Sherlock Holmes: Trifles Sherlock Holmes Podcasts

“the flooring was also thoroughly examined” [SPEC] 
 
Cocoanut matting, bearskin rug, carpets — there are a number of notable floor coverings mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes stories. But flooring itself is less notable.
Case in point: linoleum, which appears as a passing mention in just three stories, was a popular alternative at the time. What do we know about the history of linoleum, how was it manufactured, and what role did it play in the Canon? It's just a Trifle.

 
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Links / Notes Previous episode mentioned: Episode 102: Inside 221B: On the Floor All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings.    Music credits
Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra 
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band 
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
 
 



 

“Vast sections of it have been cleared” [BLAC] 
 
When you're really down in the details about something — something trifling, perhaps — it's difficult to see the forest for the trees, as the saying goes.
Well, we've discussed trees in two previous episodes, so we thought it was time to look at the forests. There were scant mentions of forests in the Sherlock Holmes stories, but they're worth a Trifle.

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Links / Notes Forest Row New Forest Weald Previous episodes mentioned: Episode 274: Trees, Part 1 Episode 276: Trees, Part 2 All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings.    Music credits
Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra 
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band 
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
 
 
 

“at Maiwand without losing my nerve” [STUD]  Maiwand: Saving the Guns by Richard Caton Woodville, 1883 (Wikimedia Commons)  
It is generally accepted that A Study in Scarlet, when Dr. Watson first met Sherlock Holmes, took place in 1881. Watson was just back from the war in Afghanistan, where he had been wounded at the Battle of Maiwand.
But in 1940, Edgar W. Smith took a closer look at the timing between the battle, Watson's recovery time, travel to London and hotel stay, and came to a much different conclusion. He wrote it up in a pamphlet and it's just a Trifle.

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Links / Notes The Long Road from Maiwand: an examination of the evidence bearing upon the dating of a certain encounter in the chemical laboratory at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in London by Edgar W. Smith (Abebooks) The eBSJ All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings.   
  Music credits
Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra 
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band 
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
 
 
 

“Stop at a telegraph-office, cabby!” [SIGN]   

 
Cabbies are everywhere in London – indeed, so common in some cases that they're simply overlooked (we see you, Jefferson Hope!). Could Sherlock Holmes have passed himself off as a cabby?
There are certainly points in his career when it would have made sense. And a paper given at a Sherlock Holmes society in Denmark points in that direction. Hop on board with us in this monthly travel series episode! It's just a Trifle.

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Links / Notes "The Thomas Hogram Letters" by Sven Ranild is an expanded and translated version of a paper delivered in Copenhagen on September 19, 1987, at the Centenary Dinner of the Sherlock Holmes Klubben i Danmark and it appeared in the Summer 1991 issue of The Sherlock Holmes Journal. Episode 124 - Odd Jobs All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings.    Music credits
Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra 
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band 
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
 
 
 

“very curious phraseology” [WIST]   

 
Here's an interesting little subject that ought to intrigue many Sherlock Holmes fans: words. We are a literate bunch, and when we get to learn more about words — especially words with which we're unfamiliar —  that makes us happy. 
This topic was suggested by listener Jennifer Cassasanto, who was curious about some of the foreign and antiquated terms in the Canon. Fair warning, though: this is a pun-filled zone. Word nerds unite! It's just a Trifle.

You can make suggestions as well — if we choose a topic you recommend, we'll send you a Sherlockian prize.
 
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Links / Notes An Irregular Anglo-American Glossary of More or Less Unfamiliar Words, Terms and Phrases in the Sherlock Holmes Saga by S. Tupper Bigelow Episode 124 - Odd Jobs All of our social links: https://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings.   
  Music credits
Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra 
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band 
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
 
 
 

“kept as a secret among them” [DEVI]   

 
When Dr. Leon Sterndale said there was only one known specimen of radix pedis dioaboli – devil's foot root – in a laboratory in Buda, it was clear that it was a poison unknown to science.  
Just what was it that was "used as an ordeal poison by the medicine-men in certain districts of West Africa"? Dr. Robert Ennis had an idea related to a substance we know well today, based on his observations in emergency rooms. And it’s anything but a Trifle.

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Links / Notes  
The eBSJ All of our social links: linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock Email us at trifles @ ihearofsherlock.com Join our community on Patreon or Substack to hear bonus material and be eligible for drawings.   
  Music credits
Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra 
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band 
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0