson to look over his shoulder?

Comments

[sanguinity]

Because I am contrari-minded, Watson going up on tippy-toes and jumping up and down to look over Holmes' shoulder.

[mightymads]

Oh, that would be a cute picture!

[trobadora]

Hee! I like that image. :D

[smallhobbit]

We are reliant on Watson's descriptions. And presumably to look over someone's shoulder and then look down to an opposite pavement would require several inches. I conclude at that point Watson was standing on a chair.

[mightymads]

Or maybe Holmes bent his knees ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[mafief]

He just carries around a stool for just this purpose. ;)

[senmut]

I tend to go with half-a-head's difference in my mental imagery.

[mightymads]

Like Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke :)

[senmut]

+grins madly+

[mafief]

I like a slightly shorter ACD Watson, but not too short or portly.

Next, we can talk about eye color. In fic, Watson normally has blue eyes but I can't find that reference.

[luthienberen]

All I can guess is that maybe people are thinking of their favourite actor playing Watson? I tend to imagine Watson's eyes as brown or green, or whatever adaption I am writing for (usually squinting at the TV) lol.

Good question!

[mafief]

Granada, BBC, and RDJ's Watsons all have blue eyes, but the blue eye thing shows up in a lot of ACD stuff. Your suggestion most likely factors into it. I thought it was most people think blue eyes are sexy, and get to use various synonyms for blue.

I like imagining not-blue as well.

[mightymads]

It seems like there’s no reference to Watson’s eye colour. I was wondering about that too—maybe grey or maybe hazel? In my mind Watson is very much like ACD (since ACD wrote sort of a self-insert), so when I saw this description of ACD, I accepted the blue eyes headcanon of the fics

[mafief]

Whelp, I'm saving that bit of info away in a file for later. Thanks! :)

[mightymads]

:D

[mightymads]

Glad to be of help :)

[mightymads]

Yes, I too imagine the height difference as Brett and Burke’s, it’s very much like Paget’s drawings :)

[mightymads]

Oh yes, that’s truly amazing. The more I watch the series, the more tiny details I notice. They even included Watson’s military habit of keeping his handkerchief in his sleeve

[rachelindeed]

Whenever a fic describes Watson as tall, I know I'm reading Ritchie!verse. In any other verse he tends to be average height, except for BBC verse, where he's short :)

[mightymads]

The BBC John would certainly need to tiptoe to look over Sherlock’s shoulder ;)

[tripleransom]

I think ACD refers to Holmes as being "rather over 6', but so excessively lean that he looked taller" which I take to mean about 6'1" or so - certainly fairly tall for the era.

I always wondered why Katie Forsythe put so much emphasis on him being very tall; 6'4" I think she says at one point. It would have been difficult for him to impersonate a woman if he were that tall.

As for the difference between Jermy Brett and Edward Hardwicke, I think Hardwicke wore lifts in his shoes to minimise the height difference at first, but he kept tripping, so they ditched the idea.

Of course Granada showed Watson keeping his handkerchief in his sleeve. It's in the stories and JB was always insistent that they "do the Doyle"! I think Jude Law does the same thing.

[mightymads]

Yes, the lifts didn’t work :) And I’m so grateful to Jeremy Brett for fighting for Doyle. It’s been a while since I watched the Ritchie films. It would be great to gif the moment where Jude Law takes a handkerchief from his sleeve.