Dear Kate - letter four of four

In my last posts I shared my recent article and talk I have on the earliest reference to 'A Study in Scarlet' by Conan Doyle.

That quote came from one of four letters held by the State Library of New South Wales, and I'm now posting each of the four letters with a transcription and some comments.

This third letter is RB/MSS004/3. This letter was likely written in 1893, and we will discuss dating.

12 Tennison Road

South Norwood

Dear Dan

So very glad to have a line from you, and to know that you and Kate are prospering. Your news surprised me, but at the same time I felt that the life would be congenial to you, so I rejoiced. I expect however that you are very far from having reached the end of your tether yet. From my heart I wish you all every happiness.

I am tied to my study at present for I am just beginning a huge book which was ordered long ago, which I must now get done with off hand. That means 4 or 5 months of steady grind, but when it is finished I shall hope to be able to meet you and have a chat over old times.

Yes, I have had several letters from Willy, who has, as I understand, taken unto himself a Japanese wife and child and settled down for life - I hope however that he may reconsider his plans. 

I have one little one, nearly three years old and very solid. When she has a grievance they know it all over this postal district. The wife is well, and, like yourself, I have been very happy since my marriage. I shall quite look forward to seeing you. Pray give my kindest remembrances to Kate, and excuse this very hurried little scribble. I am always hardworked, but just at present it has reached a climax. I have clinched my profession, as you may possibly have heard.

Goodbye, old chap - all good luck go with you all!

Yours as of yore

ACD

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This is the only one of the four ACD letters NOT sent from Southsea. Doyle lived at 12 Tennison Rd, South Norwood from June 1891 till 1894. In the letter, Doyle states "I have one little one, nearly three years old". This little one is Mary Louse Conan Doyle (1889–1976), born at Bush Villas, Southsea on 28 Jan 1889. For Mary to be almost three, the letter must have been written late 1891 or Jan 1892. 

This letter also differs from the previous three in that it is addressed to Dan, not Kate. It is a reconnection between them after several years (the previous letter that is extant was dated to 1885 and prior to Doyle's marraige). It is hoped that context about the Bryson's life will help understand why Doyle 'felt that the life would be congenial to you'.

What was the 'huge book which was ordered long ago' that Doyle was writing? Possibly it was The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, which appeared late the following year.

'Willy' very clearly Doyle's Edinburgh friend William K. Burton. Doyle indicates he is still in correspondence with the Tokyo-based engineer, and notes that Burton has had a child with his Japanese partner. No detailed biography of Burton's life exists in English, but a biography in 'Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. IV' (2013) indicates that Burton had a child with a woman prior to his (British-recognized) 1892 marriage.

Doyle ends with a delightful understatement to an old friend:

I have clinched my profession, as you may possibly have heard.

How Doyle's life had changed since 1883/4/5 when Doyle and the Brysons corresponded and visited each other back and forth between London and Southsea.

The letter is signed off beautifully - 

Edit/update: Many thanks to Edith Pounden for providing suggestions that have improved these transcriptions.

Dear Kate - letter three of four

In my last posts I shared my recent article and talk I have on the earliest reference to 'A Study in Scarlet' by Conan Doyle.

That quote came from one of four letters held by the State Library of New South Wales, and I'm now posting each of the four letters with a transcription and some comments.

This third letter is RB/MSS004/1. This letter can be dated most precisely, as there are multiple references to stories being written published, and a reference to ACD's brother Innes' birthday.

 

1 Bush Villas

Southsea

Dear Kate

Many thanks for your kind letter, as also for Rudder Grange which is capital - as far as I have read. It is the freshest, most original thing that I have got hold of for a long time. I was eating my breakfast this morning when I read that part where Pomona is shot out through the port hole by the two men, under the impression that she is a burglar - and I choked over it, then my breakfast and I got mixed up in a dreadful manner and a plug of toast got wedged into my windpipe, and I perspired tea and tears to such an extent that I have not been able yet to regain my usual moral serenity - 'for all of which, Jew, I hold thee answerable."

Has Dan donned the kilt yet, and is he to be one of the 15000 warriors whom we expect at Easter, for if he is not there officially he had better in any case come down as a man of peace, and we shall hold high wassail. I have been in a state of fearful indigence for some time but there are symptoms that a good time is coming - in which case I shall kick up my little legs a bit.

Today is Innes' birthday, and some fiend of a friend has presented him with a sword and several other lethal weapons - with which he lays in wait for me in unexpected corners and demonstrates how the Arab of the Desert attacks the unsuspecting caravan, by suddenly fetching me a clip over the head, or butting me in the stomach with a lance, which Mrs. Smith usually uses as a broom handle.

You seem to have been having high jinks. I don't know when I was tight last - I have been disgustingly respectable for a very long time back. You tell me nothing of your Temple Bar venture. I have one "Our Midnight Visitor" in T.B. next month - a queer sort of clotted-blood kind of story which would have pleased Pomona. Likewise I have "The man with the mattock" in Belgravia - a trifle more ghastly than the last. "Barrington Cowles" in Cassell's Saturday Journal which caps the lot. Also "The mysteries of a London Growler" in the same - Also "Modern Arctic Discovery" in Good Words, and "The Channel Tunnel" in a Cambridge Magazine - so I have been fairly prolific of late, besides grinding away at "John Smith" - a scurrilous pamphlet which I shall publish and afterwards spend a few years in seclusion in one of her Majesty's establishments on a charge of slander, libel, Arson and incest.

Tell Bill I have sent Arthur Laurie what he wanted. Likewise give Dan and him my love, and accept the same, my dear Kate, from 

Your affectionate friend

A Conan Doyle

P.S. Let me know if you are coming down and I will meet you and see you safe.

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And so to some general comments. I'm creating a set of annotations for each letter. Separately I have been tracing the life of Kate Bryson and the provenance of the letters, so let's set that aside for this letter.

This letter was written on a 31 March, and addressed from Bush Villas. 

While the letter is undated, details in the letter allow very specific dating! Innes birthday was 31 March (1873) so the day/month is clear. 

As to the year, it is complex. Innes arrived at Southsea to live with ACD in July 1882, and left three years later in the middle of 1885, just prior to ACD's marriage. As such the years when Innes celebrated his birthday as a resident of Southsea were 1883, 1884, and 1885.

Doyle describes with some braggadocio a number of stories and articles he expects to be published that could help with dating. In some cases, Doyle may have been overly optimistic about where stories would be published.

ACD refers to his short story "Our Midnight Visitor" as being published "in T.B. next month". That story was published in Temple Bar in February 1891 - so one conclusion that can be drawn is that it was published with some delay compared with Doyle's original expectations.

"The man with the mattock, in Belgravia" was eventually published anonymously under the title 'A Pastoral Horror' in The People on 21 Dec 1890. 

Next is 'John Barrington Cowles', which was published in Cassell's in April 1884. In February 1884, ACD speculated to his mother that he may send the story to Cornhill.

"The mysteries of a London Growler" appeared as The Cabman's Story (sub-titled The Mysteries of a London "Growler") appeared in Cassell's on 17 May 1884

"Modern Arctic Discovery in Good Words" does not appear to have been published under this title, but may refer to The Glamour of the Arctic which appeared in July 1892.

"The Channel Tunnel in a Cambridge Magazine" is intriguing. Doyle published a letter in 1913 in the Times Magazine on the long-discussed concept of a tunnel between England and mainland Europe. The mention here suggests that Doyle had been meddling with the concept for some time.

And lastly Doyle points out these accomplishments "besides grinding away at "John Smith" - a scurrilous pamphlet". The story 'The Narrative on John Smith' was famously lost in the mail, re-written over a number of years from memory, then abandoned. Contemporary evidence including letters contained in 'A Life in Letters' that it was being written in 1883, and lost by February 1884 when Doyle informs his mother he will have to 'rewrite him from memory'.

In April 1884, ACD wrote to his mother and listed a similar set of stories as underway:

Where does this leave us? Based on all this evidence, it seems most likely that the letter was written on 31 March 1884.

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One other point reinforces 1884 as the year this letter was written. 'Has Dan decided to Don the kilt and is he to be one of the 15000 warriors....'. ACD is referring to a grand review of military Volunteers (reservists) on Portsdown Hill on Easter Monday April 14 (1884). Over 15,000 soldiers took part in this event, with estimates of up to 100,000 spectators! Doyle's question implies that Dan Bryson was a Volunteer. Geoffery Stavert (A Study in Southsea) points out that Doyle attended with a group of friends (did it include the Brysons?), and he wrote up the experience as 'Easter Monday with a Camera' in the British Journal of Photography.

'Rudder Grange' written by American author Frank R. Stockton was published in 1879, with a revised version published in 1885. It was a humorous novel set around a newly married couple who choose to live on a canal boat on a river in New Jersey. This domestic scenario is ripe for comedy, and leads to a range of misadventures for Euphemia and her husband, including a boarder named Pomona (an aspiring author, who at one point is launched through a porthole of the home/boat as a result of a case of mis).

'Bill' is William K Burton, Edinburgh friend who had relocated to London, and a fellow photography hobbyist.

'Mrs. Smith' was ACD's housekeeper in Southsea.

If only we knew what 'Arthur Laurie' wanted! Prof Arthur Pillans Laurie was a Scottish chemist and spectroscopist, who became an expert on studying paints, pigments, and dating paintings. At the time of this letter was written (1884) was based at King’s College, Cambridge where he was completing advanced studies. An interesting chemistry connection for ACD at a time when he was starting to think of creating a detective!

Edit/update: Many thanks to Edith Pounden for providing suggestions that have improved these transcriptions.

Dear Kate - letter two of four

In my last posts I shared my recent article and talk I have on the earliest reference to 'A Study in Scarlet' by Conan Doyle.

That quote came from one of four letters held by the State Library of New South Wales, and I'm now posting each of the four letters with a transcription and some comments.

The call numbers for the four letters are: RB/MSS004/1, RB/MSS004/2, RB/MSS004/3, RB/MSS004/4. In each case, I arranged last year for the SLNSW to digitize the letters. The first letter was the one containing the reference to A Study in Scarlet. 

This second letter is RB/MSS004/2. I believe this letter may be the earliest of the four letters (possibly prior to 1885), though it is almost impossible to date. The absence of references to a spouse or children, and the implication that the letter is being written after friends have visited to stay and drink suggests this may from written in early 1885 or even earlier.

Private
1 Bush Villas

Southsea

My dear Kate -

When your comforting presence and that of the bold brain wrencher and cerebrum annihilator was removed from me I sickened and took to my bed. On Tuesday I was very bad and we had to have a Doctor in who - much as I distrust and contemn Doctors as a rule - was certainly very kind to me. On Wednesday I was worse, and really in a bad way. On Thursday I was worser still and on Friday affairs reached a climax . Beyond a faint yodelling at intervals there was neither croak nor kick in me. This morning however I awoke comparatively fresh and have crawled down stairs and am amusing myself by writing to thee. I am as weak as a kitten, groggy on my legs and swimmy about the head - but still - however - I know I am round the corner.

Oh Kate, I could write thee a funeral sermon which would move thee much - I could attain fame as a writer of epitaphs, I could dwell on aught that is ghastly and morbid but to write in that happy sprightly manner which your own vitality and appearance and age demand is as impossible to me now as to smoke my pipe or eat my dinner. But still. Let me assure you before I go any further what a very great pleasure your visit was to me. When Bill proposed about Xmas time that you should all four come down I threw cold water on the scheme, knowing what a censorious little place this is, what a headquarters of gossip the hotel next door is, and how absolutely necessary it was that I, who had nothing to fall back upon should be careful what I did. As we managed it however nothing could have been better and we enjoyed ourselves without risking anything. I have only two regrets - viz that Bill was not with you and that my confounded seediness should have thrown a damper over things.

If I am capable of walking I shall be in London on Monday. If I only  get better as rapidly as I got ill 36 hours may work a great change in me. If I do come I will call on you between 2 and 4 and take your life (sounds rather bloodthirsty) if it wont be inconvenience to you if it will be the least inconveniencing wire and let me know. If I don't turn up you will know that I am too seedy to leave Portsmouth.

By the way Kate I want you to become an unofficial agent of ours. There is not the least reason why you should not take 50 pounds or 70 pounds a year out of Life Assurance. You would get 15 per cent of all business you did. Meeting artists and men of that stamp as you do all you would need to say in your own taking way would be "Guess what I am now. I am a Life Assurance agent. Won't you give me a turn. It's the best office in England" - and for very gallantry they could hardly refuse. When you had half a dozen cases ready, I would run up and do the filling up of forms - so that after the initial step you would have nothing to do but pocket your commissions. What think ye of it?

I could write away for ever, Kate, but my hand is shakey, and all my strings seem to have come off the pulleys.

Goodbye, my love to Dan and Bill and, my dear Kate, to yourself from 

Your affectionate friend

Arthur Conan Doyle 

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And so to some general comments. I'm creating a set of annotations for each letter. Separately I have been tracing the life of Kate Bryson and the provenance of the letters, so let's set that aside for this letter.

This letter does not provide a great deal into events in Doyle's life. The letter is addressed to Kate, and Dan is again referenced, along with 'Bill' (believed to be William.K Burton).

The letter is written to Kate following a visit by four people: Kate, Dan and Bill, along with a fourth unidentified person. Following the visit, Doyle was exceedingly sick.

'much as I distrust and contemn Doctors as a rule': contemn is to treat with contempt. ACD himself being a doctor of course.

'I, who had nothing to fall back upon should be careful what I did': this passage suggests that this letter is written early in ACD's time at Southsea, as he 'had nothing to fall back on' and worried about his reputation. Later in his time at Southsea he'd build a reputation as a man of letters, and his practice was more established.

The 'hotel next door' was the Bush Hotel. It can be seen in this postcard depicting the intersection of Elm Grove and Kings Road, clearly marked as such, a four-story building on the right corner. Doyle's practice at Bush Villas can be seen, between the Bush Hotel and the church at the center of the postcard.

'I want you to become an unofficial agent of ours': This is an intriguing passage. First, it is another demonstration of Doyle doing all he can to supplement his income. In the first letter, it was via earning extra income as a surgeon for the army, and here it is by organizing life assurance policies. This section also emphasizes that Kate Bryson is involved in artistic circles in London, as he states Kate is 'Meeting artists and men of that stamp as you do...'.

'Assurance' in the UK is 'insurance' in the US and other countries. During this period, Doyle worked for the Gresham Life Assurance Society in his professional capacity as a doctor. The collected letters contained in 'Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters' includes multiple references to Doyle's work for Gresham - which would be performing a medical evaluation as part of the application process. But Doyle was more enterprising, and in one letter to his mother refers to the idea of traveling to Edinburgh with George Barnden (the Southsea agent for Gresham) to drum up business. 

In this case, Doyle is proposing the same to Kate Bryson - to identify individuals in her London circle who could be signed up for a life assurance policy, at which point Doyle would head to London to complete the process (with a royalty for Kate).

Edit/update: Many thanks to Edith Pounden and Mattias Boström for providing suggestions that have improved these transcriptions.

Dear Kate - letter one of four

In my last post I shared the recent article and talk I have on the earliest reference to 'A Study in Scarlet' by Conan Doyle. 

That quote came from one of four letters held by the State Library of New South Wales.

The call numbers for the four letters are: RB/MSS004/1, RB/MSS004/2, RB/MSS004/3, RB/MSS004/4. In each case, I arranged last year for the SLNSW to digitize the letters. 

The letter in which the 'Study in Scarlet' quite resides in catalogued as RB/MSS004/4. This particular letter is written in quite a large hand, and on government paper (evidenced by an embossed crest at the head of the first page). The paper is poor quality, and each of the two sheets has effectively fallen along the fold lines in to eight pieces. 

  

 

Station Hospital 

Portsea 

My dear Kate 

I have begun many letters to you and have progressed some distance with them, and then the calling of a creditor or some other trivial incident has interrupted me and I have not gone on with the letter. The stove is full of fragments of letters to you - this one however shall be finished. I have been stuck on here to look after troops which is a very good thing but probably won't last long. They have run short of army medicos it appears so have to fall back upon civil practitioners. I still run the shop at Bush Villas, so that my hands are pretty full. It is very good fun as I have many men under me and can say to one come and he goeth with as Holy writ remarks. The other night I was run in as a prisoner by some bould militia men who seemed to think I had an O'Donovan-Rossy sort of look about me. Their excuse was that I didn't know the counter sign. The screw is about 12 pounds a month so if it lasts it will be a capital thing but it is liable to terminate any moment.

I should like so much to have a few hours at Acacia Cottages. Can you tell me which is the last down train from New Malden. I am anxious to hear more of what Dan is up to. I hope the period of the Bernards slavery is nearly at a close - yet he must not take a step until {he} knows something better awaits him. Of Bill I hear nothing. I do hope all is well with him. I write him occasionally epistles which I intend to be funny but which I have no doubt have convinced him that I am suffering from softening of the brain.

We have had a heavy blow in the shape of the death of our pet cat. She was a very high minded and independent cat, but jealousy was one of her failings and when she heard of my intended marriage she looked at me reproachfully, went across the road to the Marston Lodge cat and made arrangements as to the disposal of her property, and then came back and deliberately committed suicide by getting into the oven and allowing herself to be shut in and suffocated. She was a cat of considerable attainments . She used sometimes during the night to assemble all the neighbours cats in my back garden and used to address them from the top of the wall with much vehemence. From the respect with which her remarks were always listened to I judge that she was considered the best orator in this quarter. Whether on those occasions she was hissing of her religious convictions or whether she merely discussed the passing events of the hour is more than I have been able to determine. It is my duty to say that she had faults. Her morals were loose and her language was free. I once heard her speak to a dog  who came into our passage in a manner which shocked one much. Still her tastes were refined. She was fond of botany and entymology. The first led her carefully to dig up everything which we planted in the garden. The second took her into strange places in pursuit of flies. I have no doubt that her spirit has gone to some Cat's paradise where innumerable corks hang from countless doorknobs, and where mice who have died in a state of sin scuttle about all day and afford fine sport to the ..... won't have as clean a sheet to show if our books are ever overhauled. Cats don't do shabby things. But there - I musn't start moralizing or I shall bore you. 

'A Study in Scarlet' - what an excellent name for a story depending upon a murder and the interest lying in the difficulty of unravelling the facts and who the murderer was. It struck me quite suddenly and I at once recognized it as a splendid name. I shall write it. 

Literature is slack. I am torpid. My brain won't work. I believe I have something of the turtle in me - or is it a turtle which lies listless for weeks. It is some sort of creature anyway, and with that creature I claim kinship. The truth is that I am hopelessly, disgustingly, infernally lazy. Laziness is next to Godliness would be my motto if I had to choose one and my crest the seven sleepers, with a tobacco pipe and a beer bottle as supporters.

I am so glad you have determined not to take that step. I am convinced that it would have been a fatal mistake.

I get married on or about the 6th of August. We correspond pretty regularly. I think she is a very good little girl and will make a jolly partner in life. I shall keep my married household in quite as Bohemian a style as my single one.

Give my love to Dan. Send me all the news when you write. Any word from Doyley Carte. I don't know when Belgravia will publish that - nor when they will pay me for it.

Adieu - dear Kate - 

Your Affect friend

A Conan Doyle 

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And so to some general comments. I'm creating a set of annotations for each letter. Separately I have been tracing the life of Kate Bryson and the provenance of the letters, so let's set that aside for this letter.

For now, some observations and questions not already addressed in the speech above.

- Doyle clearly enjoyed his extra employment at the Military Hospital, both for the responsibility and the extra cashflow. ACD describes the experience in 'Memories and Adventures' that provides some extra context, but he does not date that experience.

- Of the four letters, three are to Kate, and one is to Dan. In this letter to Kate, ACD enquires after Dan. 'Acacia Cottages' appears to be the name of where Dan and Kate live. 'New Malden' is/was a village in South-West London, with a station on the main line from London Waterloo.

- Dan's 'Bernards slavery' very likely relates to his employment, and ties to the provenance of the letter.

- 'Bill' is likely Willy K. Burton, Doyle's friend from Edinburgh who lived in London at the time. Doyle refers to Willy in other letters in the quartet of letters.

- I truly wish that Doyle named the cat. The obituary is so delightful.

- I have been asked when presenting whether the wording of the 'Study in Scarlet' text implies that Kate suggest the title to Doyle. I believe not. The sentence is the first of several stoccato passages on completely different topics - each appear to me jotted down as a separate thought - perhaps the letter was written over a shift or two at the hospital. I believe that Doyle devised the name, and that is reinforced by his statement 'It struck me quite suddenly and I at once recognized it was a splendid name'

- I think it's hilarious that he follows that statement 'I shall write it' by starting the next paragraph saying 'Literature is slack' and complaining about what may be writers block.

- 'Doyley Carte' was Richard D'Oyly Carte (1844-1901), a talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier. It appears from the quartet and some newspaper references that Kate may have been an aspiring stage actress.

- 'I don't know when Belgravia will publish that' helped date the letter - ACD was answering a question from Kate's letter. Doyle's only story published in Belgravia was 'The Great Keinplatz Experiment', which went to print in the July 1885 issue. 

Edit/update: Many thanks to Edith Pounden and Mattias Boström for providing suggestions that have improved these transcriptions.

Untangling the skein

The new issue of the Sherlock Holmes Journal has been sent out - and I have an article in it, titled 'Untangling the skein'. I've been looking forward to sharing the story behind this article.

At the Minnesota meeting last year (2024), Ira Matetsky gave a talk and exhorted the audience to always look into Doyle-related items that might exist at any local libraries. 

And so, knowing Australian well, I looked into Australian institutions, and identified a number of relevant holdings. None were digitized, so I started the process of arranging for each to be scanned, and was very excited by four letters written to 'Mrs. Kate Bryson' held at the State Library of New South Wales.

The 'TLDR' is that one of the four letters contained the earliest reference now known to 'A Study in Scarlet'. Below, I've included the text of a talk I gave to the Six Napoelons in March 2025. That speech describes the letters, some delightful parts of one of the letters, what we know (and don't know) about the origins and ideation of the first Sherlock Holmes story.

What I don't talk about in this speech is the contents of the other three letters, how the State Library of New South Wales came to acquire the letters, their provenance, and who exactly was Mrs Bryson? Some of this is still a work in progress, but I'll be posting on all this in the coming weeks.

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The talk I gave at the Six Napoleons was a wonderful Sherlockian evening. As a result of this talk I became inducted as Napoleon 285. For this talk, my good friend Kyle B helped create a special postcard that was handed out during the presentation. 

Front

Back

‘What an excellent name for a story’
Presented to the Six Napoleons, March 14th 2025

When A Study in Scarlet was published in late 1887 as part of that year's Beeton's Christmas Annual, the story had already been on quite a journey. It is generally accepted that Conan Doyle wrote the novel over the course of about six weeks in March and April of 1886 while residing in Southsea. Following its completion, the story was submitted to several publishers including Arrowsmith before it was accepted by Ward, Lock & Co. in October 1886. To Doyle’s disappointment, the story was held over for a year before its public debut in late 1887.

A holograph manuscript of Conan Doyle's first Sherlock story does not exist, but some primary documents and commentary capturing the origins of the story and characters remain. In his autobiography, Memories and Adventures (1924), Conan Doyle reflected on the genesis of Holmes: ‘What should I call the fellow? I still possess the leaf of a notebook with various alternative names. One rebelled against the elementary art which gives some inkling of character in the name, and creates Mr. Sharps or Mr. Ferrets. First it was Sherringford Holmes; then it was Sherlock Holmes. He could not tell his own exploits, so he must have a commonplace comrade as a foil—an educated man of action who could both join in the exploits and narrate them. A drab, quiet name for this unostentatious man. Watson would do. And so I had my puppets and wrote my “Study in Scarlet.’

The leaf to which Conan Doyle refers is commonly known as the ‘Sherlock Holmes birth certificate.’ 

It is a single sheet that names ‘Sherringford Holmes’ and ‘Ormond Sacker’ (Watson) of ‘221B Upper Baker Street,’ and sketches out the famous comparison to Edgar Allan Poe's literary detective, Auguste Dupin. Note that Conan Doyle refers to creating the names for his ‘puppets’ before writing the story. Randall Stock notes that the image of this page has been reproduced more than twenty times, as early as 1923 in the serialisation of Memories and Adventures in the Strand Magazine, on the cover of the US dustjacket for Memories and Adventures and in Vincent Starrett's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1933), in addition to being on display at the 1951 Sherlock Holmes Exhibition in London.

The second artefact ON THE OTHER SIDE OF YOUR SHEET is found on page ten of the Southsea Notebook Number 1, part of a series of notebooks kept by Conan Doyle from 1885-1889. The page fragment contains a title and two sentences of text as follows:

‘ A tangled skein – ’ A Study in Scarlet

The terrified woman rushing up to the cabman.  The two going in search of a policeman.  John Reeves had been 7 years in the force, John Reeves went back with them.

‘John Reeves’ evolved into John Rance, the constable who found the body at Lauriston Gardens. An image of the above sentences was reproduced in John Dickson Carr's The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1949) and included in the 2004 Christie’s auction catalogue, at which the Southsea Notebooks were purchased. They went on public display in 2014 at the Museum of London’s Sherlock Holmes exhibition at Museum of London. 

While neither of the sheets are dated, the general interpretation has been that the title of the story was originally ‘A Tangled Skein’ and that it was later renamed A Study in Scarlet. This can be read in many sources, but a good example can be found in The Independent newspaper’s coverage of the 2014 Sherlock Holmes Exhibition in which it is noted that A Study in Scarlet ‘was originally called A Tangled Skein, but that is neatly crossed out and the new title... substituted.’ The Quartering Press catalog of that exhibition prepared by Nick Utechin and Catherine Cooke makes the same case. This conclusion is entirely reasonable based on the evidence available, and no further documentary evidence exists on the genesis of A Study in Scarlet - until now.

Last year at the Minnesota conference, Ira Matetsky shared his adventures doing the equivalent of literary dumpster diving – searching the archives of libraries in cities he happened to be visiting for all things Arthur Conan Doyle. He exhorted  the audience to do the same, and so while Ira was speaking I began searching library archives I knew best…..

The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW, Sydney, Australia) holds four letters written by ‘Conan Doyle to Mrs Kate Bryson’ which were donated in 1966. The identity of Kate is for a another time, but at Peter Blau’s encouragement I’ve been tracking Kate and the provenance of the letters - for now it is sufficient to observe that Kate, and her husband Dan, were friends from Conan Doyle’s with connections to his Edinburgh days, and they most likely shared a mutual acquaintance in William K. Burton, Conan Doyle’s childhood friend. In the early 1900s, Kate married Charles Bon Bernard, of a Swiss-London trading family, lived first in Colorado, and then resettled in Sydney. The letters must have been valued by Kate, who carried them across the world. Following her death in 1923 and that of Charles in 1954, the letters were offered to the State Library where they have resided for almost sixty years. 

While all four letters are undated, two are addressed from Portsea, the strip of land on which Southsea is located. Of the two Portsea letters, one can be dated to 1885, while the other is likely prior to 1887 (and possibly prior to 1885). Several biographers have noted the weeding of Conan Doyle’s correspondence from the Bush Villas period by members of the family which biographer Andrew Lycett has suggested was an attempt by Conan Doyle’s sons to minimize Louise Hawkins’ place in the family. This is evident in the letters collated and published by Lellenberg, Stashower and Foley (eds.), Arthur Conan Doyle – A Life in Letters (2007) which reveals a paucity of correspondence from 1885-1888. As such, the Bryson letters held in Sydney offer insight into a formative period of Conan Doyle's writing career.

And NOW – in the spirit of Ross Davies, Matilda will distribute a unique and limited edition postcard created EXCLUSIVELY for this Six Napoleon’s meeting – cherish it and don’t lose it or you’ll need to buy one for exorbitant prices at some future Sherlockian trade room. Both sides contain images from the letter.

The 1885 letter consists of two leaves with writing on both sides and is in very bad condition as unfolding and refolding has caused the letter to separate into pieces. Internal evidence suggests that the letter was written in April, May or June of 1885. It cannot have been written before April as Conan Doyle makes two references to his engagement to Louise Hawkins, which occurred in that month. In the ‘cat obituary’ (of which more below!), Doyle notes that the cat ‘heard of my intended marriage’ while, in closing the letter, he states ‘I get married on or about the 6th of August.’ In a pleasing further detail, Conan Doyle notes about Louise: ‘we correspond pretty regularly. I think she is a very good little girl and will make a jolly partner in life. I shall keep my married household in quite as Bohemian a style as my single one.’ The latest the letter could be written is June since Conan Doyle refers to a story that has been accepted by Belgravia but which has no yet appeared: ‘I don't know when Belgravia will publish that - nor when they will pay me for it.’ This story can only be ‘The Great Keinplatz Experiment,’ Conan Doyle’s comic body-swap story, which was published in Belgravia in July 1885. 

This letter is addressed from ‘Station Hospital, Portsea’ and appears to contain a watermark of the Coat of Arms of Her Majesty's Government. The context for this address can be found in Memories and Adventures, in which Conan Doyle offers this insight into his days as a struggling doctor: ‘A new phase of medical experience came to me about this time, for I suddenly found myself a unit in the British Army. The operations in the East had drained the Medical Service, and it had therefore been determined that local civilian doctors should be enrolled for temporary duty of some hours a day. The terms were a guinea a day, and a number of us were tempted to volunteer where there were only a few vacancies.’ 

The letter provides colourful detail into this posting, which has hitherto gone undated. ‘I have been stuck on here to look after troops which is a very good thing but probably won't last long. They have run short of army medics it appears so have to fall back upon civil practitioners. I still run the shop at Bush Villas, so that my hands are pretty full. It is very fun as I have many men under me and can say to one come and he goeth with as Holy writ remarks. The other night I was run in as a prisoner by some bould [sic] militia men who seemed to think I had an O'Donovan-Rossy sort of look about me. Their excuse was that I didn't know the counter sign. The screw is about 12 pounds a month so if it lasts it will be a capital thing but it is liable terminate any moment.’

The text in the letter is wrapped around a small pen-sketch by Conan Doyle of himself in top hat towering above eight militia men escorting him as prisoner. Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was an Irish Fenian leader who organised the first bombings of British cities, and was the subject of an assassination attempt in early 1885. Unlike Conan Doyle, Rossa had a thick goatee and Irish accent, but like Doyle he was certainly a tall man at over six feet.

In addition to this description of his army medical appointment, Conan Doyle’s 1885 letter to Kate covers a range of topics. He apologizes to Kate for not writing sooner and hopes to visit her at her New Malden home, asks after her husband Dan, and after ‘Bill’ who, based on context from the other letters, is believed to be Willy Burton. Conan Doyle then moves on to the sad news that his cat has died, which transforms into a delightful light-hearted obituary:

‘We have had a heavy blow in the shape of the death of our pet cat. She was a very high minded and independent cat, but jealousy was one of her failings and when she heard of my intended marriage she looked at me reproachfully, went across the road to the Marston Lodge cat and made arrangements as to the disposal of her property, and then came back and deliberately committed suicide by getting into the oven allowing herself to be shut in and suffocated. She was a cat of considerable attainments. She used sometimes during the night to assemble all the neighbours cats in my back garden and used to address them from the top of the wall with much vehemence. From the respect with which her remarks were always listened to I judge that she was considered the best orator in this quarter. Whether on those occasions she was [...] of her [...] or whether she merely discussed the passing events of the hour is more than I have been able to determine. It is my duty to say that she had faults. Her morals were loose and her language was free. I once heard her speak to a dog who came into our passage in a manner which shocked one much. Still her tastes were refined. She was fond of botany and entymology. The first led her carefully to dig up everything which we planted in the garden. The second took her into strange places in pursuit of flies. I have no doubt that her spirit has gone to some Cat's paradise where innumerable corks hang from countless doorknobs, and where mice who have died in a state of sin scuttle about all day and afford fine sport to the [...] won't have as clean a sheet to show if our books are ever overhauled. Cats don't do shabby things. But there - I musn't start moralizing or I shall bore you.’

And at this juncture, Conan Doyle turns to several staccato topics, the first of which is striking – AND AGAIN I REFER YOU TO YOUR POSTCARD:

Holograph description of ‘A Study in Scarlet’ as the title for a story.

"‘A Study in Scarlet’ - what an excellent name for a story depending upon a murder and the interest lying in the difficulty of unravelling the facts and who the murdered was. It struck me quite suddenly and I at once recognized it was a splendid name. I shall write it."

This is likely the first appearance of the title A Study in Scarlet and possibly the only one that can be categorically dated to 1885. Written in the midst of work at a garrison hospital, Conan Doyle indicates that the title for the story came first - in fact it struck him quite suddenly. He concludes by resolving to write a story about a murder. There is no mention of prior titles or drafts of a story. In fact, immediately following this extract, he states that ‘Literature is slack. I am torpid. My brain won't work.’ 

In the light of this new evidence, how do we rationalize the received wisdom that ‘A Tangled Skein’ was the original title of the first story and was later replaced with (A) Study in Scarlet? One possibility is that the title was in fact ‘A Tangled Skein’ - A Study in Scarlet, before Conan Doyle thought better of a double-barreled title. The inverted commas around ‘a tangled skein’ suggest it was perhaps intended to be a quote in a longer title, and that it was removed from the working title, rather than being replaced at a later date by A Study in Scarlet. Whatever the case, it is significant that we now have proof that the title was being considered a full twelve months before Conan Doyle is believed to have put pen to paper on Holmes’s first adventure.

There it ends ; I hope you’ve enjoyed being the first to learn about Doyle’s ‘excellent name’. This will appear as an article in the Sherlock Holmes Journal later this year, and the obsessive dive into Kate’s life is a story for another evening. Enjoy the souvenir! 

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Well it doesn't end there, as I'm currently in Sydney I've had the chance to visit the State Library of New South Wales and inspect the four letters that they hold. I visited with my daughters, and attended the wonderful Mitchell Library reading room to access their rare documents collection.

Once there, the requests slips were completed, and the letters were each delivered in their individual archival folders. One trifle that impressed me was that the collection of letters were weighed on an analytical scale before being handed to me, and then weighed again afterwards t ensure nothing was missing!

One of the Conan Doyle letters on the desk for reading.

The three photographs above show the state of the key 1885 letter described in the talk above. It truly is in fragments, and each has been placed in a plastic archival sleeve. The pieces were placed together to obtain a scan of the entire letter. In the coming weeks I'll post each of the four letters and their transcriptions.

The correspondent, enjoying time with the letters, and the fragment of letter that contains the reference to 'Study in Scarlet'.

the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant

At the National Gallery of Australia, and what do I find? A Vernet…. Showing a lighthouse…. If we look closely, some trained Cormorants! The politician is somewhere about i am sure….

The painting is titled 'Tempête sur la côte méditerranéenne [Storm on the Mediterranean coast]', painted by Joseph Vernet of France (1714 - 1789). 

The Vernet family, of course, are antecedents of Sherlock Holmes: In Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Adventure of the Greek Interpreter', Holmes mentions that his grandmother was “a sister of Vernet, the French artist”. Joseph's son Carle was also a painter.

And as for the story? In 'The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger', there is a delightful opening paragraph:

When one considers that Mr Sherlock Holmes was in active practice for twenty-three years, and that during seventeen of these I was allowed to co-operate with him and to keep notes of his doings, it will be clear that I have a mass of material at my command. The problem has always been, not to find, but to choose. There is the long row of year-books which fill a shelf, and there are the dispatchcases filled with documents, a perfect quarry for the student not only of crime, but of the social and official scandals of the late Victorian era. Concerning these latter, I may say that the writers of agonized letters, who beg that the honour of their families or the reputation of famous forebears may not be touched, have nothing to fear. The discretion and high sense of professional honour which have always distinguished my friend are still at work in the choice of these memoirs, and no confidence will be abused. I deprecate, however, in the strongest way the attempts which have been made lately to get at and to destroy these papers. The source of these outrages is known, and if they are repeated I have Mr Holmes's authority for saying that the whole story concerning the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant will be given to the public. There is at least one reader who will understand.

This a one of the notorious unpublished stories mentioned in the Canon. How was Vernet painting this very story 100 years earlier??

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Sherlock's debut reviewed in Southsea (Hampshire)

Being on a vacation gives me time to pause, dig, and think. My previous post was on a remarkable add highlight that there was a Mr. and Mrs. Sherlock of Holm Leigh.

I found this curiosity while looking for the earliest reference to Sherlock Holmes in the Southsea / Portsmouth / Hampshire district. The article I found was really a delight. The article in the Hampshire Telegraph recognizes Doyle as a 'townsman'. Along with a summary of remarkable nature of Sherlock Holmes, the article ends with the recognition that 'Dr. Conan Doyle's reputation as a man of letters will be greatly enhanced by this remarkable tale'.

Enjoy!

Hampshire Telegraph
Saturday 03 December 1887

A NEW NOVELIST

The publishers of Beeton's Christmas Annual (Messrs. Ward Lock and Co.) have been fortunate to secure the services of our townsman, Dr. A. Conan Doyle, who is now well known in literary circles as a rising writer of fiction. Dr. Conan Doyle has prepared for Beeton's Christmas fare A Study in Scarlet, which for exciting incidents, clever construction, and artistic development of plot, will compare with any of the Christmas annuals with which the bookstalls are now deluged. This student in scarlet is one Sherlock Holmes, a consulting detective of most amusing eccentricities and strangely balanced powers. For instance, in a curious table which a young medical man who shares rooms with Sherlock Holmes draws up for his own amusement we learn that this strange creation knew nothing of literature, philosophy, astronomy, or politics ; that his knowledge of botany was confined to poisons ; that his geological information was summed up in being able to tell different soils from each other at a glance, and to know by looking at the mud splashes on his trousers in what part of London he had received them ; that his knowledge of chemistry was profound; and that he appeared to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century. As he said himself "A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying hands on it." This was his excuse for knowing nothing of the solar system. Sherlock Holmes carried on this theory to its extreme limits, and by training his powers of observation to an extraordinary degree became a master of the science of deduction and an unrecognised Prince among the detectives of London. The story proper tells how the "Lauriston Garden Mystery " was solved by this strange being. We will not let the public into the secret of the mystery here. They must go to the book itself for that, and we promise them that their shillings will be well expended. It is sufficient to say that the mystery is mixed up with love and Mormonism; that it presents weird pictures of the terrible autocracy of Brigham Young: exciting passages of escape through the lines of his relentless sentinels ; the merciless pursuit of a revengeful purpose from the home of the chosen people to the busy streets of London; and the triumphant application of the science of deduction in the person of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Dr. Conan Doyle's reputation as a man of letters will be greatly enhanced by this remarkable tale, which is bound to be popular, and which our readers will do well not to overlook. 

Mrs Sherlock of Holm..... Leigh, Southsea

I was recently digging around the for the first newspaper references to Sherlock Holmes, and inadvertently came across quite an intriguing advertisement.

On Tuesday 3rd March 1885 and Wednesday 4th March 1885 the Portsmouth Evening News 'Lost' section contained a notice. 

LOST.
Lost, on Saturday morning, in or near Queen-street, a Gold Chain, with key attached to it. If found by a poor person 10s. reward - Address Mrs. Sherlock, Holm Leigh, Shaftesbury-road, Southsea. 

I wonder if this name inspired Doyle as he cast his eye across the paper that morning? Perhaps subconsciously infiltrated his mind? The version I initially accessed had the blue box as the search term, but once it was revealed, it showed it was 'Mrs. Sherlock' of 'Holm Leigh' (the name of the home) rather than 'Mrs. Sherlock Holm' or 'Mrs. Sherlock Holm Leigh'.

Who was Mrs. Sherlock, living in Southsea in 1885 when Doyle started formulating his first mystery story - A Study in Scarlet?  There is a little to learn - just a little - from an initial look at other newspapers. A local paper, the Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette, published a list of visitors to Southsea. The opening to the column lists a number of places in Southsea where visitors could register their names in books provided by the newspaper. 

There, we see "Mrs. and Master Sherlock" living at "Holme-Leigh" on Shaftesbury Road:

Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette 
Saturday 3rd January, 1885

The lists were published regularly and 'Mrs and Master Sherlock' (without Mr. Sherlock) can be found on the following dates as examples:

- *21 November 1884 (Mrs and Master)

*Indicates new arrival

- 28 November 1884 (Mrs and Master)

- 10 December 1884 (Mrs Sherlock and child)

- 27 December 1884 (Mrs Sherlock and child)

- 7 January 1885 (Mr & Mrs Sherlock and child)

- 28 January 1885 (Mrs Sherlock)

- 30 January 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 4 February 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 14 February 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 18 February 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 28 February 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 4 March 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 7 March 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 21 March 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 10 April 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 29 May 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 12 June 1885 (Mrs and Master)

- 17 June 1885 (Mr, Mrs, & Master Sherlock)

- 26 June 1885 (Mrs & Master Sherlock)

- 24 July 1885 (Mrs & Master Sherlock)

- 4 September 1885 (Mr, Mrs, & Master Sherlock)

- 16 October 1885 (Mr, Mrs, & Master Sherlock)

- 30 October 1885 (Mr, Mrs, & Master Sherlock)

Unfortunately the notices do not give a hint as to where they arrived from, or the occupation of Mr. Sherlock. During this time, a 'Mr. T. Sherlock' was present at a number of social events in Southsea, as part of his activities with a yacht club.

By December 1885, the Sherlocks were not living at Holme-Leigh, but at that time a 'Mr and Mrs T. Sherlock' appeared on the Visitors List, now staying at Elphinstone Villa on Elphinstone Road for a large part of 1886, before appearing to leave the area.