The Hound being one of my favorite stories, I didn't find this too cumbersome of a task.
I think the first sentence of the chapter pretty well sums up how we feel about the story coming to an end; "It was the end of November, and Holmes and I sat, upon a raw and foggy night, on either side of a blazing fire in our sitting-room in Baker St," Who doesn't wish they were there with them!!!
After all, isn't this where Sherlock Holmes stories are suppose to start and end. For the most part I think most of use would be real happy if most Holmes stories took place almost completely within those walls, with just occasional foray's about London. We must at least start and end at Baker St.
That is the one place where we can always find both men as we wish to see them.
Once again while in 221b Watson (Doyle) teases us about cases we will never read.
We hear about a mischievous colonel, but we never get to hear of his crime. (Did this mysterious colonel know Moran?)
What could have been so gross or bizarre about Mme. Montpensier's case that we find her convicted of the murder of her step-daughter.
But alas, we are never to know.
But at least we are back at Baker St. I don't think, probably, that there is a Sherlockian out there that doesn't, at least at some point in their Sherlockian career, wish they had the money and resources to build and furnish their own version of 221b. Most of us have to settle for one or two little items that we can imagine Holmes or Watson may have had.
Most of the chapter is taken up with Holmes finally explaining to Watson all the little details he did not know at the conclusion of the adventure in Dartmoor. After all they couldn't talk about it on the train back because Lestrade was with them.
After almost a month, Sir Henry, who we thought was built of sterner stuff, still has not recuperated from his ordeal and must take a long voyage to get better. (I don't think it took Lestrade as long to bounce back.) Personally I think he is accompanying Dr. Mortimer who is splitting from his wife and needs some man time with a friend.
What became of the lovely Beryl, and although we know Holmes had more contact with her, we learn nothing about what happens to her.
For me the ending didn't actually come in the story until the very end when Holmes invites Watson to go out for dinner and a play. Once again we are back to the familiar and known.
It is interesting to note, as I am sure many Sherlockian scholars have already pointed out else where,
that one Edouard de Reszke performed several times in London in the opera Les Huguenots between 1888 - 1900. These were at the Royal Opera House at Coven Gardens.
See ya next tour.
(Did anyone actually count how many times Watson checks his gun in the Granada HOUN?)
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