Monthly Meeting Minutes – 9th March 2020

The Shingle of Southsea Holmesian Society

Monthly Meeting Minutes

Date of Meeting: 9th March 2020

Location of Meeting:

The Sherloft, My House, Portsmouth, UK

Attendees:

"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller)

Apologies:

Unfortunately not.

Presentation:

"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) presented the following excellent paper about canines in the Canon.

Canonical Canines

By Paul Thomas Miller

By my count, there are around eighty-four mentions of canines in the canon. However, it would be possible to arrive at different counts. For example, I have only counted metaphors and similes regarding Holmes being hound-like once for each story, but in some stories, this similarity is mentioned many times. I also elected to ignore mentions of ‘dog-carts’ and victims being ‘dogged’ by pursuers. Thus other counts are possible and would be just as valid.

Starting with my initial count of eighty-four, I then dismissed some of these from my final table of data. These are discussed in the appendix. Once we have eliminated these semi-mentions of canines we find there are twenty-six stories which have no mention of canines at all. For the sake of brevity, I shall list these in Jay Finley Christ’s abbreviated form. They are: FIVE, IDEN, SCAN, BERY, ENGR, NOBL, SPEC, FINA, GREE, MUSG, STOC, YELL, EMPT, NORW, 3STU, GOLD, REDC, DYIN, LAST, MAZA, THOR, 3GAR, ILLU, BLAN, RETI and VEIL.

We are left with two types of canine to consider: metaphorical and actual. (I play fast and loose here with the word metaphorical, using it to encapsulate any descriptive use of canines: metaphors, similes, adverbs and adjectives. A bit naughty but, I hope, forgivable.) When counting these, there are occasions where metaphors are used to describe many people, as in the crooked man when we are told “There were ten thousand rebels round us, and they were as keen as a set of terriers round a rat-cage.” or in Lady Frances Carfax when Holmes says “She is a stray chicken in a world of foxes.” We will count such instances just the once to avoid unnecessary bias in our figures. Similarly, sometimes the same dog is referenced over and over in the course of a story. A good example is the Hound of the Baskervilles which is mentioned again and again throughout the story. It is described variously as a hound, a fiend dog, a spectral hound and a demon dog, but will only be counted once in my tally.

I should also mention that I take Watson’s bull pup from A Study in Scarlet as a literal bull pup, although metaphorical interpretations are possible.

The rest of the mentions of canines can be found listed in the appendix to this essay.

We find then that of the sixty stories, twenty-seven contain metaphorical canines and fifteen contain actual canines. They may be represented in pie-chart form as follows:

 

In the stories which do contain canines, there are forty-seven separate counts of metaphorical canines and twenty-seven separate mentions of actual canines. However those actual canines include several instances of unknown amounts of canines and one instance of forty-two canine, so the actual count should be sixty-three plus an unknown number of foxes, sheep-dogs, dhole, jackal and strange dogs. In order to produce lovely graphs and pie charts, I need a total to work with. As each unknown is clearly a plural it must be at least two. In order to stop the figures getting silly, I will take two as my substitute quantity in each case of an unknown number. Therefore the total number of actual dogs in the Canon comes out as seventy-two.

The breeds of these dogs can be illustrated by the following pie chart: 

Of the metaphorical canines, 10% are Sherlock Holmes and 19% are policemen. A third of these policemen are Inspector Lestrade. 28% of the canine metaphors refer to someone tracking or detecting something, 4% refer to tenacity outside of tracking, 19% are direct insults and 28% are references to someone’s appearance. 19% of the metaphorical canines end up dead.

Of the actual canines, only 8% have names which are stated in the Canon. The number of canines we know die in the Canon is also 8%. However, quite against this overall death rate, 33% of the named dogs end up dead. It seems that in the Canonical world, naming your dog increases the chance of death by 313%. This may explain the surprisingly low number of named canines in the Canon, even though 85% do have known owners. Of the six canines who die in the Canon, one is burnt, one eaten, one stung to death and one poisoned. Shooting is by far the favourite way to dispatch dogs, though, with two being blasted at close quarters.

An analysis of this data, once collated, reveals several interesting trends. If we consider mentions of canines in the stories against when these mentions are supposed to have taken place (I use Watson Does Not Lie by Paul Thomas Miller as my chronology of choice to establish these dates) we can produce the following bar chart:

 I have clustered pre-STUD mentions together under the heading “pre 1881”, but aside from this we can see three main peaks of canine activity in the Canon – 1881, 1889 and 1897. In each case, while the ratio varies, metaphorical canines always lead in numbers.

Compare this with a similar bar chart but this time looking at mentions compared to publication dates of the stories:

 

In this instance, there is one clear spike: 1904, tying in with the publication of many of the stories in the “Return of Sherlock Holmes” collection. We can see that while there were no cases involving canines in 1904, there were plenty mentioned in stories published that year.

Left with the dates 1881, 1889, 1897 and 1904 to examine, it is most notable that only 1889 is a prime number. Explain that if you can, so-called science.

Appendix

Canines Not Counted in my Data

The Creeping Man begins with some discussion of the use of dogs in the work of the detective. ‘dogs’, ‘bloodhounds’ and ‘sleuth-hounds’ are all mentioned but are mere suggestions. So I discount them.

Similarly, at the end of the story an actual dog slips a collar made for a Newfoundland. I count only the actual dog, not the potential Newfoundland.

In making deductions about Mortimer in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes comments that he has “a favourite dog, which I should describe roughly as being larger than a terrier and smaller than a mastiff.” I count neither the imaginary terrier nor the mastiff. I count only the actual curly haired spaniel.

There seems to be no dog to go with Grimesby Roylott’s dog lash in The Speckled Band, so this is discounted.

In the same vein, Henderson lashes at folk with his dog-whip in Wisteria Lodge, but the dog to go with it is not mentioned.

At one point in A Study in Scarlet, a policeman describes the emptiness of a street by stating that he saw “Not a livin' soul, sir, nor as much as a dog.” This is not a dog; it is an absence of dog, and does not interest us.

From the same story I also discount Enoch Drebber’s bull-dog’s head gold pin. This is jewellery in the shape of a canine, not an actual canine.

There is a mention of fox-hunters in The Valley of Fear from which we could infer the presence of foxes, but we shall not.

Likewise, a dog-kennel in The Retired Colourman suggests a dog, past or present, in Amberley’s home, but this is not enough to warrant a place in my count.

Finally, there is a potential dog in The Norwood Builder which may have been burnt to produce human looking remains. However, as Holmes cannot be certain whether the bones are dog or rabbit, neither can we.

Instances of Metaphorical Canine in the Canon

In ABBE Captain Jack Croker is described as not being a hound: “I was not such a selfish hound as that.”

In ABBE Sir Eustace Brackenstall is described as a hound: “This drunken hound, that he should dare to raise his hand to her whose boots he was not worthy to lick!”

In BLAC Patrick Cairns is described as a bull-dog: “A fierce bull-dog face was framed in a tangle of hair and beard, and two bold dark eyes gleamed behind the cover of thick, tufted, overhung eyebrows.”

In BLAC John Hopley Neligan is described as potentially being a jackal: “Was it a fierce tiger of crime, which could only be taken fighting hard with flashing fang and claw, or would it prove to be some skulking jackal, dangerous only to the weak and unguarded?”

In BOSC Sherlock Holmes is described as a dog: “He ran round, like a dog who is picking up a scent, and then turned upon my companion.”

In BRUC Sherlock Holmes is described as a foxhound: “See the foxhound with hanging ears and drooping tail as it lolls about the kennels, and compare it with the same hound as, with gleaming eyes and straining muscles, it runs upon a breast-high scent—such was the change in Holmes since the morning.”

In BRUC Hugo Oberstein is described as a dog: ““The cunning dog has covered his tracks,” said he. “He has left nothing to incriminate him.”

In CARD Inspector Lestrade is described as a bulldog: “That he may be safely trusted to do, for although he is absolutely devoid of reason, he is as tenacious as a bulldog when he once understands what he has to do, and indeed, it is just this tenacity which has brought him to the top at Scotland Yard.”

In CHAS Charles Augustus Milverton is described as a hound: “Take that, you hound, and that!—and that!—and that!”

In CROO Indians involved in the Indian Mutiny are described as terriers: “There were ten thousand rebels round us, and they were as keen as a set of terriers round a rat-cage.”

In DANC Sherlock Holmes is described as a retriever: “"Holmes hunted about among the grass and leaves like a retriever after a wounded bird."“

In DEVI Mortimer Tregennis is described as being like a fox: “When I think of Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy face and the small shrewd, beady eyes behind the spectacles, he is not a man whom I should judge to be of a particularly forgiving disposition.”

In DEVI Sherlock Holmes is described as a foxhound: “He was out on the lawn, in through the window, round the room, and up into the bedroom, for all the world like a dashing foxhound drawing a cover.”

In DEVI Sherlock Holmes is described as a hound: “Holmes took his pipe from his lips and sat up in his chair like an old hound who hears the view-halloa.” I count this separately from the foxhound metaphor, because the meaning is different.

In HOUN Inspector Lestrade is described as a bulldog: “The London express came roaring into the station, and a small, wiry bulldog of a man had sprung from a first-class carriage.”

In HOUN Cartwright is described as a dog: “I have also communicated with my faithful Cartwright, who would certainly have pined away at the door of my hut, as a dog does at his master's grave”

In LADY Lady Frances Carfax is described as being potential prey for a fox: “She is a stray chicken in a world of foxes.”

In NAVA Forbes is described as a fox: “Holmes had already wired to Forbes, and we found him waiting to receive us—a small, foxy man with a sharp but by no means amiable expression.”

In PRIO Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are both described as hounds: “perhaps the scent is not so cold but that two old hounds like Watson and myself may get a sniff of it.”

In REDH lots of red-headed men are described as Irish-setters: “Every shade of colour they were—straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay”

In REDH Sherlock Holmes is described as a sleuth-hound: “his languid, dreamy eyes were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound”

In REDH Peter Jones is described as a bulldog: “He is as brave as a bulldog and as tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone.”

In REDH Peter Jones is described as a dog: “Our friend here is a wonderful man for starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do the running down.” I count this separately from the bulldog metaphor, because the meaning is different.

In RESI Mr. Blessington is described as a blood-hound: “He was very fat, but had apparently at some time been much fatter, so that the skin hung about his face in loose pouches, like the cheeks of a blood-hound.”

In SECO Inspector Lestrade is described as a bulldog: “Lestrade's bulldog features gazed out at us from the front window”

In SHOS Mr. Norlett  is described as a dog: “Yes, I would swear to his yellow face—a mean dog”

In SIGN Tonga is described variously as a newfoundland dog and a hell-hound: “Beside him lay a dark mass which looked like a Newfoundland dog” and “It was that little hell-hound Tonga”

In SIGN rebels in the Indian Mutiny are described as dogs: “There are no rebel dogs on this side of the river.”

In SIGN Sherlock Holmes is described as a blood-hound: “So swift, silent, and furtive were his movements, like those of a trained blood-hound picking out a scent”

In SILV Mr. Silas Brown is described as a dog: “His bullying, overbearing manner was all gone too, and he cringed along at my companion's side like a dog with its master.”

In SIXN Beppo is described as a wolf: “Not a word would our captive say; but he glared at us from the shadow of his matted hair, and once, when my hand seemed within his reach, he snapped at it like a hungry wolf.”

In SOLI Mr. Williamson and Jack Woodley are described as dogs: “Ah, the cowardly dogs! Follow me, gentlemen! Too late! too late! by the living Jingo!”

In STUD Gregson, Lestrade, and Holmes are described as a staghounds: “Gregson, Lestrade, and Holmes sprang upon him like so many staghounds.”

In STUD Sherlock Holmes is described variously as hound, wolf, bloodhound and foxhound: ““I am one of the hounds and not the wolf; Mr. Gregson or Mr. Lestrade will answer for that. Go on, though. What did you do next?”, “Leaning back in the cab, this amateur bloodhound carolled away like a lark while I meditated upon the many-sidedness of the human mind.” and “As I watched him I was irresistibly reminded of a pure-blooded well-trained foxhound as it dashes backwards and forwards through the covert”. All of these refer to his abilities in detection and so I count them together.

In STUD Jefferson Hope is described as a dog or bloodhound several times: “Year passed into year, his black hair turned grizzled, but still he wandered on, a human bloodhound”

In STUD Enoch Drebber is described variously as a dog, cur or hound: “You dog!’ I said; ‘I have hunted you from Salt Lake City to St. Petersburg, and you have always escaped me.” and “‘You hound,’ he cried, shaking his stick at him; ‘I'll teach you to insult an honest girl!’ He was so hot that I think he would have thrashed Drebber with his cudgel, only that the cur staggered away down the road as fast as his legs would carry him.”

In STUD Gregson is described as a hound: “You may be very smart and clever, but the old hound is the best, when all is said and done.”

In SUSS Mrs. Ferguson is described as a wolf: “Day and night the nurse covered the child, and day and night the silent, watchful mother seemed to be lying in wait as a wolf waits for a lamb.”

In TWIS Hugh Boone is described as a bulldog: “A shock of orange hair, a pale face disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a pair of very penetrating dark eyes”

In VALL various Scowrers are described as a cur: “There were curs to do the smaller work”

In VALL Porlock is described as a jackal: “Picture to yourself the pilot fish with the shark, the jackal with the lion”

In VALL Ted Wolf is described as a wolf: “It was the worst enemy I had among them all—one who has been after me like a hungry wolf after a caribou all these years.”

In VALL two Vermissa Valley policemen are described as hounds: “Well, yes. I told the hounds what I thought of them.”

In VALL various Scowrers are described as bloodhounds or hounds: “Get your word in first, or the hounds will be on your trail.” and “At last there came a warning to him that the bloodhounds were on his track once more, and he cleared—only just in time—for England.”

In VALL McMurdo/Edwards/Douglas is described as a dog or bloodhound: “He thrust out his face and grinned at the patrolmen like a snarling dog.”, “Well, I've given you the pointer, and you're a sulky dog not to thank me for it.” and “McGinty had instruments enough already; but he recognized that this was a supremely able one. He felt like a man holding a fierce bloodhound in leash.”

In WIST Gregson is described as a bulldog: “He turned his bulldog eyes upon our visitor.”

In 3GAB Barney Stockdale and Susan, his wife are described as a hounds: “They are good hounds who run silent.”

Instances of Actual Canine in the Canon

In ABBE there is a dog belonging to Lady Brackenstall (nee Mary Fraser): “There was a scandal about his drenching a dog with petroleum and setting it on fire—her ladyship's dog.”

In BLUE there is a dog belonging to Mr. Breckinridge (the goose seller): “If you come pestering me any more with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you.”

In CHAS there is a dog belonging to Charles Augustus Milverton: “Then he has a beast of a dog which roams the garden.”

In COPP there is a mastiff belonging to Jephro Ruscastle: “It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do anything with him.”

In CREE there is a wolfhound/dog belonging to Professor Presbury: “Why does Professor Presbury's wolfhound, Roy, endeavour to bite him?”

In GLOR there is a bull terrier belonging to Victor Trevor: “Trevor was the only man I knew, and that only through the accident of his bull terrier freezing on to my ankle one morning as I went down to chapel.”

In HOUN there is a spaniel/dog belonging to Dr. James Mortimer: “The dog's jaw, as shown in the space between these marks, is too broad in my opinion for a terrier and not broad enough for a mastiff. It may have been—yes, by Jove, it is a curly-haired spaniel.”

In HOUN there is a mention of foxes: “We cannot leave it here to the foxes and the ravens.”

In HOUN there is a hound/fiend dog/dog/spectral hound/demon dog belonging to Jack Stapleton: “The dog, incited by its master, sprang over the wicket-gate and pursued the unfortunate baronet, who fled screaming down the Yew Alley.”

In HOUN there is a mention of sheep-dogs: “There are many sheep-dogs on the moor?”

In LION there is a dog belonging to Fitzroy McPherson: “On one occasion, being plagued by a little dog belonging to McPherson, he had caught the creature up and hurled it through the plate-glass window”

In MISS there is a draghound/dog belonging to Jeremy Dixon: ““Let me introduce you to Pompey,” said he. “Pompey is the pride of the local draghounds, no very great flier, as his build will show, but a staunch hound on a scent.”

In MISS there is a dog belonging to Dr. Leslie Armstrong's coachman: “he was rude enough to set a dog at me”

In REIG there is a dog belonging to Alec Cunningham: ““You don't keep a dog?” “Yes, but he is chained on the other side of the house.”“

In SHOS there is a spaniel/dog belonging to Lady Beatrice Falder and Josiah Barnes: “By the way, that was a most beautiful spaniel that was whining in the hall.”

In SIGN there is a mongrel/dog belonging to Sherman: “Toby proved to an ugly, long-haired, lop-eared creature, half spaniel and half lurcher, brown-and-white in color, with a very clumsy waddling gait.”

In SIGN there is a mention of jackals: “I found it was Dawson's wife, all cut into ribbons, and half eaten by jackals and native dogs”

In SIGN there is a mention of dholes (the native dogs of India): “I found it was Dawson's wife, all cut into ribbons, and half eaten by jackals and native dogs”

In SIGN there is are forty-two other dogs belonging to Sherman: “If you kick up any more row I'll open the kennels and let out forty-three dogs upon you.” (Forty-two because we have already counted Toby, the forty-third.)

In SIGN there is a mention of strange dogs: “Strange dogs sauntered up and stared wonderingly at us as we passed”

In SILV there is a dog/hound belonging to Colonel Ross: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”

In SILV there is a dog belonging to Mr. Silas Brown: “I've no time to talk to every gadabout. We want no stranger here. Be off, or you may find a dog at your heels”

In STUD there is a bull pup belonging to Dr. John H. Watson: “I keep a bull pup,”

In STUD there is a mention of a coyote: “The coyote skulks among the scrub”

In STUD there is a dog/terrier belonging (probably) to Mrs. Hudson: “Now would you mind going down and fetching that poor little devil of a terrier which has been bad so long, and which the landlady wanted you to put out of its pain yesterday.”

In SUSS there is a spaniel/dog belonging to Robert Ferguson: “A spaniel had lain in a basket in the corner. It came slowly forward towards its master, walking with difficulty.”

Table of Results

The reader may find the following table of results confusing and unhelpful:

Story	Year when mention took place within story	Year of publication	Metaphorical canines mentioned	Actual canines mentioned	Total canines mentioned
STUD pt1	1881	1887	4	2	6
STUD pt2	1860	1887	1	1	2
SIGN pt1	1888	1890	2	3	5
SIGN pt2	1857	1890	1	2	3
BOSC	1889	1891	1	0	1
REDH	1890	1891	4	0	4
TWIS	1889	1891	1	0	1
FIVE	1887	1891	0	0	0
IDEN	1890	1891	0	0	0
SCAN	1888	1891	0	0	0
BLUE	1890	1892	0	1	1
COPP	1891	1892	0	1	1
SILV	1891	1892	1	2	3
SPEC	1883	1892	0	0	0
BERY	1884	1892	0	0	0
ENGR	1889	1892	0	0	0
NOBL	1887	1892	0	0	0
CARD	1889	1893	1	0	1
CROO	1857	1893	1	0	1
GLOR	1875	1893	0	1	1
NAVA	1887	1893	1	0	1
REIG	1887	1893	0	1	1
RESI	1881	1893	1	0	1
FINA	1891	1893	0	0	0
GREE	1888	1893	0	0	0
MUSG	1877	1893	0	0	0
STOC	1889	1893	0	0	0
YELL	1884	1893	0	0	0
HOUN	1889	1901	2	4	6
DANC	1898	1903	1	0	1
NORW	1894	1903	0	0	1
EMPT	1894	1903	0	0	0
ABBE	1897	1904	2	1	3
BLAC	1895	1904	2	0	2
CHAS	1886	1904	1	1	2
MISS	1897	1904	0	2	2
PRIO	1901	1904	1	0	1
SECO	1886	1904	1	0	1
SIXN	1900	1904	1	0	1
SOLI	1895	1904	1	0	1
3STU	1895	1904	0	0	0
GOLD	1894	1904	0	0	0
BRUC	1895	1908	2	0	2
WIST	1892	1908	1	0	1
DEVI	1897	1910	3	0	3
LADY	1894	1911	1	0	1
REDC	1902	1911	0	0	0
DYIN	1889	1913	0	0	0
VALL pt2	1867	1914	3	0	3
VALL pt1	1887	1914	3	0	3
LAST	1914	1917	0	0	0
MAZA	1903	1921	0	0	0
THOR	1900	1922	0	0	0
CREE	1903	1923	0	1	1
SUSS	1897	1924	1	1	2
3GAR	1902	1924	0	0	0
ILLU	1902	1924	0	0	0
LION	1907	1926	0	1	1
RETI	1899	1926	0	0	0
3GAB	1902	1926	1	0	1
BLAN	1903	1926	0	0	0
SHOS	1883	1927	1	1	2
VEIL	1896	1927	0	0	0

Any Other Business:

"The Entire Canon" (Paul Thomas Miller) ate three pickled eggs.