ABBE

[mafief]

ABBE
The Adventure of Abbey Grange
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Words: 9170
Where was Watson living? Baker Street
Pre/Post Reichenbach (May 1891)? Post. Winter of ‘97

Brief summary:
Holmes called in by Hopkins and the case appears to be ordinary. Details are called into question by Holmes and he finds that there is more to the case.

Characters:
John Watson
Sherlock Holmes
Stanley Hopkins
Sir Eustace Brackenstall - richest men in Kent, dead, abusive
Lady Brackenstall (aka Mary Fraser)
Theresa Wright – maid
Captain Croker

Location:
221B Baker Street
Charing Cross Station
Abbey Grange, Marsham, Kent
Chislehurst Station
shipping office of the Adelaide-Southampton line, end of Pall Mall
Scotland Yard (did not go in)
Charing Cross telegraph office

Other crimes/criminals mentioned:
Lewisham gang of burglars – three Randalls

Other studies mentioned:
composition of a text-book on the art of detection

Questions about the story
“Wake up your Watson” – When did this start in the fandom?

Cab vs handsom vs carriage vs dogcart

Charing Cross Station – (find on map) How well connected is England?
- Train information in general

“crackling paper, ‘E.B.’ monogram”?

Chislehurst Station – find on map

noble park?

Sydenham?

More medical stuff, bathing swelling with vinegar and water – why is this even a good thing?

“It is a sacrilege, a crime, a villainy to hold that such a marriage is binding”
- I read somewhere that Doyle was of the opinion that women should be able to leave/be divorced from marriages such as this. But, for some reason he was not a proponent of women’s rights.

“drenching a dog with petroleum and setting it on fire” What!?

Bees-wings?

multiplex knives – swiss army knife?

“as our train was crawling out of a suburban station, he sprang on to the platform and pulled me out after him” How does this work? Are there doors to the outside in each compartment?

“We have not yet met our Waterloo, Watson, but this is our Marengo, for it begins in defeat and ends in victory” reference lost on me.

“Vox populi, vox Dei”?

Complicated, messy, what would have happened if Hopkins had figured it out?

Other things about Holmes
“Why do you not write them yourself?”
- Oh goodness, Holmes, this is when Watson earns his title of long suffering friend.

Did not turn in Captain Croker. Willing to decide his own justice.

Comments

[smallhobbit]

Trains were very popular in Victorian times - which were before the invention of the internal combustion engine and so there were no cars. Train travel is still used here a lot - there is very limited car parking within most of our cities (since they were initially built well before the need for such was envisaged). If I'm going to London I will travel by train as it is easier and as cheap, if not cheaper by the time parking is added (if I go with my husband we will drive for the convenience, and we won't save money). Similarly if I visit my daughter I'll go by train. Locally I'll drive - and really it depends on whether there's suitable trains.

Trains are now open cars, with seats facing either forwards or backwards. And diesel or electric, rather than steam.

I'm delighted you liked my photos, thank you.

You'd be unlikely to find bees-wings now, unless it was a very old bottle of wine.

Hopkins' nanny first turned up in Stanley Goes to the Library. She's based partially on Mary Poppins, with an addition of the traditional 'firm but fair' nanny added in. I believe gardnerhill was in some way responsible, but I can't find the proof. As is the way with these things, she rapidly assumed her own identity. Incidentally, this ficlet belongs to what became known as the 'library book renewal trope' which was the main interpretation of the monthly prompt for April's holmes_minor.