#dr. grimesby roylott

[randomnessoffiction]

"Holmes the meddler! Holmes the busybody! Holmes the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!

[flammentanz]

"Das gefleckte Band"

Erich Schellow: Sherlock Holmes Paul Edwin Roth: Dr. Watson Fritz Tillmann: Dr. Grimesby Roylott Astrid Frank: Helen Stoner

Watson: "What does that mean?" Holmes: "It means it's all over. Come on!" Helen Stoner: "What was this?" Holmes: "Go back to your room, we will come to you later." Holmes: "This was the speckled band." Watson: "A swamp cobra, the most dangerous venomous snake in India."

[sherlockianscholar]

the above is from granada's "the speckled band."

we all know that the sky's the limit when praising jeremy's acting, but i'll always be most in love with his eyes. he conveys so much power and depth through them. as this interaction with roylott plays out, holmes engages with him (for the most part) icily and concisely. but underneath it all, jeremy's eyes burn with an intensity and fire that's almost palpable through the screen. his revulsion towards roylott is visceral.

additional notes: watson's jump at the door opening. the iconic moment when holmes gulps at roylott bending the poker. all fantastic.

and now what more is there to say than i thank you, mrs. hudson, just another client.

[47gaslamps]

It's a shame Father Brown might not even be in seminary yet. He would have words about this.

[faithful-grigori]

”#i want a scene like that Indiana Jones one except Watson vs Roylett”

“I should be very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots.”

Holmes grinning at Roylott braiding a bar of metal: Very cute. Anyway, my dear friend here has a gun.

[pop-goes-the-weasel]

There is a discourse going on, that says Dr. Roylott would have been unable to bring back a cheetah and a baboon from India. as these are not found in the country.

Do I agree with these? Yes and no.

While baboons are not found in the country, the story of cheetahs is long and interesting. In Doyle's time, the cheetah was found abundantly in the country. Cheetahs played an important role in India's cultural life, with medieval paintings showing them as both the hunter and the hunted.

Then, why are cheetahs today almost exclusively associated with Africa? They were simply hunted to extinction. The last of the cheetahs were shot in the year of 1948, officially making them extinct in the subcontinent.

Interestingly, the cheetah is back in the country. In Seprember 2022, 8 cheetahs were introduced from Namibia in the Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary, which is located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Results look promising; for they have adjusted to the local diet of the spotted deer.

So in summary

Regarding the animals Grimesby Roylott took to England? The baboon, absolutely not possible. The Cheetah, absolutely yes.

[faithful-grigori]

”#look you can get mixed up about the names of snake species, #their appearance, #their relative venomousness, #but you can't get around the concept of training a snake to heel, #by giving it milk as a treat”

Letters from Watson, catching Up

The Speckled Band Published 1892 Set: April 1883 [Baring Gould] This year is confirmed in the text and I don’t see any reason to dispute it.  Watson notes in the opening paragraph that he’s been taking notes on Holmes’ cases for eight years, strengthening two elements of my fictionalization hypothesis: first, that he does not write up these cases verbatim as they happen, and second, that he often waits to write up stories until they are rendered publishable: presumably in this case by the death of his and Holmes’ client. It’s possible that the intro is a leftover and he first prepared the case for publication in 1888 or 1889, which is something that makes me think this case was, despite the death of Miss Roylott making it nearly impossible for the details to harm anyone, heavily edited and fictionalized, to a greater extent than most of the other short stories. I’ll present more evidence for it in the case wrap up. I strongly believe that when Watson was working on it in 1888 or so, it was originally intended to be presented as a novel rather than a short story, possibly with a long stretch on the history of those concerned with the case, as we see in Study in Scarlet and Valley of Fear, or a sequence with a more involved breakdown of the case investigation, as is present in The Sign of The Four. Possibly, as in Hound of the Baskervilles, the case was truly solved over a longer period of time than one dramatic night. After reacquainting himself with the case, Watson initially decided against continuing, and only came back to the case after he’d decided to focus on short stories rather than novels.  The other thing that makes me think that The Speckled Band was heavily fictionalized is the snake: more on that later. 

[organchordsandlightning]

Speckled Band Part 3

"Can I be of assistance?" "Your presence might be invaluable." "Then I shall certainly come." "It is very kind of you."

extremely soft over this dialogue. watson is his partner, and holmes is still like ‘look, you can wait in the hotel if you want’

"Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession.

as someone with a hobby knowledge of the history of toxicology, it really is fascinating to see this as written in 1892. at this point, we have an okay-ish knowledge of what household things are poisonous (at the very least, the UK at this time was much better about banning stuff like arsenic in candy than the US) but we’re still about ... like, thirty-forty years out from being able to reliably identify non-plant-based poisons (like arsenic, etc etc) in the human body after death. a lot of poisonings got away with it because, frankly, a lot of people were getting accidentally poisoned all the time anyway, and if you couldn’t identify arsenic or what-have-you in a corpse ... no case!

Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like a vise upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low laugh and put his lips to my ear.

"It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon."

“It is a nice household” mixed with watson’s “MY GOD!? A CHILD!?” is so funny

I do love that Watson is writing these stories down for publication, but he’s freely admitting to burglary here

How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for whatever might befall.

god I’m remembering how well-done this scene is in Granada, and you can really feel the tension here

I could, however, see that his face was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing.

oh holmes is SCARED scared “you won’t inject my body with an undetectable non-plant-based poison you son of a bitch”

"It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.

such a good reveal

Some of the blows of my cane came home and roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily upon my conscience."

(a) snakish lmao (b) this brings up an interesting legal question of whether holmes is guilty of murder.  while I don’t think this falls under the legal definition of murder (no pre-intent) or manslaughter (frankly, it’s more self-defense than anything - you see a snake hissing at you, you gotta hit that bad boy with a cane, that it went back to its master and bit him is none of your business as far as you’re concerned) however, i did look up to see that the felony murder rule was still in place in the UK at that time (called constructive malice) -- essentially saying that the courts could attribute malice aforethought (’i’m gonna go kill that guy) to you if a death was caused during the commission of another felony (say .... burglary) EDITED WITH FURTHER LEGAL THOUGHTS -- HELEN INVITED THEM INSIDE THE HOUSE, I DON’T THINK IT COUNTS AS BURGLARY ANYMORE, SHERLOCK HOLMES IS MURDER-FREE

[allallestodo]

DR. GRIMESBY ROYLOTT: Which one of you is Holmes?

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES 1.06 The Speckled Band

[vintageandroid]

And okay no you can't guess the solution to this particular mystery as a modern reader if you know literally anything about snakes, at all, but that's okay. We at least get this:

"...In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily upon my conscience."

I saw a post once where someone said that Doyle's Holmes does not have asshole energy as per certain modern adaptations, but rather has bitch energy, and honestly...yeah. Yeah.

[penultimatestalematewithdeath]

Dr. Grimesby Roylott attempting to “fight” Holmes who is just like.  :) you suck! :) please close the door when you leave! :)  and then proceeds to STRAIGHTEN an IRON POKER with his BARE HANDS and minimal effort the amount of times Holmes deals with situations by just going :) is iconic.

[stephensmithuk]

The Speckled Band Part 3

The links in the email are broken, so I will post information about the two murderers cited here.

Victorian murderers were generally only convicted of one murder. As that was enough to get the death penalty and execution would happen fairly quickly afterwards, further cases were deemed pointless.

Public executions finished in England in 1868 - it was possible to attend some of the last by Tube as the first part of it opened in 1863.

Other notable murdering doctors would include Hawley Harvey Crippen, one of the first murderers to be caught via the aid of wireless telegraphy - the crew of the liner he was worked out who he was and got a message back to the UK before going over the horizon, allowing a detective to take a faster ship and arrest him in Canada when he arrived.

Of course, there would also be Harold Shipman, Britain's most prolific serial killer, who may have killed up to 250 patients. The spike in the UK homicide rate in 2002 is entirely due to the fact his crimes were added to the stats for that year.

****

Swamp adders aren't actually a thing - ACD was no expert in snakes and you can argue which one he was actually going for. Or he just made one up.

****

In England, any sudden or violent death has to be investigated by a coroner to determine the cause of death. There are certain other cases where one would get involved too:

So, Dr. Grimesby Roylott's death - and the others in his orbit - would have come under a coroner at some point. India had the system until the 1990s.

[woundedwizard]

"In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily upon my conscience."

very cashmoney of holmes

[kierrasreads]

The Adventure of the Speckled Band (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes #8) by Arthur Conan Doyle Review

Plot

Can Sherlock Holmes solve the mystery of the death of Helen Stoner's sister in time to save Helen's own life? Or will Helen suffer the same fate as her sister?

Discussion

This one kept me guessing! Of course, there was no question that Dr. Grimesby Roylott was the mastermind behind this sinister plot. Even his name was an indication of his well...sinister nature. He wanted control over his stepdaughters' money, and he would stop at nothing to get it.

Thank goodness for Sherlock and Watson's quick thinking; Helen is free to marry her fiance and start her own life. If I were Helen, I would sell that house, that house has seriously bad juju.

The snake sounded interesting! I do love snakes, to a degree. Little snakes? Sure, no problem! I'll hold them (like I did in high school. My teacher had several king snakes in his classroom and would let us handle them, supervised of course). But snakes that are large enough to eat me? No way! Anyway, I suspect that this snake was inspired by numerous species of snakes, such as the puff adder. Regardless, this snake tipped the scales (get it?) towards its rating of 5/5. It's a welcome change from the recent stories that I read!

I read somewhere that Doyle considers this story as his best, and I have to agree!

Rating

5/5

[faithful-grigori]

”#be nice to the snakes you have to pick off dead people i guess?”

Letters from Watson, Catching Up

The Speckled Band, part 3: The fun bits.  - Holmes’ scruples about taking Watson with him into potential danger - keeping in mind that only two years ago Watson’s health was ‘ruined’ and we can assume that any Maiwand related PTSD is not completely gone - are very considerate.  - People must have had a relatively later schedule in Victorian England if Holmes and Watson can plausibly tell the landlord at the inn that they’re going for a visit at eleven PM, and that they might not be back. Though honestly, I think the fact that it’s a small town is the only reason the landlord might possibly be paying any attention. That and the fact that it might affect things like breakfasts and wake-up calls.  - There are plenty of holes in the wall around the estate, meaning that the village as a whole has a free range cheetah and baboon. Even if Dr. Roylott didn’t make a practice of assaulting his neighbors, they’d probably hate him.  - When confronted by dangerous wild animals Holmes and Watson end up crowded together like frightened kids. Holmes’ first instinct is to grab Watson’s wrist and make sure he’s still there. - Holmes places Watson further from the presumed source of danger, the bed with the ventilator and snake ladder.  - As an official name, “swamp adder” gives me nothing. Neither does deadliest snake in india, since that’s the common krait and it has stripes. Neither Holmes nor Watson is a naturalist however, and there are a couple species in india that would fit the bill.  - I’m not going to bother trying to ID the snake conclusively, given that I believe that part of the case is complete fiction, but based on the diamond shaped head it’s probably supposed to be a viper. Russell’s viper, which would have been well known as a venomous snake in india, has spots. So does the Saw-scaled viper. Frankly, a lot of other vipers, including rattlesnakes, could also be said to look speckled, though rattlers at least warn you before they bite. - Also I am honor bound to tell you not to attempt to pick up a venomous snake using a leather noose. One: it’s a venomous snake and you are a creature susceptible to venom. Two: professional snake handling by naturalists, a thing that I know at least one thing about, takes great care not to compress the snake. The whole animal is just neck and ribcage. If you strangle it and throw it around you can hurt it pretty badly. 

[penig]

Today’s letter from Watson concerns the speckled band and I want to know where in India Dr. Grimesby Roylott got a cheetah.