[Shangas]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, MD. (1859-1930), wrote the stories of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the late Victorian and first half of the Edwardian eras and set the stories in what was then "modern-day" England. Nearly a hundred years has passed since Sir Arthur wrote the last Holmes stories in 1927, and as such, many of the items, places, persons and exp​ressions he mentioned or used in his stories have fallen out of regular use. This thread is meant to serve as a reference, providing information on as many of these trifling details as possible.

Welcome to the Encyclopedia Sherlockia.

Entries A through C

The Admiralty

"...As for the Admiralty, buzzing like an overturned beehive!..." - Mycroft Holmes to his brother, Sherlock, "The Bruce-Partington Plans".

The Admiralty was once the body or organisation that was responsible for the running of the British Royal Navy, until it was subsumed into the Ministry of Defence in 1964. Before then, it had been in control of the navy since at least the 1830s.

Agony column

"...Daily Telegraph agony column by the print and paper..." - Sherlock Holmes - "The Bruce Partington Plans".

The Daily Telegraph is of course, a London newspaper. An 'agony column' is a column in a newspaper where miscellanious ads, usually relating to finding friends or relatives or strangers, are placed. For example, an ad asking for the address of Miss Mary Morstan (to take an example from The Sign of Four), would have been placed in the agony column of the newspaper (The Times, in that case).

Beat

"...our man on the beat saw a light there about two in the morning..." Tobias Gregson - "A Study in Scarlet".

A 'man on the beat', a 'cop on his beat' or a 'policeman's beat', is a specific area at a specific time that a policeman (usually police-constables) patrol the public streets. A policeman would cover a block or two, and walk continually around the block for a specific time (usually an hour or two). At the end of his shift, he would report back to the local precinct, and another policeman would be sent out to replace him.

According to some sites, it is believed that the London police-forces had the beat-process down so accurately that there would always be a policeman on the streets within calling-distance, no-matter where you were. Backup could be summoned by whistle-blast and arrive on the scene in a matter of minutes. The term 'flatfoot' or 'policeman's foot' comes from the days when a low-ranking officer (such as a constable), would spend the majority of his day 'pounding the beat'.

Bell-wires

"...the usual symptom is a broken bell-wire!..." - Sherlock Holmes, "A Case of Identity".

These days, just about anything that makes a sound is called a 'bell' when it should properly be called a buzzer. Back in Holmes's day, when bells were bells and were sounded by clappers, the bell-wire was an essential part of a bell's construction. A bell-wire ran from one room of the house, where it started with a bell-pull, and ended in another room of the house, where the bell was connected. For example, a bell-pull in the master's study would be linked to a bell-wire which ran through the walls of the house via a system of pulley-wheels, to a bell in the servant's quarters. A doorbell and bell-pull were linked a by bell-wire from the outside of the house to the front hall or other main room inside the building. Pulling too hard on a bell-pull would indeed cause the wire to break and this would mean having to remove the entire wire and replace it, or to tie up the broken ends of wire.



A victorian-era servant's bell. Pulling on the bell-pull tugged on the bell-wire which would pull on the coiled up strip of steel. Once the bell-pull was released, the coil would vibrate, thereby ringing the bell

Bell-pulls and bell-wires came into existence in the early 19th century and large houses or public buildings could have several dozen criss-crossing bells, wires and pulls all over the place, linking different rooms. In a sense, they could be considered the world's first intercom.

Boat-Train

"...the boat-train makes one stop between London and Dover..." - Mycroft Holmes - "The Greek Interpreter" (Granada).

A 'boat-train' is not a floating locomotive, but rather a type of express-train. Boat-trains had the task of rushing their passengers from various major cities (such as London) to the various British ports such as Dover and Southampton, to catch ferries or ships to all kinds of far-off destinations, such as France, Germany, Spain or the Americas.

Bohemia

"...It is a German-speaking country, in Bohemia!..." - Sherlock Holmes, "A Scandal in Bohemia".

Bohemia was a region in Eastern Europe, south of Poland, which for several centuries up until the end of WWI, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its capital was the city of Prague, which is now the capital of the Czech Republic.

Borgia family

"...Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the famous black pearl of the Borgias!..." - Sherlock Holmes, "The Six Napoleons".

The Borgia family was a famous Italian noble family, which rose to power during the rennaisance. They are generally believed to be the first crime family. They were extremely wealthy and had a lot of power and influence over the papacy in their time.

BOSWELL, James

"...A trusty comrade is always of use, and a chronicler even more! I am lost without my Boswell..." - Sherlock Holmes, "The Man with the Twisted Lip".

Holmes is speaking of James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck. Boswell was an 18th century Scottish author and lawyer who wrote biographies of his contemporaries and who had also recorded his encounters with famous people in his various diaries. As such, 'Boswell' had entered the English language as a person who is a constant chronicler, recorder and companion to another person.

Bradshaw

"There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." - Dr. Watson, to Sherlock Holmes, "The Copper Beeches".

The Bradshaw (named after Mr. George Bradshaw, 1801-1853), more properly called Bradshaw's Monthly Railway Guide, was a booklet of railway timetables, published monthly, from 1839 to 1961. Each booklet was characterised by having a yellow cover and lists of train timetables inside. The price was sixpence per issue. Below is a page from a Bradshaw guide from 1850:



A 'Bradshaw' from 1850. The fare-prices are marked in shillings and pence. See "Pre-Decimal British Currency", further down, for more information on money during Holmes's time.

Brandy

"...I found...the tingling after-taste of brandy upon my lips..." - Dr. Watson, "The Empty House".

In the 19th century, alcohol was often used in medicine. Brandy is frequently mentioned in the Canon, usually being given people who have just fainted. Brandy was used much as how smelling-salts are used today and for the same purpose - to revive someone after fainting. Apart from Watson, Brandy is also used on Dr. Huxtable after he faints on the hearth in 221B's living-room.

Brougham

"...A nice little brougham and a pair of beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in this case, Watson, if there is nothing more!..." - Sherlock Holmes - "A Scandal in Bohemia".

A brougham is a type of horse-drawn carriage, which was invented for use by Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baronet of Brougham and Vaux. It's a four-wheeled closed carriage with seats for anywhere between four (two inside, and two in the driver's box) or six (four inside, two in the box) people. It may be pulled by either one or two horses. This is the conveyance used by King Wilhelm of Bohemia. A brougham with its driver in the box, is seen below:



Bureau

"...'This,' said he, taking a gray roll of paper from his bureau..." - Percy Phelps to Sherlock Holmes, "The Naval Treaty".

A bureau is a style of desk or cabinet, which was very common in the 19th century. Also called a 'slant-top' desk, a bureau was a low, compact piece of furniture which was used as a writing-desk and as a cabinet for storing papers. A bureau is shown below:



A typical bureau or slant-top desk. The flat writing-surface may be closed up and locked at a roughly 45-degree angle. The two arms underneath the writing-surface can be pushed back into the desk, so that they're out of the way. The compartments are used for storing stamps and envelopes, writing-paper, pens, pencils and other necessities.

Calling cards

"...My card, sir!..." - Charles Augustus Milverton to the Earl of Dovercourt, "The Master Blackmailer".

A leftover from the Georgian and Regency eras of English history, the calling card was something that a lady or gentleman never left home without. In accordance with the manners, behaviour and social customs of the 18th and early 19th centuries, you never...ever...just paid someone a visit. Especially if you were part of the social elite. Proper ettiquette dictated that you gave the footman, maid or butler, your card, which would then be delivered into the hands of the person or persons that you desired to call upon. If they would recieve you, you would be invited inside. If not...off you go.

The calling card in that capacity, no-longer exists and is no-longer a part of the ettiquette of paying someone a visit. However, business-cards, to a certain extent, have replaced the role of the calling card and are still used today to present oneself or to advertise one's services.

Mr. Holmes's calling card:



Cataracts Knife

“...I presume, as I see blood-stains upon it, that it is the one which was found in the dead man’s grasp. Watson, this knife is surely in your line?”
“It is what we call a cataract knife..." - Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson, "The Adventure of Silver Blaze".

A cataracts knife is a very sharp, thin-bladed knife used for removing cataracts from a person's eyes. As you can see, they're very very very sharp. You wouldn't want a doctor or a surgeon to slip while he was operating on you with one of these! A set of cataracts knives and their case are shown below:



Calabash pipe

Although I've never seen one in the Granada or Doyle canons, the calabash smoking-pipe has long been associated with Mr. Sherlock Holmes. How, I've no idea. I could never imagine Jeremy Brett wearing a Victorian-era suit and smoking such a pipe.

The calabash pipe gets its name from the material which the pipe-bowl is made of; the gourd of the Calabash plant. The gourd is cut, smoothed, cleaned and is given an insert of porcelian into which tobacco would be placed. A stem is then added and the pipe is created. The pipe's association with Holmes came about due to actors portraying Holmes, wanting to be able to smoke and use their hands at the same time (for example, holding a magnifying glass). The calabash's low center of gravity means that it may be held in the smoker's mouth and does not require hands for support, leaving them free to do other things.

Child chimney-sweeps

"...The wind cried and sobbed like a child in the chimney..." Dr. Watson, "The Five Orange Pips".

While this simile may be an apt description for the sound of wind whistling and wailing around inside a chimney, the reality is that in the Victorian-era, when Doyle wrote this story, children crying inside of chimneys was actually more common than you might think.

Children as young as five were picked by chimney sweeps to crawl up chimneys to clean them and sweep out all the ashes and soot before crawling back down again. This occupation was extremely dangerous and the chances of a boy getting trapped in a chimney and eventually suffocating to death were all very very real.

Chinese coin

"...And in addition, when I see a Chinese coin, hanging from your watch-chain..." - Sherlock Holmes - "The Red-Headed League"

Here, Holmes is referring to the Chinese coins of yesteryear. In the Granada series, you'll see one on Mr. Wilson's watch-chain. They look like these coins, pictured below:



While the hole in the middle of the coin may make them excellent trinkets to hang on watch-chains, old-fashioned Chinese coins were actually manufactured with these holes so that a string or ribbon could be threaded through the coins to make bunches of coins in groups of five, ten, twenty or even more coins, thus keeping them all together.

Cigarette-case

"...I found [the gleam] had come from the silver cigarette case which he used to carry..." - Dr. Watson - "The Final Problem".

These days, most people use cardboard cigarette-boxes to keep their smokes in. During Holmes's time, a gentleman would keep his cigarettes (either pre-bought, or self-rolled) in a neat cigarette-case, usually made of gold or silver. Watson (Hardwicke) holds a cigarette-case in his hand when he offers a smoke to Dr. Mortimer in the Granada series production of "The Hound of the Baskervilles".


A modern cigarette-case, made of silver.

"Consumption"

"...It was consumption of the most virulent kind..." - Dr. Armstrong - "The Missing Three-Quarter".
"...An English lady had arrived who was in the last stage of consumption..." - Dr. Watson - "The Final Problem".

Here we delve into the world of Victorian-era medicine. "Consumption" was once a very common name for the disease known to modern medicine as tuberculosis, an illness which was rather common during Victorian times.

The Continent

"...She left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing-cross for the Continent..." - Irene Norton's maid - "A Scandal in Bohemia."

'The Continent' refers to the continent of Europe. Some people today still refer to Europe as 'The Continent'.

Coolies

"...Yes, the coolies used to do some squealing towards the end!..." - Culverton Smith to Sherlock Holmes, "The Dying Detective".

'Coolie' isn't a word you hear very often these days. In fact the only person I've known to use it is my grandmother, and she's nearly a hundred.

So, what is a 'coolie'? A 'Coolie' is a slang-word for a rubber-plantation worker, or for any kind of manual labourer who works on a plantation or farm in an Asian country such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India or Burma.

The Covent Garden Market

"...Well I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden..." - Windigate, landlord of the Alpha Public House, "The Blue Carbuncle".

Covent Garden is a district in London and in the Victorian-era it contained a major market-square, with farmers and other salesmen selling everything from fruit, vegetables, geese, fish, meat, poultry, cheese and flowers. A farmer's market has existed in Covent Garden since the mid-17th century after the Great Fire of London destroyed several other market-squares. The Covent Garden Market was well-known since the 1660s as a place for street-performers or 'Buskers' and performers may still be found in Covent Garden today.

The original farmer's market no-longer exists in Covent Garden. Increasing traffic congestion in the second half of the 20th century made a farmer's market impractical in the Garden and it was moved to the district of Nine Elms in the 1970s where the New Covent Garden Market exists to this day, selling fruits, vegetables and other farmer's produce.

[Shangas]

Entries D through F

Dark Lantern

"...Mr. Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern..." - Sherlock Holmes, "The Red-Headed League".

In the 19th century, before electric lighting became widely available, illumination was provided care of candles, oil and natural gas. However, portable light-sources were limited to lamps, lanterns and candles. If one needed to put out a light, a simple puff or a lowering of a lamp-wick would do, but if one needed the light to be struck on again very quickly, striking matches and fumbling around in the dark for a wick to light was hardly practical.

Enter the dark lantern. A dark lantern was a lantern with a sliding or hinged metal shutter that could be closed over the lantern's lense to block off the light and plunge a room into darkness. If light was desired in a hurry, the shutter could be thrown back to reveal light. Carefully-designed vent-holes at the top of the lantern permitted air to circulate around the flame, but did not permit any light to be shown. It was the closest thing that people had to instant lighting before the invention of the flashlight (or 'torch'), at the turn of the century.

Dog-grate

"...It was a dog-grate, Mr. Holmes, and he overpitched it..." - Inspector Baynes to Holmes, "Wysteria Lodge".

A dog-grate is a form of fireplace grate, the most common kind used in open fireplaces and is characterised as being a freestanding rectangular metal basket made of bars of wrought iron. A dog grate is pictured below:



The backplate is to prevent wood from falling to the back of the fireplace. Not all dog-grates have this feature.

Doncaster Racecourse

"...You remember when the stand fell at Doncaster?..." - Mr. Horace Harker, of the Central Press Syndicate, to Sherlock Holmes, "The Six Napoleons".

Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, in England. The stand which Mr. Harker refers to is the spectator's stand which would have been built around one of the town's most famous institutions, the Doncaster Racecourse:


The Racecourse as it appeared in the Victorian Era, ca. 1870.


Doncaster Racecourse as it looks today.

Foreign Office

"...I was, as Watson may have told you, in the Foreign Office..." - Percy Phelps to Sherlock Holmes, "The Naval Treaty".

The Foreign Office, known today as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (and in Holmes's time purely as the Foreign Office), is the British government department responsible for British government interests internationally. People working in the Foreign Office handled matters such as trade agreements, alliances and possible disputes between Great Britain and other countries.

Fuller's Earth

"...I was fortunate enough to discover that there was a deposit of Fuller's Earth in one of my fields..." - Col. Lysander Stark - "The Engineer's Thumb".

Fuller's earth is a type of clay which is used to filter out animal or plant oils or grease from cloth. It gets its name because it was once used in the process of 'fulling', that is, kneading this type of clay into cloth (such as wool), to remove impurities and to rid the fabric of oils and odors, during the finishing-process, after the wool had been sheared, spun and weaved into cloth. Fuller's earth is still used today as an absorbent material, for example, in mechanics, where lubricating oils and greases need to be cleaned away from the moving parts of a machine.

[Shangas]

Entries G through I

Gas lighting

"...See how the folk swarm over yonder in the gaslight..." - Sherlock Holmes, "The Sign of Four".

Many people believe that oil-lamps and candles were the only forms of lighting until Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb in the 1870s. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. Before electric lighting became a practical reality at the start of the 20th century, there was another form of lighting. Gas.

Cities have been lit by gas since the first quarter of the 19th century, but it was not until the 1860s that private residences could be fitted with gas-pipes for interior, domestic lighting. Before then, only streets and large public buildings such as theatres could afford to be illuminated by such fancy, newfangled technology.

Regardless, gas-lighting held sway throughout most of the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th century, by which time, electric lighting had became cheap and effective enough to replace it. Indeed, gas lighting survived into the late 1910s, serving as the fuel for the headlamps of the first commercially successful motor-cars. The original Model T Fords were fitted with gas-powered headlamps until 1917 when electric lights on cars became possible.

The Victorians got gas-lighting down to such a skill and art that by the turn of the century, you didn't even have to light the gas anymore, as was done in Holmes's day, with a burning match. A simple push-button switch, a bit like a modern light-switch, could be pressed, which created a spark a bit like a pilot-light, which would light the gas for you.

Gasogene.

The gasogene (or seltzogene) is a device that impregnates water with carbon-dioxide bubbles, creating soda-water, which might be used in preparing drinks (such as a whiskey & soda). An antique gasogene is shown below:

[Thanks to 221Bee for this explanation!]



Gentleman's Club

"...The Diogenes Club is the queerest club in London..." - Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson, "The Greek Interpreter".

Gentlemen's clubs have existed in London since the 18th century and there are several dozen which still exist to this day, with even more being formed all the time. Several clubs have rich histories going back to the 1810s or even earlier. But what is a gentleman's club?

A gentleman's club is an institution where gentlemen (men of good breeding, wealth and social standing, usually of the British upper-class), could gather to meet and talk about a common interest, be it hunting, politics, literature, medicine, history or any other subject. Clubs were also founded so that gentlemen of various professions or occupations could gather to talk about their work. Army and navy clubs for serving and retired military men have existed, as have clubs for various other occupations.

Some famous London gentlemen's clubs include:

The Reform Club - featured in "Around the World in 80 Days". It is from the steps of the Reform Club that Mr. Phileas Fogg makes the wager that he could make it around the world and be back in London on the front steps of the club, at noon, in 80 days or less.

The Oxford and Cambridge Club - for former students of Oxford and Cambridge, England's two most famous universities.

The Army and Navy Club - for soldiers and sailors.

Boodles and Brooks - two famous clubs founded for people who followed the two main British political parties, the Whigs and the Torys. Ian Flemming and Sir Winston Churchill were both members of Boodles. Both clubs date back to the 1760s and still exist today.

Gentlemen's clubs mentioned in the Holmesian canon include the Tankerville Club, the Diogenes Club and the Bagatelle Card Club. Col. Moran is a member of both the Tankerville and the Bagatelle Card Club. Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes are both members of the Diogenes. In "The Master Blackmailer", Holmes states that he heard from his brother, Mycroft, that Mr. Charles Augustus Milverton attempted to gain membership to the Diogenes Club and was kicked out.

Go halves

"...He was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get someone to go halves with him..." - Stamford - "A Study in Scarlet".

To 'go halves' with someone is an archaic exp​ression meaning, simply, to split the rent; ie: one person pays half the rent, and his flatmate pays the other half, thereby paying the full rent between them.

Hansom Safety Cab

Mentioned in countless Sherlock Holmes stories, the Hansom Safety Cab, as it was properly known (colloquially as a 'Hansom'), was one of the most popular forms of public transport in London for getting around above ground. The Hansom cab's popularity lay in the fact that it was small, light, fast and had a low center of gravity, which meant it could take corners at high speeds without fear of tipping or rolling. The Hansom cab would fit two passengers (three at a squeeze), and the driver up in his box at the back of the cab.

H Division

"...Police-constable Cooke, of the H Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge..." - Dr. Watson, reading the newspaper - "The Five Orange Pips".

Before the days of call-boxes and telephones and squad-cars, policemen patrolled London in beats (see 'Beat', above). The city was divided up into police-divisions and labelled alphabetically from A to Y Divisions (with other, named divisions, when letters ran out). H Division of London's police-force covered the district of Whitechapel in the borough of Tower Hamlets. This is one of the police-divisions which handled the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888. Another police-division which handled the Ripper cases was J Division, which patrolled the district of Bethnal Green.

The Five Orange Pips takes place in 1887. In 1888, H Division (Whitechapel) had a total of 548 men.

30 Inspectors.
44 Sergeants.
473 Constables.

Hypodermic Syringe

"... Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantelpiece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case..." - Dr. Watson - "The Sign of Four".

A hypodermic syringe is a syringe with a series of removable and interchangable hollow needles, used for injecting substances (usually medicines, but in Holmes's cases, drugs which would, by modern standards, be considered illegal) into the body. An antique hypodermic syringe, together with needles and case (and dating to the 1880s, which lines up neatly with The Sign of Four), is pictured below:



Hunting Crop

"...It is not part of my duties to my client, but here's a hunting-crop handy, and I think I shall just treat myself to..." - Sherlock Holmes - "A Case of Identity".

A hunting-crop is a kind of whip, similar to a riding-crop, used when riding on horseback. An antique hunting-crop is shown below:



Ivory Miniatures

"...It was not a photograph, but an ivory miniature..." - Dr. Watson, "The Noble Bachelor".

While photography was not in its infancy in the late 19th century, there were some people who still preferred paintings to photographs. An ivory miniature is a small head-and-shoulders portrait of a loved one, painted onto a disc of ivory. The miniature was set into a small frame and the frame then had a chain or a pin attached to it, so that it could be fastened onto the wearer's clothing. A Georgian-Era ivory miniature from 1810, is shown below:




Iodoform

"...As to your practice, if a gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform...I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce him to be an active member of the medical profession..." - Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson, "A Scandal in Bohemia".

Iodoform is a chemical compound which was used in the late 19th century and early 20th century, as an antiseptic, to clean wounds and prevent infection and was commonly found in hospitals and doctor's surgeries during the Victorian period. As a practicing physician, Dr. Watson would doubtless have come into contact with tihs substance on a regular basis, to keep his hands clean and to clean wounds before treating and dressing them.

[Shangas]

J through L

Jemmy

"...Am dining at Goldini's Restaurant, Gloucester Road, Kensington. Please come at once and join me there. Bring with you a jemmy, a dark lantern, a chisel, and a revolver - S. H..." - Sherlock Holmes, in a note to Dr. Watson, "The Bruce-Partington Plans".

A 'Jemmy' is British slang for what is commonly known as a crowbar.

Jezail bullet

"...I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet..." - Dr. Watson, on how he obtained his wartime injury and was invalided back to England - "A Study in Scarlet".

The round that struck Watson in the shoulder during the Battle of Maiwand in the Second Afghan War, was the kind of ammunition known as a Jezail bullet. Well what is a Jezail bullet? And, for that matter, what is a Jezail?

A Jezail was a muzzleloading, flintlock musket used by Middle-Eastern soldiers (such as the Afghans), in the mid 19th century. It is a long-range firearm capable of hitting a target several hundred yards away. A Jezail bullet, is therefore, the ammunition which was fired from these weapons, typically a spherical round of lead-shot. The Jezail was used to great effect against Indian soldiers and British regulars, since it enabled Afghan soldiers to fire at their enemies from a distance, and keep out of range and accuracy of British troops returning fire with their generally inferior Brown Bess muskets. A Jezail musket is shown below. The curved butt of the Jezail was so-created so that the gun could be braced against the shoulder and under the gunman's armpit, instead of right against the shoulder, as with most long-arms.



Langham Hotel

"...You will find me at the Langham, under the name of the Count Von Kramm..." - King Wilhelm - "A Scandal in Bohemia".

Built in the 1860s, the Langham Hotel is one of the largest, grandest, and at the time of it's opening, most modern hotel in London. It featured thirty-six bathrooms, a hundred toilets, elevators and in 1879, it installed its first set of electric lights. The Langham Hotel is also where Mary Watson's (Nee, Morstan's) father, Capt. Morstan, stayed in London, before his death, in "The Sign of Four".



The Langham Hotel, as it appears today.

Lyceum Theatre

"...Be at the third pillar from the left outside the Lyceum Theatre tonight at seven o'clock..." - The Sholto Brothers, "The Sign of Four".

The Lyceum Theatre is a theatre on Wellington Street, London, just off the Strand. A theatre by that name has existed in London since the 1760s. The current structure, and the one which Doyle writes about in "The Sign of Four", was opened in 1834.

[Shangas]

M through O

Metropolitan Police Whistle

"...I just had time to blow on my police-whistle, and then I must've fainted, for I knew nothing more until I found the policeman standing over me in the hall..." - Mr. Horace Harker, of the Central Press Syndicate - "The Six Napoleons".

The Metropolitan Police Whistle was the standard-issue whistle given to all London policemen from the 1880s until 1975, when they were phased out. The whistle was adopted by the Metropolitan Police Service in the 1880s when they were trying to find a suitable replacement for the bulky, heavy hand-rattles used by police at the time. Mr. Joseph Hudson, of J. Hudson & Co, manufactured a compact, pealess whistle which he marketed to the Metropolitan Police Service as a possible replacement. The whistle measures just under half an inch wide, by three inches long. It was small, tough, easy to hold, with its distinctive, tubular design. Its size, weight, lack of moving parts and simplicity to use, made it the natural replacement to the rattle. When blown, the Met Whistle lets out a piercing, high-pitched, shrilling screech that, in open air on a quiet, windless day, can be heard up to two miles away. Over the noise of chatter and traffic, the sound of the whistle could be heard a lot easier than the clattering of a rattle.

Initially, any person could buy a police whistle. This accounts for why Mr. Harker happens to own one. Later on, it was decided that all Metropolitan police whistles, with the words "The Metropolitan", engraved on the barrels, should be sold to the London police EXCLUSIVELY. This ended private purchase of police-whistles and unauthorised use.

The whistles are made of brass, and are nickel-plated. Traditionally, they were secured by a hook and chain, to the officer's uniform and were used to summon backup or to gain attention. In 1975, the Met whistle was officially declared obsolete, and was replaced with radio. The noise generated by automotive traffic made the whistle hard to hear, and therefore, no-longer effective. While J. Hudson & Co still manufacture the classic "bobby's whistle", it is rare to hear it in the streets of London today as most policemen don't carry them anymore. If they are used, it's purely for ceremonial purposes.

In recent years, however, the police whistle has made a surprise return to British law-enforcement. As of 2008, police-officers in the British university town of Cambridge, have started carrying...and using...the police whistle while on their beats, to distract and apprehend law-breakers, and to summon backup, which was the whistle's original designed-for use, over 100 years ago. The whistle used by the Cambridge constabulary is not the traditional, cylindrical "Met" whistle, however. It is in-fact, the snail-shaped referee's whistle, frequently heard at sporting-matches, and which sounds significantly different from the traditonal, high-pitched, discordant 'trill'.

Cambridge constabulary brings back the police-whistle, after 30 years of silence.



Left: The referee's whistle, currently used by the Cambridge constabulary.
Right: The traditional cylindrical "Met" whistle, which was standard-issue to all British policemen up to 1975.

Since I recently purchased my own Metropolitan police-whistle, I made a recording of it, for those who have never heard what it sounds like. You really have to give it a full blast of air for it to sound like it does in the movies and on TV-shows, otherwise it sounds kinda weak, like it does here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/g6iggc

Napoleon (coin)

"...We had occasion some months ago to strenghthen our resources, and borrowed, for that purpose, thirty thousand napoleons from the Bank of France..." - Mr. Merryweather to Dr. Watson, "The Red-Headed League".

A 'Napoleon' was the slang-term for a gold coin, minted in France during the 19th century, variously having values of five, ten, twenty, forty, fifty and one hundred francs, depending on the size. By weight, the coins contained 90% pure, 24kt gold. The main denominations were the 20 and 40 franc coins, minted, as the name suggests, during the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Northumberland Hotel

"...The address: 'Sir Henry Baskerville, Northumberland Hotel', was printed in rough characters..." - Dr. Watson - "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

The Northumberland Hotel doesn't really exist anymore, unlike other places mentioned in the Holmes canon. True enough, the building exists, but the hotel itself is long gone. It was in this place that Sir Henry Baskerville was staying while in London and where he recieved his famous warning: "As you value your life or your reason, keep away from the moor".



The Northumberland Hotel



The Sherlock Holmes Pub.

Octavo (Paper-size)

"...Written on the flyleaf of a book, Octavo size..." - Sherlock Holmes, 'The Man with the Twisted Lip'.

'Octavo' was a paper-size (much like foolscap), in the days before modern A-sized paper. Actual measurements for Octavo-sized paper can vary significantly, but ranged from 6 3/4in. high by 4 1/4in. wide, to 10in. high by 6 1/4in. wide. It was a size of paper commonly used in bookbinding.

Oil of Vitriol

Mentioned in "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client", Miss Kitty Winter throws a bottle of "oil of vitriol" into Baron Von Gruner's face at the end of the story. "Vitriol" is an old-fashioned term for the chemical known to modern science as...

Sulphuric acid.

Ouch!

[Shangas]

Entries P through R

Pea Souper

"...a dense, yellow fog settled down upon London..." - Dr. Watson, "The Bruce-Partington Plans".

Victorian-era London was famous for its incredibly thick fogs. Natural, low-hanging clouds create fog. When it is mixed with smoke and ash from the thousands of chimneys all over town, it gains a yellow-brown smoggy appearance which is both poisonous as well as unsightly. London smog could get so bad that it would be impossible to see across the street.



London fog on Westminster Bridge, with Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster in the background.



London's Tower Bridge covered in fog.

Persia

"...Son of Sir Augustus Moran, C.B., once British Minister to Persia..." - Sherlock Holmes, to Dr. Watson, "The Empty House".

Persia was the name of the country (until 1935) known to today, as Iran.

Pince-Nez

"...He disclosed a golden pince-nez..." - Dr. Watson, "The Golden Pince-Nez".

Pince-Nez [Pronounced 'Pas-nay'] are an early style of spectacles, which are armless and which are held on the user's face purely by the bridge, which would clip around the wearer's nose. Pince-Nez were usually worn with a connecting chain around the user's neck or attached to one's clothing, to prevent the pince-nez from being lost or from breaking if dropped. A pair of golden pince-nez (but without the accompanying chain) are shown below:



Pocket watch

"...In the latter, it may be remembered, Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to prove that it had been wound up two hours ago, and that therefore, the deceased had gone to bed within that time..." - Dr. Watson, "The Five Orange Pips."

In the Victorian era, if a gentleman wore any watch at all, it was always a pocket watch. Wristwatches were considered effeminate and ladylike. A real man wore a big, chunky blob of gold on a chain. However, a pocket watch was a lot more than just a timepiece in Holmes's day. A finely made watch with a solid gold case was expensive and owning such a watch was as much a status-symbol as it was an instrument for the measurement of time. Usually, a pocket watch was the most expensive piece of jewellery that a man owned. Wealthy men wore pocket watches made by Tissot, Patek-Philippe, Breuget or any of the other fine, European watchmakers.



A gold-cased pocket watch manufactured by the Hamilton Watch Company as a modern, hand-wound reproduction of the pocket watches manufactured by the company in the 1890s. Limited edition of 500 pieces. The small dial between 7 & 5 is the seconds subdial, a common feature on many vintage and antique pocket watches.

Typically, a pocket watch had to be wound once every 24 hours for it to maintain proper time and function. A standard pocket watch mainspring (the coiled up strip of steel that powered the watch) could generally provide enough energy to run the watch for at least day and a half, typically between 28 to 36 hours. Some pocket watches had mainsprings which could, once wound, power their respective watches for as long as a week, but these were rare. A watch was generally wound up each morning, either first thing, or while the wearer ate breakfast. Alternatively, the watch would be wound each evening, before bedtime.

Portmanteau

"...Sherlock Holmes followed me with several boxes and portmanteaux..." - Dr. Watson - "A Study in Scarlet".

Luggage these days is divided into cabin-baggage, backpacks, suitcases, duffel-bags and trolley-bags. Luggage of the 19th and 20th centuries was no-less varied. Suitcases, steamer-trunks, hat-boxes, gladstone bags and so-on. But what is a portmaneau? [plural: Portmanteaux]

A portmanteau is a large case used for holding clothes, shoes and other items and which opens on one end into two halves. They are large and unwieldly pieces of luggage and are rarely seen (or made!) today. A portmanteau is shown below:

[Shangas]

Entries S through U

SARASATE, Pablo de

"...Sarasate plays at St. James's Hall this evening..." - Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson, "The Red-Headed League".

Holmes is speaking of Pablo de Sarasate, a famous Spanish violinist, who lived from 1844-1908. He was born in Pamplona, Spain, and died in Biarritz, France, of bronchitis, at the age of 64. He bequeathed his violin, a Stradivarius, to the Cite de la Musique (French: City of Music) in his will. His violin is now known as the Sarasate Stradivarius.

The Serpentine

"...I have been dragging the Serpentine..." Inspector Lestrade, to Sherlock Holmes, "The Noble Bachelor".

The Serpentine is a lake in Hyde Park in London's West End. To "drag the Serpentine" means to drag ropes with grappling hooks on the bottom of them, to find something along the lakebed, in this case, the body of Lady St. Simon...which was not to be found.

Service revolver

"Have you any arms?"
"I have my old service revolver and a few cartridges."
"You had better clean it and load it...it is as well to be ready for anything." - Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson - "A Study in Scarlet".

The kind of revolver that Dr. Watson carries with him when he and Holmes go out on their cases has been a matter of debate for decades. As a medical-officer (MO) for the British Army, he certainly would have been issued with a sidearm (service revolver) for the purposes of self-defence. However, Doyle never once mentions anything about what kind of revolver Watson carried.

I have reason to believe that Watson's revolver was either a Beaumont-Adams revolver or an Enfield revolver, both of which were service-revolvers in the British Army in the 1870s-1880s. Since Watson was injured in the line of service circa 1880 in the Battle of Maiwand, he must have had one of these as his sidearm.



Beaumont-Adams revolver



Enfield revolver, circa 1880

Siam

"...In the present state of Siam it is most awkward that I should be away from the office..." - Mycroft Holmes - "The Bruce-Partington Plans".

Siam was the name (until 1939), of the country known today as Thailand.

Signet ring

"...Yes, his signet-ring..." - Mrs. St. Clair, "The Man with the Twisted Lip".

In the 21st century, almost nobody wears a signet ring anymore, and even fewer people understand their purpose. A signet-ring is a type of ring typically worn by nobility, royalty or the aristocracy and which marked the wearer as a member of the ruling-class.

A typical signet-ring would be made of gold or silver and would have the owner's coat of arms, initials or monogram engraved on it, sometimes in reverse. The reason for this is that apart from identifying the wearer as a man of position, wealth and influence, the signet-ring was meant to be used as a portable sealing-stamp (see "Writing paraphernalia", below).

After finishing a document, such as an important letter, will, deed or other important (possibly legal) document, the custom of the day was to melt sealing-wax over the fold in the paper, to hold the document closed and to prevent unwanted hands and eyes from opening the paper and reading it. After wax had been melted onto the document, the user would take off his signet-ring and press it into the wax, leaving an impression of his coat of arms or monogram. It's for this reason that some rings have their coats of arms engraved in mirror-form so that it turns out the proper way when impressed into wax. This use of the signet-ring, of course gives it its name; signet. From which we also get the word 'signature'.

Single-Stick Fighting

"...Is an expert singlestick player..." - Dr. Watson, "Sherlock Holmes: His Limits" - "A Study in Scarlet".

Singlestick fighting was a form of fighting or self-defence which was centered around using every Victorian gentleman's chief accessory - the walking-stick, as a defensive or offensive weapon. The following link (being a transcript of a magazine article from 1901), gives detailed instructions and illustrations on how to carry out various singlestick manuvres, and so disarm or disable your opponent:

http://www.elite-fig...e_fighting2.htm

Singlestick fighting originated in the 17th century. The first singlesticks were mock swords made of wood. Their purpose was to act as training-weapons for soldiers and sailors, so that they could learn swordsmanship without getting injured. Singlestick fighting as a pastime and competitive sport reached its peak in the Georgian-era of the 1700s, gradually tapering off throughout the 19th century, both in military training, and as a popular sport. By the early 20th century, it was considered obsolete and out of style.

St. Vitus' Dance

"...but [Dr. Farquhar's] age and an affliction of the nature of St. Vitus' dance..." - Dr. Watson - "The Stockbroker's Clerk".

St. Vitus' dance is an archaic term for the disease known in modern medicine as Sydenham's chorea (named for Dr. Thomas Sydenham; 1624-1689). It is characterised by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements affecting primarily the face, feet and hands.

Strike-anywhere matches

"...He struck a match on his boot and held it up against the wall..." - Dr. Watson - "A Study in Scarlet"

Though they are less common today than they were in the Victorian-period, strike-anywhere matches are still manufactured today, alongside modern safety-matches. However, in the time of Holmes and Watson, the former were the only kind of matches that were around. Strike-anywhere matches will burst into flame the moment they're struck against any suitably rough surface. A brick wall, a road-surface, the striking-surface of a pocket match-safe and yes, even the heel of a man's boot.



Antique pocket match-safe (or vesta). The ring means that this could be clipped to one half of a Double Albert chain (see "Watch-Chains"). When matches were of a kind that could burst into flames the moment they rubbed against any rough surface (keys, coins etc), keeping them loose in one's pockets was a serious fire-hazard. Instead, a sensible man kept them in a case such as the one pictured above. Most match-safes contained a ribbed steel striking-surface (this one doesn't), much like the sides of a modern matchbox.

Telegrams

"...Then it is you who sent me a telegram!..." - Lord Mount-James, to Cyril Overton, "The Missing Three-Quarter".

A telegram is a message sent from one point to another by either wireless radio, or over a telegraph-wire. The first telegram was sent in the 1840s and they have been sent ever since then. The dominance of the telegram came around in the 1920s and 30s when it was cheaper to send a telegram long-distance than it was to make a telephone-call. Telegrams eventually died out as a form of long-distance telecommunications in the second half of the 20th century, when telephones and the internet overtook them. The Western Union Telegraph Company ceased sending telegrams in 2006.

Common terms for a telegram include 'wire' and 'cable', (as in: "I sent him a wire" or "I recieved a cable from him today") and they come from the fact that to send a telegram, it had to be transmitted along a telegraph-wire. Wireless telegraphy was in its infancy during the Victorian era and would not become a practical form of telecommunications until the 1900s.

Telegraph Offices

"...There was a telegraph-office a short distance from the hotel..." - Dr. Watson, "The Missing Three-Quarter".

A telegraph office, a bit like a post-office, is where you would go to dispatch (send) a telegram. You filled out a form with the message that you desired to send and where it was to go to, and then gave it a clerk at the office who sent it onto a telegraphist who would send it off for you. Telegrams were charged by number of words in the telegram, so people always tried to convey as much as they could with as little words as possible, to cut down on cost.

Titles

"...Holdernesse, 6th Duke, K.G, P.C.', - half the alphabet!..." - Sherlock Holmes, "The Adventure of the Priory School".

Distinguished European (mostly British) persons, when their names are written in full, are often seen with strings of letters after their names. What are they, and what do they stand for? An example is Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can).

These letters stand for titles and honours which have been bestowed upon the person by various institutions or persons. For example, Dr. Watson is first introduced to us as Dr. John H. Watson, M.D., which stands for Medical Doctor. 'KG' stands for "Order of the Garter" or "Knight of the Garter". 'PC' stands for "Privy Council". Other common titles include 'PhD' for "Doctor of Philosophy" and 'OM' for "Order of Merit" and 'OBE' for "Order of the British Empire".

Toilet

"...Your telegram was dispatched about one. But no one can glance at your toilet and attire without seeing that your disturbance dates from the moment of your waking..." - Sherlock Holmes to John Scott Eccles, "Wisteria Lodge".

These days, we think of a 'toilet' as a commode. A receptacle for human waste, with a bowl, seat, U-bend and a cistern and flush-button on top. In Holmes's day, when the flush-toilet was very new, the word 'toilet' meant something entirely different.

One's 'toilet' generally meant one's personal grooming and hygeine. To attend to your 'toilet' meant to freshen up for the morning. To shave, brush your teeth, clean your hair, your face, wax your moustache and make yourself look fresh and presentable for the day's activities. It is for this reason that any bag or container holding such things as shaving-cream, toothpaste, combs, brushes and razors are known as 'toiletry bags'.

Turkish Bath

"...'But why Turkish?' asked Mr. Sherlock Holmes, gazing fixedly at my boots..." - Dr. Watson, "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax".

Turkish Baths were very popular during the Victorian and Edwardian eras and they could be found in several major cities, such as London, New York and Paris. There was even a Turkish Bath on the RMS Titanic. So, what are they?

To find a contemporary comparison, a Turkish bath is similar to the modern spa or sauna. In such an establishment, you could relax in a hot bath, a cold bath, or in a steam-filled sauna and clean yourself up. They were large, public buildings where people could go to socialise as well as get themselves cleaned and freshened up. After a bath or a relaxing chat in the sauna, you could have a massage on a massage-table. Afterwards, you dried yourself down and headed back to your change-room where you'd put on your clothes and head out into the world, fresh and clean.

The Underground

"...I should like to see him clapped down in a third-class carriage on the Underground and asked to give the trades of all his fellow travellers!..." - Dr. Watson - "A Study in Scarlet".

The 'Underground', which is mentioned fairly regularly in the Sherlock Holmes canon, refers to the London Underground, that is, the London subway system, more commonly known these days as 'the tube'. The Underground came into existence in the 1860s and grew steadily from that point, with several different lines digging tunnels all over the underside of London. They were all eventually brought together into one large network which is still changing and growing to this day. Travelling by the Underground in Holmes's time would have been rather uncomfortable at best. It would not be until 1890 that the trains were electrified. Before then, all locomotives travelling through the tunnels were steam-powered, which created a great deal of smoke, soot, dust and steam. The Underground is perhaps featured best in "The Bruce Partington Plans", where the body of Caduggon West was found.

[Shangas]

Entries V through Z

VERNET, Emile Jean-Horace

"...Nonetheless, my turn that way is in my veins and may have come with my grandmother, who was the sister of Vernet, the French artist..." - Sherlock Holmes - "The Greek Interpreter.

The man Holmes refers to as "Vernet" [Pronounced: 'Ver-nay'] has, through deductive reasoning (tee-hee!!), to be none other than Horace Vernet, a French painter of battles and portraits, who lived from 1789-1863.

Watch-chains

"...The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean to wear it on my watch chain, in memory of the occasion"... - Sherlock Holmes - "A Scandal in Bohemia".

In several of the Sidney Paget illustrations, and in the Granada series starring Jeremy Brett, one often finds long gold chains hanging around gentlemen's waistcoats. What are they?

The answer is that they are watch-chains. One must remember that in the 19th century, a gentleman wore a pocket watch, not a wristwatch. The watch was clipped to the chain, which was then threaded through the buttonhole of a waistcoat and fastened in place by buttoning up the coat. The watch would sit in one of the waistcoat's pockets. There were two kinds of chains used by gentlemen in the Canon.

The first of these is the most obvious, and is called the Double Albert. Named for Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, the Double Albert had two equal lengths of chain trailing away from a T-bar in the middle, sometimes with a shorter fob-drop chain in the middle. A watch was clipped to one half of the chain, a watch-fob (in Holmes's case, a gold sovereign) was clipped to the middle chain and another item (anything from a match-case to a compass to a pocket-knife) was clipped to the other half of the chain, with the two longer lengths of chain going into corresponding left and right pockets. In older times, a watch-key was kept on one half of the Double Albert (see below for 'Watch Keys'), but this function became redundant with the invention of crown-wind and crown-set pocket watches in the 1850s.

The second style of chain was the Single Albert, which had a single length of chain trailing off the T-bar. This style came about with the invention of keyless pocket watches where it wasn't necessary to have another length of chain to hold the watch-key. Some Single Alberts still have a short fob-drop chain which a watch-fob could be attached to, for decoration.

A picture of Double and Single Alberts (and how to wear them) is shown below:



Watch-keys

"...Finally, I ask you to look at the inner plate, which contains the keyhole. Look at the thousands of scratches all round the hole, marks where the key has slipped. What sober man's key could have scored those grooves? But you will never see a drunkard's watch without them..." - Sherlock Holmes - "The Sign of Four"

In this day and age of self-winding/automatic and stem-wind manual mechanical watches and battery-powered quartz watches, many people are clueless to the fact that prior to the 1850s, all watches were wound up with a key. Indeed, this is one of the reasons why the Double Albert chain was created, to hold a watch-key. The key was used to wind the watch and set the time, usually the one key performed both functions. It would not be until the late 19th century that keywind watches finally disappeared, to be replaced by crown-wind pocket watches. This made one half of the Double Albert chain redundant, but people soon found other things to clip onto it. A watch and key are shown below:



Watch-pockets

"...'return ticket from Mackleton in the north of England', said Holmes, withdrawing it from the watch-pocket..." - Dr. Watson - "The Priory School".

In the period when the pocket-watch and chain reigned supreme in men's fashion (roughly the 1500s up until the 1920s, although some members of older generations continued wearing them long after wristwatches came into fashion), the accompanying garment was always a waistcoat. A watch-pocket is simply any outside pocket on a waistcoat in which a pocket-watch would be kept. Where a watch is kept on a waistcoat depends on the hand of wearer. A left-handed man would keep his watch on the right side of his coat, and a right-handed man would keep his watch on the left side of his coat, although there's no hard-and-fast rule about this.

[Shangas]

Pre-Decimal British Currency

"...Thank you, John, here's half a crown. Look out for me tomorrow, about eleven!..." - Sherlock Holmes, "The Man with the Twisted Lip".

Crowns, half-crowns, pennies, farthings, groats, guineas!...What the hell are they?

Welcome to the confusing world of pre-decimal British currency. After 1971, British currency was decimalised and revalued so that a hundred pennies equaled one pound sterling. But before that, the British people had a whole array of coins at their disposal. So, what were they?

1. Farthing - The smallest coin in pre-decimal currency, a farthing was 1/4 of a penny.

2. Ha'penny - Or 'Half penny', it was 1/2 of a penny in value.

3. Penny - Still around today, a penny was 1/12th of a shilling and 1/240th of a pound.

4. Tuppence - 'Two pennies'.

5. Thripence - 'Three pennies'.

6. Sixpence - 'Six pennies', also known as a 'tanner'.

7. Shilling - Also known as a 'bob', a shilling was 12 pence and 1/20th of a pound.

8. Pound Sterling - A pound sterling was 20 shillings, or 240 pence. Colloquially known as a 'Quid'. Five pound notes and ten pound notes were popularly called 'Fivers' and 'Tenners' respectively (and still are, today).

9. Sovereign - Another name for a pound.

10. Crown - A crown was five shillings, or a quarter of a pound.

11. Half-Crowns - A half-crown was...half of a crown, or two shillings and sixpence (half a shilling).

12. Guinea - Yet another term for the Pound Sterling. The guinea was going out of circulation during Holmes's time, to be replaced by the sovereign.

13. Florin - Was two shillings (24 pence) or 1/10th of a pound.

14. Double Florin - Was four shillings (48 pence) or 1/5th of a pound.

15. Groat - A groat was fourpence, or four pennies, in value. 1/3 of a shilling. Also known as a 'Joey'. The justification for minting a four-penny coin came from the fact that London cabbies started rates for transport at four pence. Usually, passengers gave the driver sixpence for tuppence change. This was deemed inconvenient and slow by some, so the fourpence was introduced for speed and convenience. Fourpence was also the price charged by some doss-houses (cheap boarding houses) in London's disreputable East End for the use of a bed for the night.

L, S & D

"...Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s.,lunch 2s. 6d., glass sherry, 8d..." - Sherlock Holmes, reading a hotel bill, "The Noble Bachelor".

LSD. What's it mean and what do the letters stand for? First, you can forget about drugs. LSD as a drug did not exist in Holmes's time. The letters actually stand for "librae", "solidi" and "denarii", which stand, in-turn, for Pounds (A loopy 'L' with either one or two lines through it, make up the Pound Sterling symbol), Shillings (The "S") and Pence (the "D", later changed to "P" in 1971 with the decimalisation of British currency).

Therefore, the bill, as an example, reads as:

Rooms: 8 Shillings.
Breakfast: 2 shillings and sixpence (or half a crown).
Cocktail: 1 shilling.
Lunch: 2 shillings and sixpence (or half a crown).
Sherry, one glass: 8 pence.

Monetary exp​ressions

Two and six, three and four, and so on and so forth. As we have seen, British currency in Holmes's time was a maze of coins, banknotes, values and names. Here are some common phrases or slang-terms for British currency...

'Ha'penny', 'Tuppence', 'thripence', 'fourpence' and 'tanner'.

Stand, respectively, for a half-penny, two pennies, three pennies and four pennies. 'Tanner' was a slang-term which referred specifically to the silver sixpence coin.

'Bob'.

Was slang-term for a shilling.

'Two-and-six'.

Referred to two shillings and sixpence, or a half-crown.

'Quid'

Was (and still is) slang for a pound sterling.

'Fiver' and 'tenner'.

Referred to five and ten pound banknotes.

[BakerStreetIrregular]

Wow, this is great!

We should start a Sherlock Holmes wiki!

Hey, my brother started a Street Fighter wiki...maybe we can!

[Shangas]

Streets and Transportation in Victorian London

London Streets

Oxford and Regent Streets.

"...We followed him into Oxford Street, and so down Regent Street..." - Dr. Watson, "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

Regent and Oxford Streets are two major streets in London's West End. Regent street, constructed in the 1810s, is a major shopping and retail strip in the 21st century, and was in Holmes's day. Oxford Street is even older, and came into existence in the 1730s. By the late Victorian period, it too, was well-known as a prominent shopping street.



Oxford Street, 1875

The Strand

"...I only wished to ask you how you would go from here to the Strand..." - Sherlock Holmes, to John Clay, "The Red-Headed League".

One of the most famous streets in London, The Strand runs from Trafalgar Square to Fleet Street and in Holmes's day, it was one of the busiest roads in the City. It had a bustling nightlife and was roughly the British equivelant of Broadway in Manhattan. The Strand was the hub of Victorian-era theater and London's West End theater sprung up from this location in the 19th century.



Strand, London. 1892

Tottenham Court Road

"...About four o'clock on Christmas morning, Peterson...was making his way homewards down Tottenham Court Road..." - Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson, "The Blue Carbuncle".

Another prominent London street, Tottenham Court Road is an arterial road in London's West End and intersects with Oxford Street, The Mall, Strand and several other main roads near the Palace of Westminster.

Whitehall

"...but a great traffic was going on, as usual, in Whitehall, at the extremity..." - Percy Phelps, "The Naval Treaty".

Whitehall is a prominent street in London's West End which runs paralell to the River Thames, going north to south. It is famous for being the location where numerous government departments are situated. Among other offices, Whitehall is home to...

The Admiralty (Or it was, in Holmes's day).
The War Office (defunct).
Horse Guards.
Ministry of Defence.
Scotland Office.
Wales Office.
The Cabinet Office.
10 Downing Street (which branches off Whitehall).
HM (Her Majesty's) Treasury.
The Foreign Office.

The East and West End

"...There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End called Westaway's..." - Violet Hunter to Sherlock Holmes, "The Copper Beeches".

What are the East and West Ends of London? What do they imply and how do they get their names? Read on...

The West End is London's upper-class area. It contains Whitehall, government offices, Parliament, the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street, Regent Street, Baker Street, The Strand, the Mall, Harley Street and Bond Street. It's the upscale shopping and residential side of London, with parks and famous historic buildings. It's where you would find all the main public institutions such as the British Museum and many of London's prominent gentleman's clubs.

By comparison, the East End contains London's working-class suburbs. Whitechapel, Spitafields and Limehouse were all located in the East End. The East End contained such lovely institutions as tanneries, paintworks, docks, slaughterhouses, workhouses, dosshouses, brothels, pubs and opium dens. It was dangerous by night, as the streets were full of robbers, beggars and prostitutes. If you lived in the East End, you were poor or working-class, you were tradesmen or even criminals. Tenements, apartment blocks, boarding houses and dosshouses overflowed with people and hygiene was far from good.

East and West of what? you ask? Of the City of London, of course! Yeah, but everything's called the City, right? No.

The City of London is actually a tiny area of land about a square mile in area, in the very heart of the metropolis. The City is defined as all buildings and roads which were once confined within the defensive wall built around medieval London. The West End is all the buildings and roads built to the WEST of the City, and the East End is defined as all the buildings and roads built to the EAST of the City, these areas collectively being known as Greater London.

Victorian-Era Transport

"...Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were two of us, he put both of us into it and stepped himself into a four-wheeler, wich happened to be the only other cab in the street..." - Mary Sutherland, "A Case of Identity".

Many people think of 19th century transport as nothing more than the horse and cart. But there are actually several forms of transport that were at the disposal of the Victorian-Era Londoner. Here are some of the more common ones mentioned in the Holmesian Canon:

Bicycles

"...So ardent a bicyclist must be full of energy!..." - Sherlock Holmes to Violet Smith, "The Solitary Cyclist".

The humble safety bicycle (as they were called back then) features fairly regularly in the Holmes Canon, and while to us the bicycle may seem commonplace, the truth is that the bicycle as we know it today, with equal-sized wheels, pedals, handlebars and a chain-drive, only came into existence in the 1880s and was really a very new revolution in the cycling industry in Holmes's time. Vintage bicycles were made of steel frames with steel, spoked wheels and air-inflated tyres and were used by both men and women to get around. The bicycle was light, fairly easy to use and comparitively fast, making it a popular form of transport.

A bicycle from 1887:



Cabs, cabs, cabs and...cabs!

There were several forms of road-based public transport in London and it wasn't just limited to a box on wheels with a horse tugging it along. Hansom cabs were the most common kind of transport to be found in the City. Small, light, compact and fast, Hansom cabs came into the world in the 1830s, named after their inventor. With a low center of gravity and with the driver's box high at the back, the cab offered increased manuverability and a less obscured view of the road for the driver. Its size, weight and center of gravity meant it could take corners at faster speeds than other forms of transport, which would risk a dangerous rollover accident. A hansom could take two passengers, or three, at a stretch. Luggage was stored on the roof or in the passenger's lap. A hansom was light enough to be pulled by one horse.



The Hansom Cab of the Sherlock Holmes Museum. It is the only operational Hansom Cab still used today

Four-wheelers or 'growlers' were larger, four-wheeled cabs which could carry more passengers and more luggage. Larger, but slower than the Hansom, they recieved their nickname due to the sound of the wheels rumbling over the cobblestoned streets of London. These carriages usually needed two horses to pull them.

Dog-carts and traps were light, open-air carriages, mostly used in the countryside and could be pulled by one horse. A dog-cart is mentioned in "The Speckled Band" and "The Solitary Cyclist". The dog-cart gets its name from two possible sources. One is the fact that they were originally pulled by dogs (similar in the manner in which a sled is pulled by huskies), or from the fact that these carts were originally used to transport hunting-dogs across large, country estates.



A 19th century dog-cart



A horse and trap

For larger numbers of passengers, the omnibus or the tramcar were available. The omnibus (from Latin, meaning 'for everyone'), or simply 'bus', was a large, double-decker carriage pulled by a team of horses and which could take dozens of passengers. Trams, also pulled by horses, were attached to rails built into the road. Buses and trams were different from cabs in that these two forms of transport had specific routes and destinations, much like modern buses and trams. A Victorian-era omnibus can be seen in the introduction of the Granada 'Sherlock Holmes' series.



The omnibus seen in the Sherlock Holmes intro.

Riding the Rails

Steam-powered transport has been around since the start of the 19th century, and by the Victorian-period, England and indeed, most of the world, was linked up by miles and miles of railways, which were used by large, noisy, steam-powered locomotives. Major railway stations in London such as King's Cross, Charing Cross, Waterloo and St. Pancras, transported people all over the British Isles. The Flying Scotsman linked England with Scotland, boat-trains linked London with the sea and the Orient Express could send you right across Europe. Steam-trains were organised by intricate and seemingly confusing timetables. These were all eventually put into a book or pamphlet which was thereafter named for the man who complied it. They're mentioned in the Canon as 'Bradshaws'.



A steam locomotive going at top speed

[Bone Lady]

Sheer utter brilliance and great work mate on all the hard work you've put into this!

*claps*

[Shangas]

The Victorian Gentleman's Wardrobe

Victorian Clothes and Accessories

"What can he want?" I ejaculated, as a man stepped out of [the cab].
"Want? He wants us! And we, my poor Watson, want overcoats and cravats and goloshes and every aid that man ever invented to fight the weather!" - Watson & Holmes, "The Golden Pince Nez".

What are all these things!? How were they used? What were they made of? What did they look like?

A Victorian gentleman could wear an incredible amount of clothing, it seemed. Here are some of the more common garments mentioned in the Holmesian cannon or seen in various Holmesian media:

Three-piece suit

The standard three-piece suit was worn by almost any and every man in the Victorian era, regardless of class, status, wealth or nationality. It consists today (as it did in the Victorian period), of a pair of trousers, a waistcoat and a suit-coat, all made from the same fabric or material. To be worn together with socks, shoes, undergarments, a dress-shirt, suspenders (or braces), a necktie or bowtie and a watch and chain. It should be noted that most trousers of this era did not contain belt-loops, so trousers were held up with suspenders instead. Indeed, collars were also optional extras on shirts unless you asked for one to be included. Most collars were starched, detactable ones which had to be clipped or buttoned onto the top of the shirt so that you could do up your necktie.

Overcoat or trenchcoat

More or less the same thing, the overcoat is a large coat, usually black or tan in colour, which is worn over the top of one's suit. It is an outdoor garment, used to provide warmth in winter. The trenchcoat came into fashion in the 1910s and 1920s due to WWI, and is commonly associated with private detectives and prohibition-era gangsters.

Hats

No gentleman would have left home without his hat in the Victorian era. In fact, the habit of not wearing hats would not become a reality until the 1960s. Hats in the Victorian era came in various styles...

The first of these was the top-hat. Round, stiff and made of felt, the top-hat is instantly recognisable and was used for daily wear and for especially formal occasions.

Bowler hat. A less formal hat than the topper, this was worn as a daily headpiece and was made of stiff felt. Watson [Hardwicke] is sometimes seen wearing this style of hat in the Granada series.

Flat cap. Still worn today by some people, the flat cap was a flat, soft cap, made of wool or tweed cloth. It was worn mainly by working-class people, but might also be worn as part of a tweed suit. Watson wears one of these caps in the Granada production of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Deerstalker. The archtypal Holmesian hat! The deerstalker was a cap made of tweed which came with a peaked front brim and earflaps to keep the ears warm during winter or during outdoor activities (such as hunting deer!). When not in use, the earflaps could be folded up ontop of the cap and tied down with the accompanying strings.

Good manners dictate that a man always removed his hat when indoors and in the presence of a lady.

Ties

There were three main styles of ties or other neckcloths used during the Victorian period.

The first of these is the standard necktie. A little different from the modern necktie, ties of the 19th century were usually thinner and a bit longer than their modern counterparts.

Bowties. Tied like an ordinary bow around one's neck, the bowtie was worn either as ordinary neckwear, or during formal occasions. A "white tie" formal event meant that you went off to the occasion wearing a tuxedo and a white bowtie. A 'Black tie' event meant wearing a black bowtie with your tuxedo. White tie is generally considered the more formal of the two.

Cravats. The final type of 'tie', the cravat isn't really a tie and looks more like a scarf. Made of silk or cotton, they are tied loosely around the throat and are usually held together with a clasp or tie-pin. Tie-pins (such as the emerald one given to Holmes by Queen Victoria), were used to hold neckties and cravats together, to stop them flapping around and to keep them straight.

Goloshes and Spats

Goloshes are rubber overshoes, which are worn over and around one's ordinary shoes to protect them from water and rain. Spats (short for 'spatterguards') are tied over the top of one's shoes to protect them from mud and dust. Spats and goloshes more or less died out in the 1930s.

Gloves

Everyone back then wore gloves. Used to keep the hands warm and to protect them from such nasty things as dust, grime and ink, gloves were made of either leather, cotton or wool. Some stories tell of some gloves being made for, and used specifically during the act of eating one's meals, and were called eating-gloves. These generally died out with the invention of the sandwich.

Dressing-gowns

"...Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his sitting-room in his dressing-gown..." - Dr. Watson, "The Engineer's Thumb".

Admittedly, probably not many people wear dressing-gowns these days. A dressing-gown was usually worn over one's nightshirt (the predecessor to modern pyjamas) when one was around the house in the morning and hadn't changed into his or her clothes yet. It allowed one to look moderately presentable despite probably only having just gotten out of bed. It is different from a bathrobe, which is put on after washing.

Walking-sticks

Made of bamboo or wood, most gentlemen would own at least one walking-stick. These days people who use walking-sticks have mobility issues or are elderly or in some manner crippled. Back in Holmes's day, the walking-stick was as common a sight as the iPod is today. While in theory you probably didn't need a stick, the fact was that for many people, walking was the only way to get from A to B. The strain placed on one's legs from walking for miles at a time was considerable, and a stick was needed to ease the pressure on the feet and to make the journey more enjoyable. Walking-sticks should be about 2/3 of their user's height. Holmes standing at about 6'1" would require a stick 3' & 1/2 to 4 feet long.

[lymelight]

Shangas, on Oct 29 2008, 05:07 AM, said:

**Blushes**

A real labour of love, excellent work.

[Shangas]

Victorian-era writing paraphernailia

These days, people do most of their writing with cheap, one-dollar ballpoint pens, with most peoples' writing matching the quality of the pen. In Holmes's day, writing was a mark of one's character and was seen as an art, as well as a form of communication. The Holmesian canon and the Granada series with Jeremy Brett both mention and display various writing implements and accessories which were very common in the Victorian era. So, what were they and what did they do?

Blotting paper

"...The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried itself. The rest is of the grayish colour, which shows that blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade..." - Sherlock Holmes, "The Man with the Twisted Lip".

No desk in Holmes's day and no stationer's shop, for that matter, would have been without its stock of blotting-paper. It was as essential back then as the printer cartridge is today. So, what is blotting-paper?

Blotting paper is a highly absorbent, thick, stiff paper and its purpose is to soak up excess ink from a written page, to prevent the ink from bleeding (seeping through the paper), feathering (spreading out all over the page unevenly) or smudging/smearing. You must remember that in Holmes's day, the key writing instrument was the dip-pen, and you simply cannot use a dip pen without blotting-paper. It's almost impossible. The free-flowing ink from the nib lays down such generous lines that blotting-paper has to be used to soak up any leftover ink. There are some nibs which are less generous with their flow than others, but most nibs were flexible steel ones, descendent from quill pens. Flexible nibs bend and flex under the writer's hand-pressure to produce varying lines of thick and thin. Without blotting-paper, thick lines would flood into thin lines and fill the loops of letters such as "o"s and "e"s and your neatly written love-letter would look like a work of abstract art.

Blotting-paper is sold in various forms. In Holmes's day, you bought it in large sheets and took it home and cut it up with scissors so that it was small enough to fit around your rocker-blotter. Or, you kept the sheet nice and whole and trimmed it down to size so that it would fit into the tabs around your desk-blotter.

You could also buy blotting paper in booklets of thin, rectangular strips, a bit like a chequebook. You'd open the book, rip out a page and screw it into your rocker-blotter and use it like that, or you kept it with you in your book so that you always had a small piece of blotting-paper on hand whenever you needed it. It might also serve as a makeshift bookmark.

Since everyone used blotting-paper back then, smart people used to print advertising material on the paper. Using special, quick-drying printer's ink, they'd print advertisments on blotting-paper and sell it off in booklets, a bit like flyers and brochures today. It was free and effective advertising and it cost peanuts.

Desk-blotters

"...I can hardly doubt that we will find some impression upon this blotting-pad..." - Sherlock Holmes - "The Missing Three-Quarter"

How often have you seen one of these on a desk in an antiques store or in an old or period-set film, and wondered what it was for?



While they're still found on some desks today, desk-blotters no-longer serve their original purpose and these days, they're more used for decorative reasons. However, Holmes's time, you would probably never find a desk without one. Desk-blotters were broad, rectangular boards placed on a desktop, usually with leather or metal triangular tabs in the corners (as the one above has), or along the short sides. These tabs were used to hold down sheets of blotting-paper. Blotting-paper was (and still is) sold in huge sheets. You bought it from a stationer's shop and you cut your sheet of blotting-paper down to a size that would fit your desk-blotter. You'd slot it in and leave it there. The purpose of the desk-blotter was to prevent any ink-drippings from destroying the lovely leather writing-surface of your antique desk. Instead, the ink would drip onto the blotting-paper, which would soak it up. Also, once you'd finished writing, you would flip your page over and press and rub it against the sheet of blotting-paper, helping the ink to dry faster on the page. This is what Staunton had done in The Missing Three-Quarter. Doing this usually leaves a messy, but sometimes still readable 'print' of words written, on the blotting-paper. All Holmes had to do was rip the blotting-paper from the desk-pad and flip it over to read it.

Dip-pens

"...she had written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep..." - Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson, "A Case of Identity".

Everyone associates the 19th century with the quill pen. Really, one should associate the 18th century with the quill pen, as by the 1830s in the second quarter of the 19th century, the quill pen was obsolete. Enter the dip-pen.

A dip-pen is a simple metal nib, which is stamped and cut out of a sheet of metal and it was this instrument that started replacing the quill as early as the 1800s, however it was not until the industrial revolution that stamps and presses allowed for mass-production of dip-pen nibs, which eventually drove out the quill as the dominant writing instrument of the day. The dip-pen held sway for a surprisingly long time, lasting for over a hundred years as the main instrument of choice for handwriting from the 1830s until the 1940s, where it was still used in schools (soon to be replaced by fountain pens, and then ballpoint pens in the 1950s).

The first experimental fountain pens did not come around until the 1870s and were not very practical until the 1900s, so all of Holmes and Watson's writing would've been done with a dip-pen, inkwell and blotting-paper, or with a typewriter or pencil.

Dip-pens are made from various metals - either steel, or an alloy of gold and copper. Steel nibs are easy and cheap to produce, however, before the days of stainless steel, these nibs would rust into nothingness in a matter of a month or even less. Gold, on the other hand, is resistent to the significant levels of acidity and corrosion in the inks of the period, which meant it didn't rust, it looked nicer, and it was longer lasting.

An interesting bit of terminology is that it is the detachable writing-nib that is called the pen. The shaft that one grips in one's hand, and to which the dip-pen is inserted, is properly called the pen-holder. In Holmes's day if you went to a stationer's shop, you didn't buy a box of nibs, you bought a box of PENS, which you took home and fitted into your pen-holder before writing.

Inks

Ink in Holmes's day was generally of three different kinds. Powdered ink, India ink and iron-gall ink. Powdered ink is exactly what it sounds like. It's ink-powder mixed with water. You could use anything for ink-powder, crushed blue or red flower-petals would create blue or red ink. Fireplace soot mixed with water would create black ink. Or, you could buy specific powdered dyes.

The other kind of ink is what was known as iron-gall ink. Iron-gall ink is made out of the extracts from oak galls, iron-filings, and acid. This ink was very popular in its day, but, due to the use of acid in the ink-recipe, steel dip-pen nibs (see above), rusted away VERY quickly in this ink. Iron-gall ink writes down very very pale in colour but when it dries, it dries jet black. To make the ink easier to see on the page when it first went down, people added blue dye-powder to the ink so that it went on blue, but dried jet black. Modern fountain pen inks with the label "Blue black" get their names from this ink.

Another common ink is Indian ink. A jet-black writing ink made of water, black dye-powder and shellac. Used more commonly these days by artists and comic-book illustrators, it was a popular ink in Holmes's day, and you could buy it from most stationer's shops.

[Word of caution - NEVER use iron-gall, Indian or powdered inks in fountain pens.]

Foolscap paper

"...I bought a penny-bottle of ink, and with a quill pen and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for Pope's Court..." - Jabez Wilson - "The Red-Headed League".

Commonly-used paper-size for general writing. Measuring 14 inches long by 8.5 inches wide. Sometimes called 'Legal' sized paper.

Hand

"...Surely this is not your husband's hand?..." - Sherlock Holmes to Mrs. St. Clair, "The Man with the Twisted Lip".

Someone's hand refers to someone's distictive and individual style of handwriting. To have a "neat hand" meant to have clean, clear, legible handwriting, to have a "messy hand" meant to have bad handwriting.

J pen

"...written with a J pen on royal cream paper..." - Mycroft Holmes, "The Greek Interpreter".

A J pen is a detachable dip-pen nib which was very common in the Victorian era as a general-purpose writing-nib.

Leather-topped desks

"...Dear me, this is very interesting. And the cut - a positive tear, I see. It began with a thin scratch and ended in a jagged hole..." - Sherlock Holmes, "The Three Students".

Here, Holmes is examining a cut and tear on the writing-surface of Mr. Soames's desk. But how can a desk made of wood have a tear in it?

To understand what Holmes is saying here, you need to understand what a desk looked like and how they were made in the 19th century. A good deal of the better-quality desks manufactured in the 18th and 19th and even 20th centuries (and even today), have large pads of leather set into the desktop and nailed or otherwise secured upon the desk-surface. It is this leather top that has been ripped by what was Mr. Gilchrists's exercise-shoes.

Leather writing-surfaces were very common on desks of this era and while they are still found on some modern desks today, their original purpose has diminished somewhat. The reason for a leather writing-surface had to do with the pens of the period. Writing on a hard, wooden desktop with a dip-pen or a quill is very uncomfortable. Even with the paper to provide cushioning, the friction of a nib scraping on a wooden surface below would be very irritating and uncomfortable, not to mention damaging to both the desktop and the nib, as steel dip-pen nibs can be razor-sharp. Leather was used as a writing-surface because it was softer and it provided a smoother, cushiony and more enjoyable surface to write on. A leather-topped desk is shown below:



Rocker-blotter

In the Granada production of "The Blue Carbuncle", Holmes writes out the lost-and-found advertisment for Mr. Baker's hat and goose with a pen, after which he rocks a wooden item with a curved base over his sheet of paper before handing it to Peterson. The object he uses is called a rocker-blotter. These items were very common from the mid 19th century up until the 1950s, when ballpoint pens overtook the dip-pen and later, the fountain pen, with which these devices were used. Affixed to the curved underside of a blotter is a strip of blotting-paper, cut to size. They are used to soak up excess ink after writing, to prevent smudging, feathering and bleeding. No desk in the Victorian period would be without a rocker-blotter and paper.



A rocker-blotter

Sealing Wax

"...It has been folded over three times and sealed with purple wax, put on hurriedly and pressed down with some flat oval object..." - Inspector Baynes to Sherlock Holmes on his deductions regarding a sheet of paper, "Wisteria Lodge".

Sealing wax, and other fancy stuff, was commonly used in the Victorian era (and for several centuries prior), for the signing and sealing of documents. In modern times, seals are used for ceremonial purposes, however in the past, their use was far more practical.

In the days before practical glue had been invented, sealing wax was used to hold documents closed so that their contents could not be read. They also served as anti-tampering devices. Recieving a document, such as a letter or will, with a broken seal, meant that someone else had read the document before you had. Seals can be tricky to apply and require a bit of skill. It is usually done in the following manner:

The document is folded. A stick of sealing-wax (stereotypically red, but it can be any colour) is held over the document, or a flap in an envelope. A candle or a match is held to the wax to heat it up. As the wax is heated, it melts, dropping globs of molten (and very hot) wax onto the fold in the paper. When a suitable amount of wax has been applied, the sealing-stamp would be pressed into the wax. The surface of the stamp had to be covered slightly with oil before use. If it was not, there was a chance of the wax sticking to the seal, and damaging the final product.

The seal is pressed firmly and evenly into the hot wax, just before it solidifies. It is then removed. The result is a neat, clean wax seal. Sealing wax is not candle-wax, and the same result cannot be obtained by simply melting candle-wax onto paper. Sealing-wax was designed to be very brittle when it was solidified. It would break easily so that the document could be opened, and it showed plainly whether or not the document had been read beforehand. You cannot reuse a seal and it's not easy to remove one from paper with the blade of a knife and then re-apply it. Once it's broken, you must make another one.

A sealing-stamp, the device used to imprint the wax with the writer's seal, was usually engraved with the owner's coat of arms or monogram. However, a sealing-stamp is not the only thing that can be used, and other items, such as cufflinks or signet-rings may also be used to imprint a seal. As has been mentioned, seals were sometimes used in-place of the writer's signature.

In "The Master Blackmailer", Lady Swinstead applies a seal to the envelope of her letter and stamps it with her signet-ring.

[Brain]

My dear Shangas, this is a wonderful thread!
Thank you so much for sharing!

[Shangas]

Domestic servants in a Victorian-Era household

The Sherlock Holmes canon deals mostly with the upper crust of British society during the Victorian and Edwardian eras and a great deal of Holmes's clients had a whole variety of servants and attendants to wait on them hand and foot. So, what were they and what did they do?

Servants were a part of life in the Victorian era, and every great house was expected to have its own staff of servants to carry out the chores and tasks that made the household run smoothly. The chores were varied and many of them were highly labour-intensive. It wasn't all bowing, curtsying, opening doors and pouring wine. If you were a servant, you had to be strong, fit, healthy and attentive. Let us meet the staff that you'd be likely to find in an exceptionally grand Victorian English manor-house, whose master could afford anything and everything:

Male servants

The butler was the most senior male servant in a great Victorian household and the most senior servant overall. His jobs ranged from looking after the silverware, looking after the wine-cellar, waiting on the master at dinner, making appointments, arranging parties, answering the door and locking up the house at night once everyone had gone to bed. The butler had a job of great responsibility. Apart from all those duties, it was his task to make sure that all the other servants did their duties as well. If something went wrong, he would most likely get the blame for it. A butler needed to have a good memory to know all the ins-and-outs of the household. He had to remember the master and mistress's specific rules and regulations and how to manage his subordinates effectively. He was expected to dress formally, be well-spoken and polite.

The valet [pronounced 'vallay'], was the master's personal attendant. His job was to make sure that the master's clothes were cleaned, prepared and ready for his master to use. He packed his master's luggage when he went travelling, he drew his master's bath, he may have even shaved his master in the mornings. He booked rooms, transport and appointments for his master if he went out. He acted as his master's confidant and was expected to be discrete, punctual and to have a good memory.

The footman was a young servant, whose immediate superior was the butler. He was typically a young, tall, handsome man whose duties ranged from looking after the china, cleaning boots, waiting on the family at mealtimes, answering the front door, assisting guests with their coats and chairs and serving food during meals. He also had to tidy up boots and shoes around the front door. A footman was expected to keep himself presentable at all times. Apart from being a servant, he was also a representation of his master's wealth, and had to make himself as clean and neat at possible. Footmen had their uniforms provided to them by their master, which made footmen rather expensive to keep.

The chef did all the cooking in the house for all members of the family and staff. He woke up early and baked, boiled, steamed, fried and tenderised his way through the day. He cooked everything from soups to pasta to baking bread, cakes, puddings, pies and anything else that the family desired to eat. His domain was the kitchens.

The pageboy was a young man who served as a messenger. He ran messages between different members of the household, between the staff, between the house and various places in town. He did small deliveries and announced visitors (although this could have been done by either the butler, valet, footman or indeed any other servant of a significant rank).

The hallboy was the lowest rank that a male servant could have in a great Victorian household. Hallboys did all the most menial and physical labour. You cleaned shoes, you chopped firewood, you tidied rooms and cleaned windows and scrubbed tables and floors. Hallboys were rarely seen by the master or mistress of the house.

The Groom and stable-boy are responsible for the stable and the horses within it. Their jobs were to clean the stables, look after the horses, clean them, feed them, protect them and lock up the stables at night. They would make sure that the horses were saddled before the master came out to ride, and they put the horses away at the end of the day.

The coachman was the man who was responsible for driving and maintaining the family's carriage. He had to make sure his vehicle was clean and free from any mechanical or cosmetic defects. No cracked windows, no dirty seats, no dust or grime on the doors. Candles in the side-lamps had to be replaced and the shafts, hinges, axles, wheels and reins all had to be looked after, repaired, maintained and checked before and after each journey. With the rise of the motor-car in the 1900s and 1910s, the coachman was replaced by the chauffeur

The gardener was responsible for the garden (if the house had a garden). He raked and mowed the lawns, trimmed the hedges and bushes and trees and made sure that everything was as neat as possible.

Female servants

The housekeeper was the most senior of female servants in a great house and she answered to the lady of the house, not the master. It was her job to make sure the house was clean and tidy, neat and orderly. She made sure that all the female servants did their jobs and did them well. She did most of the light housework such as dusting and general cleaning-up.

The nurse, or in modern English, the nanny, looked after the children of the house, usually babies and toddlers. It was her job to make sure they were fed, cleaned, made to look presentable in front of company and to spend time with them. She woke them up, fed them, put them to bed, read stories to them and looked after their needs.

The governess was the live-in teacher. A governess taught the children their lessons. Reading, writing, arithmatic, geography, history and perhaps a bit of science. For girls, she would teach them music, art and sewing as well. Her male counterpart, the tutor, would teach the boys, although there was some fluidity with this job and a governess might teach both boys and girls. Their domain was the schoolroom. This is where some of the older children might eat their meals, separate from the rest of the family.

The scullery maid was the lowest rank that a female servant could have in a great Victorian house. It was also the most labour-intensive of all the jobs available. A sculllery maid had to sweep floors, mop floors, clean out fireplaces, carry wood and coal all over the house, light fires, keep them going, boil water, light the stoves for the chef to do his day's work, clean clothing, beat and shake out rugs, wash dishes, hang out and iron the clothing. They might also help the chef in the kitchen, chopping and preparing food and drinks. They also laid the servant's table for meals, cleaned up the servant's table after meals and washed those dishes along with the dishes belonging to the family upstairs.

Another duty might be carrying blocks of ice into the kitchen to put into the icebox (the fore-runner of the modern fridge, which did not come about until the 1930s). These blocks of ice could be extremely heavy and wet, cold and slippery. Dropping them was NOT an option. They also filled lamps, checked and replaced candles, replaced lamp-wicks, did the dusting, scrubbed floors and if there were any chamber-pots to be emptied - they did that too.

And all these duties were done without the modern convenience of electric lights, telephones, vacuum-cleaners, modern cleaning-agents or electrical irons. Everything was done by hand.

[brettfannie]

I had not seen yet ! What a wonderful work, thank you Shangas

[Shangas]

The Distinction between DOCTOR and SURGEON

When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the first Holmes stories in the 1880s, he was a struggling medical doctor with a failing practice, and he attempted to boost his meagre income by publishing his works in local literary magazines. Doyle's inspiration for Sherlock Holmes came from Dr. Joseph Bell, a lecturer of his at the University of Edinbrugh, where Doyle earned his degree in medicine. Doyle's inspiration for Holmes's sidekick, Dr. Watson, comes from...himself.

Medicine and people of the medical profession are mentioned in the Canon fairly frequently. One of the more famous instances is the introudction of "Doctor" Mortimer in "The Hound of the Baskervilles". When addressed thus, Mortimer insists that he is just a "mister, sir, mister! A humble MRCS".

This may obviously confuse some people as to what Mortimer's occupation and title are, and indeed, those of Watson himself. The point of this article is to outline the differences between the occupations of the Medical Doctor, and that of the Surgeon.

Titles

To begin at the beginning, with titles; a medical doctor is given the prefix "Dr.", which stands for "Doctor", or the suffixes "M.D" or "G.P", which stand, respectively, for "Medical Doctor" or "General Practicioner [of medicine]".

By contrast, a SURGEON is always given the title of "Mr.", that is, "Mister".

The reasons for this are several, and they come from traditions started centuries ago.

The Doctor

The job of a doctor, or a physician, was to prescribe medicines. It was to examine, diagnose and treat illnesses and to cure the sick. This was considered a respectable and honorable occupation. The saver of people's lives was therefore given the title of "doctor". A physician was above the level of a surgeon. He had a greater degree of medical knowledge and skill. He was not the one with the dreaded hacksaw, forceps, tonsil-knife or the red-hot poker which was used to cauterise bleeding stumps after the completion of an amputation. A physician was an entirely different kind of person. One with REAL medical knowledge.

John Watson, M.D., graduated from the University of London 1878 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. This grants him the title of "Doctor" before his name and he was, by the standards of the day, a fully-qualified doctor, who could prescribe medication, treat injuries and diagnose ailments.

The Surgeon

The job of a surgeon, especially in Doyle's time, in the Victorian era (1837-1901), and even moreso before then, was to perform surgery, a job which hasn't changed a bit in the last hundred-over years. While the job-description may not have changed, the manner in which it is carried out, certainly has.

In Doyle's time, and before, the mainstay of the surgeon's occupation, was performing amputations and removing foreign bodies from injured persons. Such things could be bullets, arrows, lead shot and splinters of wood (which caused a great deal of injuries onboard wooden battleships at sea). Another job of the surgeon was to remove various stones from the kidneys, bladder and liver.

While operations such as these are perfectly safe today, in the Victorian Era, when Doyle was writing, surgery was risky, uncertain and extremely painful. Anasthetics had not yet been discovered, and any operation would have been incredibly painful, with the patient wide awake. Imagine, if you will, being fully concious while a surgeon dug around in your ribcage with a pair of tweezers, trying to pull out a bullet.

Amputations were what surgeons were 'famous' for. Sawing off infected, gangrenous limbs with hacksaws. Again, without any form of anasthetics - well, perhaps some alcohol or some laudanum, but its effectiveness was limited.

Because of the painful and dangerous nature of their work, surgeons were greatly despised by society. People would not look the same way at a surgeon that they did with a doctor. Surgeons caused pain and suffering, even though they were medical people. Their operations, even if successful, would cause death by infection. And if unsuccessful, would cause the patient to die a painful and fully-concious death, still lying on the operating table.

While these days, a surgeon may be seen to be on equal footing with a physican, one must remember that once upon a time, "surgeon" was not the person's full title. In medieval and early modern times, they were called "barber-surgeons". A barber, then, as now, is a person who cuts your hair. Only back then, it wasn't just hair that they cut off you. The famous "barber-pole", of red and white diagonal, spiralling stripes, which are sometimes found outside barbershops, are descendant from this time. They represent the white of bandages and the redness of dripping blood, from the days when a barber-surgeon would just as likely saw off your arm as he would give you a shave and a new hairdo. The slang-name for a surgeon, a "sawbones" comes from the days when a surgeon's main occupation was chopping off limbs.

It is for these reasons that surgeons, such as "Doctor" Mortimer, were denied the rank of "Doctor" before their names. Such men were seen as being unworthy of holding the rank and title since, while they worked for good, they caused so much pain and suffering to their patients.



Medical kit of a ship's surgeon. Note the presence of the two hacksaws, used for sawing off patients limbs and the knives and probes for removing bullets and other foreign bodies from patients' bodies. The two long knives at the bottom of the medical case are Liston knives (invented by Dr. Liston in the Crimean War of the 1850s). They are used for cutting through flesh and muscle. Hacksaws are used for cutting through the patient's bones.

[violetsmith]

very well done, shangas, I enjoy learning. I'm glad you added the bit about clothing.

One question-- were clothes sold off-the-rack in those days, or did the folk have them made (tailored) for them?

Also, what did women wear? I mean, what was the most popular fashion, for women?