The Problem of Threadneedle Street (The Assassination of Sherlock Holmes Book 2)
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[80] Homes of the Royal Mallows, whose regiment was commanded by Colonel Barclay before his death in 1889 (The Adventure of the Crooked Man).
[81] From where the Bruce-Partington plans were stolen in the eponymous Adventure.
[82] Famously, Colonel Moran and his air-gun made their first appearance in The Adventure of the Empty House.
[83] The last Canonical word that we have about Colonel Moran is that he was still living in 1902, the time of the Baron Gruner case (The Adventure of the Illustrious Client).
[84] It was relatively rare for Holmes to carry a gun, a task he usually left to Watson. Some examples to the contrary include when he fires at Tonga (Chapter X, The Sign of Four) and the eponymous hound (Chapter XIV, The Hound of the Baskervilles), and when he strikes Killer Evans with a pistol (The Adventure of the Three Garridebs). Furthermore, Holmes does threaten with a pistol both Sir George Burnwell (The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet) and Professor Moriarty (The Final Problem).
[85] Guy Fawkes (1570-1606) was an English Catholic who planned to assassinate King James I and blow up Parliament in the failed Gunpowder Plot.
[86] In fact, by 1909 airships had been in the development stage for several decades, with the first fully-controllable free flight conducted in 1884, and the first German Zeppelin in 1900. The British Army built their first dirigible in 1907.
[87] As described in The Adventure of the Speckled Band.
[88] As described in Chapter XIV of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
[89] As described in Chapter VII of The Valley of Fear.
[90] As described in The Adventure of the Empty House.
[91] As described in The Adventure of Black Peter.
[92] As described in The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.
[93] The Monument to the Great Fire of London is a 202-foot tall Doric column which stands at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, 202 feet from the spot in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire started on 2 September 1666. Completed in 1677, it is the tallest isolated stone column in the world.
[94] The Edinburgh-born writer James Boswell visited the Monument in 1763 to climb the 311 steps to what was then the highest viewpoint in London. Halfway up, he suffered a panic attack, but persevered and made it to the top, where he found it ‘horrid to be so monstrous a way up in the air, so far above London and all its spires.’
[95] When Holmes surprised Moran in the act of an attempted assassination, the Colonel sprung upon Holmes with a great ferocity. He was only subdued by a blow to the head delivered by Watson (The Adventure of the Empty House).
[96] Clearly a reference to the events recorded in Chapter VII of A Study in Scarlet.
[97] Holmes employed a wax model in both The Adventure of the Empty House and The Mazarin Stone, however only the first was made by Monsieur Oscar Meunier of Grenoble. Since it was destroyed by Moran, he commissioned a second by Tavernier, the French modeler.
[98] Pinner and Beddington were the main villains of The Adventure of the Stock-Broker’s Clerk.
[99] John Clay was the grandson of a Royal Duke with royal blood flowing in his veins (which king produced such a wicked descendent is never specified), and by this comment appears to be implying that he has inherited the title.
[100] Clay is paraphrasing quoting Mark Twain, who said something to this effect in 1897, in response to a false newspaper account that he was gravely ill.
[101] When the British pubic read of Holmes’ supposed death in The Final Problem, they reportedly reacted with great despair. It was not uncommon for people to wear a black armband in mourning.
[102] Eton is the famous boarding school, established 1440 near Windsor Castle, where generations of British aristocracy were educated. Only two men are recorded in the Canon as having attended it: John Clay & Sebastian Moran.
[103] The details of Holmes’ original encounter with Victor Lynch, the forger, have yet to be unearthed. He is mentioned in the ‘V’ Index (The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire).
[104] Where counting every third word made clear the details of the intended message (The ‘Gloria Scott’).
[105] The cipher created by the father of Elsie Cubitt (The Adventure of the Dancing Men).
[106] Blaise de Vigenère (1523-1596) was a French diplomat who served under King Henri III and invented a new cipher in order to protect sensitive documents.
[107] Such as during the American Civil War, primarily by the Confederate side.
[108] A paraphrase of: ‘Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’ (Book of Matthew, 19:23-26).
[109] The Metropolitan Police was formed in 1829 by Robert Peel, who selected a private house at 4 Whitehall Place as their headquarters. This building backed onto a street called Great Scotland Yard, and from the public entrance that was located there developed a permanent nickname. The original building expanded over the years to accommodate the growth of the Unit, but eventually a new headquarters needed to be built. In 1890, the C.I.D. moved into a new building located on the Victoria Embankment, very near Westminster Bridge and the statue of Queen Boudica. But the moniker followed them, and remains to this day, even as the 1890 ‘Norman Shaw’ Buildings were vacated in 1967 for a modern structure on Broadway and Victoria Street.
[110] It is unclear whether this is an official term, but Holmes goes down to the Yard to see Lestrade and consult their record of faces when attempting to identify the supposed Mr. John Garrideb (The Adventure of the Three Garridebs).
[111] Watson calls it thus in The Adventure of the Empty House.
[112] These handcuffs were actually invented by Sherlock Holmes (Chapter VII of A Study in Scarlet).
[113] As seen in The Adventure of the Resident Patient.
[114] As seen in Chapter VII of The Valley of Fear.
[115] Under questioning by Holmes, Lestrade denied dragging the Serpentine and claimed that a park-keeper found these items floating along its edge, but this description appears to contradict his statement (The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor).
[116] As seen in the Adventure of the Greek Interpreter.
[117] As seen in Chapter VI of The Sign of Four.
[118] As seen in Chapter XI of The Sign of Four.
[119] As seen in The Adventure of the Cardboard Box.
[120] As seen in The Man with the Twisted Lip.
[121] As seen in The Boscombe Valley Mystery.
[122] As seen in The Naval Treaty.
[123] As seen in The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb.
[124] As seen in Chapter XIV of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
[125] As seen in The Adventure of the Dying Detective.
[126] As seen in the non-Canonical The Adventure of the Spanish Sovereign.
[127] As seen in The Adventure of the Second Stain.
[128] As seen in The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez.
[129] As seen in The Adventure of the Norwood Builder.
[130] As seen in the non-Canonical The Adventure of the Manufactured Miracle.
[131] As seen in The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge.
[132] As seen in The Adventure of Black Peter.
[133] As seen in The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans.
[134] As seen in the non-Canonical The Adventure of the First Star.
[135] As seen in The Adventure of the Abbey Grange.
[136] Belonging to Dr. Watson! As seen in The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton.
[137] As seen in The Adventure of The Retired Colourman.
[138] As seen in The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.
[139] As seen in The Adventure of the Red Circle.
[140] As seen in The Adventure of the Three Garridebs.
[141] As seen in The Adventure of the Empty House.
[142] As seen in The Final Problem.
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