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In Arthur Conan Doyle’s story The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, a resourceful young woman seeks help from Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Violet Hunter has recently been employed by the portly Mr Rucastle as governess in a remote country house. The job is well-paid, but has its own strange drawbacks: Violet has to cut off her long coppery hair and to sit in the drawing-room window, wearing a blue dress.
This, she discovers, is done to reassure an onlooker in the road below. He is the suitor of Rucastle’s step-daughter Alice, who is being kept prisoner in a distant attic. Her hair (cropped because of a fever) and her appearance closely resemble Violet’s. If Alice marries, Rucastle will forfeit part of his fortune and, to prevent her escape, a vicious mastiff dog is let loose in the beechwoods at night.
When Holmes and Watson join Violet to try to free Alice, they discover that she has already escaped, helped by her loyal suitor with a ladder. Enraged, Rucastle dashes to unleash the dog, which savagely turns upon him under the trees…
One of the copper beeches from the story has been embroidered in traditional style by members of Ogroshor, a Bengali women’s group (whose name means ‘Moving Forward’). The story’s title and the group’s name are written in Bengali, decorated by a Bangladeshi flag.
Translations of Sherlock Holmes stories in Bengali accompany the display, with others in Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam. Such is their popularity that Conan Doyle’s detective stories have been translated into almost every language in the world including those of Africa, Irish Celtic, Esperanto – and even Pitman’s shorthand.
The Ogroshor quilt
Created by 'Moving Forward', a Bengali women's group.
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Stitching a story exhibition stand
To see more images and find out more about The Conan Doyle Collection, please email: sherlock.holmes@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
Inspiration
Online exhibitions featuring items from The Conan Doyle Collection and celebrating Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's connection with Portsmouth.- You are here: Exhibitions > Arthur and George 123 Arthur and George A joint exhibition from The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, at Portsmouth City Council, and the ITV production which starred Martin Clunes as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle which first aired in March 2015.
- As part of the Sharing Sherlock project Portsmouth MIND group designed, built and painted their own personal version of this most famous of imaginary places, the study of Sherlock Holmes and his fellow detective
- Not only did sport feature in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fiction, he was also an active sportsman himself.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his first two Sherlock Holmes stories while living in Portsmouth where he had arrived in 1882 to set up a doctor’s practice at 1 Bush Villas, Elm Grove, Southsea
- Due to his success as a writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had the opportunity to travel widely and often took his family. From Canada and America, to Australia, Ceylon and Egypt,
- Best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also wrote science fiction and had a surprising belief in fairies at the bottom of the garden.
- Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about 60 stories starring his most famous creation, the detective Sherlock Holmes.
- Arthur Conan Doyle’s science fiction novel The Lost World is an exploration of a dangerous and exotic place, where prehistoric creatures still thrive
- When Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, he had no idea of how popular his hero was to become. Soon famous as a man of many disguises,
- Since Sherlock Holmes was introduced to the public in The Study in Scarlet, first published in 1887 thousands of people have taken part in a Sherlock Holmes ‘fan’ culture.
- In the summer of 1917, in leafy Cottingley Glen near Shipley in West Yorkshire, Elsie Wright aged 16, and her cousin Frances Griffiths aged 9, claimed to have taken photographs of fairies.
- The students of Harbour School’s Key Stage 3 Group created fanciful masks and costumes inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle’s story Charles Augustus Milverton.
- Learn all about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's celebrated 'consulting detective' Sherlock Holmes, in this free exhibit at Portsmouth Museum.
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