The Journal of the Bootmakers of Toronto Volume 38 Number 3 Summer 2015 Canadian Holmes is published by The Bootmakers of Toronto, the Sherlock Holmes Society of Canada. Bootprints (editors) are Mark and JoAnn Alberstat, 46 Kingston Crescent, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B3A 2M2, Canada, to whom letters and editorial submissions should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected] and on Twitter at @CanadianHolmes Membership and subscription rates Canadian Individual - Cdn$35.00 Canadian Joint (One copy of CH per household) - Cdn$45.00 Canadian Student (Full-time student 16+) - Cdn$25.00 U.S. Individual - US$40.00 U.S. Associate - US$35.00 International - US$40.00 Past Issues of Canadian Holmes, including postage - Cdn$12.00 per copy Further Subscription information and details are available on the society’s website, www.torontobootmakers.com. Business correspondence should be addressed to The Bootmakers of Toronto, PO Box 1157, TDC Postal Station, 77 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5K 1P2, Canada. Copyright © 2015 The Bootmakers of Toronto. Copyright in all individual articles is hereby assigned to their respective authors. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 40038614, The Bootmakers of Toronto, PO Box 1157, TDC Postal Station, 77 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5K 1P2, Canada. Return postage guaranteed. ISSN 0319-4493. Printed in Canada. Cover: Artwork by Laurie Fraser Manifold for Sonia Fetherston’s article on the letter V. Canadian Holmes Volume 38 Number 3 Summer 2015 One hundred and forty fourth issue Contents Canadian Holmes Summer 2015 Volume 38 Number 3 Traces of Bootprints 1 By Mark Alberstat From Mrs. Hudson’s Kitchen 2 By Wendy Heyman-Marsaw A Study in “V” 4 By Sonia Fetherston Letters to the editors 11 The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane - Song 13 By Karen Gold A Tribute to Leonard Nimoy and his Sherlockian Connections 14 By Barbara Rusch A Tiger Tale Worth Telling — Arthur Conan Doyle’s 18 First Story By Donny Zaldin A Game of Holmes 24 By Tim Kline Sherlock Holmes and Scotland Yard 27 By Mary E. Campbell From the Editors’ Bookshelf 34 Letters from Lomax 35 By Peggy Perdue News Notes from Across the Country 37 Bootmakers’ Diary 39 By Bruce Aikin and David Sanders RACES OF BOOTPRINTS An actor and a rare one… While we were putting the final touches on this issue, news broke that Sir Christopher Lee had died on June 7 at the age of 93. Lee’s career was a long one that spanned several decades and genres. He will be missed not only by the film world but also by the Sherlockian one. He was “an actor and a rare one.” Through his 65-year career he had nearly 300 film- acting credits, including Sir Henry Baskerville and both Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes. The Sir Henry role came in the 1959 version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, where Peter Cushing played Holmes. Lee took on the lead role in Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, an international film produced in Germany in 1962. Eight years later he was Mycroft Holmes in Billy Wilder’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. He played Sherlock again in the 1990s in two movies made for TV: Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady and Incident at Victoria Falls. During the 1980s Lee became associated with Holmes when he hosted a retrospective titled The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes. This documentary, released shortly after Spielberg’s Young Sherlock Holmes, looked at the various portrayers of Holmes on stage and screen. This show can still be viewed on YouTube. Another actor who recently crossed over the Reichenbach is Leonard Nimoy. Although best known as Spock on the original Star Trek series, he also played Sherlock Holmes and is remembered in an article by Barbara Rusch on page 14. For the first time since we began editing the journal, we have a husband and wife team contributing to the same issue. This is done by Barbara’s husband, Donny Zaldin, whose article on Doyle’s first story begins on page 18. The cover art for this issue is by our artist-in-residence, Laurie Fraser Manifold, who created three unique pieces of art for Sonia Fetherston’s article on the letter V. That feature article begins on page 4. Keeping in mind that Sherlockians also have to look on the lighter side of our hobby/obsession, Tim Kline has an article on Game of Holmes. Canadian Holmes Summer 2015 1 From Mrs. Hudson’s Kitchen This column is by Mrs. Hudson herself and dictated to Wendy Heyman-Marsaw, a Sherlockian living in Halifax. Mrs. Hudson provided this photograph of herself at age 24, taken on the occasion of her betrothal to Mr. Hudson. At Claridge’s “You can report to me in London to-morrow, Martha, at Claridge’s Hotel.” Sherlock Holmes in ‘His Last Bow’ The venerable Claridge’s hotel appeared in two of Dr. Watson’s accounts of his cases with Mr. Holmes: ‘His Last Bow’ and ‘Thor Bridge’ — in which Mr. Gibson — the former U.S. senator and “the greatest gold mining magnate in the world,” stayed whilst in London. The hotel was well known to Mr. Holmes as he had dined in its remarkable restaurant many times with renowned clients. It is conveniently located on Brook Street in Mayfair, only a 15-minute walk from Baker Street. Claridge’s opened in 1812. Operating first under the name Mivart’s Hotel, it attracted the wealthy and royal even during its early period. Prior to his ascension to the throne, King George IV had a suite permanently reserved there. As the success of Mivart’s grew, so did the physical dimensions of the hotel. At the same time, William and Marianne Claridge were running their own successful hotel on Brook Street. They purchased Mivart’s 1854. The two merged properties were then known as “Claridge’s, late Mivart’s” until 1856 when it became simply Claridge’s. The hotel’s reputation continued to rise. In 1860, Empress Eugénie of France made Claridge’s her winter home. She invited Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to dine with her there and they were delighted with it. By the 1880s, Claridge’s was referred to as “the extension to Buckingham Palace” and it seemed everyone in the Almanach de Gotha, a directory of Europe’s royalty and higher nobility, visited. As a result, the hotel continued to have a steady stream of visiting royalty. The Savoy Hotel’s owner, Richard D’Oyly Carte, bought Claridge’s in 1894, gutted the old buildings and replaced them with modern hotel facilities, lifts and walk-in bathrooms. The refurbished hotel reopened in 1898 with 203 rooms and suites. 2 Canadian Holmes Summer 2015 The Ritz, The Savoy, Grosvenor House and London’s other grand hotels may compete with it in opulence, but none can hold a candle to Claridge’s when it comes to richness of history, its wonderful food and magnificence of clientele. The Chef, Edouard Nignon, was the former chef de cuisine to the Czar of Russia and the Emperor of Austria. He held his post at Claridge’s from 1894 - 1901. The following recipe comes from Claridge’s December 22, 1898 menu. “Hors d’oeuvres a la Russe” were offered because of the many Russian guests. This is an assortment of small plates of delicacies, including blinis and caviar, oeuffs à la Russe and smoked sturgeon. The hors d’oeuvres also had sparkling aspics, richly decorated pâtés, elaborate butter rosettes and carved vegetable flowers. Recipe: Oeuffs à la Russe: (Serves 6) Ingredients: 6 hard-boiled eggs cut in half lengthwise, yolks removed, reserve egg whites. 2 Chef Edouard Tbs. mayonnaise, crème fraiche or sour cream; ½ tsp. Nignon, maitre chef mustard powder; 1 Tbs. Dijon mustard; 2 finely des cuisiniers, at chopped green onions or 3 Tbs. finely chopped Claridge’s from chives; salt & pepper to taste. 1894-1901 Garnish: caviar or capers and a pinch of paprika. Mode: mix all ingredients together and pipe or stuff into egg whites. Add garnish on top of each stuffed egg. Serve on lettuce leaves. Canadian Holmes Summer 2015 3 A Study in V “Make a long arm, Watson, and see what V has to say.” — Sherlock Holmes, ‘The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire’ By Sonia Fetherston Artwork by Laurie Fraser Manifold Sonia Fetherston, BSI (“The Solitary Cyclist”) is a freelance writer from the state of Oregon, USA. Though her work has appeared in Sherlockian publications around the world, this marks her debut in Canadian Holmes. Better late than never! etters are problematic sorts of things. A literary letter is not as apparent a device as – for example – the scar upon the forehead of John Clay (symbolizing flawed thinking), or the serpent slithering upon the bed (an indication of Roylott’s sexual interest). The twisted lip of Hugh Boone stands for the lies Neville St. Clair tells, while the bridge where Maria Gibson’s body is found represents the transition between her life and death. So much is obvious. But letters are trickier. Interpreting them requires a much more subtle reading of the literary works in which they are found. And so we open the Sherlockian Canon, where one odd letter appears with drum-beat regularity. This is V. This letter is relatively uncommon in the English language, yet students of The Great Detective can easily see that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle assiduously planted V in character names, aliases, places, objects and descriptions.(1) In both the chronicled and unchronicled cases of Sherlock Holmes, V dangles before us at every turn.