Victorian 221b

I’d like to expand my knowledge on WWI which is quite rusty, to be honest. The last time I studied anything about it properly was at school, and that was about 15 years ago. Until I read Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, it was but a historical event for me as the history program at my school wasn’t particularly strong. It was something from the textbooks, and that was all. The letters made me realise how tragic it was. They gave the sense of “immediate presence” and the taste of how it affected one particular family. So now I’d like to know more.

Help! The brand of Watson’s firearm was mentioned in the canon, but I can’t find it. It was mentioned in someone’s fic, and I remember checking it. I thought at the time that it was Webley, but it turned out to be something else. Now I can’t remember the exact wording, and searching the entire canon doesn’t help. So frustrating.

UPD: Thank you scfrankles for finding the exact quote: “An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots..." (SPEC)

A quick research returned the following:

In any case the revolver Holmes asks Watson to slip into his pocket is not Watson's old service revolver. It is not exactly "an Eley's No. 2 either. The gun is actualy a Webley's No. 2, .320 bore, a small, heavy, but relatively effective weapon; the smallest really practable weapon of it's time. The cartridges for it were the Eley part (which was often printed on the barrel to differentiate it from the Smith and Wesson .32). Holmes and Watson both knew this of course, that is in fact why Holmes used the sort of shorthand expression- because they were both more than well enough versed in guns to know exactly what Holmes was talking about. (source)

See also: John Hamish Watson, MD or The Mystery of the Carried Gun

In this famous scene Watson says that Holmes taught him how to dance. But in actuality where did gentlemen learn this art? (Ladies did probably at home). Was it an obligatory part of homeschooling? But some attended public schools from quite an early age. Was it included in the school curriculum then? A cursory search returned some 19th century manuals on dancing, but dancing is all about practice. You can read as much as you want and hardly learn anything without trying it.

If anyone has links to sources about it or knows something, please help?



PS gifs are not mine, found via google

Could anyone recommend books exploring Holmes and Watson’s world, maybe with research of their backstories or details mentioned in the Canon?

Recently I found Holmes and Watson by June Thomson on archive.org. The description was promising: “Speculative only when precise data is wanting, Thomson examines in striking detail the personalities of Watson and Holmes, traces the development of their partnership in crime detection, and addresses such long disputed issues as the possible homosexual implications of their relationship...”

In actuality, speculation was rather abundant, especially about Holmes. I liked the part about Watson’s military career where there was some data about the Army Medical School at Netley, Watson’s probable route to Kandahar, and exact dates of the voyage of SS Orontes which existed in real life and in the Canon brought Watson back to England.

As for “the possible homosexual implications” being addressed, it was a brief dismissal in the beginning of the book without any attempt of exploration whatsoever.

So if there are books which can be found in open access (if possible) providing insights on the time period or analysing the text of the Canon regarding Holmes’s and Watson’s upbringing, etc, could you give links?