My historical novels don’t include endnotes, which was an editorial decision. But those who like to dig a little deeper into the period may feel a bit cheated by their absence. So I intend to make it up to those readers (I’ve already added a partial bibliography to my Acknowledgements page). I've barely begun, but I intend to slowly rectify that. If you have any questions from your reading, just note them in the comments below, and I'll try to address them.
Check back for the missing endnotes to each of my novels.
View of Whitehall from Trafalgar, M. de St. Croix
The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle The Strange Case of the Dutch Painter The Strange Case of the Pharaoh's Heart
The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle
Pg. 8--As the story begins, Colonel Hugh Pickering has returned to England only a few months earlier in 1912, after several years in India, studying Indian dialects. As a military officer he would certainly have served in the Second Anglo-Afghan campaign, which took place from 1878-1880, where his services as a translator would have proved invaluable. As a young assistant surgeon John Watson saw action in that war. He was wounded at the Battle of Maitland in 1880 and mustered out that same year. It's likely that they first met on shipboard in 1878 and won through from Bombay to Kandahar together, the experience forging a strong friendship between the two men.
Pg. 16—Holmes visited Tibet during the Great Hiatus (May 1891-April 1894) after his near-death encounter with Professor Moriarty. He appears to have experienced a crisis of faith after this experience (see my post “Moriarty’s Ghost”) meeting with several holy men, including the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyato.
Pg. 16--William Gillette was an American actor best known for originating the role of Sherlock Holmes on stage in an 1897 Broadway play. Between 1899 and 1930 he performed as Holmes 1300 times. It made him his fortune. Between 1910 and 1914 he supposedly "retired", which is probably why his London revival of Sherlock Holmes at the Lyceum Theatre is not listed, a warm-up for his 1915 Broadway revival.
Pg. 21--For the origins of the Mireau-Lepton motor car, see my post "Sly Homage."
Pg. 22--Giuseppe Morello was the first boss of the Morello crime family based in New York City. During ten-year period he ordered more than sixty murders, most of them carried out by his brother-in-law, Ignazio "the wolf" Lupo. From 1910-1923 he served time in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for counterfeiting.
Pg. 25--Hill Barton was also the alias Watson used in "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client", posing as a collector of Chinese pottery.
Page 29--The Borneo ape is better known today as an orangutan.
Page 35--It was Edwin Norris, a brilliant British philologist, who deciphered the Assyrian lions lions, a group of sixteen Mesopotamian weights discovered in the late 1840s in present-day Iran, inscribed in both cuneiform and Phoenician.
Pg. 41--A yaksha is a Hindu nature spirit, often seen as benevolent but sometimes the opposite, an ogre which wa haunts the forests and sets on unwary travelers, devouring them. One such demon, Silesaloma, is described as being the height of a palm tree, with yellowed tusks and thick fur.
Pg. 43--In 1912 the Austrian Archduke, heir to the throne of the Austrian Empire, was of course Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip would precipitate World War I.
P. 45--Andrew's Liver Salts was a laxative and antacid which originated in the 1890s in Newcastle, recommended for "inner cleanliness."
Pg. 56--Wilson Hargreave, a friend of Holmes in the New York police, is first mentioned in The Adventure of the Dancing Men, when he supplies Holmes with information about the dangerous Chicago criminal Abe Slaney.
Pg. 62--Holloway prison, London, opened in 1852, but became female-only in 1903. It was until its closure in 2016 the largest women's prison in western Europe, holding over a 900 women. It was especially notorious for housing suffragette lawbreakers. The last woman hanged at Holloway was Ruth Ellis in 1955, for the murder of her lover.
Pg. 64--The rookeries of Lisson Grove were slum housing packed so tightly together that it resembled the breeding colonies of rooks, a kind of crow. Single-room tenements in Lisson Grove were overwhelmingly occupied by families. Eliza Doolittle was born ind raised in Lisson Grove, as was Eliza Armstrong, a thirteen-year-old girl who in 1885 was sold to a brothel keeper for five pounds, causing such an outcry that the legal age of consent was changed from 13--to 16, where it remains today.
Pg. 64--St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, not to be confused with St. Paul's Cathedral, is known as "the actor's church" due to its proximity to Drury Lane and the theatre district. It was designed by Inigo Jones in 1633. Lord Bedford asked him to design a simple church "not much better than a barn," to which Jones replied "You hall have the handsomest barn in England." The opening scenes of both Pygmalion and My Fair Lady are set in the portico of St. Paul's.
Pg. 65--Thimblerig is better known as the old shell game.
Pg. 65-- A chemical harmonicon, or singing flame, is a flame, of within a tube, so adjusted as to set the air within the tube in vibration, causing sound. A laryngoscope is a long, tube-like instrument used to examine the larynx.
Pg. 74--A tosher was a scavenger who worked the sewers and the Thames shoreline searching for valuable items such as scrap metal or coins.
Pg. 74--A bungstarter is a wooden mallet used to remove a plug (or "bung") from a casket or barrel.
Pg. 75--A coal heaver was a dockside worker who unloaded coal from ships.
Pg. 81--The bronze statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, commissioned by J.M. Barrie and fashioned by Sir George Frampton, was erected without permission on April 30, 1912. Barrie was disappointed with the statue, saying it "didn't show the devil in Peter."
Pg. 21--For the origins of the Mireau-Lepton motor car, see my post "Sly Homage."
Pg. 22--Giuseppe Morello was the first boss of the Morello crime family based in New York City. During ten-year period he ordered more than sixty murders, most of them carried out by his brother-in-law, Ignazio "the wolf" Lupo. From 1910-1923 he served time in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for counterfeiting.
Pg. 25--Hill Barton was also the alias Watson used in "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client", posing as a collector of Chinese pottery.
Page 29--The Borneo ape is better known today as an orangutan.
Page 35--It was Edwin Norris, a brilliant British philologist, who deciphered the Assyrian lions lions, a group of sixteen Mesopotamian weights discovered in the late 1840s in present-day Iran, inscribed in both cuneiform and Phoenician.
Pg. 41--A yaksha is a Hindu nature spirit, often seen as benevolent but sometimes the opposite, an ogre which wa haunts the forests and sets on unwary travelers, devouring them. One such demon, Silesaloma, is described as being the height of a palm tree, with yellowed tusks and thick fur.
Pg. 43--In 1912 the Austrian Archduke, heir to the throne of the Austrian Empire, was of course Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip would precipitate World War I.
P. 45--Andrew's Liver Salts was a laxative and antacid which originated in the 1890s in Newcastle, recommended for "inner cleanliness."
Pg. 56--Wilson Hargreave, a friend of Holmes in the New York police, is first mentioned in The Adventure of the Dancing Men, when he supplies Holmes with information about the dangerous Chicago criminal Abe Slaney.
Pg. 62--Holloway prison, London, opened in 1852, but became female-only in 1903. It was until its closure in 2016 the largest women's prison in western Europe, holding over a 900 women. It was especially notorious for housing suffragette lawbreakers. The last woman hanged at Holloway was Ruth Ellis in 1955, for the murder of her lover.
Pg. 64--The rookeries of Lisson Grove were slum housing packed so tightly together that it resembled the breeding colonies of rooks, a kind of crow. Single-room tenements in Lisson Grove were overwhelmingly occupied by families. Eliza Doolittle was born ind raised in Lisson Grove, as was Eliza Armstrong, a thirteen-year-old girl who in 1885 was sold to a brothel keeper for five pounds, causing such an outcry that the legal age of consent was changed from 13--to 16, where it remains today.
Pg. 64--St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, not to be confused with St. Paul's Cathedral, is known as "the actor's church" due to its proximity to Drury Lane and the theatre district. It was designed by Inigo Jones in 1633. Lord Bedford asked him to design a simple church "not much better than a barn," to which Jones replied "You hall have the handsomest barn in England." The opening scenes of both Pygmalion and My Fair Lady are set in the portico of St. Paul's.
Pg. 65--Thimblerig is better known as the old shell game.
Pg. 65-- A chemical harmonicon, or singing flame, is a flame, of within a tube, so adjusted as to set the air within the tube in vibration, causing sound. A laryngoscope is a long, tube-like instrument used to examine the larynx.
Pg. 74--A tosher was a scavenger who worked the sewers and the Thames shoreline searching for valuable items such as scrap metal or coins.
Pg. 74--A bungstarter is a wooden mallet used to remove a plug (or "bung") from a casket or barrel.
Pg. 75--A coal heaver was a dockside worker who unloaded coal from ships.
Pg. 81--The bronze statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, commissioned by J.M. Barrie and fashioned by Sir George Frampton, was erected without permission on April 30, 1912. Barrie was disappointed with the statue, saying it "didn't show the devil in Peter."
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