“Have you among your neighbors or acquaintances on Dartmoor any man with a black full beard?”
Holmes asked Sir Henry to send a wire to ascertain whether Barrymore was really at Baskerville Hall or not. When he received a telegram “have just heard that Barrymore is at the Hall” from Sir Henry, he said “there go two of my threads, Watson.” He believed that Barrymore was one of the most suspicious men in this case. Holmes also told Watson that “if they are innocent it would be a cruel injustice, and if they are guilty we should be giving up all chance of bringing it home to them. No, no, we will preserve them upon our list of suspects.” He still thought they might be criminals, even after Sir Henry’s wire. It showed his strong suspicion against Mr. and Mrs. Barrymore. This attitude of Sherlock Holmes does not coincide with his previous utterance. If he thought the beard was false, he needed to ask Dr. Mortimer “have you among your neighbors or acquaintances on Dartmoor any man without a beard?”
If he did, this case would have ended there. According to the cabman, the follower was a man, not a woman. Barrymore had a black full beard. Frankland was a “grey-whiskered and red faced” man. Barrymore was not fool enough to show his bearded face to Sherlock Holmes. Frankland could not put a false beard over his real whiskers. Dr. Mortimer was with Sir Henry. It is an old maxim of Holmes that when he has excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Only Stapleton remained.
The Northumberland Hotel
It is widely accepted that the Northumberland Hotel was the Northumberland Arms, at whose site, there is now the Sherlock Holmes Pub. Kobayashi et al. think that this hotel is too small for Sir Henry Baskerville who inherited seven hundred and forty thousand pounds. They consider that the Hotel Victoria of Northumberland Avenue which opened in 1887 was the one originally planned as the Northumberland Hotel. According to Baedeker’s London and its Environs of 1905, this hotel had five hundred rooms and an orchestra during meals. Its room charge was from five shillings to six shillings. Breakfast was 3s. 6d, lunch was 3s. 6d, and dinner was 5-6s.
I think this hotel was too large if you consider the descriptions by Dr. Watson. Sir Henry Baskerville arrived at Waterloo Station before noon on the first day of this case. He met Dr. Mortimer and decided to stay at the Northumberland Hotel. This must have been around noon or a little later. At two o’clock on the second day, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were invited to lunch at the hotel. Holmes asked at the hotel, “have you any objection to my looking at your register?” and noted that “There were only “two names had been added after that of Baskerville.” It is an extraordinary thing that there were only two people who checked in at a large hotel of five hundred rooms within twenty-four hours or more. This description is suitable for a smaller hotel, like the Northumberland Arms.
The Plan
Saneyoshi wondered why the hound obeyed Stapleton’s orders. According to the descriptions, the hound was “bought in London from Ross and Mangles, the dealers in Fulham Road. It was the strongest and most savage in their possession. He brought it down by the North Devon line and walked a great distance over the moor so as to get it home without exciting any remarks.” The hound must have been mature enough to attack Sir Charles when Stapleton bought it in London. Saneyoshi is amazed that Stapleton crossed the moor alone with the savage hound. He believes that Stapleton might have been a genius at dog training.
Saneyoshi also writes that it was impossible for the hound to attack Sir Charles or Sir Henry in the dark. Dogs cannot find even their own master from scores of meters away at night. If dogs cannot see, they must follow the scent of their game. Which means they would never have “sprang over the wicket-gate and pursued the unfortunate baronet,” but only have followed Sir Charles instead.
If Stapleton wanted to make the hound attack the Baskervilles, he should have pointed them out and ordered it to do so. If he did so, someone might have seen him, but the hound would not stop attacking its victims.
Saneyoshi concluded that Stapleton’s crime plan with the hound had not much chance of success.
The Hound
Saneyoshi also commented on the breed of the hound. According to Paget’s illustrations, he considered that it was mostly bloodhound. Saneyoshi wondered why Ross and Mangles dealt in mutts. Endo wrote that first generation cross breeds were produced and sold intentionally, a practice that continues domestically until the 1930’s.
In another paper, Endo stated that Dr. Mortimer’s spaniel was an Irish water spaniel.
Stapleton
There are some arguments about Stapleton even in Japan. Kanto proved that models for Stapleton were Alfred Wallace (1823-1913) and Henry Bates (1825-1892) who were mentioned in The Lost World. Kanto also mentioned some evidence within the work.
In another paper Kanto wrote that Stapleton was not Roger Baskerville Jr. He reconstructed the Baskerville’s family tree and found that Roger Sr. was born in 1842 and Stapleton was born in 1854. If Stapleton was Roger Jr., his father was only twelve years old when he was born. Kanto concluded that Stapleton was Jack Baskerville, an illegitimate child of the father of Charles, Roger and Henry’s father. Jack and Roger Jr. from South America cooperated in the scheme. Jack committed crime, and after that, Roger was going to claim the property.
Kanto’s findings on the ages of the Baskervilles is very attractive and will probably cause many arguments.
Other problems
Yagame et al. estimated the magnification of Frankland’s telescope. It was 270 magnification, and its diameter was 135mm.
Kawasaki discussed the knowledge of archaeology of Stapleton and Dr. Mortimer.15 He found that Stapleton had deep knowledge of this matter, but Watson did not.
Bibliography
1 Nakanishi, H. “Holmes Monogatari Best 10” I Love Sherlock Holmes, Kobayashi T. and Higashiyama A. ed. Tokyo: DBS Britannica, 1987
2 Arai, S. “Holmes Monogatari Inyushi” Sherlock Holmes Zatsugaku Hyakka, Kobayashi T. and Higashiyama A. ed. Tokyo: Tokyo tosho, 1983 pp.248-9
3 Arai, S. “Nihon ni Okeru Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes Bunken Mokuroku” Sherlock Holmes Zenshu Vol.21 Tokyo: Tokyo Tosho, 1983 (translation of The Annotated Sherlock Holmes)
4 Yokota J. Nihon SF Koten Koten 3 Tokyo: Shueisha, 1985 pp.112-23
5 Doyle, A.C., Yako Kaiju trans. by Yamanaka M. Tokyo: Popura-sha, 1955 (translation of HOUN)
6 The Annotated Sherlock Holmes Vol. II Baring-Gould W.S. ed. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1967 p.10
7 Hirayama Y. “Baskerville-ke no Inu” Shosetsu Sherlock Holmes, Kobayashi T. and Higashiyama A. ed. Tokyo: Tokyo Tosho, 1987
8 Kobayashi T. and Higashiyama A. Sherlock Holmes eno Tabi Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki, 1987 p.10
9 Baedeker’s London and its Environs Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1905
10 Saneyoshi T. Sherlock Holmes no Kimete Tokyo: Seinen Shokan, 1980
11 Endo T. “Holmes to Inu 3” The World of Holmes Vol.9 Tokyo: Japan Sherlock Holmes Club, 1987
12 Endo T. “Holmes to Inu 2” The World of Holmes Vol.8 Tokyo: Japan Sherlock Holmes Club, 1986
13 Kanto S. “Stapleton” Kaidoku Sherlock Holmes, Kobayashi T. and Higashiyama A. ed. Tokyo: Tokyo Tosho, 1987
14 Kanto S. “Stapleton no Shoutai” The World of Holmes Vol.8 Tokyo: Japan Sherlock Holmes Club, 1986
15 Kanto S. “The True Identity of Stapleton” The Grand Game; A Celebration of Sherlockian Scholarship volume two 1960 - 2010 The Baker Street Irregulars, 2012.
16 Yagame Hiromi ed. “Frankland ou no Bouenkyou nitsuiteno Kousatu” The World of Holmes Vol.5 Tokyo: Japan Sherlock Holmes Club, 1983
17 Kawasaki T. “The Hound of the Baskervilles and Archaeology” Sherlock Holmes Kiyo Vol.2 No.1 Nara: The Sherlock Holmes Research Committee, 1991
(The Hound vol.1, 1992 & The Shoso-in Bulletin vol.3, 1993)
Some Problems on th
e Translation of the Title of A Study in Scarlet
The purpose of this article is to examine meanings and translations of the word “study” as it appears in the title “A Study in Scarlet”, and the relationship between them and the title.
The title “A Study in Scarlet” has been translated into Japanese as “Hiiro no Kenkyu” since Nobuhara Ken’s translation of 1931. “Hiiro” means “Scarlet,” “no” is “in,” and “Kenkyu” is “Study.” This is the most popular translation of this title now. However, “Study” has several choices of translation. “Kenkyu” means “Devotion of time and thought to acquiring information, esp. from books, in the pursuit of some branch of knowledge.”1
Tsuchiya Tomoyuki suggested another translation in his article.
Holmes says “I might not have gone but for you, and so have missed the finest study I ever came across: a study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn’t we use a little art jargon? There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colorless skin of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.” (Italics by author)
Tsuchiya paid attention to this phrase, and wrote that the translation must mean a “sketch made for practice in technique or as a preliminary experiment for a picture or a part of one.”2 His conclusion is that the same phrase used as the title of this episode must have the same meaning.3 Eminent Sherlockians including Tanaka Kiyoshi and Kobayashi Tsukasa support his opinion. They use his title translation “Hiiro no Shusaku” in their Sherlockian articles and books. In Japanese, “Shusaku” means “sketch.”
Tanaka has written an article on this problem.4 In Nobuhara’s STUD, he translated the word “study” from “the finest study I ever came across” as “Jiken”, i.e., “Case.” Tanaka said this translation was a free translation, and “Shusaku” was better for this word. He also asked his foreign Sherlockian friends about this problem, and most of them supported “Shusaku.”
I was interested in foreign opinions, so I looked in The Oxford Sherlock Holmes.4 Its editor Owen Dudley Edwards points out another time the word “study” was used.
“‘Oh! a mystery is it?’ I cried, rubbing my hands. ‘This is very piquant. I am much obliged to you for bringing us together. ‘‘The proper study of mankind is man,’ you know.”
“You must study him, then,” Stamford said, as he bade me good-bye. “You’ll find him a knotty problem, though. I’ll wager he learns more about you than you about him. Good-bye.” (Italics by the author.)
Edwards wrote as follows in the footnote to this “study.”
“Although Holmes will later use the term ‘a study in scarlet’, and although Holmes and ACD mean different things by it, we are to understand that Watson’s study of Holmes will prove to be in scarlet, both from the vividness of the impression and from the nature of its preoccupation.”
Edwards considered that the meaning of the title has no relation to that of Tsuchiya’s suggested meaning. In Edwards’ opinion, the title in STUD should be translated as “Hiiro no Kenkyu” “devotion of time and thought to acquiring information, esp. from books, in pursuit of some branch of knowledge.”
I further examined this important problem.
Can “study” from “the finest study I ever came across” be translated as “Jiken”, i.e., “Case”? I looked in my dictionary again, and found the meaning to be a “thing that is or deserves to be investigated.” Remembering that this phrase was spoken by Sherlock Holmes, the eminent criminal investigator, it is natural to translate the word “study” into “case.”
Concerning the second “study,” from the phrase, “a study in scarlet, eh?”, I agree with the three Sherlockians mentioned above that it means “sketch.” Holmes made a joke here. The Master was cheerful, because of the interesting affair and he said this case was “the finest study I ever came across,” and hit upon the joke, “study in scarlet, eh?” The latter “study” includes the meaning “case”, but most of the meaning was “sketch.”
There is one more “study” in this text. The third “study,” is found at the end of STUD, as spoken by Holmes to Watson. “That’s the result of all our Study in Scarlet; to get them a testimonial!” (Italics by the author)
Tsuchiya and Tanaka did not argue about this third “Study”.
Can this phrase be translated as “sketch” or “case”? Unfortunately, it cannot, I believe. I cannot imagine the “result” of a “sketch.” What is it? Tsuchiya referred to Whistler’s artwork, “Study in Brown” or “Study in Gray and Pink” in his article; he thought that “sketch” was not a “practice”, but a “completed artwork.” If we accept his point of view, we still cannot understand the “result” of “completed artwork.” It is difficult to conclude that the meaning is “sketch.” or “case.” It is more natural to translate the third “study” as “Devotion of time and thought to acquiring information, esp. from books, in pursuit of some branch of knowledge.”
Another question remains. There are three meanings of the word “study,” and we must decide which one is best as the title of the story “A Study in Scarlet.” Tsuchiya and Tanaka did not discuss this matter, because they considered “study” to have only one meaning, “sketch.”
I paid attention to the third “study” in “That’s the result of all our Study in Scarlet; to get them a testimonial!” (Italics by the author). This time “Study in Scarlet” was written with capital letters, but the other time, “a study in scarlet, eh?” it was not. I find “Study in Scarlet” with capital letters on the title page and in the third example only. It is not difficult to say that these two phrases have a close relationship. Therefore, most of the title’s meaning must be “Devotion of time and thought to acquiring information, esp. from books, in pursuit of some branch of knowledge.” Of course part of the meaning is still “sketch” or “case”; however, we must choose only one of them when translating the into another language, especially non-western languages.
My conclusion is that the title of STUD should be translated as “Hiiro no Kenkyu,” or “The-pursuit-of-some-branch-of-knowledge in Scarlet.”
Bibliography;
1 The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Fifth Edition, Oxford University Press, 1964.
2 ibid.
3 Tsuchuya, T. “‘Hiiro no Kenkyu’ wa Goyaku Datta” Shosetu Sherlock Holmes Kobayashi, T. and Higashiyama, A. ed. Tokyo: Tosho, 1987, pp174-175.
4 Tanaka, K. “‘Kenkyu’ ka ‘Shusaku’ ka” The World of Holmes, Vol.14, Tokyo: JSHC, 1992, pp.7-16.
Tanaka does not show his method in this article. As a result of a questionnaire depends on its method so much, I cannot judge his result now.
4 Doyle, Arthur Conan: A Study in Scarlet, edited with an Introduction by Owen Dudley Edwards, Oxford University Press, 1993.
(The Shoso-in Bulletin vol.3, 1993)
A Second Look at the Sherlock Holmes Museum
It was a cloudy day in early June 1993, when my wife Hiroko and I got off the tube at the Baker Street station. I could not remember how many times I have been to the “Mecca” of Sherlockiana. It was the second time Hiroko visited Baker Street.
I planned to show her all of the Sherlockian points of interest at Baker Street, and one of our most important aims was to visit the “notorious” Sherlock Holmes Museum.
It was in the northern part of Baker Street, which was not called Baker Street in Holmes times, but “Upper Baker Street.” Most of the original Baker Street buildings were destroyed during World War II by von Borgs, and there remained little Victorian feeling. However, most of its northern part escaped such violence. These buildings resembled those of old photographs taken in late nineteenth century.
It was the second time for both of us to visit the museum. We planned to visit the Granada Studio Tour in Manchester, and then the Sherlock Holmes Pub near Charing Cross station to compare the recreations of the sitting room
of the great detective.
The museum’s entrance was a small, ordinary entrance to a town house. Its ground floor was a restaurant. One might have missed it if there was not a “policeman” in costume. We were not the only visitors. There were two American gentlemen before us, and we waited for a while for “Mrs. Hudson.” She needed some minutes to open the door after the bell was rung by the “policeman.” She was too young to be “Mrs. Hudson,” we thought. The entrance was narrow, and there was no space for Holmes’ clients to wait. We paid £10 for two. There was a register book, and we found many American and Japanese names.
There was a stair in front of the entrance. I counted its steps, and there were really seventeen steps to the first floor. It was the main reason the owner insists that this house is the real 221B. I checked the floor, but could not find any evidence of change, so I might be able to say that these seventeen steps were original.
There were two rooms on the first floor. The larger one was the sitting room of Holmes and Watson, and the smaller one was the bedroom of Holmes.
First we entered the sitting room. Along the south side wall, there was a couch upon which Holmes lounged in a purple dressing-gown in “The Blue Carbuncle.” Over the sofa, we found a dinner table near the east side windows for Holmes and Watson. I was reminded of a scene from the Granada Sherlock Holmes series. Brett-Holmes and Burke-Hardwicke-Watson had breakfast and dinner at a table on this side. This room was a little small for their sitting room, because there was no place to sit down between the sofa and the dinner table!
At the center of the room, there was a small octagonal table and the basket chair mentioned in BLUE and IDEN. Such a table was often seen in British films and TV programs, but I could not understand its name and purpose. Many British Sherlockians said in their articles that the furniture of this room was not in Victorian style. However, most visitors, including me, could not distinguish the difference. I hope British Sherlockians will give some detailed advice on this.
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