The Crooked Man.
The case begins Tuesday, August 30, 1887.
Why?
STATE OF WATSON’S MARRIAGE AND CAREER:
"One summer night, a few months after my marriage, I was seated by my own hearth smoking a last pipe and nodding over a novel, for my day’s work had been an exhausting one. My wife had already gone upstairs, and the sound of the locking of the hall door some time before told me that the servants had also retired."
"One summer night, a few months after my marriage, I was seated by my own hearth smoking a last pipe and nodding over a novel, for my day’s work had been an exhausting one. My wife had already gone upstairs, and the sound of the locking of the hall door some time before told me that the servants had also retired."
TIME OF HOLMES’S VISIT:
"It was a quarter to twelve."
"It was a quarter to twelve."
SIGNIFICANT OBSERVATITIONS FROM HOLMES:
"You still smoke the Arcadia mixture of your bachelor days, then! There’s no mistaking that fluffy ash upon your coat. It’s easy to tell that you have been accustomed to wear a uniform, Watson."
"You still smoke the Arcadia mixture of your bachelor days, then! There’s no mistaking that fluffy ash upon your coat. It’s easy to tell that you have been accustomed to wear a uniform, Watson."
WATSON’S CURRENT SUBSTITUTE:
"I have no doubt Jackson would take my practice."
"I have no doubt Jackson would take my practice."
DURATION OF THE BARCLAY MARRIAGE:
"I may add that she was a woman of great beauty, and that even now, when she has been married for upward of thirty years, she is still of a striking and queenly appearance."
"I may add that she was a woman of great beauty, and that even now, when she has been married for upward of thirty years, she is still of a striking and queenly appearance."
DURATION OF BARCLAY’S COMMISSION:
"It was commanded up to Monday night by James Barclay, a gallant veteran, who started as a full private, was raised to commissioned rank for his bravery at the time of the Mutiny."
"It was commanded up to Monday night by James Barclay, a gallant veteran, who started as a full private, was raised to commissioned rank for his bravery at the time of the Mutiny."
DURATION OF BARCLAY’S RESIDENCE:
"The first battalion of the Royal Munsters (which is the old One Hundred and Seventeenth) has been stationed at Aldershot for some years. The married officers live out of barracks, and the colonel has during all this time occupied a villa called ‘Lachine,’ about half a mile from the north camp."
"The first battalion of the Royal Munsters (which is the old One Hundred and Seventeenth) has been stationed at Aldershot for some years. The married officers live out of barracks, and the colonel has during all this time occupied a villa called ‘Lachine,’ about half a mile from the north camp."
THE DAY OF THE CRIME:
"Now for the events at Lachine between nine and ten on the evening of last Monday."
"Now for the events at Lachine between nine and ten on the evening of last Monday."
THE DAY OF THE INVESTIGATION:
"That was the state of things, Watson, when upon the Tuesday morning I, at the request of Major Murphy, went down to Aldershot to supplement the efforts of the police."
"That was the state of things, Watson, when upon the Tuesday morning I, at the request of Major Murphy, went down to Aldershot to supplement the efforts of the police."
DURATION OF WOOD’S SUPPOSED DEATH:
"I thought you had been dead this thirty years, Henry."
"I thought you had been dead this thirty years, Henry."
WHAT THE BARING-GOULD ANNOTATED SAYS:
September 11, 1889.
September 11, 1889.
WHAT ZEISLER, THE KING OF CHRONOLOGY, SAYS:
June 26, 1889.
June 26, 1889.
THE BIRLSTONE RAILWAY TIMETABLE:
With the Sepoy Mutiny beginning in 1857, and Mrs. Barclay’s clear statement that she thought Henry Wood had been dead for thirty years (and she had better reason to remember than anyone), the logical year for this case would be 1887. (Holmes’s statement of "upward of thirty years" has to be taken as an estimation — he’s good, but he doesn’t track wedding anniversaries.) Beyond that, one must look to the details of Watson’s married life, and, as always, that’s where it gets tricky.
With the Sepoy Mutiny beginning in 1857, and Mrs. Barclay’s clear statement that she thought Henry Wood had been dead for thirty years (and she had better reason to remember than anyone), the logical year for this case would be 1887. (Holmes’s statement of "upward of thirty years" has to be taken as an estimation — he’s good, but he doesn’t track wedding anniversaries.) Beyond that, one must look to the details of Watson’s married life, and, as always, that’s where it gets tricky.
While other chronologers have gone with 1889, Anstruther seemed to be Watson’s fill-in doctor that particular summer, as we have seen in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery," and Watson is using Jackson in this case. Holmes’s reference to Watson’s military career and bachelor days also mark this as a tale from earlier times, when Watson had only been married for the first time and was still not so long out of uniform. His wife then, was that Mrs. Watson from "Five Orange Pips" who went on a visit to her mother’s and never seems to have returned. Watson is more easily tired in those early days, still showing the effects of the war. Looking at the above details, 1887 still seems a likely choice for the year. As for the day within that year?
Well, a few months have passed since Watson’s marriage, a marriage that had obviously not taken place at the time of "Reigate Squires" in the last part of April. Watson’s attentions seem totally unencumbered by romance as he takes Holmes to the country in that tale, so I would even go so far as to say that he had yet to meet his future wife (or at least had yet to start dating her).
It’s also not long before Mrs. Watson runs off to her mother’s, I’d wager, as Watson is exhausted yet still not headed for the bedroom at nearly midnight. Definitely sounds like trouble in paradise. The "long series of cases" dealt with by Holmes and Watson in 1887 probably didn’t help matters any, and Holmes’s sudden appearance that Wednesday morning at breakfast may have been the last straw, sending the current Mrs. Watson packing for mother’s house.
Given all of the above, I’d place this case on Tuesday, August 30, 1887.
No comments:
Post a Comment