"Charles Augustus Milverton"

Charles Augustus Milverton.

The case begins Monday, January 12, 1891.

Why?

WATSON TOSSES OUT A CHALLENGE:
"The reader will excuse me if I conceal the date or any other fact by which he might trace the actual occurrence."

THE STATEMENT OF THE SEASON:
"We had been out for one of our evening rambles, Holmes and I, and had returned about six o’clock on a cold, frosty winter’s evening."

THE CURRENT MURDERER COUNT:
"I’ve had to do with fifty murderers in my career, but the worst of them never gave me the repulsion which I have for this fellow."

THE TIME UNTIL THE MARRIAGE OF LADY EVA:
"She is to be married in a fortnight to the Earl of Dovercourt."

THE DATES WATSON WAS GOING TO CONCEAL:
"My dear sir, it is painful for me to discuss it, but if the money is not paid on the 14th, there certainly will be no marriage on the 18th."

THE DEADLINE RUNS OUT:
"To-morrow is the last day of grace, and unless we can get the letters to-night, this villain will be as good as his word and will bring about her ruin."

THE DAYS OF ESCOTT:
"For some days Holmes came and went at all hours in this attire, but beyond a remark that his time was spent at Hampstead, and that it was not wasted, I knew nothing of what he was doing. At last, however, on a wild, tempestuous evening, when the wind screamed and rattled against the windows, he returned from his last expedition."

THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF HOLMES AND WATSON:
"It was a six-foot wall which barred our path, but he sprang to the top and over. As I did the same I felt the hand of the man behind me grab at my ankle, but I kicked myself free and scrambled over a grass-strewn coping. I fell upon my face among some bushes, but Holmes had me on my feet in an instant, and together we dashed away across the huge expanse of Hampstead Heath. We had run two miles, I suppose, before Holmes at last halted and listened intently."

WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
January 5, 1899. 

WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
January 6, 1886.

THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY’S TIMETABLE:
Finding a date for "Charles Augustus Milverton" is a work that must be based upon the observation of trifles. Watson has said from the outset that he’s concealing the date from us, and the number of blackmail victims, combined with the burglary on the part of he and Holmes, give him ample reasons to do so. So how does one date this case? By looking to the case’s primary focus, of course.
As smart as Milverton was, there is no way his operation and personal safety continued for as long as it did with Milverton as an independent operator. Especially prior to 1891, when there was but one king of all London crime, and that king wouldn’t have taken kindly to an independent operator making as much as Milverton did without proper tribute being paid. 

Yes, it is very hard to see Charles Augustus Milverton operating in Moriartian London without ties to the Professor, and given the amount of money that Milverton brought in with his blackmail business, one would suspect those ties were very close. So close, and so profitable, would be such a connection that I’m sure Moriarty would have felt "incommoded" by Milverton’s sudden demise and the burning of his papers.

And when was Moriarty "incommoded"? On January 23, 1891.
"But," one might argue, "Watson acts like he hadn’t seen Holmes for many months before ‘The Final Problem.’" If you look closely at what Watson writes in that tale, he says he only retained records of three cases with Holmes in 1890. He says he read of Holmes in the paper and received notes from him in 1891, but he never really says he didn’t see Holmes in 1891. We also know, from "The Valley of Fear," that Watson abbreviated his awareness of Holmes’s battle against Moriarty in FINA, and I think CHAS was another example of that abbreviation (especially when one remembers that FINA was written to clear Holmes’s reputation ... a record of him committing a burglary would hardly have helped). 

If one needs further evidence of Watson dropping CHAS from his published accounts of the Moriarty war, examine Holmes’s comment in FINA with a mind to CHAS: "I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to allow me to leave your house presently by scrambling over your back garden wall." 

If one of Watson’s last adventures with Holmes involved the two of them scrambling over a back garden wall, as CHAS did, this suddenly becomes a clever little in-joke between the two men worthy of Holmes’s sense of humor.

Once one then looks at the winter setting of CHAS, it all seems to fall into place. Watson may have supplied false dates in this story with Milverton’s "the money is not paid on the 14th, there certainly will be no marriage on the 18th," but he had already given us a true one in "The Final Problem." And from there we can easily work backwards. 

Although the "14th . . . 18th" statement is incorrect as to the exact dates (as Watson told us he was going to be), one can still get the timetable of Milverton’s demands and Watson’s involvement from it. The wedding is two weeks from the day Watson became involved, and Milverton wanted his money four days before the wedding. The night Milverton dies begins the evening before "the last day of grace" . . . four days before the wedding, and Milverton’s post-midnight demise makes January 23, 1891 three days before the wedding. Adding those three days gives us a wedding on January 26 and subtracting the fortnight (14 days) that Holmes says remains before the wedding when the case begins, we can pretty surely say that "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" began on Monday, January 12, 1891.