"I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain" [3GAR]
We have a plethora of information about Holmes's personality in not only this opening, but the story itself: his annoyance with Watson and the general public, his charming way with female clients, his thinking, and the age-old question of whether he was attracted to Violet Hunter.
Hop on board with us as we explore the glimpses we have of Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," the story that originally appeared in the Strand Magazine in June 1892 and was the final story in the Adventures.
Please leave us a rating and review on iTunes or Google Play, and consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.
Jeremy
Brett: [00:18:39] Correct,
Lestrade.
Hop on board with us as we explore the glimpses we have of Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," the story that originally appeared in the Strand Magazine in June 1892 and was the final story in the Adventures.
Please leave us a rating and review on iTunes or Google Play, and consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.
Links
Music credits
Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Transcript
Narrator: [00:00:02] Welcome
to Trifles, a weekly podcast about the Sherlock Holmes stories.
Clive Merrison: [00:00:08]
It is of course a trifle but there is nothing so important as trifles.
Narrator: [00:00:14] Yes
the beeches were copper, of the pince-nez was golden, and the blaze was silver,
but there were so many other details to pick apart in the stories.
Jeremy Brett: [00:00:23] Pray,
be precise as to details.
Narrator: [00:00:25] You
know the plots, but what about the minutiae? Have you ever stopped to wonder
about the difference between Holmes's pipes? Or how often he smoked cigars
versus cigarettes? Or what Egyptian cigarettes are like?
Denis Quilley: [00:00:38]
You are very inquisitive Mr. Holmes.
Jeremy Brett: [00:00:41] It's
my business to know what other people don't know.
Narrator: [00:00:45] Scott
Monty and Bert Wolder will have the answers to these questions and more in
Trifles.
Clive Merrison: [00:00:53]
The game's afoot.
[00:00:58] Episode 17:
Glimpses of Holmes in the Copper Beeches.
Scott Monty: [00:01:06] Hi
and welcome to Trifles - that Sherlock Holmes podcast about all the little
details and the Sherlock Holmes stories. I'm Scott Monty.
Burt Wolder: [00:01:17] I'm
Burt Wolder.
Scott Monty: [00:01:18] And
here we are at the end of April. Is it here already? It seems like we were just
at the end of March.
Burt Wolder: [00:01:25] It
seems like it just started, oh well.
Scott Monty: [00:01:27] My
goodness, my goodness. Well, if you're binge-listening, God bless you. And it's
not good for the ears to do that you really should wait at least a week in
between episodes - doctors recommend.
Burt Wolder: [00:01:42] Yes.
But binge listening qualifies you for a binge donations.
Scott Monty: [00:01:47] That is true.
So get on over to SherlockHolmesPodcast.com and click on that Patreon button or
the PayPal button, if you would care to support us. E-mails and advertising and
sound file hosting and transcription services -- all of this goes into the cost
of running this little show. So if you can do your part, that would be very
helpful to us. And while you are there, while you are online, go to the
listening platform of your choice whether it's Stitcher or Spreaker or iTunes
or IHeartRadio or Google Play and leave us a rating or review to let other
people know what you think of the show. And as always your comments here are
welcome. You can reach us at: ihose.co/trifles17. That is the URL for the show
notes for this episode.
Scott Monty: [00:02:49] And
in this episode we are talking about the Copper Beeches. This is one of those
wonderful iconic stories in the Canon. It originally appeared in The Strand
Magazine in June of 1892. And it was the final story in the series that became
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. And chronologists have had a little bit of
debate about this story. It's clearly in the spring they can all agree on that.
Watson says early spring but we get anything from March through May and any
years ranging from 1885 all the way up to 1891, really bumping up against
Holmes and his run-in with Professor Moriarty which we just talked about in the
previous episode.
Burt Wolder: [00:03:40] Well
we prefer to think of it in April, which is one of the reasons why we're
talking about it in April and Baring-Gould's chronology put it at April of
1889.
Scott Monty: [00:03:50] I
like that. I think that works just fine. And again you know in I think it was
Episode 14: The Speckled Band, we talked about that iconic opening. And again
we have one of those here with the Copper Beeches we've got a thick fog
happening outside. We've got a cheery fire. We've got the gleaming breakfast
table which of course Watson is seated. And then you've got Holmes. Who is who
is eloquent and irritable at the same time.
Burt Wolder: [00:04:35] But
this is another wonderful moment. You know that you would call today the meta
moment, where the characters in a particular tale comment about the way their
adventure is portrayed with the public. And Holmes, as Watson says, "picked
up the long cherrywood by which he was I wont to smoke when he was in a
disputatious mood," begins by criticising or commenting anyway about
Watson's portrayal of his cases "You have erred perhaps in attempting to
put her in life to each of your statements, instead of confining yourself to
the task of placing upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect
which is really the only notable feature about the thing." And they go and
they go on for a considerable time to have a discussion about... Watson's
reporting abilities.
Burt Wolder: [00:06:27] Now
this is this is what we would call in modern terminology meta. This is a very
meta kind of thing to do that you're referring to the physical publication the
actual circulation that hits the streets within the confines of the story which
also happens to peer inside that publications. And this is something that isn't
unique to this particular tale you know. Conan Doyle use this technique again
and again, which as we mentioned before, this added to the confusion of the
general public. Is Sherlock Holmes real or fictional?
Burt Wolder: [00:07:06] Yeah
but you know, we started the episode by asking for comments. And here's the
case where Sherlock Holmes refers in this conversation to comments that were likely
received about some of the original adventures because he says to Watson,
"You can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of these
cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself in, a fair proportion
do not treat a crime in its legal sense at all. The small matter in which I
endeavored to help the King of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary
Sutherland, the problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, the
incident of the noble bachelor. Well these were all matters which are outside
the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational I fear you may have
bordered the trivial." And that is just so remarkable. The details in that
well constructed couple of sentences there what's packed in there now.
Scott Monty: [00:08:03] It
really is. I mean there's just this one and these one or two pages the
introduction of the Copper Beeches gives us so much information or just a just
a window into Holmes's personality. And some of the things that they may have
talked about on any given day. This happened to be upon the day that a client
was visiting them. But it really gets you into some of the background of of
this friendship.
Burt Wolder: [00:08:31] But
also the the lovely thing is he goes on to criticize the readers.
Scott Monty: [00:08:36] Yes.
Yeah.
Burt Wolder: [00:08:38] Watson
says well you know I think you know these stories have been really novel and
interesting and Holmes says, "Oh what do the public - the great
unobservant public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a compositor
by his left thumb, care about the inner shades of analysis and deduction? But
indeed..." And then of course we get to the story because he says well
"if you're trivial, I cannot blame you, because...criminal man has lost all
enterprise and originality. As to my own practice has is probably degenerating
into recovering lost lead and and giving advice to young ladies because I've
touched bottom" and look at this letter that I have. And of course it's
the note from Violet Hunter.
Scott Monty: [00:09:21] And
if you've had the opportunity to watch the Granada version of this for Jeremy
Brett, I think it's one of the better episodes in the series. This of course
was the debut of Natasha Richardson in the role of Violet Hunter. And the
derision with which Holmes greets her after having this morning spat with
Watson -- and it was portrayed extraordinarily well between the two actors
David Burke and Jeremy Brett. Miss Hunter is welcomed to the room. She's
sitting by the table. Holmes and Watson are also seated nearby and Holmes is
referencing the letter and as if to completely manifest the level of
divisiveness that he has -- the derision that he has for her. He tosses the the
paper, spinning it in the air toward the table as if to say 'I'm washing my
hands of this' and then he turns his head and puts it in his hand. Just a
marvelous representation of that prickliness by which Holmes was certainly
affected in the opening of this story. And this disputation -- Watson mentions
that Holmes always chooses his his cherrywood pipe when he was in a
disputatious mood. Why? What about cherrywood would connect it with
disputatious versus a clay pipe or say a churchwarden or something?
Burt Wolder: [00:10:57] Well
it's a good question -- clearly it's a long pipe you know so I don't think
there's anything in the actual smoking experience of a cherrywood that would
push one's attitude this way or that way, but it's clearly a long pipe and
unlike a churchwarden which can be clay or refers to a long briar pipe a
cherrywood pipe would have a thicker stem and it also be probably far from
cherry, so you're more free to wave it around like a baton or pointed at
people. That's always what I thought.
Scott Monty: [00:11:35] Well
that's a good point. That's a very good point now it would have nothing to do
with the with the mouthpiece though.
Burt Wolder: [00:11:42] Right
now at the end of the mouthpiece particularly in the 19th century it would have
been horn or amber or I guess an early form of hard rubber bakelite. But no, it
wouldn't have anything to do with the actual part you'd put in your lips.
Scott Monty: [00:11:56] But
that that wild gesticulating would have been accommodated by a longer or
thicker stemmed pipe.
Burt Wolder: [00:12:06] Yeah
or would have had it would have had a stem of cherrywood probably and would end
it at a different tip and you'd be more free to point it around and wave it
around than you would with something that was more fragile.
Scott Monty: [00:12:16] That
makes sense.
Burt Wolder: [00:12:20] The
lovely thing about this you know is that unlike. Well first of all this is so
archetypal in terms of the stories here is a woman alone in mysterious
circumstances and another and one of the first of the many Violets we'll
encounter in the stories. But she begins immediately by getting to the point:
"You will excuse my troubling you, I'm sure," she says. "But
I've had a strange experience. And as I have no parents or relatives from any
sort from whom I could ask advice I thought perhaps you'd be kind enough to
tell me what I should do." Well, Watson says, "I could see that
Holmes was favorably impressed by the manner and speech of his new
client." And he looks over in searching fashion proceeds to hear her
story.
Scott Monty: [00:13:05] Now
and in this case I think he had great respect for Violet Hunter -- this woman
who was was on her own was carrying herself very well and simply came to him
for some advice. He was a little confused as to why she should be consulting him,
but she said she should go down to the Copper Beeches firmer in mind about
things.
Burt Wolder: [00:13:35] Well,
she you know she tells him the whole story and says you know it ends by saying
basically what do you think. And he says, "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind
is made up, that settles the question.
Scott Monty: [00:13:45] Right.
And of course there came that key phrase. Watson notes, "As to Holmes, I
observed that he sat frequently for a half hour on end with knitted brows and
an abstracted air but he swept the matter away with a wave of his hand when I
mentioned it. 'Data! data! data!' He cried impatiently. I can't make bricks
without clay.
Burt Wolder: [00:14:11] Right.
Well before that you know right at the end of that little interchange with
Violet she says well you wouldn't advise me to use would you. And he says in
another great telling remark, "Oh I confess that it is not the situation
which I should like to see a sister of mine apply for.
Scott Monty: [00:14:29] That's
right.
Burt Wolder: [00:14:30] And
of course we know from Conan Doyle that he [Conan Doyle] had several sisters. I
think all of which all of whom were with governesses at different times in
different places.
Scott Monty: [00:14:42] And
at the end of that data data data paragraph Watson said, "And yet he would
always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever have accepted
such situation." So great admiration for this woman and almost seeing her
as a peer as as an extension of the family because he probably saw something of
himself in her -- that independent streak. Holmes may well have may as well
have been an orphan by virtue of the way he conducted his life. So would it
have been that dissimilar from Violet Hunter.
Burt Wolder: [00:15:20] And
the other the other lovely thing in this particular story is that eventually
they go down to Hampshire. And previously we've seen interesting things happen
in Holmes' train travels particularly in I believe "The Naval Treaty"
when are you going back to London and Holmes remarks about "the schools --
the boarding schools, the beacons of hope the lighthouses." Well here,
Watson is pretty happy to be out of the fog of London out in the countryside
and he sees comments to Holmes about "the little red and gray roofs of the
farmstead peeping out from the light green the new foliage." It's a
beautiful description. "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" And Holmes
says, oh Watson, "you look at these scattered houses and you were
impressed by their beauty. I look at them and the only thought which comes to
me is a feeling of their isolation, and of the impunity with which crime may be
committed there." "Good heavens!" "Oh they always fill me
with a certain horror. It is my belief Watson, founded upon my experience, that
the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of
sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "You horrify
me, Holmes.
Scott Monty: [00:16:32] Yeah,
it is one of the curses of the criminal mind, or of the mind that thinks about
crime -- that Holmes would naturally turn his thoughts to that - this
isolation. We come across it -- oh where was it? The inn where Holmes and
Watson stopped where Reuben Hayes and his wife tended the inn in "The
Priory School." Of course we later find out that they were holding the
kidnapped boy upstairs. You know these these areas of isolation allow people to
get away with more when they're not under the eyes of the law. And just to
conclude, returning to our friend Ms Hunter, we know that Holmes may have shown
some sort of affection or may even have been smitten with regard to her. We
have to wonder if she returned the feeling, if she reciprocated this
romanticized feeling. And you know we mentioned Mrs. Hudson getting knocked up
in "The Speckled Band," well we have another wonderful quote here in
"The Copper Beeches" where she said, "I remember nothing until I
found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I thought of you Mr.
Holmes." [MUSIC] [Laughter]
Clive Merrison: [00:18:06]
Is of course a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles.
Narrator: [00:18:11] Please
join us again next week for another installment of Trifles. Show notes are
available on SherlockHolmesPodcast.com. Please subscribe to us on iTunes and be
sure to check out our longer show. I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, where we
interview notable Sherlockians, share news, and go into even more depth on
certain topics.
Peter Barksworth: [00:18:33]
You take my breath away, Mr. Holmes.
Colin Jeavons: [00:18:37]
It's those busts again.
--
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