Good Sherlock Hunting Scottish Edition by Kristen Mertz

Hello adventurers! I’m back with another tale of hunting Sherlock statues. 

This time around, I started by meeting up with the Sherlock Holmes Society of London in Portsmouth for the Ships, Shanties and the Shingle of Southsea fall excursion. And what an adventure it was! 

I flew into Heathrow on an overnight flight, arriving 10 AM London time. After going to the wrong coach station, another wrong coach station and then standing befuddled in the middle of a car park, I finally gave up trying to find the bus from the airport and just took the tube to another coach station. 

Side note: the tube at Heathrow is free to get to that station and I CANNOT believe I didn’t know this. 

Moving on, I eventually got on my bus to Working and made my train to Portsmouth with no further issues, except being quite exhausted and working on very little sleep.  Before I knew it I was in Portsmouth and walked (trudged perhaps?) to the Royal Maritime Hotel where the conference was being held. 

Once there I found a whole plethora of Sherlockians! I got to meet Holly Turner and Robin Knowles in person for the first time and let me tell you they are just as nice as they seem over Zoom. I also was privileged to say hello again to a few of the Japanese Sherlockians, Yumiko, Ritsuko and Tommoya; and, I was introduced to a bunch more London Society members and found Paul Thomas Miller (pictured below, looking as jaunty as ever). 

I honestly need to start writing everyone’s names down under their pictures. I would say I’m pretty horrible with remembering names but, to be fair, when you meet 30 new people in one weekend, it rather taxes the memory. I will remember your face and where I met you and what we talked about, but for some reason, your name will elude me if I don’t write it down IMMEDIATELY. I pre-apologize to anyone for our future encounters.

The first evening was a traditional fish and chips dinner. I sat with Paul, Marina Stajic and Ashley Mayo. I didn’t have any vinegar with for my chips, but Paul said it wasn’t very British to complain so I refrained. I think he was having one over on me because he said later I should have asked (I will remember this Paul!). The conversation was lovely, as to be expected at any Sherlockian event. Ashley told us about his work posting posted ALL the articles from the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, which is a very handy reference for all of us. I hope I got this all correct but here is the link that leads to the “Scrapbook” that contains all of the articles for you (https://sherlock-holmes.org.uk/the-canon-and-the-journal-a-scrapbook/). 

After dinner there was a toast with gunpowder proof rum (Royal Navy certified). Absolutely excellent toast and though the rum had a bit of a bite, I guess that should be expected since it has to be volatile enough to still be able to light gunpowder for cannons. Our entertainment for the evening was “The Portsmouth Shantymen” who sang some very lively sea shanties for us. We all got to sing along to some and sing some of our own afterwards as well. All in all, the evening was great fun. 

The next morning, I woke up at 7:30 AM despite my alarm not going off, thank goodness. Lucky for me I seem to be jet lag immune or perhaps that is just a hope. Regardless, I made it down to breakfast and had a full English breakfast. Although quite large, I have become very fond of them as I tend to skip lunch (and a full Scottish breakfast is almost the same but with tattie scones and haggis). Wonderful food and tea. When in England, drink like the locals! Plus I like tea and need the caffeine, so there’s that. Holly got me in the habit of carrying a bag of biscuits everywhere too, so I was never without a snack. Thank you Holly! 

After eating breakfast, we all headed out and walked to the Central Library at the Guildhall across town thru Victoria Park (just missing a downpour of rain). We got to see the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection Lancelyn Green Bequest, which is huge. I don’t even think all of it is at the library. I should have asked, but someone told me he had 2 houses full of Sherlockian related material. We separated into 4 groups to cover different areas of the collection, some of which held boxes and boxes of pictures, correspondence, newspaper articles, and well I can’t even say what else is in all those categorized boxes (see below). 

The collection of books was quite a sight to behold. I don’t think I have ever seen so many copies of The Sign of the Four in one place. All the letters and stories and books and Strands, oh my. You can see some examples of my perusals below. Of course, I grabbed some postcards to commemorate the visit. 

In the afternoon, we visited the Mary Rose at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where we got to see the remains of the historic Mary Rose, the story of her sinking and the artifacts that were recovered from the raising. If you have never heard the story of the Mary Rose and how it sank at the Battle of Solent in 1545 and are a Tudor fan, I would recommend reading about it. It was Henry the VIII’s favorite ship and has quite the history. 

For Saturday evening, dinner was a more formal affair. I can’t remember what I had, but who is worried about food when there are Sherlockians to talk to. I remember it was good (except for the turnips because I think they had horseradish, I am not fond of horseradish). I was seated next to Robert Ellis and his wife. 

After dinner, Mia Lagergaard gave a presentation on the 75th Anniversary of the Sherlock Holmes Klubben of Denmark. It was a very nice presentation and the attendees of the anniversary all got named honorary members. Then Pankaj Chandak gave a very informative presentation on Joseph Lister, his work with antiseptics, as well as his connections to the University of Edinburgh, where Conan Doyle attended medical school. I sincerely appreciated hearing the history and medical facts and how very fitting that in just a couple days I would be headed to Edinburgh to see the university for myself. It made for the perfect end to a very enjoyable evening.

Sunday morning, after another English breakfast, we went for a walking tour around Portsmouth. Luckily the rain held off again. We walked to the Camber, where Doyle landed after arriving in Portsmouth. We also visited Bush House, where Doyle lived, had his practice and where the first Sherlock Holmes stories were written, which is now commemorated with a plaque as you can see me pointing out below. It is now a block of flats. Some person(s) lives right over the spot where Sherlock was invented; and, I’m not sure if they’re chuffed about it or not. I guess it depends on how nice they consider their flat to be. 

We also passed Ye Spotted Dogge (where the Duke of Buckingham was assassinated in 1628, now a B&B), a door that leads or led to the local Masons where Conan Doyle would have been a member and the spot where he had fisticuffs after he first arrived (another little story for you to look up!). 

Eventually we made our way around to the Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery, which contains a wonderful collection of Sherlockian artifacts, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s and his wife Jean’s tombstones, on loan from All Saints Church in Minstead, Hampshire, England. This was the last stop of our tour, so we visited the gift shop and had some tea before heading back to the hotel for Sunday roast. The weekend wrapped up with more conversation, a good hearty roast and goodbyes.

It was pouring down rain by the time I headed to the train station. I went to Eastbourne to catch up with my friend and then up to London so I could catch my train to Edinburgh early the next morning. It was quite the whirlwind travel day and unfortunately the weather was about the same. Wind, rain and football fans aplenty from a Portsmouth / Hampton game made it a challenge. I nearly got on the wrong train to Eastbourne, OK I did, but I was able to get off at the next stop and catch the correct one (disaster averted). Well, it was an adventure but I finally hit the hay around midnight. 

The next morning I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed to get to Kings Cross and catch my train to Waverly Station in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a very lovely and relaxing ride, with a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. I had booked the Parliament Hotel, by a lucky accident, it is at the bottom of Calton Hill and a mere 400m walk to the Sherlock Statue. Of course, I couldn’t wait to see the statue despite the rain. 

As soon as I arrived, I headed directly to the hotel, checked in, dropped off my bags and headed straight back out in the rain. It was a light rain, not worth an umbrella and definitely nothing that would stop me from seeing Sherlock. 

I do want it noted that if you ever go to Edinburgh, Google maps will lie to you. It will say on all your walks “mostly flat, stairs”. This is a most egregious fabrication. Mostly flat will have you at the bottom of a hill that you will eventually have to hike back up, probably a very steep hill and likely in a close, but the locals will tell you it is a SLOPE not a hill, which I guess is fair since they call mountains “hills” in Scotland. Having said that, the stairs and hills were on the way down to Sherlock in all his glory, standing in the rain in his Inverness cape and deerstalker and because it was the afternoon and rainy, he was all mine. Many photos were taken, standing in the rain alone with the great detective before I gave into my hunger.  

You see, I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast on the train, which was yogurt from a coffee shop and some biscuits (thank you, Holly!). Also, yes, I admit it I was saving my appetite for just this. I crossed the street to the Conan Doyle pub. There I had a pint of Innis & Gunn’s and a lovely, award winning steak and ale pie. This is pretty much as good as it gets. A nice hearty meal, sitting and looking at one of the best sites I could ask for, in a very cozy pub on a lovely rainy day in Edinburgh. 

One more Sherlock Holmes statue in the books. Sitting in that window seat, I couldn’t help thinking that I will likely never see the statue in Russia unless some miracle happens in my lifetime…so where to now? Well, Steve Mason has told me there is a statue in Oklahoma. I will definitely be headed there sometime in the next year, but what then? I suppose I will have to find something besides statues to collect on my adventures. Until Oklahoma, dear readers and then we will see where my Sherlock hunting takes me after that.