#The Langdale Pikes

[m-j-turner-photography]

Great Langdale from Side Pike - Lake District.

Can't beat a morning up in the mountains like this; feeling like you're the only person in the world. This was a stunning start to the day in the Lake District, standing on the edge of Side Pike overlooking the famous Great Langdale bathed in the first rays of golden sunlight. The majestic Langdale Pikes, including Harrison Stickle, Loft Crag, Pavey Ark and Pike of Stickle, can be seen central in the scene rising dramatically from the green pastures right up to the iconic peaked summits.

This photograph is a panorama composed of numerous landscape images stitched together in order to showcase the wide-angle vista from this viewpoint. It was a pretty dark and moody start to the day, but a sudden break in the clouds allowed this fabulous sunlight to emerge and illuminate the scene perfectly. I chose Side Pike for this point of view as it offers such an amazing vista of the valley and surrounding mountains, despite being quite a lowly summit itself.

[dopescissorscashwagon]

The beautiful Millbeck Farm nestling below the Langdale Pikes. Have a great afternoon.

📸 by Rod Hutchinson @lakesrhino

Click on photo

[no-side-us]

Letters From Watson Liveblog - Dec. 8, 11

The Three Gables, Part 1 & Part 2

Not a liveblog really, more just a list of quick thoughts because I don't want to comment on this story bit by bit. Overall, I didn't think the story was very good, even if you did ignore all the racism (which you shouldn't, obviously).

The racism towards Steve Dixie, from the way his speech is written, comparing him to animals, describing him in "brutish" terms, etc., is all awful. There's also this consistent insult Holmes keeps making about his smell. It's honestly quite jarring when compared to other stories, especially in say The Yellow Face, which I felt was kinder. Not great or anything, but better. Apparently, there's also been debate in the past in the Holmesian scholarly community that this story isn't canon because of all this racism. Here's a link to a brief discussion about it I found.

The mystery itself is also sort of meh. Why is Isadora Klein so worried that the draft could be so catastrophic for her if the names are changed and the mother seemingly has no awareness of it. Maybe back then it was more believable that people would figure out the story was about her, but it seems doubtful. And if she really wanted it, there must be simpler ways than a weird all-encompassing legal buy-out.

Langdale Pike is in one paragraph and only described second-hand, but he's one of the bits I do like. It's another string to his bow of the various sources of information Holmes uses. Although he was too convenient a source when there should have been more clues pointing to Isadora Klein being the mastermind. At least, I'm assuming he's the reason Holmes knows it was her.

Another small bit I did like was Holmes considering points of discussion settled because Watson agreed with him, which was cute.

I also thought it was neat that Holmes was going up against a few people all working together rather than just one person. The gang working fast, having a person on the inside and well, Steve being used as intimidation, would have been nice to see in a less racist and more developed story.

Mrs. Maberley getting a round-the-world paid vacation is fine, and I guess it makes up for being robbed and chloroformed?

The ending is very abrupt. Holmes gives Isadora a warning and then that's it. I would have liked a small summary of how things went for everybody like in previous stories.

[tiger-moran]

After AO3 kept going down every time I was about to post this, chapter 8 of my 'essay' is finally now posted

[lexie-squirrel]

[andybellphotography]

The Story of a Photo - Langdale Valley

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] The Langdale Valley In March 2014, I did a day trip to the UK lake District. That may not seem unusual, but I live near Gatwick Airport, in the south of England. It is a long drive and I wouldn’t want to do a drive, a photo-hike, and then the return drive in a single day. It would not be fun and that much driving might be dangerous. So I do these crazy trips by…

[thunderstruck9]

Patrick Heron (British, 1920-1999), THE LANGDALE PIKES, DUSK : 1949-50, 1950. Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in.

[john-atkinson-grimshaw-art]

-Blea tarn at first light, Langdale pikes in the distance-

[faithful-grigori]

ameliahcrowley said: “#As I recall, the weird attitude shift, and the equally weird racism are one of the reasons some people suspect Doyle didn't actually write this one. (Alas, I fear he probably did).

the-bug-geek said: “#Strong candidate for worst Sherlock Holmes story. Definitely makes the short list.”

The Three Gables pt 2

A little late, because life and Christmas are just... it's a lot.

Last time we had a lady who wanted to sell her house and someone who really wanted to buy it and everything in it. Including the remaining possessions of her dead son. Who had died of pneumonia? I think, but also been involved with some sort of woman his mother did not approve of.

And a servant was fired after everyone was kind of terrible to her, even if she was spying for some bad guys.

And there was a lot of racism, which I expect will increase.

Anyway

"Now, Watson, this is a case for Langdale Pike, and I am going to see him now."

Ah, it's another randomly referenced character that it sounds like we should know and yet we do not. Unless I have forgotten him. I don't think I've forgotten him.

Langdale Pike was his human book of reference upon all matters of social scandal. This strange, languid creature spent his waking hours in the bow window of a St. James's Street club and was the receiving-station as well as the transmitter for all the gossip of the metropolis. He made, it was said, a four-figure income by the paragraphs which he contributed every week to the garbage papers which cater to an inquisitive public.

OMG, he's the paparazzi!

Well, the Edwardian equivalent of it.

Holmes, I thought better of you than this. You're really feeding this guy information. Ugh.

'Please come out at once. Client's house burgled in the night. Police in possession. — Sutro.' Holmes whistled. “The drama has come to a crisis, and quicker than I had expected."

Really? You must have known you sped up their timetable a little. They knew you'd gone to see the place and they were worried enough about you they tried to warn you off. It makes sense that seeing you there would move up their plans.

“Well, they don't seem to have got much. Mrs. Maberley was chloroformed and the house was— Ah! here is the lady herself.”

She was chloroformed and it's just an ordinary burglary? I hate to see what you call an odd burglary.

Just going to skip over the extra racism.

“Well, I don't think there is anything of value missing. I am sure there was nothing in my son's trunks.”

You hadn't even looked in them and Holmes told you that he thought there was something in them. Why are you so confident in this, lady?

"It is in my son's handwriting.” “Which means that it is not of much use,” said the inspector. “Now if it had been in the burglar's—” “Exactly,” said Holmes. “What rugged common sense!"

Please allow me to use my Holmes-English dictionary. I'll just check... yeah... Mmhm.

“I never pass anything, however trifling,” said he with some pomposity. “That is my advice to you, Mr. Holmes."

Oh, oh no. Oh poor boy. You are being set up for the biggest of falls. You have no genre savvy. I'm sorry. This will hurt.

“Seems to be the end of some queer novel, so far as I can see.”

Please, tell me more.

“Why should they go to my son's things?” asked Mrs. Maberley.

Clearly they wanted the manuscript of his magnum opus of homoerotic literature, Mrs Maberley. I can see no other possible reason.

And honestly, relatable.

"Man must live for something. If it is not for your embrace, my lady, then it shall surely be for your undoing and my complete revenge.”

🔥VENGEANCE!🔥

So it's not a homoerotic bodice ripper, at all. It's a tell-all memoir.

"I hear that she is about to marry the young Duke of Lomond, who might almost be her son."

Refreshing to see an older woman-younger man romance portrayed for once. Usually it's the older man preying on the sweet young ingenue. This time the sexual predator is the woman. Although... honestly, nothing that's been said so far makes me think she's doing anything but having a good time.

“Not at home means not at home to you,” said the footman.

RUDE!

The lady had come, I felt, to that time of life when even the proudest beauty finds the half light more welcome.

Also rude!

Come on, Watson. You're not exactly young yourself at this point. And you're still apparently marrying people left right and centre. Do you hide in the shadows?

Pah.

...two wonderful Spanish eyes which looked murder at us both.

I know what he means by this, but also I am imagining her irises being the Spanish flag.

Beautiful.

“I need not explain, madame. I have too much respect for your intelligence to do so—though I confess that intelligence has been surprisingly at fault of late.”

Holmes is in such a bitchy mood in this one. He's just insulting everyone as much as he can. I kind of love it.

"I feel that I may be frank with you, Mr. Holmes. You have the feelings of a gentleman. How quick a woman's instinct is to find it out. I will treat you as a friend.”

Wow...the bullshit is strong with this one.

“No doubt it was foolish of me to threaten a brave man like yourself.”

You should totally stroke his bicep and ask if he works out. That's clearly where this is heading. Lolol!

“No, no, you would not. You are a gentleman. It is a woman's secret.”

Wow. Just... wow. Weaponising femininity indeed.

✨ Gaslight. ✨ Gatekeep. ✨ Girlboss. ✨

So roguish and exquisite did she look as she stood before us with a challenging smile that I felt of all Holmes's criminals this was the one whom he would find it hardest to face. However, he was immune from sentiment.

That's because unlike you, he is not ruled by his horny brain, Watson. Please, take some deep breaths, drink a glass of cold water and come back when you've calmed down. You were literally just saying you thought she was too old to stand in proper lighting, my dude. Down boy!

"Because I had given he seemed to think that I still must give, and to him only. It was intolerable."

OK, fine. I'm on her side now. She's still the most ridiculous person ever, but this is a valid and correct point. Douglas needed to take no as an answer.

Barney and the boys drove him away, and were, I admit, a little rough in doing so.

I'm torn. On the one hand, Douglas needed to understand that just because his sense of entitlement told him she owed him something, he really didn't. On the other hand, don't hire people to beat people up. Maybe just hire bodyguards to keep turning him away and save the beating for if he escalates?

I feel like everyone sucks in this story.

This... this is the same story from Charles Augustus Milverton except the female character is rich and has agency. And yet we're supposed to not side with the people who stole back the blackmail material that would ruin her? Because she's promiscuous?

Yeah, she's kind of terrible, but her crime was getting people to beat him up. The theft seems fair, honestly.

“Very good. I think you will sign me a check for that, and I will see that it comes to Mrs. Maberley. You owe her a little change of air."

Yeah, she was chloroformed and it's possible that the beating led to her son's death. She definitely deserves something for all of this.

"Have a care! You can't play with edged tools forever without cutting those dainty hands.”

Weird line to end on, but okay. Basically 'fuck around and find out' in Holmes speak, I guess.

But yeah, this is just a different version of Charles Augustus Milverton and A Scandal in Bohemia only this time the lady is the bad guy. And she actually has done some horrible things. But if she'd come to you and said 'Mr Holmes, I had an ill advised dalliance with a young man and I need the evidence before it ruins my upcoming wedding!' Holmes might have done the burglary himself.

Well, probably not if he found out about her having Douglas beaten up.

But it's a weird change of perspective.

[milksockets]

'langdale pikes, cumbria, may 1977' in hand to earth: andy goldsworthy sculpture 1976-1990 (1990)

[dopescissorscashwagon]

Nice to have some colour contrast in Great Langdale with the Langdale Pikes as a backdrop.

📸 Rod Hutchinson

[faithful-grigori]

”#I'm pretty sure he was the one good thing to come out of The Three Gables, #and technically he wasn't even in it”

Now I really need a spin-off series featuring Langdale Pike and his investigations into the secrets of Society

[kindafondawanda]

Of Rain, Heather and The Langdale Pikes by Anita Nicholson

[stephensmithuk]

The Three Gables

The lack of posts on this one is a clear demonstration of the clear rejection of the racism running through this story.

I can't say that I'm particularly enthusiastic about doing this one, but I can't pretend this one doesn't exist.

Here we go then:

First published in 1926, the Americans again got this one first.

Boxing for money was heavily regulated to the point of outright bans in much of the United States; illegal fights would frequently end as "no contest" when the police turned up.

The Bull Ring in Birmingham is a major shopping area that goes back to a market established in 1154 under royal approval. The area is named for a ring of iron that bulls were tied to for the purposes of bull-baiting, a 'sport' banned in 1835.

The area was redeveloped in the 1960s into an enclosed shopping centre considered an epitome of Brutalist architecture and which became more unpopular over time. It was replaced in 2003 by a more modern centre, branded "Bullring" that is just as controversial.

Harrow Weald is a suburban area of what is now Greater London. It still contains a large amount of ancient woodland despite major development in the early 1930s, such as Harrow Weald Common.

One highly notable resident of the area was W.S. Gilbert of operetta fame, who lived at a house called Grim's Dyke and died of a heart attack in the lake in 1911 while saving a 17-year-old girl from drowning during a swimming lesson. The lake was mostly drained after that and what is left was filled with algae during my visit to the area early this year - the London Loop footpath goes through the area.

The "Weald Station" is probably, as per Bernard Davies, Harrow & Wealdstone station. This is today the northern terminus of the Bakerloo Line, which reached there in 1917 when services were extended on the newly electrified lines to Watford Junction; London Overground services call there on their way to the latter destination. LNWR and Southern services also are available, while Avanti West Coast and Caledonian Sleeper trains go through without stopping on platforms generally closed unless a train is calling there.

The station was also the site of the worst peacetime rail disaster in British history in 1952 (only the 1915 Quintinshill rail disaster has a higher death toll) - an express train collided with the rear of a local train in fog and then another express train hit the wreckage. 112 people died and 340 were injured. Since the crew of the express train died in the crash, the precise reason why they failed to respond to two signals was impossible to establish. The result of the report was a faster introduction into service of the Automatic Warning System or AWS that gives a driver an in-cab indication of the state of a signal by visual and auditory means.

A two-station branch line to Stanmore Village closed in 1964 as part of the Beeching cuts.

Paregoric is a 4% tincture of opium, then available over the counter without prescription. Its main uses would be for treating diarrhoea, treating teething pains in children and as a cough medicine. It is today a Schedule III controlled substance in the US i.e. prescription only.

Crown Derby refers to Royal Crown Derby, a porcelain company founded c.1750 and still going today; it may be the oldest still active company in that field in England.

Langdale Pike is clearly a pseudonym, referring to a series of peaks in the Lake District.

This is, fortunately, the only time we have the n-word being used in the canon. It was considered a crude term even then.

Pernambuco is a state in NE Brazil, then a centre of sugarcane cultivation, still a major part of its economy. It was historically Portuguese, not Spanish.

Yes, let's stereotype Latina women, shall we, Mr. Doyle? I'm not calling you Sir Arthur in this discussion; you're not acting like a knight.

This whole thing leaves a rather ugly taste and if I could strike a story from the canon, I would do it for this one.

[no-side-us]

Letters From Watson Liveblog - Dec. 20

The Creeping Man, Part 2 of 3

I see the Professor has upgraded from crawling on all fours to impossibly scaling the walls, both things you probably shouldn't do at an advanced age, especially in the middle of the night. The fact he tried to enter his daughter's bedroom also adds another level of creepiness to it all.

I proposed possession in my last post, but werewolves are another possibility, why not. It certainly derives some credence from the dates Holmes seems so interested in, as well as the dog acting up. And here's a fun fact, the word "lunatic" is derived from the latin for "moon," under the belief it was the reason for various ailments.

Watson having a considerable practice feels contradictory to his willingness to leave it in order to travel with Holmes, which tells me he's probably on the brink of giving it up and moving back into Baker Street in this story.

I always forget about these one-off characters that aren't even present in the story even though I think they're fun to think about. There was Langdale Pike recently for seedy gossip, and now here's Mercer for business check ups. Someone somewhere must have made a list of all of them and their various services, right?

Welp, looks like the answer all along was drugs. I still don't know why he's taking them, but I'm assuming he got addicted abroad and is trying to hide it for the sake of his reputation and engagement. But that theory isn't jogging any bells, so it's probably something else.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

[suzetteshea]

Langdale Pikes from Elterwater. (Photography)

Nathan Buckley, artist born in 1995 in Stroud, Gloucestershire.