The Mary Russell Companion (37 page)
Read The Mary Russell Companion Online
Authors: Laurie R. King
Tags: #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Mystery, #Women Sleuths, #Reference, #Writing; Research & Publishing Guides, #Research
[67]
This theme was of course familiar Watson—many term “The Final Problem” and “The Empty House” as grand tales of death and resurrection.
[68]
Humph. See note 62, above.
[69]
As Holmes tells Watson (in
Hound of the Baskervilles
), “It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light.”
[70]
It has been noted that Russell’s theological interests bear a remarkable similarity to those of Laurie King, whose MA degree included a thesis entitled, “Feminine Aspects of God in the Old Testament”. Indeed, that overlap contributed to Russell’s choice of Ms King as literary agent for the memoirs. (For details, see “My Story”, elsewhere in this Companion.)
[71]
The Board of Agriculture of England organised the “Land Army” in 1915, enlisting women to replace the agricultural manpower lost to enlistment in the military. By the end of 1917, there were over 250,000 women working as farm labourers, with 20,000 in the land army itself. The women who served in the “Land Army” were known as “Land Girls,” and their contribution went far to bringing women the vote beginning in 1918.
[72]
Biographers have long wondered whether there might be a connection between “Hudson,” the crew member of “The Gloria Scott” who becomes a blackmailer, and Holmes’s landlady. Others have noted another possible connection with Morse Hudson, the owner of a shop selling pictures and statuary in Kensington (“The Six Napoleons”). Then again, Hudson was a common name in 19
th
century London.
[73]
No doubt the Barkers, introduced at the end of this chapter.
[74]
German zeppelins began dropping explosives over London in January, 1915, and kept up the barrage until the last summer of the War, a precursor to The Blitz of WWII. Zeppelin bombing enters into the events of Laurie R. King’s “Beekeeping for Beginners”.
[75]
Oxford’s Michaelmas or Autumn term runs from October to December.
As Holmes before her (Was he at Oxford? Or a Cambridge man?) Russell never specifically reveals which college she attended (although when under cover, she gives the pseudonym of Lady Margaret Hall). At the time, there were four women’s colleges: Lady Margaret Hall, Somerville, St Hugh’s, and St Hilda’s. Women were permitted to sit University exams, but not until October, 1920 did the University formally matriculate women, including those who had previously taken the exams. Dorothy L. Sayers (Somerville, 1912-1915) received her MA degree then, along with Annie Mary Anne Henley Rogers, whose application in 1873, under the name A. M. A. H. Rogers, had been accepted by the University, then de-accepted when her sex became known. She received first-class honours in Latin, Greek, and Ancient History in 1877 and 1879, but had to wait until she was 64 to join that first matriculating class in 1920.
[76]
In
A Study in Scarlet
and “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” Holmes’s expertise regarding tobacco ash is mentioned, and in
The Sign of Four
, his monograph entitled
Upon the Distinction Between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccos
is specifically referenced. Holmes describes it in the course of the latter case as “enumerat[ing] a hundred and forty forms of cigar, cigarette, and pipe tobacco, with coloured plates illustrating the difference in the ash. “ Evidently the study was somewhat simplified for Ms. Russell by eliminating the last category of tobacco. Either that or by 1917 the number of “common” brands had decreased.
[77]
“Pal’s Regiments” were an attempt to boost enlistment by encouraging groups of men, from businesses, villages, colleges, and the like, to join together, assuring them that they would be serving together to defend their country. The policy lapsed after conscription began in early 1916, but existing “Pals” were often left together.
[78]
The episode has yet to come to light in Russell’s memoirs. Perhaps this is an adventure for which the world is not yet ready.
[79]
The nickname for a British soldier, “Tommy”, comes from the fuller “Tommy Atkins,” but beyond that, the origins become cloudy. There was no doubt a private of that name, but whether he was one of Wellington’s men in 1843, a Royal Welch Fusilier in 1776, or a soldier in a Jamaican uprising in 1743, can no longer be established.
[80]
Russell appears to have decided to leave the chemical demands of their partnership to Holmes, since with certain exceptions over the years, theology became her central focus.
[81]
Although a few thousand US soldiers arrived in France during 1917 (and there were individual volunteers from the very start) the bulk of the American Expeditionary Forces did not arrive until the beginning of 1918. By May, a million US “Doughboys”—and their vast shiploads of arms and supplies—were pouring into the exhausted Front, and the balance began rapidly to tip in favor of the Allies.
[82]
One goes “up” to Oxford, no matter the point of origin. And although from Oxford one may go “up” to Town (ie, London), if one goes to London permanently, one is going down. Also see note 61.
[83]
That is, the trio made a circuit of the Christchurch meadows, then passed between Cathedral and Hall (the college dining room, as seen in the Harry Potter films) to enter the grand central quad, then passed beside the porter’s lodge to exit through the St Aldate’s gate. (Which, incidentally, is repetitive, since Aldate began as “old gate,” a persona later informally sanctified, hence they go through the Saint Old-Gate’s Gate. It is mildly noteworthy that the pedantic Russell does not feel the need to point this out here.)
[84]
A pandemic occurring in 1348 to 1350 C.E., killing between 75 to 200 million people in Europe. In England, it first appeared in Bristol, moving rapidly to Oxford and then to London. However, Ms. Russell’s remark is undoubtedly hyperbolic rather than based on actual figures.
[85]
The hansom cab, a two-wheeled, horse-drawn closed carriage capable of holding two close friends, had a roof some six feet off the ground. Curfew was at 9:00—or rather, 9:20, since it took a good twenty minutes for the Christchurch clock to ring its 101 chimes.
[86]
Since so many undergraduates of both sexes and dons (teachers) were serving in the armed forces or various aspects of the “home front”, it was a logical use of college buildings to fill the college beds, common rooms, and kitchens with the wounded. This was the closest many young soldiers came to an Oxford education.
[87]
“Blighty” is a corruption of a Hindi word, used by British soldiers in the Subcontinent to refer fondly to home. A Blighty wound was much to be desired in the trenches, since it was serious enough to mean home leave or even discharge—hence “Blighty return”—but not permanently maiming. Self-inflected attempts at Blighty wounds were dangerous, since if caught, it could mean execution.
Shell shock—devastating cases of what is now called PTSD were endemic to Front-line soldiers—was rarely grounds for discharge, and if so, usually for the officer class.
[88]
The college porter was a gatekeeper, resident uncle, police-cum-butler, postmaster, keeper of the keys, enforcer of the curfew, and offerer-of-tea. The porter’s lodge is at the entrance to the college, and he is responsible for the security of all that lies within.
[89]
The Taming of the Shrew
, Act IV, Scene 2. The line means approximately, “Kate, are you feeling blue?”
[90]
The “Men of Somerville” included Siegfried Sassoon (in the autumn of 1916), and Robert Graves was posted there in 1917.
[91]
Summer or Trinity term in Oxford is from April to June.
[92]
An expelled student may be either permanently “sent down” or merely “rusticated”—that is, sent for one or more terms to live among the rustics, contemplating his (or her) sins.
[93]
The Proctor is a university officer in charge of discipline. His “bulldogs” are the University police, a private constabulary who hold full powers of arrest in the vicinity of the colleges.
[94]
Scouts are college servants or housekeepers.
[95]
Gas rings, single burners suitable for boiling water or warming soup, were found in “bedsit” apartments, along with fold-down beds, inadequate lighting, wobbly tables, and gas wall heaters operated by coins.
[96]
This reference also appears in “The Greek Interpreter”, although there, too, which “French artist Vernet” is not made clear. Possibly Émile Jean Horace Vernet (1789-1863), a French painter of martial pieces and Arab life, whose defiant truth-telling in battle paintings did not always sit well with his patrons.
[97]
Winter or Hilary term, from January to March.
[98]
This play is reputedly Holmes’s favorite of Shakespeare’s work, quoted twice by him in Watson’s accounts of their adventures. Many scholars argue that Holmes’s birthday was “twelfth night” (January 6).
[99]
The Hameau de la Reine, the “Queen's Hamlet,” is a cluster of farm buildings on the grounds of the palace of Versailles. It was built for Marie Antoinette in 1783 and served as a private meeting place for the Queen and her closest friends, a place where they indulged fantasies of rural life.
[100]
Clearly, this took place before baritsu brought Russell’s “various limbs under control.” Cf. footnote 60.
[101]
As often, Holmes is ahead of his time scientifically. Although the ABO group was identified in 1901, the next stage of identification, that of the Rhesus group, did not come to light until 1937.
Table of Contents
Introduction to The Mary Russell Companion
The Mary Russell Companion Table of Contents