#acd last

[autolenaphilia]

Sherlock Holmes’s goatee

In “His Last Bow”, Holmes is said to have grown a “goatee” as part of his long-term disguise as “Altamont”.

And reading that story as a kid, I thought that meant a beard that included a moustache like the one that Lenin had. But no, that type of beard was called a “Van Dyke” back then, and a goatee meant only hair on the chin. 

The specific line is“a small goatee beard which gave him a general resemblance to the caricatures of Uncle Sam.”

And I didn’t have illustrations with that story as a kid, but the Strand Magazine illustrator Alfred Gilbert really delivered, so here we have Holmes with a goatee

Holmes and Watson’s dialogue about it is fun:

“...But you, Holmes - you have changed very little - save for that horrible goatee.'

'These are the sacrifices one makes for one's country, Watson,' said Holmes, pulling at his little tuft. 'To-morrow it will be but a dreadful memory.”

[sarahthecoat]

His Last Bow

for @astudyincanon I found an audiobook of His Last Bow, sadly not Sir Christopher Lee this time, but adequate. :)

I can believe that this time Holmes and Watson may actually have been separated for at least a time, because they do seem so happy to see each other again. They still work together like a well oiled machine, though.

The story is bookended by the scenes of two men standing and chatting companionably together, at the beginning it’s the two German spies, at the end it’s our heroes.

I was struck by how similarly von Bork here, and Magnussen in HLV, speak of the English. And like Milverton, von Bork keeps his papers in a safe, which Holmes finds a way to get into. “Altamont” has an appointment to bring sensitive documents, but essentially ends von Bork instead.