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.
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.
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