COPP

Governess

“A very attractive governess superintended the education of two young children.” (Sherlock Holmes)
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Winchester

“It (Grace Dunbar’s case) is now referred to the Assizes at Winchester.” (Sherlock Holmes) Read More...

Carlo the Spaniel

A spaniel had lain in a basket in the corner. It came slowly forward towards its master, walking with difficulty. Its hind legs moved irregularly and its tail was on the ground. It licked Ferguson’s hand.

Winchester

This is where the race for the Wessex Cup was held.
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Yellowbacked novel

A cheap and typically sensational novel, with a yellow board or cloth binding.

Brain fever

Alice Rucastle was said to have suffered from brain fever, inflamation of the brain.

Locus standi

Holmes remarks that, “it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a questionable one.”
  • He obviously felt that they no longer had a justifiable right to be present in the Rucastle household, if indeed they ever had!

Marriage Licence

Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their flight.
  • They were presumably granted a ‘Special Licence’ since they were both over 21 years and were about to leave for Mauritius.

Bradshaw train directory

The Bradshaw train directory was an indispensible book concerning all train travel and times in Victorian England.
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Sherlock Holmes - Deductions

“Well, yes, of course the pay is good — too good. That is what makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some strong reason behind.”
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Sherlock Holmes - Character Illustrations

Taking up a glowing cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood. Read More...

Sherlock Holmes - Sayings

“To the man who loves art for its own sake,” remarked Sherlock Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily Telegraph, “it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.” Read More...

Electric Blue dress

“The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before.” (Violet Hunter)

Two perfectly matched coils of chestnut hair

“It was of the same peculiar tint, and the same thickness.” (Violet Hunter) Read More...

Telegram from Violet Hunter

Telegram from Violet Hunter.
Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday to-morrow [it said]. Do come! I am at my wit’s end.
HUNTER

Letter from Jephro Rucastle

“The Copper Beeches, near Winchester.
“DEAR Miss HUNTER:
“Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train.
“Yours faithfully,
JEPHRO RUCASTLE.

Letter from Violet Hunter

DEAR MR. HOLMES:
I am very anxious to consult you as to whether I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I do not inconvenience you.
Yours faithfully,
VIOLET HUNTER.

Blue Carbuncle

Another of the ‘Adventures”.

Noble Bachelor

Another of the ‘Adventures’.

Walsall, Staffordshire

Miss Violet Hunter became the head of a private school in Walsall where she met with considerable success.
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Mauritius

Mr Fowler and Miss Alice Rucastle lived here after their marriage since he was now the holder of a government appointment on the island.
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Black Swan Hotel, Winchester

Miss Hunter arranged to meet Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson here and had a private sitting room and meal prepared for them. Here she told her story of the Copper Beeches.
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Copper Beeches, Hampshire

The Copper Beeches, Hampshire, five miles on the far side of Winchester. Read More...

West End, London

Miss Stoper managed Westaways agency in the West End.
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Halifax, Nova Scotia

  • Colonel Spence Munro had relocated to this part of Canada.

Montague Place, London

Miss Hunter had lodgings in Montague Place.
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Mrs Toller

Housekeeper to Mr Rucastle and Mr Toller’s wife. She was a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable.

Mr Toller

Mr Toller manservant/groom to Mr Rucastle. He was a rough, uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual smell of drink.

Carlo the Mastiff

It was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones belonging to Mr Rucastle.

Mr Fowler

Alice Rucastles fiancée. A small bearded man in a gray suit.

Alice Rucastle

Mr Rucastle’s daughter by his first wife and now supposedly living in Philadelphia.

Mrs Rucastle

“Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as in feature.”(Violet Hunter) Read More...

Edward Rucastle

“‘One child (son of Mr Rucastle and his second wife) — one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!” (Jephro Rucastle) Read More...

Miss Stoper

Miss Stoper managed the business of Westaways in the West End for governesses seeking new employment. Read More...

Colonel Spence Munro

Violet Hunter had been governess in his employ for five years until he removed his family to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Jephro Rucastle

A prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat with a pair of glasses on his nose.

Violet Hunter

She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, freckled like a plover’s egg, and with the brisk manner of a woman who has had her own way to make in the world.
“I should not ask it of you if I did not think you a quite exceptional woman.” (Sherlock Holmes)

West End, London

Sir George Burnwell lived on the far side of the West End.
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Blue Carbuncle

The carbuncle is a beautiful gem of a rich red color found in the East Indies. Read More...

Scandal in Bohemia

The case in which Sherlock Holmes tried to recover a photograph of the King of Bohemia and Irene Adler, in appreciation of which the King sent Sherlock Holmes a snuffbox of old gold with a great amethyst in the centre of the lid.

Case of Identity

A Case of Mary Sutherland. Another case in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Dr John Watson

Companion and chronicler of Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes

“Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I’m a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault, they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent." (Sherlock Holmes) (Study in Scarlet)
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