About John-Three-Continents-Watson: but WHICH continents?!?
Also sprach Dr. WatsonâŚ
(Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four)
This short passage - the one which introduces us to Mary Morstan, Watsonâs only individually known wife - is what has given cause to the wildest speculations, amongst holmesian scholars of any time, about Watsonâs romantic adventures and/or marriage(s), as well as about his place of birth and/or travels.
This passage, coupled with the one, in STUD, where Watson says that he had no living relatives in England, is what mainly propelled various theories according to which Watson was actually born in America, Australia or one of the Colonies.
As Iâve partly addressed this issue in a previous post, this is not the topic upon which Iâm going to speculate here.
Nor Iâm going to try and debate the question of how many wives John Watson collected in his life: again, Iâve already partly addressed the subject elsewhere, and Iâm not interested in it right now.
No, what intrigues me today is the question:Â "Which are the three continents that Watson visited prior to him meeting Sherlock Holmes?"
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I know this is an old post, but I wanted to put my two cents in.
Dr Watson has definitely been to Australia. I was reading 'The Sign of Four' today and I noticed that he says, 'I have seen something of the sort on the side of a hill near Ballarat, where the prospectors had been at work'. Ballarat was world-famous as one of the biggest mining towns here in Australia during the gold rush of the 1850s.
I Googled other towns around the world named Ballarat and found one in California, but it's highly unlikely that Watson was referring to that one. It was tiny, with a population of 400-500 in its heyday (it's a ghost town now) and was named after Australia's Ballarat. Oh, and one crucial fact: the town was founded in 1897, seven years after 'The Sign of Four' was written.
So we can safely assume that our dashing doctor has been to Australia. And was presumably quite a hit with the ladies while here.
Also, Watson may have visited more than 3 continents. He didn't necessarily have to date women on every single continent that he visited, right?
Just food for thought.















