“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)
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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
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“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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