#the beryl coronet

[fruitviking]

Sherlock Holmes, Mr None Sandwich with Left Beef.

[flammentanz]

Erich Schellow as Sherlock Holmes and Paul Edwin Roth as Dr. . Watson in "Das Beryll-Diadem"

[pop-goes-the-weasel]

Holmes taking the most direct route to retrieve the beryls

(Link along with the image)

[dathen]

“You owe a very humble apology to that noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to have one.”

ONCE AGAIN Mr. “I would rather die than get married” Holmes talking about having children. I love it so much! let him adopt kids!!

[johnlockifconvenient]

Sherlock: PRETTY PLEASE, Watson, will you come with me? Please, you have to

Watson, who would follow Sherlock, smiling, into the sun: Oh, if you INSIST

[teaspoonnebula]

A Life Preserver

Just in-case you were wondering.

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet: Holmes is contacted by a banker who has been entrusted with a beryl coronet as collateral for a loan. The banker found his son trying to bend the broken coronet. Holmes deduces that the coronet was actually broken by the banker's niece and the son's friend who sold the beryls. The son let his father think he had broken the coronet to cover for his cousin (the banker's niece).

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb: Watson brings an engineer to Holmes. The engineer was offered a handsome payment for fixing a hydraulic press in the country. While fixing it, he realized that it was not being used for its stated purpose, at which point his employer attempted to kill him with the hydraulic press, then, having failed that, cut off his thumb with a cleaver. Holmes deduces that the employer was a forger using the press to mint half-crowns.

[mariana-oconnor]

The Beryl Coronet pt 3

Come on, Mary! I believe in you.

Weird, how it's this one and The Naval Treaty that I had such strong ideas about whodunnit from the first introduction of the character and they're both about people making poor security decisions that could lead to national disaster. But on this one I'm supporting (one part of) the criminal duo, and in The Naval Treaty, I particularly disliked the culprit.

Mary is kind of horrible for not saving her cousin, though. He's willing to go to jail for her (if I'm right) and she's just telling everyone 'oh, he couldn't have done it!' and not actually coming up with a good reason. She didn't even get interviewed immediately because she 'fainted'. She had plenty of time to come up with a story. Maybe being woken up by a loud snap and then hearing Arthur moving around. But no, she's instead trying to get her maid framed for it all.

You can really go off a girl.

“I think that this should do,” said he, glancing into the glass above the fireplace. “I only wish that you could come with me, Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few hours.”

Oh yeah, Holmes is in disguise in some attempt to win back the beryls.

I like how he says 'I wish you could come with me, Watson' but is vague on the why not. 'It won't do' - translation: you are a terrible actor and no one alive would ever be fooled by you, also you'd blurt something out right at an important moment and ruin everything.' Let's be real. We all know.

Watson is not made for undercover work. I love him, but he would be about as useful a spy as a giant panda in an aquarium.

Or Captain America in a trenchcoat. (I love this picture).

I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that his lateness caused me no surprise.

Firstly, Watson is definitely living in Baker St atm. Either his wife is visiting her 'mother' again, or she's thrown him out. Also, him staying up until midnight although he knows that sometimes Sherlock doesn't come home for days is sort of nice, sort of a bit excessive.

Apparently Holmes does not need sleep. This is probably because he lives on tobacco, caffeine and cocaine. The fact he isn't constantly bouncing off the walls is impressive.

It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter.

That's not how white hair works, Watson. It's not that all of your hair gets lighter... that's not... Fine. I guess you're the doctor.

This is quite a transformation overnight, though. I'd suspect poison if it wasn't fairly common in these stories for people to suffer massive and immediate health conditions from sudden shock.

“I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried,” said he. “Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, Mary, has deserted me.”

What you have done is be a massive idiot who doesn't understand the meanings of the words 'secure' or 'discreet'.

I'm still kind of mad at Mary for trying to pin her crime on someone else while simultaneously not offering her cousin who saved her ass any real help. BUT, having said that...

"I had said to her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had married my boy all might have been well with him."

Wow, dick move. Blaming her. Yes, I literally believe she is guilty and it is her fault entirely but Mr Holder here still believes her a perfect little angel woman, so going 'if you'd have married him, none of this would have happened'.

My dude. I had no sympathy for you. I am now in negative sympathy for you. All my care for the victims of this situation is going to Lucy, because all Arthur has to do to give himself a chance is tell the truth. Mary, if she hadn't tried to throw Lucy under the bus, I would be supporting completely.

I'm still supporting her, like 75%. I'm glad she's out of there. I hope this is one of the stories where the culprits never get caught and she and Sir George Burnwell (who maybe is not such a cad as I presumed) go on to steal many more priceless artefacts from rich people who don't take care of them.

Her letter is so fucking funny when read from the POV of someone who thinks she's guilty.

“‘My dearest Uncle: “‘I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in death, I am ever “‘Your loving “‘Mary.’"

"Hey Unc, Whoops, my bad! If I hadn't stolen the jewels with my lover then my cousin wouldn't have been arrested for stealing the crown jewels and you wouldn't be in trouble for having lost them. I feel so guilty that I'm running off with my lover, but it's okay because we've sold the jewels so we're rich! Gonna change my name and live a life of luxury in another country. Thanks for making this so easy for me. Love, Mary xxx'

Or... at least... that's how I read it.

“No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible solution."

Holmes is with me on this. Mary needed to get out of that house.

“That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. And there is a little reward, I fancy."

A reward for finding the beryls. Is Holmes asking for the reward here or saying that Mr Holder will get the reward? Because Mr Holder deserves 0 rewards. No rewards for him.

"Have you your check-book? Here is a pen. Better make it out for £4000.”

Ah, no. Sherlock is getting the reward. Lolol. Well yeah, you deserve that.

£4000 is the equivalent of about £414,000 today. Which is an insane amount of money to write a cheque for. And it means that Burnwell and Mary (or whoever it was...) got away with the equivalent of over £300,000 which is a nice little amount. Holmes got the equivalent of £100,000 for a few days' work. Nice.

“You have it!” he gasped. “I am saved! I am saved!”

I mean... the coronet is still damaged. The police still had to get involved. I'm pretty sure the bank knows, and HRH Bertie knows and his mum the queen knows so... are you saved? Are you really? There's no way you can get your job back after you showed how utterly terrible you are at it. You clearly cannot keep a secret to save your literal life. The heir to the throne knows exactly how incompetent you are. This feels like 'I'm probably not going to be hanged for treason' not 'everything will be sunshine and kittens'.

“No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to have one.”

Substitute 'idiot' for 'lad' please. Very noble, sure. But don't get yourself thrown in jail for something that could genuinely be considered treason just because you want to protect a girl who doesn't love you back. Don't do it. It all sounds super romantic, but it's actually just dumb.

“You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him know that the truth is known.” “He knows it already."

Holmes, telling people in the right order. Yeah, he went to talk to the man who was falsely imprisoned before the idiot who was sort of responsible for him being there.

"...that which it is hardest for me to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now fled together.”

I'm glad Sir George turned out to be a good sort in the end. I was pretty sure he'd just done a runner and left her, but no. The couple who steals together stays together, and I think that's beautiful.

"Neither you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most dangerous men in England—a ruined gambler, an absolutely desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing him nearly every evening."

I mean, he could have just left her behind. Could absolutely be worse. Also, way to take away Mary's agency in the matter. She absolutely knew that stealing the crown jewels was against the law. That's not exactly a difficult one to work out. She made her choices. I support them fully (apart from Lucy). She's 24 years old. Earlier you called her old and now she's too young and naive to know what was going on? A four year old knows stealing is wrong. She conspired to steal (part of) the crown jewels and run off with them. She let her cousin take the fall for her and pointed suspicion at two other innocent people. The girl was not just a victim in this mess. Don't pretend like she didn't know what she was doing or getting into. She absolutely knew it. And she did it anyway. Get your heads out of the misogyny juice and just accept a woman can commit a crime.

Honestly, men get the credit for all female accomplishments. Lolol.

"His footmarks had pressed right through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he bent her to his will."

Did you hear this conversation? Were you there? Was it recorded? How tf do you know that it was his idea and not hers? Maybe they planned it together. Maybe she was like 'hey, my uncle's an idiot who brought a 10 million dollar crown home and stuck it in his old desk that opens if you hit it in the right place, want to do a heist?' You weren't there. You've got no clue how it went.

I want to think you're saying all of this just to make Mr Holder feel less bad about it all. Just making stuff up and making Mary seem like an innocent victim in order to soothe him a little. Because you've got no evidence she wasn't just as culpable as Sir George.

"...walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared into your dressing-room. [...] Presently she emerged from the room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed down the stairs, [...] He saw her stealthily open the window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then closing it once more hurry back to her room..."

Yup, you're telling me she was practically blameless and only did it because she was manipulated by the terrible, evil man, and she did the actual deed single-handedly and with no sign of doubt or hesitation? The equivalent of £10 million in her hands and she just walks to the window and passes it out? Yeah, she's absolutely a helpless naive victim. I totally buy that.

Or... y'know, Sir George actually is an archfey and he enchanted her to do it.

“As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved."

I mean... I feel like he could have revealed himself and whispered 'Hey, Mary, what are you doing with that very valuable coronet?' and made her put it back by interrupting the whole affair. Rather than, you know... just standing back and watching.

“He could not explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her secret.”

"He took the more chivalrous foolish view..." <- fixed it for you.

“It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Drink!

"But if it were the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in their place? There could be no possible reason."

"I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of his cast-off shoes."

Who had 'to buy shoes' as the reason for the disguise? Because I definitely did not have that one. Oh, the good old days when people would turn up at your door to chat up your servants and buy your old shoes.

"It was a delicate part which I had to play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our hands were tied in the matter."

But also, getting rid of something that identifiable would be a tricky business. They needed a buyer, you needed a secret. Mutually beneficial arrangement.

Holmes pointing guns at people off screen, why do you so rarely show us the action, ACD?

"‘Why, dash it all!’ said he, ‘I've let them go at six hundred for the three!’"

Omg. LOL. Nooooo. George. You were doing so well. You only got 600 for them? A fifth of what you could have got. My dude, my dude.

Mary, get a better guy. This one done fucked up. 600 might seem a lot for now, but it's going to disappear super quickly.

“A day which has saved England from a great public scandal,” said the banker, rising.

How? Like I said before. The police were involved. The coronet is still broken. How is this all being covered up so easily? A man has been arrested.

“I think that we may safely say,” returned Holmes, “that she is wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than sufficient punishment.”

...

Is this like 'she will be a ruined woman' kind of punishment, because...? Yeah, no. 'She's going to receive her karma because the guy will leave her and society is broken and punishes women for not being pure, virginal angels?' I do not like.

I reject your conjectured ending and substitute my own in which she and George (although he needs to get better at haggling, yikes) travel the continent and steal priceless artefacts together and she's the brains of the operation.

We're not going to leave it with 'despite the fact I have described this entire story as though she is the blameless, brainless puppet of an evil man, she will receive punishment for her naivete in the form of being "ruined" and all that comes with it.'

Fuck that shit. Mary has to bear some responsibility for her actions, and there's a decidedly creepy rapey sort of undertone to the implications here. Much ick. Do not like. Badass crime couple for the win.

Oh, next one is The Final Problem. I mean, of course I remember that one.

[stephensmithuk]

Bertie and Bankers

In case you're wondering, Prince Albert Edward, later Edward VII, did have money problems. He was not only living an extravagant lifestyle, he was having to do a lot of royal duties due to the effective retirement of his mother. He got money from Parliament for the latter, but arguably not enough and didn't want to ask for more as it would result in some awkward discussions re the former. The Prince of Wales does have a big personal estate called the Duchy of Cornwall, but income from the latter had dropped a fair bit due to an agricultural slump.

So, he borrowed from rich friends and twice used Sandringham - his personal property and still owned by Charles III outright - as collateral.

Two of his financial supporters - Rothschild and Hirsch - were Jewish and he rewarded their aid by inviting them into high society, which was pretty progressive in a time of rampant antisemitism.

It's not clear if he paid them back though.

[what-thisiscrazzzy]

“Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy chair and, sitting beside him, patted his hand and chattered with him in the easy, soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ”

Dr John Watson on Sherlock Holmes, the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

Adding to my evidence of sherlocks empathy and capacity to comfort the destressed

[annoyingcat413]

[flammentanz]

Erich Schellow as Sherlock Holmes in "Das Beryll-Diadem"

[pop-goes-the-weasel]

Sidney Paget: And thus continues the saga of Holmes tending to his clients

(Link along with image)

[dathen]

“Holmes,” said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking down the street—

Marks a tally in the “proof Holmes and Watson are living together” jar yet again

[teaspoonnebula]

The Beryl Coronet Part 1 - Notes!

I'm having a lazy Sunday morning so I'm going to luxuriously type out my thoughts while I'm reading today's letter! I'm especially excited because I don't think I've properly read this one.

bow-window looking down the street

I have however read this little nugget of detail because I tried to find any and all descriptions of Baker Street for a game I'm making (The Beekeeper's picnic, you can wishlist it on Steam if you like...)

In a different story it's described as having a bay window. Both bow windows and bay windows project from the exterior wall. Bow windows usually have more panes of glass to make a smooth outward curve.

Both are also fiendishly difficult to convey when you're working with 320x130 pixels.

“Holmes,” said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking down the street, “here is a madman coming along. It seems rather sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone.”

Outdated attitudes towards mental health aside, I think it's sweet that Watson is able to see someone in distress at a distance and immediately find it sad nobody is looking out for him. His doctorly instincts are aroused!

Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ.

Likewise, Holmes is knows by now how to handle someone in distress. There's a really sweet illustration of this moment by Josef Friedrich

We have done a good deal in this direction during the last few years, and there are many noble families to whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their pictures, libraries, or plate. “‘It is absolutely essential to me,’ said he, ‘that I should have £50,000 at once.

B-b-b-Blackmail, methinks. Either that or this is some kind of scam on the bank (perhaps they upfront the money for the coronet but never receive it, or receive a fake) But since we're apparently dealing with a famous notable person, I don't think that's going to be it)

‘You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?’

There has already been a mountain of discussion about coronets in the LfW server - what precisely it is, how the word is pronounced, the etymology...

I'd always thought a coronet was something like this - basically a tiara but a little more gender-neutral!

Turns out it's actually a small crown which has a top to it.

“‘I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my own private purse,’ said I, ‘were it not that the strain would be rather more than it could bear.

I really hope this is just lip service and he wouldn't have really done that. Please Mr Holder, don't lend clients your own money! I feel he's being set up here, either by the narrative or by this Mysterious Notable Man.

I determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might never be really out of my reach.

I just want to sit all Sherlock Holmes characters down and give them a long lecture about how the most vulnerable time for any precious or valuable object is when it is in transit. Also the the bureau of your dressing-room is not actually more secure than a safe at London's second largest bank.

Another, Lucy Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few months.

She gets a name, and is therefore Suspicious.

I could not trust him in the handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long purses and expensive habits

Libertine son Arthur is also Suspicious.

Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him.

...... they're cousins? Right? I mean they are cousins. Not just cousins, but she's been adopted by his father. Right?!

I thought that first-cousin marriage was a bit of an eyebrow-raiser at this time even though it did happen sometimes.

Where are the jewels which you have stolen?’ “‘Stolen!’ he cried. “‘Yes, thief!’ I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. “‘There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,’ said he.

Ok, I think that was actually a "Stolen?!" and he's as surprised as anyone. The beryls were already gone by the time he got there. I'm sure Lucy's disappearance has something to do with it!

at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the ground.

I feel bad for laughing at this.

I am enjoying this one SO MUCH so far! The missing item genre of Sherlock Holmes story is one of my favorites, and so far we've had a really tense tragic narrative with lots of complexity.

I am a little worried that this story isn't a well known one and so perhaps it's a bit of a flop towards the end - but who knows, perhaps it's appropriately a hidden gem!

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet: Holmes is contacted by a banker who has been entrusted with a beryl coronet as collateral for a loan. The banker found his son trying to bend the broken coronet. Holmes deduces that the coronet was actually broken by the banker's niece and the son's friend who sold the beryls. The son let his father think he had broken the coronet to cover for his cousin (the banker's niece).

The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez: Holmes is contacted by a Scotland Yard agent who wants help solving the murder of a professor's secretary. The secretary was found stabbed with a sealing-wax knife and holding a pair of golden pince-nez. Holmes deduces that the murderer, missing her glasses, turned down the wrong corridor and stumbled into the professor's room, where he hid her in a secret hiding space.