Part 4
“It was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones.”
_The Adventure of the Copper Beeches_
To those interested in animals, it is gratifying to know that two of the most popular heroes of detective fiction--Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson--both loved dogs. They did not like them in a sickly, sentimental sense, but rather with a genuine, masculine affection. They regarded them as dogs, not as human beings, and emphasized and respected their canine personalities. I am sure every self-respecting dog would want to be so regarded.
Frequent mention of dogs is found in the tales. In point of fact, the grisly, spectral hound portrayed in _The Hound of the Baskervilles_ has become a byword not only among readers of detective fiction but also with people in general. Various kinds of dogs are portrayed: large dogs, small dogs, good ones and bad ones. In one instance, a lovable, curly-haired spaniel is depicted; in another, a plodding bloodhound; and in still another, a fiendish dog.
One Sunday evening, in early September, in the year 1903, Sherlock Holmes summarily sent for Dr. Watson. The friendly doctor, not wishing to disappoint his friend, set out for Baker Street, and entered the old apartment, which for a number of years had also been his home. Holmes waved him to a chair, and after a considerable period of silence remarked that he was seriously considering writing a monograph on the use of dogs in the work of a detective (_The Adventure of the Creeping Man_).
Dr. Watson did not think much of the idea, and pointed out that this field had been pretty thoroughly explored. Holmes would not agree. He explained that he wished to approach the subject from a somewhat different angle than had previously been done. He argued that a dog reflected a family’s life. If the household were a happy one, the dog would be friendly and frisky; conversely, if the family were gloomy, the dog would appear sad. He insisted further that dangerous and unpleasant dogs are owned by dangerous and unpleasant people.
Holmes bolstered his argument by giving as an illustration the case on which he was presently working. He believed that the changed behavior of a wolfhound toward his master might turn out to be an important clue in solving the mystery. This eventually proved to be true, as will be described later. Although we may congratulate Holmes on his keen analysis, and on his pungent manner of presenting the argument, there surely must be many exceptions which come to the minds of us all. We have witnessed nice people who harbor vicious dogs, and the opposite as well. We will not quibble, but agree for the main part that Holmes was probably right.
Hounds are frequently mentioned. In _The Sign of the Four_, Watson, describing Holmes in action, writes: “So swift, silent, and furtive were his movements, like those of a trained bloodhound picking out a scent.” Again, in _A Study in Scarlet_, we see: “As I watched him I was irresistibly reminded of a pure-blooded, well-trained foxhound, as it dashes backward and forward through the covert, whining in its eagerness, until it comes across the lost scent.” In _The Red-Haired League_, Jones of Scotland Yard, speaking to his colleague Wilson, comments: “Our friend Holmes here is a wonderful man for starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him in the running down.” Other habits of hounds may be found in _The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot_ and _The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans_. Numerically, hounds are mentioned more frequently in the tales than any other kind of dog, and in several instances hounds actually track down the criminal.
It will be recalled that in _The Sign of the Four_ the dependable old hound Tobey follows a creosote scent. In _The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter_, faithful old Pompey follows a carriage which had had aniseed squirted upon the wheel by Holmes. On this occasion, Holmes remarks to Watson that a draghound would follow aniseed indefinitely. Holmes takes almost a human interest in Pompey. The detective formally introduces the dog to Dr. Watson and speaks highly of the draghound’s tracking ability. However, he did not trust all dogs, for we find him saying to Watson that some dogs bite the hand that feeds them (_The Adventure of the Three Gables_).
Two especially fiendish dogs are portrayed in the tales: Carlo the mastiff, in _The Adventure of the Copper Beeches_; and the spectral hound, in _The Hound of the Baskervilles_. In the former, the despicable Rucastle, the master of Carlo, said: “We feed him once a day, and not too much then, so that he is always as keen as mustard.... God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs upon!” Miss Violet Hunter, the heroine of the story, saw this beast one night: “It was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones.” Watson vividly describes the attack Carlo finally made on his master:
There was the huge famished brute, its black muzzle buried in Rucastle’s throat, while he writhed and screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the creases of his neck.
In _The Hound of the Baskervilles_, we find a hound which would frighten the Evil One himself. Evidently, this huge beast was a mongrel: “It was not a pure bloodhound and it was not a pure mastiff; but it appeared to be a combination of the two--gaunt, savage, and as large as a small lioness.” Watson paints this animated picture:
A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame.
While this hound was worrying the throat of Sir Henry Baskerville, Holmes emptied five barrels of his revolver into the creature’s flank. “With a last howl of agony and a vicious snap in the air, it rolled upon its back, four feet pawing furiously, and then fell limp upon its side.”
Other breeds are not ignored. Holmes, who had considerable professional jealousy, would not admit that Jones of Scotland Yard had the imagination a detective should have, or that he had a keen intellect, but does pay him this fine compliment: “He is as brave as a bulldog....” (_The Red-Haired League_.) A reference is made to rat terriers in _The Adventure of the Crooked Man_. Spaniels also are mentioned on at least two occasions. Dr. Mortimer, in the story of _The Hound of the Baskervilles_, owns a curly-haired spaniel of which he is extremely fond. Unfortunately, this lovable dog comes to grief on the moor. In _The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place_, a spaniel plays an important part in solving the mystery. The so-called “Shoscombe spaniels” were famous throughout England, and, according to Holmes, were frequently mentioned at dog shows. He successfully uses one of these, a pet spaniel, to establish the fact that the person in the carriage is not the dog’s mistress. Holmes was satisfied that the spaniel was right, and insisted that dogs do not make mistakes in such cases.
Another instance can be cited where the behavior of a dog helped Sherlock Holmes solve a perplexing problem. In talking to Watson, he laid great stress on the fact that Professor Presbury’s heretofore friendly wolfhound Roy had turned on his master and tried to attack him. This extraordinary episode played an important part in the final solution of the mystery (_The Adventure of the Creeping Man_). The facts in the case were these: Professor Presbury, a distinguished physiologist, had fallen madly in love with a very young girl, and, in an effort to regain his lost youth, had periodically been taking hypodermic injections of serum obtained from langurs. According to the story, the monkey serum produced apelike qualities in Professor Presbury. Following the injections, the professor would deliberately and maliciously tease his wolfhound until one night the hound slipped his collar and viciously attacked his master. He buried his muzzle in his master’s throat; and if timely aid had not come, Presbury would have been killed. As Holmes remarked to Watson, the hound thought he was attacking the monkey and not the professor.
Since Holmes was a detective, and not a professional biologist, he seldom found it necessary to use dogs for experimental purposes. Once, however, he did not hesitate to try out the effects of a poison drug, curare, on an old dog which was _in extremis_. It will be recalled that this poison caused instant death (_A Study in Scarlet_). While not a biological scientist--as we understand the word today--Holmes nevertheless was scientifically minded, and it is certain that had the need arisen to obtain evidence which would have helped mankind he would not have hesitated to experiment on a normal, healthy dog. He was a practical man, in the fullest sense of the word, and had, as Watson said, “... an admirably balanced mind” (_A Scandal in Bohemia_).
It is true that both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson grieved when Dr. Mortimer’s pet curly-haired spaniel met its fate on the moor, and they both loved Tobey, the faithful old bloodhound who had aided them in _The Sign of the Four_. However, they did not hesitate to shoot five bullets into the flank of the hound of the Baskervilles when he was at the throat of Sir Henry, or to blow out the brains of Carlo the mastiff when he sank his teeth into the fat neck of the villainous Rucastle. Holmes and Watson were not sentimentalists, but virile, vigorous men of action--the type of men dogs like.
Finally, Dr. Watson pays a tribute to dogs in general in _The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane_. In this story, after McPherson died from his encounter with the Lion’s Mane (_Cyanea capillata_), his pet Airedale eventually met a similar fate. According to Sherlock Holmes himself, the terrier did not eat for a week following his master’s death, and finally followed the trail of his dead master. He was found dead on the edge of the same pool where his master had lost his life. It is true that the terrier did not have the opportunity of saving his master’s life--but no doubt he would have, had it been possible. The story portrays vividly the bond of companionship between a man and his dog, for in this instance the dog apparently gave his life searching for his master. Dr. Watson pays tribute to such devotion in the words of Sherlock Holmes: “That the dog should die was after the beautiful, faithful nature of dogs.” This is a tribute that can be endorsed by all, but especially by biologists, who are so deeply indebted to the dog for the aid it has given in the search for means to alleviate the pain and suffering of mankind. I am certain that every biologist who professes to be a Christian gentleman would say “Amen” to Dr. Watson’s beautiful tribute to an animal which would die so that mankind might live.
THE BOTANICAL DOCTOR WATSON
“... there stood a patriarch among oaks, one of the most magnificent trees that I have ever seen.”
_The Musgrave Ritual_
Many delightful references to plant life may be found in the tales. These allusions enrich the stories and add greatly to their charm and interest. Love for inviting landscapes, for trees, for flowers, and for shrubs appears to be innate in human beings. This would be a drab world indeed without a variegated and a beautiful plant life. One need not be a botanist to appreciate the beauty and fragrance of a rose or a violet. They are different in design, but lovely in their own ways. It is not meet that we attempt to analyze their beauty; let us merely enjoy it. If an extravagant phrase be permitted, let us not subject the beauty of the orchid to the flame of the analytic blowpipe or attempt to measure the fragrance of the June rose with an olfactometer.
After Dr. Watson had lived with Sherlock Holmes a few weeks, he became intensely interested in this quiet but unusual man. One day he sat down and made an attempt to analyze and evaluate Holmes’ conversance in several fields. While Dr. Watson felt that Holmes’ understanding of anatomy was good, his knowledge of botany was “variable.” The worthy doctor writes: “Knowledge of Botany--Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening” (_A Study in Scarlet_). Thus, it appears that Holmes was more interested in medicinal plants, and especially those from which poisons could be extracted. This does not surprise us, because of his interest in crime detection; we know, too, of his researches in the chemistry of the alkaloids.
We must keep in mind that Watson wrote of Sherlock Holmes: “Appreciation of nature found no place among his many gifts” (_The Adventure of the Cardboard Box_). A man uninterested in nature is not apt to take especial notice or appreciate the beauty of flowers or vegetation. We are indebted, therefore, largely to Dr. Watson for the many pleasing references to plant life and landscapes.
We find allusions to a botanist and to the study of botany in _The Valley of Fear_ and in _The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge_. In the first story, Watson likens Holmes to a botanist rapt in his admiration for a beautiful flower; and in the latter story, Watson points out that many instructive days can be spent in the study of botany and suggests the use of an elementary text on the subject, a spud, and a proper box to hold the specimens. The amateur botanist will surely appreciate these suggestions. Such a person will find pleasure no matter where he strays--in the forest, the plains, the mountains, or the desert. He will never be bored.
Dr. Watson obviously loved the vegetation of early spring, for he writes: “... the first faint shoots of green were breaking out upon the elm, and the sticky spearheads of the chestnuts were just beginning to burst into their fivefold leaves” (_The Adventure of the Yellow Face_). Also, we read, “The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out their first green shoots.” (_The Adventure of the Speckled Band_).
The observant doctor was not unmindful of the autumn foliage. In _The Hound of the Baskervilles_, he calls our attention to the melancholy aspect of the countryside in the fall of the year, and speaks of the yellow leaves lying on the ground, some still fluttering down from the trees. In _The Problem of Thor Bridge_, he notes that the plane tree in the backyard was losing its remaining leaves on a stormy October morning. (We would call a plane tree a sycamore.) Some people claim they become somewhat melancholic in the autumn and dislike to see the leaves falling, the grass turning brown, and other signs associated with the fall of the year. I am not one of these. There is much to be said for distinct changes in seasons. The changes occurring in the autumn are necessary so that the wonderful season of spring may be thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed.
Several types of landscapes are pictured. In _A Study in Scarlet_, the arid land in our great West is described:
As far as the eye can reach stretches the great flat plainland, all dusted over with patches of alkali, and intersected by clumps of the dwarfish chaparral bushes.
The purist might object to the term “chaparral bushes,” because chaparral, being a nonspecific term, refers to any stunted type of vegetation found growing on dry soil in our West. It might have been more proper simply to have said “clumps of chaparral.” In the same story, a prosperous, peaceful countryside landscape is depicted: “All looked so peaceful and happy, the rustling trees and the broad silent stretch of grainland....” In _The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist_, a landscape of flowering gorse is described, and attention is called to its golden color on the heather-covered fields.
Dr. Watson obviously was impressed with landscapes of gold and bronze, especially those which contained faded ferns, for we find him using the description several times, for example:
The sun was beginning to sink ... and the long, sloping plain in front of us was tinged with gold, deepening into rich, ruddy browns where the faded ferns and brambles caught the evening light.
_Silver Blaze_
Similarly, in the same story: “... the low curves of the moor, bronze-coloured from the fading ferns, stretched away to the sky line....” Besides these landscapes, several references to some of the famous forests of England are made in _The Adventure of Black Peter_ and _The Naval Treaty_.
As might be anticipated, numerous allusions are made to trees. Dr. Watson presents a pleasing picture: “Just beyond it is a nice little grove of Scotch firs, and I used to be very fond of strolling down there, for trees are always a neighborly kind of thing” (_The Yellow Face_). The word “neighborly” strikes a sympathetic note. All of us have experienced this feeling at one time or another. Walking in a pleasant woodland, one can quietly commune with nature. The singular thing is that on such occasions the creative mind is often stimulated. New ideas and new concepts apparently rise from the subconscious to the higher brain centers. Numerous examples could be given of this truly remarkable phenomenon.
Dr. Watson must have had a lively interest in oak trees, for he alludes to them on several occasions. He speaks of “ancient” oaks and “mighty” oaks, terms surely applicable to the famous English oak trees (_The Valley of Fear_ and _The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist_).
The prize oak, presumably, is the one described in _The Musgrave Ritual_. Sherlock Holmes related the story to Dr. Watson one winter night: “... there stood a patriarch among oaks, one of the most magnificent trees that I have ever seen.” He went on to quote his host, Reginald Musgrave: “It was there at the Norman Conquest in all probability.... It has a girth of twenty-three feet.” Truly, it was a mighty oak and worthy of comment. If its girth was twenty-three feet, it had a diameter of approximately seven and one-third feet. The events described in the story occurred in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, so the tree must have been over nine hundred years old if it dated from the Norman Conquest of 1066.
Probably few people appreciate the longevity of oak trees. I recall, as a child, an oak that stood not far from my home. I have seen it periodically for over a half-century. It still looks about the same as when I first saw it, but presumably it has had a slow but steady growth throughout the years. Assuming that such a tree is not ravaged by wind and storm or struck by lightning, it probably will stand for several centuries. This is a fascinating thought, because it staggers the imagination to think what historical events could occur during such a span of years.
Dr. Watson describes trees in various settings, such as parks (_The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist_ and _The Adventure of the Abbey Grange_), and in several instances as borders for avenues or lanes. A number of examples might be cited, but one will suffice: “The house ... with a fine lime-lined avenue leading to it” (_The “Gloria Scott”_).
In _The Hound of the Baskervilles_, the Yew Alley of Baskerville Hall played an extremely important part in the story. It will be recalled that Sir Charles, before going to bed at night, was wont to take a walk down the Yew Alley. One night he saw the huge hound which the evil Stapleton had purposely let loose on the moor. Sir Charles became so frightened that he ran headlong and dropped dead from a heart attack.
In this story, too, mention is made of trees which have been subjected to adverse growing conditions. Dr. Watson speaks of trees which have been stunted and nipped on the moor, and emphasizes how the oaks and firs are bent and twisted by the furious storms throughout the years. The bizarre shapes which such trees assume are truly fascinating. Their irregular outlines appear ghostlike by night and weird by day. They are the joy of the amateur photographer and the professional artist.
Various types of trees are used to create a proper setting for the mystery stories. In _The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone_, a melancholy grove of half-grown pines is described; and in _The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge_, a row of chestnuts is depicted as giving the avenue a gloomy appearance.
The fact that pine trees are used to set the note for a gloomy landscape calls for comment. I have always felt that a clump of evergreen trees around a house creates a distinctly depressing atmosphere; this is especially true if the house is isolated in the country. To me these somber trees give a sense of loneliness and gloom, and bring to mind Anna Katherine Green’s mystery story, _The House of Whispering Pines_. It may be that this story, which I read in my youth, is the reason for my feeling. I am sure, in any event, that many people enjoy evergreen trees around their home, especially in winter, as a welcome relief from the drab, slate-gray landscape.
Besides those trees already enumerated, several other species are mentioned throughout the tales: namely, the larch, the beech, and the copper beech. In _The Adventure of the Copper Beeches_, this description occurs: “The group of trees with their dark leaves shining like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun....”
Flower beds and borders are described in several of the tales. In _The Sign of the Four_, we find that: “... just under the window a single foot-mark was visible in the flower bed.” Also, in _The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot_, a flower border lying underneath the window is noted, but it contained no trace of a footprint. Obviously, footprints are a necessary component of mystery stories; and what better place to look for them than in the soft earth of a flower bed under a window?
In all the stories, only a few flowers are specifically named: crocuses, orchids, roses, and violets. In _The Hound of the Baskervilles_, when Dr. Watson met the wife of the naturalist Stapleton on the moor, she asked him to pick an orchid for her, and explained that the moor was rich in them. This is supposed to have occurred in the fall of the year. It seems singular that orchids would be in bloom at that time.
The amateur gardener will be sympathetically interested to read of gardens and lawns which did not live up to expectations: “A small garden sprinkled over with a scattered eruption of sickly plants separated each of these houses” (_A Study in Scarlet_). In _The Adventure of the Retired Colourman_, a sorry-looking garden is depicted. It is pictured as going to seed and bearing every evidence of gross neglect. In _The Red-Haired League_, an ill-kept lawn is described: “... where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded laurel bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and uncongenial atmosphere.”