Saturday, September 9, 2017

"The Boscombe Valley Mystery"

The Boscombe Valley Mystery.
The case begins Saturday, June 8, 1889.
Why?

WATSON’S MARITAL STATE:
"We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I . . ."

STATE OF WATSON’S PRACTICE:
"I have a fairly long list at present."
"Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you."

CURIOUS REFERENCE, NOT NECESSARILY REFERRING TO MRS. WATSON:
"I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained through one of them."

HOLMES’S STATEMENT OF THE DATE:
"On June 3d, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house . . ."
"Under these circumstances the young man was instantly arrested, and a verdict of ‘wilful murder’ having been returned at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the magistrates at Ross."

PREVIOUS ACQUAINTANCE OF NOTE:
". . . and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect in connection with ‘A Study in Scarlet’, to work out the case in his interest."
"In spite of the light brown dustcoat and leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognizing Lestrade, of Scotland Yard."

YOUNG MCCARTHY’S TESTIMONY:
"I had been away from home for three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the morning of last Monday, the 3d." 

THE DATES OF MCCARTHY AND TURNER:
"McCarthy had one son, a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same age, but neither of them had wives living."
"This fellow is madly, insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a registry office?" 
"About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered . . ."
"I have had diabetes for years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a month."
"It was in the early ‘60’s at the diggings. There I parted from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice."

WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
June 8, 1889. 

WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
June 27, 1890.

THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY’S TIMETABLE:
The key date around which "Boscombe Valley" revolves is plainly Monday, June 3rd, the day of the murder. As June 3rd falls on a Monday only in 1889 in the decade prior to BOSC’s publication, that is the date most chronologists begin their work with (others making much too much of a casual remark in STOC, but more on that when we get there). An inquest on the 4th follows the murder, followed by the magistrates on the 5th. Holmes read all this from newspapers in London, so Holmes and Watson’s involvement could not have possibly begun before Thursday the 6th . . . which is still quite a rush, especially since one of the papers came all the way from Herefordshire. And while Friday would seem a likely date, Dr. Watson and his wife are breakfasting very late for a weekday. Thus the Smash must go with conventional wisdom and actually agree with Baring-Gould: Saturday, June 8, 1889.

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