[back] One swallow does not make a Spring: A variation of a quote by the philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE): “One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
[back] Coruscations: A flash or sparkle of light. From the Latin coruscate- for “glittered.”
[back] Balaam’s ass: Balaam was an unscrupulous prophet who was bribed to curse Israel on behalf of the king of Moab. Balaam’s ass spoke to him when an angel appeared to make him obey the will of the Lord.
[back] Mrs. Grundy: A figurative name for a priggish, conventional character who imposes her values on society. Inspired either by a minor character in Thomas Morton’s play Speed the Plough (1798), or a royal housekeeper, Sarah Hannah Grundy (1804-1863). At Hampton Court Palace, whose residents were given apartments as thanks for their service to the crown, Grundy was notorious for overseeing their behavior.
[back] Mashers: Men who paid unwelcome attentions to women in public. “Fly” was a slang word meaning “highly skilled.”
[back] Crummier: Although crummy meant lousy or terrible—and still does—it also described a pleasingly plump, well-developed woman.
[back] Bloaters: A cold-smoked herring, named because they swell while being prepared.
[back] Adduced: Cited as evidence. From the Latin ad- for “towards” and –ducere for “to lead.”
[back] Pot-hat: Another word for a bowler, not to be confused with the top hat, nor the taller chimney-pot or stove-pipe hat.
[back] Cheesemonger: A seller of cheese and other dairy products.
[back] Burin-scratches: As a burin is a tool used in engraving, the connection with excessive drinking is not apparent.
[back] With inked seams: Inking the seams disguised the fact that thread of a different color was used to repair his frock coat (which is a coat characterized by its knee-length skirt). Clearly Hoakes had fallen on hard times.
[back] Manila cheroots: A cigar made from tobacco harvested in the Philippines. It was notable for being made from cheaper grades of the leaf and sold to foreign sailors who didn’t know (or could afford) better.
[back] Millbank: A prison built on marshland near the Thames in London’s Pimlico area. It operated from 1816 to 1890, when it was demolished in stages until 1903 and the land redeveloped.
[back] Scotland-yard: London’s Metropolitan Police. Although its original location was at 4 Whitehall Place, its rear entrance opened onto Great Scotland Yard, hence the name.
[back] Popular Educator: A weekly magazine founded in 1852 by printer John Cassell (1817-1865) aimed at encouraging working-class readers to improve their education and employment prospects. Future Prime Minister Lloyd George said that reading it as a child in Wales helped shape his future.
[back] “That blessed word Mesopotamia”: Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable tells of the old woman “who told her pastor that she found great support in ‘that comfortable word Mesopotamia.’” This might be a variation of a story about Anglican preacher George Whitefield (1714-1770), whose voice was so powerful that actor David Garrick said that “he could make men laugh or cry by pronouncing Mesopotamia.”
[back] Out four days: As a prisoner, his hair had been cropped short as an anti-lice measure.
[back] Camberwell: A district in the borough of Southwark in London, south of the Thames.
[back] An uncommon occurrence: A nod to a similar situation in “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor,” published in The Strand that month, when Lord St. Simon asked Holmes to discover why his bride disappeared immediately after her wedding.
[back] Ulster: A long overcoat worn during the daytime. Until the 1890s, it was worn with a cape attached. Named for the Irish town where it was originally sold.
[back] Whipthongs: A whip attached to a short stick used in fox hunting. The thong refers to the flexible leather braided section of the whip. It is located in between the handle at one end and the popper and the fall at the other.
[back] Chemical diamond pin: The cubic zirconium of its day, this was a diamond created through a manufacturing process instead of by mining.
[back] Playin’ the ’anky-panky: Moore and Burgess: George “Pony” Moore (1820-1909) and Frederic Burgess (1827-1893) were American music hall performers, notable for appearing as part of the New Christy Minstrel before forming the Moore and Burgess Minstrels in 1871. Hanky-panky: Trickery, double-dealing or cheating. Later, it would be associated with sexual intercourse.
[back] Auscultated: In medicine, the act of listening to a patient’s chest with a stethoscope.
[back] Phtisical: Tuberculosis or a similar wasting disease.
[back] Four-line “whip”: In Parliament, a whip is a note sent by a political party official—usually the Chief Whip—to its members asking them to attend a particular session. A “four-line whip” is a particularly important summons. It gets its name from the four lines underscoring the opening word “Important” and the concluding sentence “Your punctual attendance is most particularly requested.”
[back] Aphasia: An inability to speak or understand words after suffering brain damage.
[back] Ostler’s sleeved vest: An ostler took care of visitors’ horses at an inn.
[back] Settle: A long wooden bench with arms and a high back, placed before the fire to trap the heat.
[back] Catarrhally: Catarrh is an inflammation of the mucus membrane in which the nose and air passages become filled with mucus.
[back] Truckle bed: A low bed with wheels that can be slid under a larger bed.
[back] Gentian quinine: Vamp: Used as a verb, it means to improve or renovate. Gentian: A liquid distilled from gentian plants, now used to make Angostura bitters, and as a flavoring in aperitifs, liqueurs, and tonics. Quinine: An alkaloid derived from the bark of the cinchona tree later used to treat malaria. Bread pills and gentian quinine were once believed to be effective medicines to aid the digestion, but by this time were considered quack remedies. Bread pills were still used as a placebo, given to patients who insisted they needed to take something for their ills.
[back] Coroner’s jury: A jury at an inquest that hears evidence and determines if there was a crime and who should be charged with it.
[back] New Cut: A street that runs between Waterloo Road in Lambeth to Blackfriars Road in Southwark. It is most notable for its weekend market, when hundreds of hucksters thronged the street, selling all kinds of goods and services to the lower classes, in the process creating a distinctive clothing style and attitude.
[back] Aether nit. cum cinch: Aether nit. is spirit of nitrous ether, commonly called sweet spirit of nitre. It was used to treat fever, as an antispasmodic, and to increase the flow of urine.
[back] Salisbury and Gladstone: Two British politicians who dominated British politics during this era. Robert, Marquess of Salisbury (1830-1903) was prime minister three times and William Gladstone (1809-1898) served four times. Not knowing them was like not knowing who Queen Victoria was.
[back] Slating: Slang for criticizing or cutting up.
[back] William Watson: Now forgotten, poet William Watson (1858-1935) was celebrated in his time. He was passed over twice for the poet laureateship, the first as a result of a nervous breakdown, and the second because his political poems offended the prime minister.
[back] Chambers: In the legal profession, chambers are rooms used by barristers or a judge. They have an outer door—traditionally made of oak—and an inner door, creating a vestibule in between. This design reduced air infiltration from outside and provided a measure of privacy.
[back] Donner und Blitzen: Literally “thunder and lightning” in German. It also was used as a mild oath by German characters in English fiction similar to “Gott im Himmel” (God in Heaven) and the French “mille tonnerres” (a thousand thunders).
[back] Fusees: A conical-shaped gear used to help spring-powered watches keep time.
[back] Tape machine: Some gambling halls accepted bets on horse races and used tape machines, connected to the telegraph, to receive the race results.
[back] Durrant’s Press Notices: In 1879, Lithuanian Henry Romeike opened the first agency in London to collect and redistribute newspaper and magazine articles to its clients. Durrants Press Cuttings was still in business until 2010, when it acquired online media company Gorkana and assumed its name.
[back] South Norwood: Conan Doyle’s home in southeast London from 1891 to 1894.
[back] Auld Licht Something: A reference to Barrie’s book Auld Licht Idylls (1888).
[back] Irkoutsk: An archaic spelling of Irkutsk, one of the largest cities in the Siberian region of Russia.
[back] Nihilist: A Russian political movement—the name means “nothing”—that rejects all authority and advocates violence to bring about change. The group rose in notoriety after they assassinated several government officials. They tried to kill Tsar Alexander II several times before succeeding in 1881, days before he would announce a move to a constitutional democracy. This event created one of the more fascinating “what if’s” of history, because his son Alexander III revoked the plan and clamped down on dissent, indirectly leading to the Russian Revolution.
[back] Charing-Cross Station: A railway station in the City of Westminster. It is located at Charing Cross Road and the Strand.
[back] Scarlatina: Scarlet fever, an infectious disease that commonly affects children. Midshipmen in the Royal Navy were typically boys who, until the mid-19th century, entered the service as young as 12 years old.
[back] Mess-jacket: A formal jacket that ended at the waist, used in the military to wear to formal evening occasions such as dinners or balls. The mess describes the area where military personnel eat. In use since the 15th century, the word is derived from the Old French mes for “portion of food.”
[back] Fortnightly Review: An intellectual literary and political magazine co-founded Anthony Trollope in 1865 that published articles by literary figures such as George Meredith, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Algernon Swinburne.
[back] Moujik: The word is an archaic Russian spelling of peasant, so a moujik blouse is a loose-fitting shirt peasants would wear.
[back] Times: A daily newspaper founded in 1785. This is the “original” Times, its name appropriated by newspapers around the world, including The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The leading article refers to the newspaper’s top story, infused with the editor’s distinctive voice and opinions.
[back] Worsted: Worsted is a smooth yarn spun from wool, typically used for suits. From Worstead, a parish in Norfolk that was a manufacturing center for cloth in the 12th century.
[back] Beer and skitties: An idiom referring to the fun times one can have down at the pub. Skittles is an early version of ten-pin bowling that used nine pins set up in a square pattern. The phrase “Life isn’t all beer and skittles” comes from Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857) by Thomas Hughes.
[back] Crystal Palace: A magnificent structure of plate-glass and cast-iron—imagine a greenhouse on steroids—built in Hyde Park to house the 1851 Great Exhibition. It was rebuilt in south London three years later and used for exhibitions and events. During the summer of 1893, for example, visitors could see “Amazon warriors” from Dahomey, captured by the French Army, performing war dances and engaging in sham fighting; Paul Martinetti “and his renowned American Pantomime Company”; or Lockhart’s elephants. For those with less money to spend, there was the free picture gallery, aquarium or museum. The palace was destroyed by fire in 1936. An excellent contemporary example, on a much smaller scale, can be found at Longwood Garden’s conservatory in Kennet Square, Pa.
[back] Bump of mendacity: A reference to the pseudoscience of judging a person’s character by the shape of his skull.
[back] Bath bun: A sweet roll made with a milk-based yeast dough. It is baked with a lump of sugar inside and crushed sugar sprinkled on top.
[back] Perdu: Out of sight. From the French word for “to lose.”
[back] Coign of vantage: A favorable position for observation. A coign is a projecting wall in a building. In a siege, a castle’s coign lets you watch the besiegers from a safe position. The phrase first appeared in Macbeth.
[back] In propria persona: A Latin phrase meaning “in his own person.”
[back] Embrocation: A lotion rubbed into the skin to ease the pain from strained and sprained muscles.
[back] Quick-change variety artist: A performer who changes quickly from one costume to another. A To-Day magazine writer, seeing one act backstage in 1897, described how the performer “had no fewer than three dressers, each one with special duties well known and quickly performed. He ran off the stage at one end, and, as he raced along the back, his costume was changed; he went out a man, and came in again as a woman; and so quickly was it done that the change seemed to be done by machinery, rather than by the dressers.”
[back] Advertisement canvasser: A man who visits businesses and solicits ads for magazines.
[back] Daddy wouldn’t buy me a bow-wow: A popular song written in 1892 by Joseph Tabrar. It has resurfaced several times in popular culture: in the Doctor Who episode “The Hand of Fear” (1976), the movie The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980), and, to accompany a striptease, in Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983).
[back] Imperial Institute: A government facility founded in 1887 to promote research that would economically benefit the empire. Raison d’etre is French for “reason for existence.”
[back] Exhibition of Earl’s: Probably a reference to a desolate area in Earls Court near two Underground stations. John Robinson Whitley constructed there an entertainment area, the Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre, that failed to turn a profit.
[back] Posener clay: A pipe manufactured by A. Posener & Son. The company sold its wares under the A.D. Pierson label. Coincidentally, Leslie Klinger in his annotated edition of the stories identifies an A.D.P. pipe that appears in “Silver Blaze” as a Posener.
[back] Latakia and navy cut: Latakia was a tobacco named for the port city in Syria where it was produced. Most smokers prefer to soften its strong taste by mixing it with milder varieties. Watson preferred to use Player’s Navy Cut, which uses a mild Burley leaf from Virginia. The Navy cut name was inspired by the sailors who would cure the leaf with a combination of rum, molasses and spices.
[back] Pickwick or Count Fosco: Two fictional characters whose personalities inhabit opposite ends of the moral spectrum. Pickwick is the comic character from Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers (1836), while Count Fosco is the villain in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White (1859).
[back] To go “nap”: Gambling slang for risking everything on a single card or throw of the dice.
[back] Henry Cockton: English novelist (1807-1853) whose Sylvester Sound was promoted by his publisher as “decidedly the most exquisitely humorous Work ever issued from the Press, and as may be well expected, a Somnabulist’s midnight wanderings form one continuation of incident and interest from the first page to the last.”
[back] David Cox: English painter (1783-1859), considered a precursor of impressionism for his highly regarded landscape paintings in oils and watercolor.
[back] (Edin.): Signifying that he was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Edinburgh branch.
[back] On the tapis: An Anglicization of the French phrase sur le tapis or “on the table-cloth,” meaning under consideration by a committee or an official.
[back] Kill him in self-defence: Conan Doyle made this point in an 1896 speech to the Author’s Club: “I have been much blamed for doing that gentleman to death, but I hold that it was not murder, but justifiable homicide in self-defence, since, if I had not killed him, he would certainly have killed me.”
[back] Condy’s Fluid: A disinfectant and deodorizer invented by chemist Henry Condy (1826-1907).
[back] Pretty ones: In Macbeth, Macduff learns that his wife and children were killed and cries out, “All my pretty ones? Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam, at one fell swoop?”
[back] Time of Akbar: Also known as Abu’l-Fath Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar (1542-1605), the powerful Mughal emperor of India.
[back] Temperance Hotel: Hotels where alcohol was not served. Bloomsbury became associated with them and was mentioned in E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View (1908) and Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies (1930).
[back] With imitation pearl pin: Melton: A dense, tight-woven cloth made of wool. Named for Melton Mowbray, a town in Leicestershire; billycock: a bowler hat, named for William Coke, who is given most of the credit for its design (the hat’s other nickname came from its creators, hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler); pique: A diamond-pattern weaving style characterized by raising alternate parallel cords.
[back] “Circle” station: A station on the Circle line of the Underground. Before 2009, it looped around central London from Notting Hill Gate to Tower Hill and back. In 2009, an extension line was added that connected the loop to Hammersmith.
[back] Death and damnation: Othello explodes with this curse when Iago suggests he could confirm his suspicions about Desdemona’s faithfulness by watching her have sex with her lover.
[back] The word ‘drawers’: While some stories of Victorian prudishness have been exploded—they didn’t dress their piano legs out of modesty’s sake, for example—as early as 1823, underwear and even trousers were disguised with the covert designation “unmentionables.” One amusing example can be found in Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Forced to describe his actions in mixed company, Giles the butler has to resort to misdirection to get his point across:
“I tossed off the clothes,” said Giles . . . looking very hard at the cook and housemaid, “Got softly out of bed; drew on a pair of—”
“Ladies present, Mr. Giles,” murmured the tinker.
“—of shoes, sir,” said Giles . . . laying great emphasis on the word.
[back] Carminative mixture: A tonic consisting of essential oils and herbs used to prevent flatulence.
[back] Spectroscope: An instrument used to measure light over a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
[back] Datura tatula: A plant also called Jimson weed in the poisonous nightshade family.
[back] Bistouries: A surgical knife whose blade can be long and narrow or curved.
[back] Medulla oblongata: The lower half of the brainstem where it enters the skull. The medulla controls the heart and lungs.
[back] Patella: The kneecap.
[back] In one spot: Planipetalous: Planipetala is a term from botany and means having flat petals; adherent: Sticking fast to a surface.
[back] Pachydermatous: A thick skin.
[back] Primogeniture: Now the author’s just being silly. Primogeniture signifies the right of the king to pass his crown to his firstborn child.
[back] Polyphloisboiothalassical: A word drawn from Homer’s Odyssey, meaning “loud-roaring sea.”
[back] Deal-Box: A deal is a technical term for a board of a particular size sawn from a soft wood such as fir or pine. Deal boards were as big as 7 inches wide, 3 inches thick and 6 feet long, but the actual size varied depending on the country it came from. Any object with deal in its name, such as deal table or deal box, were built with these types of boards.
[back] Wink his other eye: In a deck of cards, the king of diamonds is traditionally depicted sideways with one eye showing.
[back] Takes Iris home: Details taken from Charles Press’ introduction to the story in his Bedside Book of Early Sherlockian Parodies and Pastiches.
[back] Varsity: A shortened form of the word university. Until 1948, several universities could send one or two members to Parliament, including Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, and Edinburgh.
[back] Sdeath!: A mild oath that’s a shortened form of “God’s death.”
[back] Than it reely is: This is exactly how Conan Doyle devised his stories. According to Charles Higham’s biography: “He thought of the solution to the crime first; then he developed the remainder of the story, working with as much artistry as possible to conceal the solution from his readers until the last pages.”
[back] Accordin’ to Hoyle: A reference to Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769) who wrote rulebooks on games such as whist, backgammon, and chess. They sold so well that “according to Hoyle” entered the language to mean that a person is an authority on the subject.
[back] Whist: A variant spelling of whisht, an exclamation meaning “to hush” or “to demand silence.” So in this case the author means “the winds were silenced.”
[back] Ha’porth: Half-penny’s worth, a small amount indeed. The word is also slang in the north of England for a silly or stupid person, such as a “daft ha’porth.”
[back] Tally-ho and six: A carriage drawn by six horses. Inspired by the name of a fast coach that traveled between London and Birmingham in the 18th century.
[back] Grieg: The piece by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) is “Love’s Dream after the Ball,” opus 356.
[back] Sarasate: Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) was a Spanish violinist and composer, famous for his performing style which, as George Bernard Shaw wrote, “left criticism gasping miles behind him.”
[back] Pink ‘un: A reference to The Sporting Times, a weekly newspaper particularly devoted to horse racing. It was known as “The Pink ’Un” for its pink newsprint.
[back] Vidocq: A reference to the thief-turned-detective Eugène Francois Vidocq (1775-1857) who founded the French national police, the Surete.
[back] B. & s.: A brandy and soda.
[back] De mortuis nil nisi bonum: Latin for “don’t speak ill of the dead.”
[back] Three months’ service: At the beginning of the Civil War, the thinking was that the conflict would not last long, and volunteers were called up to serve for only 90 days. This was also the practice throughout the war for militias in states that were invaded by the Confederate Army.
[back] W.C.T.U.: Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the group leading the fight to ban the sale of alcohol in the United States.
[back] Floorwalker: An employee in a large shop who supervises the sales staff and assists customers.
[back] Sough or two: A play on words. A sough means to make a moaning, rushing, or whistling sound. It pronounced like “sow,” which is an adult female pig.
[back] Tom Sharkey: The joke here is that the man is repeatedly mistaken either for the obese Prince of Wales or heavyweight champion boxer Sharkey (1873-1953).
[back] Gin phiz: A play on the drink called a gin fizz. The slang word for a face was “phiz.”
[back] Dodge-Morse case: A notorious legal case involving “ice baron” Charles W. Morse (1856-1933) and his wife Clemence Dodge. In 1904, “evidence” surfaced that her divorce from a previous union was illegal. Her marriage rights were restored after a trial revealed that Morse’s uncle had paid a lawyer to find a way to destroy the marriage. She remained married to Morse until her death in 1926.
[back] Co.-I-Noor diamond: A reference to the Koh-i-Noor diamond, a large diamond mined in India. It was owned by a ruling family in south India, acquired by various invaders, and is now part of the British Crown Jewels.
[back] Obloquy: In disgrace, or using abusive language. From the Latin obloqui meaning “to speak against.”
[back] Ormulu clock: A clock in which gold was gilded to the bronze case using a technique involving a mercury amalgam.
[back] Vox populi, vox Dei: Latin for “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
[back] Q. E. D.: Quod erat demonstrandum, a Latin phrase which means “what was to be demonstrated.” Traditionally used at the end of a mathematical proof or philosophical argument to indicate that the theory has been proved.
[back] First-water: The two extremes of gemstone quality. A first-water diamond is of the highest purity and quality, while a Rhine diamond—now called a rhinestone—is made of quartz.
[back] Walledup-Hysteria: A reference to the Waldorf-Astoria, a popular New York hotel.
[back] Lucullus: A politician from the late Roman Republic (107-30 BCE). The lavishness and quality of his banquets were so famous that the word Lucullan came to mean gourmet.
[back] Baedeker’s: The brand name for travel guides from German publisher Karl Baedecker (1801-1859).
[back] Incog: Short for incognito.
[back] Jubilee season: In 1897, Queen Victoria marked the 60th anniversary of her rule with the diamond jubilee celebrations.
[back] Table d’hote: French for “host’s table,” it means a restaurant meal in which, instead of choosing from a menu, diners are served a series of dishes for a fixed price.
[back] Junius letters: A collection of letters signed by “Junius” that appeared in the Public Advertiser from 1769 and 1772. The writer’s accusations that the British government infringed the rights and liberties of Englishmen led to trials of the publisher and bookseller for seditious libel.
[back] 5,000 oboli: A coin used in ancient Greece.