Vintage Postbag, September 1973

Author

admin

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

Current page

77

Current page

78

Current page

79

Current page

80

Current page

81

Current page

82

Current page

83

Current page

84

Current page

85

Current page

86

Current page

87

Current page

88

Current page

89

Current page

90

Current page

91

Current page

92

Current page

93

Current page

94

Current page

95

Current page

96

Current page

97

Current page

98

Current page

99

Current page

100

Current page

101

Current page

102

Current page

103

Current page

104

Current page

105

Current page

106

Current page

107

Current page

108

Current page

109

Current page

110

Current page

111

Current page

112

Current page

113

Current page

114

Current page

115

Current page

116

Current page

117

Current page

118

Current page

119

Current page

120

Current page

121

Current page

122

Current page

123

Current page

124

Current page

125

Current page

126

Current page

127

Current page

128

Current page

129

Current page

130

Current page

131

Current page

132

Current page

133

Current page

134

Current page

135

Current page

136

Current page

137

Current page

138

Current page

139

Current page

140

Current page

141

Current page

142

Current page

143

Current page

144

Sir, “His Last Bow”

As another avid Sherlockian I read Philip Liput’s comments on the Sherlock Holmes’ Ford with considerable interest. I even rushed to my much-thumbed copy of the collected Short Stories in quest of further clues.

I rather agree with Mr. Liput’s assessment of the automobile as being Manchester and not Cork-assembled, though one wonders if even the austere “Altamont” would have found it necessary to hang on to a 1911 model for three years. After all, a Ford runabout complete with Stepney, number plates, driving licence, and a year’s tax and insurance would have set him back the princely sum of £156.02, so let’s say another tenner for the extra two seats.

I am, however, inclined to suspect that the Holmes/Watson equipe would have invested in one of those unobtrusive little landaulettes which many a provincial coachbuilder turned out for the use of jobmasters, and of which at least two examples survive in the United Kingdom from the brass radiator era alone. Among the firms who offered such a thing were Sanders of Hitchin, and Hills of Folkestone, whose business was acquired in 1917 by Martin Walter.

In view of our Mr. Altamont’s interests in matters naval, we must therefore hunt for a Ford agent with coachbuilding interests, somewhat between Devonport and the North Foreland. Tilleys of Weymouth seem a possibility, as do Lennox of Southsea, and—at a pinch, Hendy’s of Southampton, who were certainly selling Fords before 1914. But I am tempted to plump for Hills, as (i) the Dover-Folkestone area would be a happy hunting-ground in 1914, and (ii) we know that they made a speciality of such bodies on the Ford chassis, even buying in tourers to re-body when the supply of new chassis ran out.

In case any genuine T-expert wants to know whence came my rather exact costing, I got it from the log-book kept by a friend’s father, a Regular Army officer whose Ford, purchased in 1913, must have followed many a road driven by the redoubtable Watson.

The 100h.p. Benz? This I leave to W.B. Maybe he will be able to tell us who drove it at Brooklands, and whether it was in fact prepared by Holmes on such occasions.

Midhurst.

Michael Sedgewick

[I am delighted to learn that fellow historian Michael Sedgwick is also a follower of Sherlock Holmes. But I think he is wrong to attribute the Ford in “His Last Bow” to Holmes, alias “Altamont”. I, too, have reread Watson’s account of the case and, although Holmes posed as a “motor expert” to the German spy Von Bork, there is no evidence which suggests that the World’s greatest detective ever owned a car. He had retired to a small farm five miles from Eastbourne and, Watson tells us, he “divided his time between philosophy and agriculture”. When the Premier prevailed upon Holmes to break Von Bork’s spy-ring he went to America and Ireland to establish his alibi, before returning to England to work for Von Bork. He had decided to appear as an Irish-American motor-expert. In this capacity Holmes may have taught himself to drive, easy enough on a Model-T, and may have bought a Ford while in America. But if so, why did he not drive himself to Von Bork’s house? I suggest he couldn’t drive but, seeing the convenience of a car for conveying his valuable capture to London, and anxious that Watson should be present at the conclusion of his final case, he wired his old friend to meet him at Harwich “with the car”. Not “with my car”, note! Indeed, it is clear that Watson had virtually lost touch with Holmes, apparently not so much as corresponding with him. Under the circumstances, how could he be expected to locate Holmes’ car and get it to Harwich? If Holmes was using a car, would he not have gone to Harwich in it to meet Watson? Holmes had not seen Watson for some years either, but he knew his address, so may have kept in closer touch with the Doctor than Watson realised, in which case he could have known that in his retirement Watson had invested in a car, which he used regularly. Had Watson not responded to the wire, a cab could have conveyed Holmes to Von Bork’s.

It was Watson who drove, and Holmes asked Watson to “start her up” when they were ready to leave. No! I think the Ford belonged to Dr. Watson. It couldn’t have been art acquisition of the joint Holmes/Watson equipe as Sedgwick suggests, be cause they had been parted for many years. During this time Holmes was something of a hermit and hermits don’t usually require cars. Watson obviously wasn’t living in London, and where he had bought his Ford is beyond trace. As for the 100h.p. Benz, I don’t think it has ever raced at Brooklands because it was a “luxurious limousine”. But Von Bork posed as a sportsman and was credited with beating the English at sporting pursuits— “You match them at every game”, Baron Von Herling told him. His garage was full of cars. So it is very probable that one of these was used in competition events. But the Legation Secretary’s Benz was no doubt a standard model provided by the German Espionage Service; the 100h.p. was current in 1913 and 1914. – ED.]