“I went into the back yard” [BLUE]

The third week of the month means we look at a piece of Sherlockian scholarship — particularly one that may not be as widely read or generally available to most Sherlock Holmes fans.

This month, we're looking at Bernard Davies' "The Back Yards of Baker Street," which appeared in James Edward Holroyd's Seventeen Steps to 221B. Step with us through the alleyways of 1895 to see if we can make a proper identification. It's just a Trifle.

• Seventeen Steps to 221B by James Edward Holroyd (Abebooks)
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“You have done your best to get an innocent man hanged.” [NORW]

Capital punishment in the United Kingdom evolved over a period of time. From the mid-17th century through 1820, the Bloody Code tracked some 200 crimes punishable by death.

In which Sherlock Holmes stories do we hear about capital punishment, and under England's laws of the late Victorian period, who would have been eligible for death by hanging? It's just a Trifle.

• Capital punishment in the United Kingdom (Wikipedia)
• 11 Ridiculous Crimes That Carried the Death Penalty Before Queen Victoria (Ranker)
• Other episodes mentioned:
• • Episode 301 - Sherlock Holmes and Australians
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

“so ardent a bicyclist must be full of energy” [SOLI]

The latest installment in our review of Morley-Montgomery Award-winning articles is by Andrew Jay Peck, BSI ("Inspector Baynes"): "The Solitary Man-Uscript" from Vol. 22, No. 2 of The Baker Street Journal in 1972.

Just who was the Solitary Cyclist? There are two cyclists in the story, and one is a young lady simply trying to get to her train safely; the other is a bearded man with sunglasses hunched over his handlebars. Only one of them can be our cyclist. It's just a Trifle.

• Sherlock Holmes Manuscripts: Census (Best of Sherlock)
• The BSI Press Manuscript Series
• The Morley-Montgomery Award
• The Morley-Montgomery Award series of episodes (Patreon | Substack)
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

“a strange, loud whiz” [EMPT]

We came across a quite unusual observation — a Trifle, if you will — in an old issue of The Baker Street Journal. An article by Antony Boucher called "An Aborted Avatar."

Boucher discovered a turn of the century play called The King of Gee-Whiz that involved Sherlock Holmes in a quite unusual setting. The play was co-written by L. Frank Baum, of The Wizard of Oz fame. It's just a Trifle.

• Anthony Boucher (Wikipedia)
• The King of Gee-Whiz (Project Gutenberg)
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“general resemblance to an itinerant” [VALL]

A term we don't hear as frequently these days is "gypsy." Unless you're headed to see a Sondheim musical, which is about an entirely different Gypsy (and one with Sherlockian connections too).

Anyway, our focus here is on stories in which gypsies are mentioned (there are two; can you name them?) and a bit of historical context of gypsies in the Victorian era, including the documented experience of one exalted person. It's just a Trifle.

• Gypsies, Roma, or Travellers (Victorian Web)
• Queen Victoria's Journals (Romani)
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
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“before my biographer had come to glorify me” [GREE]

Once again, we find ourselves in a "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the theorist"-themed episode, where we look at a piece of old scholarship. This time, we share a chapter from William S. Baring-Gould's groundbreaking biography of Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter V "On Stage and Off in England and America: 1879–1881" finds us in the two years leading up to Holmes and Watson meeting each other, while Holmes was beginning to run low on funds. His decision would mean a remarkable set of experiences ahead. It's just a Trifle.

• Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A Life of the World's First Consulting Detective by William S. Baring-Gould (Abebooks)
• Other episodes mentioned:
• • Episode 124 - Odd Jobs
  • Episode 130 - Watson's Club
  • Episode 412 - A Touch of the Dramatic
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com

“I would read as easily as I do the apocrypha” [VALL]

The second in our series on the Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes — stories that are not in the original Canonical 60 but that have some relevant interest. In this case, we have a story written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1898 and set in 1892 involving the mysterious death of a passenger on a train. The murderer is nowhere to be found and the man has an unusual number of watches on his person.

A "well-known criminal investigator" writes a letter to the press with an explanation. We briefly discuss the story and the many theories as to the authorship of those letters over the years by numerous Sherlockians. It's just a Trifle.

• The Story of the Man with the Watches (Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia)
• 5. The Man with the Watches & The Lost Special (Doings of Doyle)
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“you are mistaken about my alleged agents” [MAZA]

• Morley-Montgomery Award Winners
• Previous episodes referenced:
• • Episode 84 - The Morocco Case
  • Episode 269 - The Seven Per-Cent Solution
• All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock
• Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com