#wisteria lodge

[sherlockianscholar]

let's play the game, how many scarves (and one dressing gown) can jeremy brett fit on one small circular mirror in the most theatrical manner possible? it's 6! although i'm not convinced the ones slightly off camera actually stayed on...

#our theatrical queerio #i love his scarves #his favorites are a very simple knit stitch and i always wonder if someone in granada knitted them for him #especially cuz his scarves are unnaturally long #also the playful pat on the shoulder kills me #as does his smile at the end #sherlock holmes #john watson #granada #granada holmes #granada watson #jeremy brett #edward hardwicke #wisteria lodge #original post

[ofbakerst]

#wisteria lodge #granada holmes #jeremy brett #sherlock holmes #my posts #maps

[warrenwaskilledbyadeer]

We have achieved a new low

Conan Doyle set Wisteria Lodge IN THE GAP IN WHICH HOLMES IS PRESUMED DEAD

#arthur conan doyle #sir arthur conan doyle #sherlock holmes #his last bow #wisteria lodge

[dathen]

New asshole client: “Private detectives are a class with whom I have absolutely no sympathy, but none the less, having heard your name—”

Holmes: You look like shit btw

#letters from watson #wisteria lodge #put him in his PLACE

[teaspoonnebula]

Sherlock Holmes holding a happy and alive chicken

Just as a bit of a palette cleanser to all that severed head stuff.

#letters from watson #wisteria lodge #this one is rough huh

[skyriderwednesday]

I love it when Watson is like 'most people would think Holmes wasn't interested, but I knew he was very excited about this'.

By the way, adaptors take note, Watson does not ask incessant questions of Holmes while they're on a case.

#sherlock holmes #letters from watson #wisteria lodge

[yamy-brett]

Wisteria Lodge

#granada holmes #jeremy brett #sherlock holmes #edward hardwicke #wisteria lodge

[red-umbrella-811]

Extremely normal names and locations.

#English aristocrats are something else #posh #sherlock holmes #letters from watson #wisteria lodge

[mariana-oconnor]

Wisteria Lodge pt 1

Definitely haven't read this one before. If there's a Granada version I will have watched it, but only once about five years ago, because that's when I bought the box set and just straight up watched them all. I don't remember the name even slightly. Wisteria is very pretty, though, so I've got a feeling I'd want to live in this lodge even if it does get a bit murdery.

Suddenly he turned upon me with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “I suppose, Watson, we must look upon you as a man of letters,” said he. “How do you define the word ‘grotesque’?”

That is not what I was expecting him to say. Do you mean the adjective or the noun, Holmes?

“Strange—remarkable,” I suggested.

That's... not how I would define it either. Is that an evolution of the meaning in the last century? There's a definite meaning of ugliness or disgust these days, not just 'strange'. I'm not sure I'd call any of the cases grotesque, in fact, because it's really more a visual adjective to me than an experiential adjective. I guess The Five Orange Pips was fairly grotesque, given the subject matter involved, but even then... I assume the meaning has evolved slightly.

“Have just had most incredible and grotesque experience. May I consult you? — “Scott Eccles, “Post Office, Charing Cross.”

I know you had to pay by the word for telegrams, but that is the least descriptive telegram you could possibly have sent, Mr Eccles. Clearly you belong to the school of 'leave them asking questions'.

I'm a little confused by Watson thinking that the name Scott Eccles could have been a woman in 1892. Did Scott used to be a gender neutral name? But also, Holmes assertion that a woman would have come rather than just vague-telegramming at him makes me laugh. I feel like anyone else would have just turned up, or at the least sent a message that gave a smidge more information, y'know. Like a ballpark description, a hint of danger, or a location?

HIs name is going to give me a craving for eccles cakes, though.

“My dear Watson, you know how bored I have been since we locked up Colonel Carruthers. My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built. Life is commonplace, the papers are sterile; audacity and romance seem to have passed forever from the criminal world."

Who is Colonel Carruthers? So many colonels recently. Is colonel statistically the rank most likely to require the services of Sherlock Holmes? Although one of the colonels wasn't a colonel at all, and was also the villain of the piece, and the second colonel was the victim, so didn't really require Holmes' services so much personally.

Love Holmes waxing lyrical about how boring all the criminals are, though, and how they're just not as good anymore as the old criminals were. Woe! There is no light in the world with criminals going around being so prosaic and uninspired.

His life history was written in his heavy features and pompous manner. From his spats to his gold-rimmed spectacles he was a Conservative, a churchman, a good citizen, orthodox and conventional to the last degree.

Alas. A tory.

Quite a restrained description from Watson here, though I have only quoted some of it. He's fairly restrained apart from the 'pompous' part. The rest of it is all rather 'ymmv'. I mean, personally I see that list of descriptors and wince, I'm genuinely not sure what Watson's own intention with them is. On the one hand, Watson's very much pro-establishment in so many ways, and his classism is entrenched, though often soaked deep in patriarchal condescension that he must feel is open minded (and probably was for the time). On the other hand, his best friend is Sherlock Holmes and he clearly enjoys unconventional things. So is Watson singing Mr Eccles' praises here or is he too wincing internally?

“I have had a most singular and unpleasant experience, Mr. Holmes,” said he. “Never in my life have I been placed in such a situation. It is most improper—most outrageous. I must insist upon some explanation.” He swelled and puffed in his anger.

Given the description, I'm now expecting this to be something along the lines of 'a man with the wrong accent said hello to me'. But I'm probably being unfair. That would not be worthy of a Holmes story.

"Private detectives are a class with whom I have absolutely no sympathy, but none the less, having heard your name—”

OK, reading this sentence, I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to be feeling very charitable towards him. You don't just walk into a place to ask for someone's professional assistance and insult their occupation. Firstly, that's an idiot move, secondly, it's incredibly rude. I put the idiot bit first because honestly the stupidity of it offends me more than the rudeness. You're asking to be overcharged or sent packing. Asshole tax is alive and well.

But his narrative was nipped in the bud. There was a bustle outside, and Mrs. Hudson opened the door to usher in two robust and official-looking individuals...

Inspector Gregson does not get compared to an animal in his description! Instead he's called 'gallant'. I guess Watson likes him more than Lestrade.

OH, Scott Eccles is a two-part surname. That's why Watson thought it might be a woman. Right, Scott would have been a surname at this point in time. Everything makes sense now.

Well, not everything... but I feel like that's too much to ask of my dear friend Dr Watson.

“We wish a statement, Mr. Scott Eccles, as to the events which let up to the death last night of Mr. Aloysius Garcia, of Wisteria Lodge, near Esher.”

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN

Aloysius is a name my brain never remembers how to pronounce unless I stop and stare at it for a minute. It just doesn't look how it sounds to me, y'know. Not that that's the relevant part here. The relevant part is he's dead. So Wisteria Lodge is looking a bit murdery. I bet it's pretty, though.

“Mr. Eccles was going to tell us about it when you entered the room. I think, Watson, a brandy and soda would do him no harm."

This story brought to you once again by the healing properties of brandy. Brandy, the cure for all ills.

"He was, I understood, of Spanish descent and connected in some way with the embassy. He spoke perfect English, was pleasing in his manners, and as good-looking a man as ever I saw in my life. “In some way we struck up quite a friendship, this young fellow and I. He seemed to take a fancy to me from the first, and within two days of our meeting he came to see me at Lee. One thing led to another, and it ended in his inviting me out to spend a few days at his house, Wisteria Lodge, between Esher and Oxshott. Yesterday evening I went to Esher to fulfil this engagement."

So Mr Scott Eccles met a hot young guy and they hit it off and one thing led to another. Hmm... *eyebrow waggle* and then he was invited to stay for a few days, hmmm? And he went to fulfil this engagement... HMMM?

Likelihood of this being explicitly queer in a Victorian era short story: -1%. Likelihood that my brain will insist that these two were lovers, or at the very least flirted outrageously: 101%

My opinion of Mr Scott Eccles just went up a little bit because closeted Victorian gay is a better look than just straight up pompous Tory, but then he used the term 'half-breed' and he has sunk even lower. For two whole sentence I almost liked him.

"I remember that he remarked what a queer household it was to find in the heart of Surrey, and that I agreed with him, though it has proved a good deal queerer than I thought."

🤣

"It was an old, tumbledown building in a crazy state of disrepair."

So it's a fixer-upper... sure... I could fix it.

"I had doubts as to my wisdom in visiting a man whom I knew so slightly."

Victorian Grindr date gone wrong.

"About eleven I was glad to go to bed. Some time later Garcia looked in at my door—the room was dark at the time—and asked me if I had rung. I said that I had not. He apologized for having disturbed me so late, saying that it was nearly one o'clock."

Dude. This is no longer giving queer Victorian fling vibes, it's giving 'Mr Scott Eccles is oblivious to the fact he's on a date' vibes. Guy meets you once, invites you to his home, has a 'tête-à-tête' dinner and seems nervous. Then shows up in your room at one am asking if you rang...

Garcia wanted to get laid, Mr Scott Eccles. He's into the older, buttoned up, repressed gentleman look.

Clearly this is not the case, because Victorian literature. But my brain can see no other explanation.

Mr Scott Eccles was so busy being judgemental about the food he didn't realise he was being flirted with so hard.

"You can imagine my surprise when I found that there was no one there. I shouted in the hall. There was no answer. Then I ran from room to room. All were deserted."

Very ghost story. Once again the Gothic horror vibes. I suppose this is where the word 'grotesque' comes in. I feel like the word they were searching for was 'unsettling'. But yeah, waking up to find the house abandoned is creepy af. BUT

"My host had shown me which was his bedroom the night before, so I knocked at the door."

So before he came into your room at one am to see if you rang for him, he showed you his room... I stg, I know this can't be what it looks like from a modern perspective, but it's so very blatant, I can't even.

Honestly, at this point it reads like a ghost story where Mr Scott Eccles made a narrow escape from a ghost who wanted to fuck him, and through that somehow either steal his life force or trap him forever in the creepy ghost netherworld with him.

Obviously that's not the real answer, but you could finish this story like that and it would be a perfectly valid ending.

I will forever find it hilarious that ACD is most well known for writing stories where things seem supernatural and then his main character proves everything is mundane, while he himself was a fervent believer in all things otherworldly. Just... amuses me.

Other than the obvious 'gay ghost wants to seduce the living to spend forever in limbo with him', the only reasoning behind this I can see is similar to The Red-Headed League and The Stockbroker's Clerk: For some reason a gang of people wanted Mr Scott Eccles to be away from his home for the night, then split once they had accomplished their illicit goal. Although that doesn't solve the murder, just the weirdness. I don't think there's any way to solve the murder at this point.

#Letters from Watson #Wisteria Lodge #Sherlock Holmes #Long post #Is this the gayest story yet? y/y?

[friendly-neighbourhood-librarian]

Ok so I do know what grotesque means. Watson's just using the second definition which is not how most people use it today.

#letters from watson #wisteria lodge

[no-side-us]

Letters From Watson Liveblog - May 28

Wisteria Lodge, Part 1 of 4

I have some questions about this bit.

Why did Watson ask whether it was a man or woman who sent the telegram if the sender was named Scott? Was Scott a more gender-neutral name at the time? Or did he assume the telegram was sent under someone else's name?

Also, how come women didn't send reply-paid telegrams? Were there specific rules against it or was it just a cultural attitude that women shouldn't? It seems here it's because a woman would just go to a place instead of sending a telegram first. Why? Is that not okay in some way?

I will never get tired of Holmes lamenting the lack of glamour and excitement originating from criminals. He does it so much, and always so dramatically too, talking about it like it's a tragedy and that criminals will never be creative ever again. He's got such a flair about him.

Sounds like a real square. Watson read this man very quickly. Either he's seen this sort of person enough times to recognize the type, or Holmes' abilities have really rubbed off on him. Or both.

Now Mr. Eccles is obviously in a very perturbed mood, but I don't know why he would begin the conversation with this line. Not only is it impolite, it's also just not smart. Fortunately for him, Holmes is desperate for an interesting dilemma.

Something tells me Watson prefers Gregson over Lestrade. This is as complimentary a description as you can get from Watson (about an officer), and it's certainly nicer than the way he describes Lestrade. You'll notice the lack of comparisons to ferrets or rats, or any other animals really.

Damn, I spoke too soon!

I'm not sure how that's prudent, so I can only assume Mr. Garcia was absolutely dashing, just the most incredible looking man in the world, so handsome Mr. Eccles would be in the wrong to not mention it.

This feels like the sort of detail that will get called back to later. It's just so specific, with Garcia telling Eccles what time it was as if he needed Eccles to know and remember it. It was dark too, so we know Eccles couldn't look at his watch to make sure.

Spooky. Less so considering Garcia was found murdered later, but still odd nonetheless.

My current theory is that Garcia knew that someone was out to get him, perhaps due to his connection to the embassy, and he was using Mr. Eccles as a way to screen against any investigations. That's why he invited him, but didn't really put a lot of care into being a host. He just needed someone there. And like Mr. Eccles said, deserting your guest isn't really a police matter, so anybody looking too close would only find a frumpish man with a strange story.

Holmes is loving all of this. The description of him chuckling while rubbing his hands makes him sound like a supervillain with all his plans coming together.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

#letters from watson #wisteria lodge #sherlock holmes #john h watson #aloysius garcia #inspector gregson #inspector baynes #john scott eccles #arthur conan doyle #liveblogging sherlock holmes

[stephensmithuk]

Wisteria Lodge

Our third story from His Last Bow - we've already done "The Dying Detective" and "The Cardboard Box".

This was published in two parts in The Strand.

Take a note of the Watsonian date here because this will be important later.

A reply-paid telegram was one where the sender also paid for the cost of any reply, up to a certain word limit (48 words for inland telegrams in the 1896 Post Office Guide).

You could send a telegram at most bigger post offices, or you could complete a pre-paid form and put it in a post box.

"Toilet" had a definition of the style of one's appearance.

Eccles is from Lee, which we've visited already in "The Man with The Twisted Lip" and which I discuss in my post for that.

Esher is today a town of around 7,000 people but part of a larger built-up area, thirteen miles from Charing Cross. While sitting outside the Greater London boundary in Surrey, the urban sprawl of London does not match the administrative boundaries and Esher is on the outer edge of this. You can in fact hit some serious countryside while staying within the city limits.

It also sat outside the Metropolitan Police District.

The town was historically a stagecoach stop on the London to Portsmouth road, which later become the A3 before that was diverted via a bypass around the town. It is home to the Sandown Park racecourse and George Harrison lived there for a while.

The railway station, then called Esher and Claremont (the latter being a Lancelot "Capability" Brown-designed mansion, then owned by a widowed daughter-in-law of Queen Victoria, her youngest son Prince Leopold having died due to haemophilia after a fall in 1884) is on the mainline from Waterloo to Weymouth - Aldershot being a bit further along on a branch line. It takes around half an hour to get there by modern electric train; only suburban services stop there, with express trains going straight through the disused centre platforms.

Spain, as a major power (even if most of its empire had already gone) and a monarchy, warranted an Embassy. San Pedro only would have had a legation.

There's quite a bit of racism in this one!

Some pictures of dog-grates can be found here.

Doors on many trains could be opened from the inside at the time, including on the move with the associated risks involved.

War crimes trials were not really a thing at this time.

Yet another case of the villains dying off-page!

The broad plot of this would not be out of place in a modern crime drama.

#letters from watson #sherlock holmes #history #wisteria lodge #wist #factoids

[ofbakerst]

no tea for me

#so handsome #this show is about handsome men in beautiful spaces #wisteria lodge #granada holmes #jeremy brett #edward hardwicke #sherlock holmes #my posts #no tea for me only cigarettes

[eirinstiva]

Something about Aloysius Garcia and Spanish names

Watson in his last letter started "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge", story published in two parts, and this letter belongs to "The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles". This story can be found in Spanish as "La aventura del pabellón Wisteria" or "La aventura de Wisteria Lodge".

There are a lot of queer (?) flags about John Scott Eccles and his infatuation with the friendly and handsome foreigner Aloysius Garcia, of Spanish descent.

Considering that in Spain there are many languages beside Spanish, one could try to guess more about his origins looking at his name. Sometimes the same name developed a different pronunciation and/or spelling in each region of Spain like Jorge-Jordi or Javier-Xavier-Xabier.

García (/ɡaɾˈθi.a/ in Spain, /ɡaɾˈsi.a/ in Latin America) is a name and patronimic surname and the most common last name in Spain. There are many variants of García like Garcés or Gacía but this is the most common in all Spain, also very common in Latin America and Philippines. This surname is so old that there are records of his use in 789 CE.

Aloysius is the latin version of Ludwig. There are many variants of this name, so if one wanted something more Spaniard (?) the name could be Luis, Aloísio (Spanish), Loís (Aragonese), Lluis (Asturian), Lluís, Ludovic (Catalan, Valencian), Lois (Galician), Koldobikaa or Koldo (Basque). If his parents wanted something similar to an English name Luis is the better option because its pronunciation /ˈlwis/ is similar to Louis or Lewis (/ˈluːi/ or /ˈluːɪs/).

Maybe that's why the first time I read this story many years ago the character felt like a generic hispanic-latino-idk man.

Friendly reminder that I'm not from Spain, but Spanish is my first languaje, so maybe there are some details missing.

#letters from watson #lost in translation #acd canon #wisteria lodge #WIST #aloysius garcia #letters in the underground

[dathen]

Holmes: Hey Watson, can you join me for some burglary in a big creepy house? We can get in by climbing on top of the outhouse.

Watson:

It was not, I must confess, a very alluring prospect.

#letters from watson #wisteria lodge #watson: you had me until the outhouse

[teaspoonnebula]

Illustrations

Most of the stories we've been reading so far were illustrated by Sydney Paget, who gets the credit for establishing a lot of the key elements of Sherlock Holmes' look in popular culture. He used his brother Walter as a model which I get a real kick out of:

(I've posted it before but please enjoy this picture of Walter Paget)

ANYWAY Wisteria Lodge came out after his tragically early death and so it was illustrator Arthur Twidle instead. The thing you have to know about him is that his Sherlock Holmes poses like he's a model trying to sell you incredible jackets.

#letters from watson #wisteria lodge #sydney paget #arthur twidle