A doctor enjoys Sherlock Holmes

To me one of the most delightful touches in the tales of Sherlock Holmes is the frequent mention of the state of the weather. As far as I know, no one has emphasized the numerous references to the weather by Dr. Watson. Especially in the opening of the short stories can these be found, but they are not confined there, for they appear throughout the longer tales as well. Many instances can be cited to illustrate Dr. Watson’s allusions to the state of the weather. Let us freshen our memory by reviewing some of these.

Numerous references to the rains and winds of autumn may be found, such as, “... the weather had taken a sudden turn to rain, with autumnal winds” (The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor). And, in a similar vein, “Outside the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come to us from amid the mad elements—blown in upon us like a sheet of seaweed in a gale” (The Five Orange Pips). And in The Problem of Thor Bridge, we find that, as Dr. Watson was dressing one morning, he observed how the leaves were being whisked away from the plane tree (we would call it a sycamore) which graced their back yard.

The events related in The Hound of the Baskervilles took place in the autumn of the year, and several interesting allusions to this season may be found: “I walked over to the black window, and I looked through a blurred pane at the driving clouds and at the tossing outline of the wind-swept trees. It was a wild night....” Another reference, “A dull and foggy day with a drizzle of rain. The house is banked in with rolling clouds....” Also, “All day today the rain poured down, rustling on the ivy and dripping from the eaves....” And in another instance, “Rain squalls drifted across ... and the heavy, slate-coloured clouds hung low over the landscape, trailing in gray wreaths down the sides of the fantastic hills.” And lastly, an especially interesting allusion may be cited:

The paragraph just quoted pictures a rather wet autumn night, but not an especially bad one. In The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez, an extremely wild and stormy night toward the end of November is depicted. Dr. Watson describes vividly how the wind howled down Baker Street, and how the rain beat vigorously against the windows. Another reference may be cited which depicts gloomy autumn days: “It had been a close and rainy day in October....” (The Resident Patient).

It would appear, then, that many of Sherlock Holmes’ adventures took place during the fall of the year. It must be inferred that the dark and stormy days of autumn depressed the great detective, for we find him saying to Dr. Watson, “Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for the only problem we still have to solve is how to while away these bleak autumnal evenings” (The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor).

From the instances just enumerated, it would seem that Dr. Watson was fond of picturing a background of wind, rain, and storm for many of his stories. He also described the well-known fogs of London with telling effect. In The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, Dr. Watson writes, “A thick fog rolled down the lines of dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths.” And again, “It was a September evening and not yet 7 o’clock, but the day had been a dreary one, and a dense drizzly fog lay low upon the great city” (The Sign of the Four). In the same story, we find Holmes saying, “See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses.” In The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, Dr. Watson tells how, during the month of November of 1895, such a heavy fog descended on London that it was impossible to see the houses on the opposite side of Baker Street.

In addition to wind, rain, storm, and fog, Dr. Watson makes reference as well to sharp winter weather. In The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, it will be remembered that Dr. Watson visited Sherlock Holmes two days following Christmas to give his friend the season’s greetings. Watson writes, “I seated myself in his arm chair and warmed my hands before his crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows were thick with ice crystals.” When he and Holmes set out to obtain information about the goose which had swallowed the blue carbuncle, Watson tells us: “It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly in a cloudless sky, and breath of the passers-by blew out into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out crisply and loudly....”

In The Adventure of the Abbey Grange, Watson describes an adventure which took place on a bitterly cold morning during the winter of ’97. On another occasion, Watson tells how he and Holmes went for a walk on a cold and frosty winter evening (The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton). A description of a beautiful winter day may be found in The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet: “It was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the wintry sun.”

Mention is made too of the weather in the spring. On several occasions, references are made to the cold and stormy weather of the early part of this season: “It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at Baker Street” (The Adventure of the Copper Beeches). The Adventure of the Speckled Band took place in the spring of ’83. Watson writes: “It was a wild night. The wind was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing against the window.” In The Adventure of the Wisteria Lodge, the good doctor writes that it was a cold, dark, windy March evening, and a fine rain was falling. And in His Last Bow, Watson writes that he had recorded in his notebook that, in the latter part of March in the year 1892, it was a bleak and windy day.

Milder spring weather also claimed Dr. Watson’s attention: “It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man’s energy” (The Adventure of the Copper Beeches). In a similar vein, “It was a perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the heavens” (The Adventure of the Speckled Band). In The Adventure of the Three Garridebs, a lovely spring evening is mentioned, and Watson writes that the slanting rays of the setting sun made even a little prosaic street look golden.

For some reason or other, less frequent mention is made of summer weather. There are, however, several interesting references to this enjoyable season. In the story of The Greek Interpreter, Dr. Watson writes, “It was after tea on a summer evening....” And similarly, in The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone, our attention is called to the fact that it was the evening of a lovely summer’s day. It would be expected that somewhere in the stories an allusion would be made to the torrid days of August: “It was a blazing hot day in August. Baker Street was like an oven, and the glare of the sunlight upon the yellow brickwork of the house across the street was painful to the eye” (The Adventure of the Cardboard Box). An especially poignant reference to a hot summer night may be found in the story His Last Bow. Dr. Watson gives a vivid description of a hot night on the second of August. He mentions that there was an awesome hush and a feeling of expectancy in the sultry and stagnant air. The August to which reference is made was that of 1914—the beginning of World War I. In that holocaust, Great Britain lost the flower of her youth. She has not yet recovered from that mortal blow.

People living in the Victorian era, just like many of us today, were interested in barometric pressure. In The Boscombe Valley Mystery, an interesting reference to barometric readings may be found. Sherlock Holmes remarks to Lestrade of Scotland Yard: “How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud in the sky.” Somewhat later in the day, he mentions to Dr. Watson: “The glass still keeps very high.... It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able to go over the ground.” Fortunately, in this instance good weather prevailed, for Watson writes, “There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke bright and cloudless.”

One might well ask why Dr. Watson emphasizes the state of the weather so often? Several reasons come to mind: To make the setting of his stories more realistic; to take up space in the manuscript; to use the subject of the weather as an excuse for some fine writing; to reveal Watson’s little-suspected love of nature; or perhaps still other reasons. Let us examine some of these.

It is well known that writers often have dirty weather prevailing when foul deeds are to be committed. Dr. Watson, however, does not abuse this privilege in his writings, although he does occasionally take advantage of unusual atmospheric conditions to make the story more exciting. A good example of this is to be found in the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.

One recalls that Sherlock Holmes laid a trap to catch the villain, Stapleton. A part of the plan made it necessary for the hero, Sir Henry, to walk across the dismal moor alone after dark. Holmes had calculated that Stapleton would let loose his spectral hound that particular night. It was carefully arranged, of course, so that Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Lestrade would kill the hound before any harm befell Sir Henry, and then catch Stapleton redhanded. All went according to plan until a dense fog started to rise from the adjacent Grimpen Mire. The low visibility produced by the unexpected fog almost upset Holmes’ well-laid plans and nearly caused the death of Sir Henry, because his friends could not see the hound until it was dangerously close to him.

Can the good doctor be accused of writing about the weather simply to make the manuscripts longer? I think not. In the first place, there is no evidence (certainly not in his early career) that the money he received for his stories bore any relation to their length. Further, and more important, a man with Watson’s imagination did not have to rely upon such a mundane topic as the weather to lengthen his stories. We can dismiss this argument promptly by stating that he was not guilty of padding his manuscripts in this manner.

Did he use the weather as an occasional excuse for fine writing? Probably not, although some of the paragraphs in which he describes the state of the weather, if examples of fine writing, are certainly examples of vivid writing as well. Several instances could be given, but one will suffice:

What other reasons could be given for Watson’s frequent allusions to the weather? There are, of course, the dapper gentleman and the Scotchman, who are conscious of the state of the weather since they deplore—for different reasons, to be sure—losing the press in their trousers by being caught in the rain. To the Londoner, however, who seems obliviously unaware of the somewhat disheveled state of his attire, such an explanation could scarcely apply. On the other hand, one cogent reason does come to mind. It must always be remembered that Watson was both a physician and an author. Now the state of the weather is of perpetual interest to a general practitioner of medicine, and this is what Dr. Watson pretended to be. It is true that the physician who practices in the city probably is not as weather-minded as his colleague in the country. Dr. Watson lived in the great city of London, but often made his professional calls on foot and doubtless trudged through storm and rain: “When your round is a short one you walk, and when it is a long one you use a hansom” (The Crooked Man). He mentions that after his marriage he dropped in at 221B Baker Street from time to time when walking in that vicinity.

In point of fact, the kind of weather is of no little importance to a person who is called out at any time of day or night, as almost any physician will testify. This may be one of the important reasons why Watson makes such frequent mention of the weather in his stories.

All may not agree with me that such descriptions of the state of the weather add greatly to the interest of Watson’s writings. This is a matter of opinion; for doubtless there are many men who have little interest in the weather under any circumstances. Earl Derr Biggers, the creator of Charlie Chan, had one of his less liked characters remark that he was not interested in the weather, since he was not a cabbage. Be that as it may, I have always pitied those individuals who pay absolutely no attention to the weather; they are missing a great deal in life.

There are people who see beauty and interest only in a beautiful day. The poet probably was right when he sang, “What is so rare as a day in June?” But would anyone deny that there is beauty in a snowstorm or a sleetstorm, and is not a cloudburst or a thunderstorm an awesome spectacle, and can not even a duststorm be a striking phenomenon? Now nature, I grant, can overdo this matter of storms, and too much dust in the atmosphere or a week of rainy, sullen weather leave much to be desired.

To those of us who have been thrilled by the saga of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and who have found enjoyment and relaxation in reading about these famous characters, I would like to make one further suggestion: Let us think of Dr. Watson not only as a practitioner of medicine, or only just as an amateur detective and confidant of Sherlock Holmes, but also as a man interested in many things—a lover of nature and one who could see charm in all her moods.