by Bill Peschel
[back] Pall and coffin: The pall is the cloth spread over the coffin, hearse or tomb. From the Latin pallium for “covering” or “cloak.”
[back] De trop: A French phrase meaning “too many” or “unwanted.” An alternative way of saying “two’s company, three’s a crowd.”
[back] Primus inter pares: Latin for “first among equals.”
[back] Rifle Club: As a result of his experiences in the Boer War, Conan Doyle urged the formation of rifle clubs so that the civilian population can fire their guns as well as the Boer farmers. He set up a club at his estate, Undershaw.
[back] Free Trade Union: An organization that advocated removing tariffs that gave Britain’s colonies an advantage in trade against countries outside the empire.
[back] Reticule: An old-fashioned drawstring bag used by a woman. From the Latin reticulum for “mesh bag.”
[back] Croupier: The person in charge of a gaming table. From the Old French cropier for “pillion rider,” the woman who rides behind the man on a horse. It came to refer to the person who stood behind a gambler and gave advice.
[back] Emperor William: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (1859-1941) who was a grandson of Queen Victoria.
[back] Cairngorm shirt-stud: A stud inlaid with smoky quartz. Named for the Cairngorm mountain range in the Scottish Highlands.
[back] Bovrility: Bovril is the brand name for a thick, salty meat extract, so Potson is implying that Holes’ intelligence is just as concentrated. Bovril is used to flavor soups or stews, eaten on bread or dissolved in hot water or milk. The name is a combination of the Latin bos for “ox” or “cow” and “Vril,” a substance used by a powerful “lost race” in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s “The Coming Race” (1870).
[back] Dream of peace: In the Second Boer War that ended in 1902, Britain defeated the two independent Boer republics. They would be incorporated into South Africa in 1910.
[back] Tribune Rendezvous: The Tribune newspaper sponsored a gathering to promote Liberal politics. In addition to sponsoring speeches, a clubroom was opened with a reference library.
[back] Mr. Punch’s Verses: At the Tribune Rendezvous, a speaker discussed the plight of living authors who had to compete with the dead. Punch responded with a poem “Wanted—Protection,” in which the author complains in part:
Why am I so sore neglected?
’Tis that I am undersold.
Faced with undeserved disaster
By the master
Minds of old.
Milton is no more affected
By the thought of author’s fees;
Shakespeare cannot eat, and therefore
Doesn’t care for
Royalties.
[back] Adventurous career: The daughter of a bear trainer and an actress, Theodora (c. 500-548) rose from prostitute and actress (including performing an indecent version of Leda and the Swan) to wife of Emperor Justinian I. She proved to be an able ruler, defeating a coup attempt early in their reign, and with Justinian overseeing the rebuilding of Constantinople.
[back] Sui generis: A Latin phrase meaning “of its own kind,” so unique that there’s no one else like him.
[back] Jack Johnson: The U.S. boxer (1878-1946) reigned from 1908 to 1915 as the world’s first black heavyweight boxing champion.
[back] Sporting agency: A company that arranges for hunting trips.
[back] Windt: A reference to William le Queux (1864-1927), journalist, traveler and author (including “invasion literature” novels such as “The Invasion of 1910”), and Harry de Windt (1856-1933), explorer and travel writer.
[back] Diplodocus: A long-necked, long-tailed dinosaur genus that could reach 100 feet long and weigh more than a hundred tons.
[back] Sir Henry Wood: Wood (1869-1944) was an English conductor who established an annual promenade concert where for nearly 50 years audiences were exposed to classical and new works. These concerts, generally known as “the Proms,” were named for him after his death.
[back] Asafetida and whistles: Suffragettes demonstrating for the right to vote would carry small hammers in their purses to smash windows during demonstrations. Asafoetida is an herb with a terrible smell, exemplified by its nicknames stinking gum and Devil’s dung.
[back] Sir E. Ray Lankester: A zoologist and biologist (1847-1929), Lankester’s bluster and rude manners made some suspect, despite ACD’s denial, that he was a model for Professor Challenger.
[back] Uhlans: A type of light cavalry regiment that carried lances.
[back] I’ll follow: A quotation from Ruth 1:16, in which Ruth expresses her loyalty to Naomi: “And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”
[back] Food-Controller: As an island nation that needed to import its food, Britain was vulnerable to Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare during World War I. To help control fears of food hoarding and price gouging, a Food Controller was appointed in 1917 charged with fixing prices, regulating the distribution of food and encouraging homeowners to reduce waste.
[back] War Cabinet: With the onset of World War I, a coalition government was formed between the Conservative and Liberal parties to minimize political squabbles during a national crisis.
[back] Is a Marquis: In the English peerage, duke is the highest rank, followed by marquess, earl, viscount and baron/baroness.
[back] A.P.M. brassard: Assistant Provost Marshal, a police officer given the rank of captain. A brassard is a cloth band with an insignia on it that is worn on the upper arm.
[back] Dora regulations: The Defense of the Realm Act 1914 gave the government wide-ranging powers to prosecute the war, including requisitioning buildings for military use, to censor news and commentary, and arrest and imprison anti-war activists.
[back] Lodge: Oliver Lodge (1851-1940) was a physicist and innovator in wireless telegraphy. He was also a longtime friend of Conan Doyle and shared his interest in spiritualism.
[back] Five chupatties: Baboo: A Hindu gentleman; khitmutgar: A waiter; chupatties: Flat, unleavened, disk-shaped bread, and a standard food found in the region.
[back] To the matter: Holmes dismisses the possibility of supernatural creatures in “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire”: “This agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.”
[back] Control: Spirits communicated with our world during séances in one of two ways: direct voice and channeling. In the first method, the psychic would relay what he or she has been told by the spirit entity. In channeling, the psychic would fall into a trance and let the spirit entity take control of him.
[back] Charterhouse: A highly-rated boarding school for boys in Surrey.
[back] Gasogene: A spirit-case holds bottles of alcohol, such as whisky. If the case has a lockable latch on top (to keep the servants from getting at it), it would be called a tantalus. Gasogene: A glass device with a nozzle that combines water with a mix of tartaric acid and sodium bicarbonate. The combination infuses the water with carbon dioxide to create carbonated water.
[back] Scandal in Bohemia: Holmes uses the number of steps to make a point about the difference between observing and seeing:
“You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”
“Frequently.”
“How often?”
“Well, some hundreds of times.”
“Then how many are there?”
“How many? I don’t know.”
“Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.
[back] Of my song: A reference to “How Happy Could I Be With Either,” a love song from the 1728 ballad opera by John Gay. Ether was the first compound used as
an anesthetic.
[back] In his anatomy: In “A Study in Scarlet” and twice since, Watson says he took a bullet in the shoulder. In “The Sign of the Four,” it was his leg. Ever since, Sherlockians have tried to reconcile the two wounds.
[back] Blue: A shirt of that color, actually closer to a spring green, worn by members of a sports team representing Cambridge University. He did make captain of the team from Trinity College, a component college of the university.
[back] Varsity Eights: The word is a shortened form of university, which explains the single quote mark at the beginning of the word. A Varsity Eight is an eight-man rowing crew that represents the university at competitions.
[back] Leander: One of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, founded in 1818. It isbased in Henley-on-Thames, England. Leander is the hero of Greek mythology who swam the Hellespont every night to visit his lover, Hero.
[back] Bucks: The county of Buckinghamshire, located northwest of London. Lehmann and his family lived at Fieldhead, his country home on the banks of the Thames. Justices of the Peace were magistrates who heard cases and could rule on minor infractions of the law. For more serious offenses, the magistrate would order the defendant to be held until the quarterly or half-yearly assizes.
[back] And does it: A reference to Wackford Squeers’ boarding school in Dickens’ “Nicholas Nickleby.” Squeers describes his way of teaching the boys as “the practical mode of teaching, Nickleby; the regular education system. C-l-e-a-n, clean, verb active, to make bright, to scour. W-i-n, win, d-e-r, der, winder, a casement. When the boy knows this out of book, he goes and does it.”
