"Silver Blaze"

Silver Blaze.

The case begins Thursday, October 25, 1888.

Why?

THE BAKER STREET SCENE
" . . . as we sat down together to our breakfast one morning."

DAYS OF OUR LIVES
"Such was the general situation last Monday night when the catastrophe occurred."
"On Tuesday evening I received telegrams from both Colonel Ross, the owner of the horse, and from Inspector Gregory, who is looking after the case, inviting my cooperation."
"Tuesday evening! And this is Thursday morning. Why didn’t you go down yesterday?"
"It is obvious, therefore, that there were many people who had the strongest interest in preventing Silver Blaze from being there at the fall of the flag next Tuesday."
"Four days later Holmes and I were again in the train, bound for Winchester to see the race for the Wessex Cup."

VAGUE REFERENCE TO WATSON’S WORKS:
"Because I made a blunder, my dear Watson — which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than anyone would think who only knew me through your memoirs."

AGE OF SILVER BLAZE
"He is now in his fifth year . . ."

THE TIMES OF RESIDENCE
"We have found traces which show that a party of gypsies encamped on Monday night within a mile of the spot where the murder took place. On Tuesday they were gone."
"He has twice lodged at Tavistock in the summer."

THE SEASON
"In every other direction the low curves of the moor, bronze-coloured from the fading ferns, stretched away to the sky-line, broken only by the steeples of Tavistock . . ."

THE HORSES OF THE MATTER
"Wessex Plate [it ran] 50 sovs. each h ft with 1000 sovs. added, for four and five year olds. Second, L300. Third, L200. New course (one mile and five furlongs).
"1. Mr. Heath Newton’s The Negro. Red cap. Cinnamon jacket.
"2. Colonel Wardlaw’s Pugilist. Pink cap. Blue and black jacket.
"3. Lord Backwater’s Desborough. Yellow cap and sleeves.
"4. Colonel Ross’s Silver Blaze. Black cap. Red jacket.
"5. Duke of Balmoral’s Iris. Yellow and black stripes.
"6. Lord Singleford’s Rasper. Purple cap. Black sleeves."

COLONEL ROSS’S YEARS ON THE TURF:
"I have been on the turf for twenty years . . ."

JOHN STRAKER’S WORK HISTORY:
"He has served the colonel for five years as jockey and for seven as trainer."

WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 25, 1890

WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY SAYS:
July 12, 1888

THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY’S TIMETABLE:
Placing the year of "Silver Blaze" is another great challenge for the Sherlockian chronologist. It appears to take place before Watson started marrying, but beyond that, there seems little clue. (The reference to Watson’s memoirs is easily discounted, as Holmes could have said such a thing before Watson had written anything, basing it solely on Watson’s over-positive opinion of Holmes.) The thread I grabbed to follow through this tangled skein was the six horses of the Wessex Plate race. As four and five year olds, we know they were all born four to five years before the race. And as they were born, they were also named.

Now, a horse’s name can be a plain thing. Silver Blaze and the Negro were obviously named for their coloration. Pugilist was plainly called that in hopes he’d be a fighter. But what of the others? Why, for example, would Lord Backwater name his horse "Desborough"?

Consider what we know about Backwater — he’s a friend of Lord Balmoral’s family, as we saw in "Noble Bachelor." (Both men having horses in this race is but one more sign of their close friendship.) He’s also something of a romantic, as he is Lord St. Simon’s advisor when his bride disappears, and has also agreed to be Sir Robert’s intended host for his honeymoon. Backwater’s romantic tendencies plainly extended to his reading tastes, for in 1884, a Scottish novelist named Annie Swan had a novel published called "Mark Desborough’s Vow." Ms. Swan was a writer of idealized romances, and the romantic Backwater was so enthralled by the character of Mark Desborough that he named his horse after him.

Then we come to the Duke of Balmoral and his horse, Iris. From the data provided by Watson in "Noble Bachelor," we know that the Duke of Balmoral was not doing too well financially, even having to sell his pictures at some point. He was plainly searching for any business venture that might bring him much needed funds, and my theory is that the Duke named his horse Iris in 1884 to impress one James Wilkes, a toolmaker who was going out on his own in London that year and founding a company named "Wilkes Iris" to make irises for microscopes. Business did not boom immediately for Wilkes, who even had to turn to making cigarette lighters at some point to make ends meet, so the Duke’s interest in the company probably didn’t last much longer than the time it took to name the race horse, but name it "Iris" he did.

Taking the naming of the horses into account that places this case in the area of 1888-1889. But where to go from there?

The fading ferns, the ear-flapped cap — these are signs of autumn cold setting in. But when in autumn? Going by Canonical example alone, The Hound of the Baskervilles has the Dartmoor foliage fading by early October. As Watson is so solidly married (by his own dates) in autumn 1889, this places us in fall of 1888. And the fall of 1888 was a very busy time for Sherlock Holmes, if only for one reason: Jack the Ripper. Striking on August 31, September 8, twice on September 30, and then one last time on November 8, Jack was the one criminal who could not be ignored by anyone in London.

Sherlock Holmes’s distraction is evident from the way he ignores summonses from Colonel Ross and Inspector Gregory, though eventually he does go. That last part indicates some time has passed since the September 30th murder, yet with the still-fading foliage, November 8th (and the time after it to investigate) has not yet come. Given such considerations, and the days Watson gives us, I’d have to say the case begins on Thursday, October 25, 1888.