Sherlock Holmes

Verdict: A downbeat domestic crisis, with Holmes on the
periphery of the action. But as in The Yellow Face, he displays tact
and sensitivity when faced with the personal nature of the situ-
ation. 3/5
39) The Adventure of the Abbey Grange
UK: The Strand Magazine (September 1904, SP); USA: Collier’s
(31 December 1904, FDS)
The Case: Robbers have apparently killed an abusive wife
beater…
T H E C A N O N
• 77 •

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Date: Winter 1897.
Characters: Inspector Stanley Hopkins, Lady Brackenstall (née
Mary Fraser), Sir Eustace Brackenstall, Theresa Wright,
Captain Jack Croker.
Locations: 221B Baker Street; Charing Cross Station;
Chislehurst Station; Abbey Grange, Marsham, Kent; Adelaide-
Southampton Shipping Office, Pall Mall; Charing Cross tele-
graph office.
Unrecorded Case: The three Randall burglars of Lewisham.
Holmes: Thinks Watson ruins his cases by concentrating on the
story rather than the science. Wants to devote his ‘declining
years’ to a textbook on crime detection. Keeps a police whistle
for emergencies. Quotes Shakespeare’s Henry V  (‘The game is
afoot’).
Quotable Quote: ‘Once or twice in my career I feel that I have
done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever
he had done by his crime.’
Problems: Why did the assailant go to the trouble of fraying the
bell rope when he had already neatly cut it? Lady Brackenstall
tells Holmes that she was caught ‘first by the wrist and then by
the throat’, but Watson mentions no bruises in either place.
Observations: Doyle obviously intended for this story to highlight
the unfair divorce laws in Britain, a subject he felt strongly
about. Soon after, he became president of the Divorce Law
Reform Union.
Verdict: A sense of repetition is beginning to creep in here
(manor house, old romance, crime passionel, Holmes letting the
suspect go), but at least it’s done with verve and style. Sir
Eustace is one of the vilest creatures in the canon and commits
the ultimate villainy – killing a dog. 4/5
S H E R L O C K H O L M E S
• 78 •

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40) The Adventure of the Second Stain
UK: The Strand Magazine (December 1904, SP); USA: Collier’s
(28 January 1905, FDS)
The Case: A letter that could lead to war has mysteriously
vanished…
Characters: Lord Bellinger PM, Trelawney Hope, Mrs Hudson,
Lady Hilda Trelawney Hope, Inspector Lestrade, PC
MacPherson, Jacobs, Oberstein, La Rothiere, Eduardo Lucas, Mrs
Pringle, John Mitton, PC Barrett, Duke of Belminster, M and Mme
Henri Fournaye.
Locations: 221B Baker Street; house in Whitehall Terrace; 16
Godolphin Street, Westminster; villa, Rue Austerlitz, Paris; Charing
Cross Station, London.
Unrecorded Case: A woman at Margate.
Holmes: At the time of writing, Watson says that Holmes has
retired to keep bees on the Sussex Downs.
Quotable Quote: ‘Now, Watson, the fair sex is your depart-
ment… the motives of women are so inscrutable.’
Problems: A tremendously important document is kept in an
unguarded, unlocked room rather than a secure safe (although
this was not uncommon at the time). Inspector Lestrade said
he’d tidied up the crime scene – a strange practice, surely?
Observations: First mentioned in passing 11 years previously in
The Yellow  Face, this story was advertised in Collier’s as ‘The  Last
Sherlock Holmes Story Ever To Be Written’. Paget’s illustra-
tions imply that Bellinger was supposed to be William
Gladstone.