#The Abbey Grange

[dathen]

“It is a sacrilege, a crime, a villainy to hold that such a marriage is binding. I say that these monstrous laws of yours will bring a curse upon the land—Heaven will not let such wickedness endure.”

Tbh I don’t think Arthur Conan Doyle gets enough credit for featuring domestic abuse survivors in his works, to the point of overlooking or justifying murder, in a time when it was seen as a Private Matter that outsiders shouldn’t be nosey about. Giving voice to a woman to call out the lack of a woman’s rights to be freed from an abusive marriage is a pretty big deal, and Holmes validating and supporting it each and every time is a purposeful authorial choice.

Others have posted about how it’s very likely that, as a doctor, ACD would be privy to all sorts of ugly secrets from “those isolated country manors” as described in The Copper Beeches—but even if he weren’t, there’s certainly a statement being made via his stories.

[not-a-princess-but-a-queen]

I’m sorry but we just had the Musgraves Ritual where we know Holmes was using and very obviously high and now the Abbey Grange where a client was talking about her husband’s drinking and Holmes…. Giving Watson a look?!! Are we in a rough patch?

[sarnie-for-varney]

He looks so uncomfortable 🥺

But some truly remarkable acting from Jeremy here. Holmes isn't used to receiving gratitude in such an intimate way, not even wanting to touch her hand for very long. It's almost as though we see Holmes try to calibrate what he should do in real time, his arm going around to hold her but stopping himself. We see him pry her off gently, and he then realises he's holding this young lady's hand. So he proceeds to flick it away. With a mute apology, he distances himself from her, preferring to stand at the window and have his back to his guests. It all happens very quickly.

I'm not entirely sure why Holmes reacts this way, but it's very characteristic of him.

[224bbaker]

WATSON: I've been dropping subtle hints to Holmes that I'm attracted to men.

ALSO WATSON: "There was a sound upon the stairs, and our door was opened to admit as fine a specimen of manhood as ever passed through it. He was a very tall young man, golden-moustached, blue-eyed, with a skin which had been burned by tropical suns, and a springy step which showed that the huge frame was as active as it was strong."

[milquetoast27]

I would usually not touch the Granada chronology very much - with one exception.

Abbey Grange was Edward Hardwicke's first episode that he filmed. I'm not entirely certain if it's because I'm now aware of this information, but he always seems to me a little quieter and hesitant, standing by Holmes, in this episode (particularly when they first examine Sir Eustace's body). His sensitivity is rich, as he hears Lady Brackenstall's account (with the obvious draws to Holmes), and how he's quick to keep watch over Holmes climbing the mantelpiece. This rather contrasts Burke's more consistently active role next to Brett up until Final Problem.

For this reason I would put Abbey Grange right after Empty House, then it's more like Watson is still adjusting to working alongside Holmes, he's worried of treading on his feet or saying something out of line. He doesn't know how much Holmes might've changed while he was away, and navigating their new circumstances is difficult. Just because they are soulmates, doesn't mean everything automatically works out. Despite this, Watson still tries, because of course he missed Holmes. And even so, nothing can undo those three years of hurt. The sweet ending feels as if some of that tension has gone, and they're more in step with each other than they were before :)

Abbey Grange might be my favourite Granada Holmes episode, but that would be a whole other post.

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

"It is that which turns my soul to water."

Little moments from Granada's The Return of Sherlock Holmes S2Ep5, "The Abbey Grange" (1986). Dir. by Peter Hammond. Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes, Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson, Anne-Louise Lambert as Lady Mary Brackenstall, and Oliver Tobias as Capt. John Crocker

[thefisherqueen]

Going through with the Granada Sherlock Holmes marathon I'm on, and today I'm watching The abbey grange episode. And within the first 10 minutes, my heart is already shattered by Holmes' and Watson's silent communication and reaction to the lady's story of her husband's alcohol addiction. I never made any gifs yet, but now I really want to get into it to capture that emotion on Jeremy Brett's face. Those who make Granada gifs - how do you do it? I've done video editing before in Shotcut with my own recorded material, just never made gifs. Do you download the clip you want from youtube in mp4, edit it in a video editing programme, and then export it in gif format?

[un-monstre]

Dr. Watson always notes the beauty of the women he meets, which sounds a little creepy, but he also does it about the men too, so he might just be bisexual

[jazzandpizazz]

Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke in Sherlock Holmes (ITV Granada): “The Abbey Grange” (1986)

[i-dont-talk-for-days-on-end]

Goddammit every time Watson describes a woman, he says how beautiful she is or, if she isn't, how beautiful she clearly must once have been. I'm beginning to think he's simply being polite. Like, he once started complimenting the female clients in his writing, and now he can't stop, because not mentioning a woman's looks would equal with calling her ugly. :D

[dathen]

“No, I couldn't do it, Watson,” said he, as we re-entered our room. “Once that warrant was made out nothing on earth would save him. Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime. I have learned caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own conscience.”

PLAY THOSE TRICKS WITH THE FUCKING LAW OF ENGLAND!!!!

I love that Holmes’ great regrets involve SOLVING crimes. You’d think that someone involved in crime investigation for so long would end up with a “tough on crime” mentality, but Holmes has learned to prioritize good over the concept of legality or even justice. And he knows all too well that the law makes no such distinction.

[skyriderwednesday]

Of course it was Holmes, Watson, who else wakes you up at four in the morning?

He said the thing!!

I really love how Granada did this bit, with Holmes giving Watson juuuuust enough time to lie back down again before bursting back in to insist he get up.

[sarnie-for-varney]

Just two husbands enjoying their evening together and flirting...

...there is no heterosexual explanation for this

I'm not the only that saw the lust in Holmes' eyes, right? 🤣

[mariana-oconnor]

The Abbey Grange pt 2

So, last time we had a woman who claimed to have been assaulted by burglars who then murdered her abusive husband and her stoic and devoted maid.

I think that she killed him and used the burglars, who had apparently been in the newspaper, as convenient scapegoats, but I also think that was a good move on her part, so I'm fingers crossed that she gets away with it.

And Holmes spotted something weird with the glasses the 'burglars' had been drinking out of, then immediately dismissed it and left Stanley Hopkins, who seems to work purely on cases where the victim is an old and violent man who nobody likes, to hunt down the burglars.

During our return journey I could see by Holmes's face that he was much puzzled by something which he had observed.

I may have been wrong about Holmes realising it was the lady of the house. This does seem at odds with that.

"...on my life, Watson, I simply can't leave that case in this condition. Every instinct that I possess cries out against it. It's wrong—it's all wrong—I'll swear that it's wrong. And yet the lady's story was complete, the maid's corroboration was sufficient, the detail was fairly exact."

Right, so no, he hadn't figured it out. The wine glasses do still vex him.

"...dismiss from your mind the idea that anything which the maid or her mistress may have said must necessarily be true."

That is, indeed, how you should approach every witness statement to every crime ever. Like, even if they're not lying, they might just be confused. The woman had a blow to the head (apparently) that discombobulates a person.

"Some account of them and of their appearance was in the papers, and would naturally occur to anyone who wished to invent a story in which imaginary robbers should play a part."

Precisely.

And my theory with the glasses is that she and her husband were having a drink. Or just her husband was having a drink. And she had to add a third glass to corroborate her story and that didn't match or hadn't been drunk out of. Maybe she drugged him so she could kill him, but that doesn't really fit with the way the body was found.

"The most unusual thing of all, as it seems to me, is that the lady should be tied to the chair.”

Really, Watson? Why?

I mean... that seems fairly self-explanatory to me. Is it just because you could never consider tying a lady to a chair, in which case, I guess we know more about your sex life than we did, but really?

Watson is baffling me here.

“Exactly; but there was bees-wing only in one glass. You must have noticed that fact. What does that suggest to your mind?”

wtf is beeswing?

beeswing. / (ˈbiːzˌwɪŋ) / noun. a light filmy crust of tartar that forms in port and some other wines after long keeping in the bottle.

(from dictionary.com)

Okay. I remember being told off for shaking a port bottle as a kid, so I guess that was what I was being told off about.

“That only two glasses were used, and that the dregs of both were poured into a third glass, so as to give the false impression that three people had been here. In that way all the bees-wing would be in the last glass, would it not?"

Three things:

That's what I said.

Would none of the beeswing stick to the glasses it came from?

Why not just pour some more from the wine bottle? It has been specified that it wasn't empty.

Sherlock Holmes, finding that Stanley Hopkins had gone off to report to head-quarters, took possession of the dining-room, locked the door upon the inside, and devoted himself for two hours to one of those minute and laborious investigations which formed the solid basis on which his brilliant edifices of deduction were reared.

He was crawling around on the floor like a worm again, wasn't he?

Then, to my astonishment, Holmes climbed up on to the massive mantelpiece.

Crawling and climbing. It's like a crime scene adventure playground. He must be having so much enrichment today.

“We have got our case—one of the most remarkable in our collection. But, dear me, how slow-witted I have been, and how nearly I have committed the blunder of my lifetime!"

Or maybe you could just... let her get away with it?

"Strong as a lion—witness the blow that bent that poker. Six foot three in height, active as a squirrel, dexterous with his fingers; finally, remarkably quick-witted, for this whole ingenious story is of his concoction."

Was the lady's height specified? I feel like if she was 6'3" someone would have mentioned it.

So she got a friend to come and help her kill her husband? Good for him, too, I guess.

THough she was sitting down through the whole interview, so maybe she is 6'3" and it's just that no one noticed because she was sitting down.

“Yes, sir, it is true that he threw the decanter at me. I heard him call my mistress a name, and I told him that he would not dare to speak so if her brother had been there."

Ah, there we are. The missing piece is a brother. That makes sense.

“I have told you all I know.” Holmes took his hat and shrugged his shoulders. “I am sorry,” he said, and without another word we left the room and the house.

Ah, I think that, right there... was the point of no return. If you'd just told him, he probably wouldn't have done anything about it.

But now he's gonna do something about it.

The first officer, Mr. Jack Croker, had been made a captain and was to take charge of their new ship, the Bass Rock, sailing in two days' time from Southampton.

Not the brother? A friend from the ship? Modern travel times have made me forget that the time since the marriage probably isn't long enough for a message to get to Australia, let alone for her brother to receive one then get on a boat and come to the UK.

Unless he was already following her before that.

“No, I couldn't do it, Watson,” said he, as we re-entered our room. “Once that warrant was made out nothing on earth would save him. Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime."

Aw, Holmes, you're a big teddy bear really.

“I am very glad if I have helped you.” “But you haven't helped me. You have made the affair far more difficult."

Yeah, he knows.

"The Randall gang were arrested in New York this morning.” “Dear me, Hopkins! That is certainly rather against your theory that they committed a murder in Kent last night.”

This entire conversation is gold.

“The time has come. You will now be present at the last scene of a remarkable little drama.”

Cliffhanger time.

[stephensmithuk]

The Abbey Grange

Published in 1904, this is the penultimate story in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. We have four more left to cover in Letters from Watson.

Chislehurst, ten miles SE of Charing Cross, has been in Greater London since 1965.

Australian English was definitely its own dialect by this point in time. This story takes place just before the six self-governing colonies were federated to form the Commonwealth in 1901.

Cruelty alone was not a grounds for divorce in 1897. The first domestic violence refuge was probably not established until 1971.

The "Swiss army knife" was around by this point - indeed precursors are mentioned in 1851's Moby Dick - but the term is a post-Second World War one, deriving from the American GIs who bought them and couldn't pronounce "Offiziersmesser".

A baronet is a hereditary knight i.e. the title is passed down, with over a thousand baroneties still active. Nearly all are to "male heirs of the body" only - there have been precisely four female baronetesses, none still alive. Only one new baronet has been created since 1965 - for Dennis Thatcher i.e. Margaret's husband, who got in 1990 following his wife's departure from Number 10. It passed following his death in 2003 to Mark Thatcher, who has caused considerable embarrassment to the family name over his lifetime, including being involved in a 2004 attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea.

"Vox populi, Vox Dei" means "the voice of the people [is] the voice of God". Vox populi is where we get the term "vox pop", a term used in journalism for asking random people in the streets their views on things.

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

Lady Mary Brackenstall

from The Return of Sherlock Holmes S2Ep5, "The Abbey Grange" (1986)