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Sacrament of Wilderness

Holmemes pt. 19

Featured Holmeses: silly cat burglar from @beekeeperspicnic and extremely cunty illustration by @femmeboggart (I get massive Leyendecker vibes from their art, who is of course the king of cunty vintage gays)

Basically, this isn’t too far from the truth. Paget’s first illustration was based solely on the information we learn in A Scandal in Bohemia, which is pretty much just “tall and thin.” But he didn’t use himself as a model—he used his brother Walter who he shared a studio with.

For Watson, he imagined an architect he had known from his university days.

Other fun facts I learned:

• When the publisher sent the letter asking Sidney to do the illustrations, he simply addressed it to “Mr. Paget,” so Sidney and Walter didn’t know which brother it was meant to go to.

• The author thinks it was meant for Walter because he had done the illustrations for a recent expedition to Sudan. However, the illustrations were also incorrectly attributed to Sidney when the paper was printed.

• Holmes’s signature deerstalker was Sidney’s choice, because it was his habit to sketch the things he owned. Additionally, some of the 221b furniture is based on furniture Sidney owned.

world’s only consulting drama queen