The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane is the penultimate story in the 60-story canon penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes. It appeared in Liberty magazine in November 1926 with illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele. Later it was included in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. The story is told completely by Holmes since he has retired from his London detective work. Here’s how the story begins.

It is a most singular thing that a problem which was certainly as abstruse and unusual as any which I have faced in my long professional career should have come to me after my retirement, and be brought, as it were, to my very door. It occurred after my withdrawal to my little Sussex home, when I had given myself up entirely to that soothing life of Nature for which I had so often yearned during the long years spent amid the gloom of London. At this period of my life the good Watson had passed almost beyond my ken. An occasional week-end visit was the most I ever saw of him. Thus I must act as my own chronicler.

Continue reading the story here.

Meet the Lion’s Mane

It’s not exactly the horrid killer dipicted by Conan Doyle in his story, but it can be quite painful when encountered by swimmers. Cyanea capillata — which really does resemble the mane of a lion, with its 1,200 or so tentacles, each of which can be several metres long — is an impressive creature. The longest tentacles recorded were 36 metres, making this jellyfish the largest animal in the world in terms of length. A slap on the skin by a tentacle results in a long, red welt due to the venom, a complex mixture of histamine, kinins, prostaglandins and tryptamines.

Read more at: https://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/article45905.html#storylink=cpy

Previously

January 18 - The Priory School <> Jeff Steward, Discussion Leader
February 15 <> Silver Blaze <> John Besser, Discussion Leader
March 19 <> Cancelled due to severe weather <> Rescheduled for May
April 19 <> The Beryl Coronet <> Drew Thomas, Discussion Leader
May 17 <> Shoscombe Old Place <> David Hayes, Discussion Leader
June 21 <> The Boscombe Valley Mystery <> Tom Vickstrom, Discussion Leader
July 19 <> Sherlockian Pilgrimages in the UK <> David Marcum, Presenter

Looking Ahead

August 16 - The Lion’s Mane (Assigned to Jim Hawkins)

September 20 - His Last Bow (Assigned to Cindy Silberblatt)

October 25 - The Striped Chest (The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia)

The October meeting is always led by Dean Richardson and is not a Sherlock Holmes story, but rather, it is one of Conan Doyle’s “horror” stories. We delay this month’s meeting to the 4th Saturday so that we do not conflict with the Southern Festival of Books. Visit their website.

November 15 - The Blue Carbuncle

We announced the passing our dear friend Gael Stahl this past September.
A service of remembrance and celebration for Gael
was held at our January 2025 meeting.

He was our Final Problem, often the spark of creativity and progress for our Three Pipe Problem Scion Society. His enthusiasm and energy were never lacking until his health waned in the past few years.

Please see our 3PP Newsletter, 1st Quarter of 2024 for a special issue produced when we learned that Gael and SuSun were moving to Indianapolis, IN earlier this year.

More about Gael Stahl is on our Remembrance page.

When Gael’s health began to fail, he joined our monthly meetings via Zoom. I asked him to be prepared to read Vincent Starrett’s poem 221B to close our meetings. He was thrilled to do so. We are pleased to have this memory of Gael reading this famous Sherlockian benediction from a meeting in 2023.

221b
by Vincent Starrett

Here dwell together still two men of note

Who never lived and so can never die:

How very near they seem, yet how remote

That age before the world went all awry.

But still the game's afoot for those with ears

Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:

England is England yet, for all our fears—

Only those things the heart believes are true.

A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane

As night descends upon this fabled street:

A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,

The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.

Here, though the world explode, these two survive,

And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

March 11, 1942