Project Gutenberg's Etext The Hound of the Baskervilles by Doyle #25 in our series by Arthur Conan Doyle

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    Chapter 1 Mr. Sherlock Holmes


    Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a "Penang lawyer." Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. "To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," was engraved upon it, with the date "1884." It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner used to carry—dignified, solid, and reassuring.

    "Well, Watson, what do you make of it?"

    Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign of my occupation.

    "How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of your head."

    "I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot in front of me," said he. "But, tell me, Watson, what do you make of our visitor's stick? Since we have been so unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion of his errand, this accidental souvenir becomes of importance. Let me hear you reconstruct the man by an examination of it."

    "I think," said I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion, "that Dr. Mortimer is a successful, elderly medical man, well-esteemed since those who know him give him this mark of their appreciation."

    "Good!" said Holmes. "Excellent!"

    "I think also that the probability is in favour of his being a country practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting on foot."

    "Why so?"

    "Because this stick, though originally a very handsome one has been so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying it. The thick-iron ferrule is worn down, so it is evident that he has done a great amount of walking with it."

    "Perfectly sound!" said Holmes.

    "And then again, there is the 'friends of the C.C.H.' I should guess that to be the Something Hunt, the local hunt to whose members he has possibly given some surgical assistance, and which has made him a small presentation in return.

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... Замечания на письмо Чаадаева 1836
   XXXVIII. Чаадаев М. Я. 26.I.1837
   XXXIX. Экштейн Ф. д' 12.Х.1837
   XL. Погодин М. П. 20.VIII.1840
   XLI. Чаадаев М. Я. 22.XII.1840
   XLII. Глинка А. П. 1840
   XLIII. Мещерская С. И. 1.III.1843
   XL1V. Шевырев С П. 21.XI.1844
   XLV. Сиркур А. С. 1844
   XLVI. Мещерская С. И. 30.III.1845
   XLVII. Сиркур А. де. 21.IV.1845
   XLVIII. Сиркур А. де. 5.II.1846
   XLIX. Хомяков А. С. 1846
   L. Самарин Ю. Ф. 5.XII.1846
   LI. Вяземский П. А. 6.I.1847
   LII. Тютчев Ф. И. 13.IV.1847
   LIII. Дмитриев M. A. 30.VIII.1847
   LIV. Погодин М. П. 22.Х.1847
   LV. Погодин М. П. 3.ХI.1847
   LV1. Вяземский П. А. 11.II.1848
   LVII. Полторацкий С. Д. 29.IV/11.V.1848
   LVII1. Львов В. В. 12.VII.1843
   LIX. Чаадаев М. Я. 18.VII.1848
   LX. Вигель Ф. Ф. 30.XI.1849
   LXI. Прянишников Ф. И. 4.II.1850
   LXII. Дмитриев М. А. 25.IV.1850
   LXIII. Неизвестный 1850
   LXIV. Тютчев Ф. И. 14.VII.1851
   LXV. Свербеев Н. Д. 4.VIII.1851
   LXVI. Глинка Ф. Н. 6.III.1852
   LXVII. Шевырев С. П. 28.III.1852
   LXVIII. Чаадаев М. Я. 5.IV.1852
   LXIX. Шевырев С. П. 2.V.1852
   LXX. Безобразов Г. M. 15.VII.1853
   LXXI. Шевырев С. П. 17.Х.1854
   LXXII. Киреевский И. В. 1854
   LXXIII. Булгаков А. Я. 1854—1855
   LXXIV. Закревский А.А. 14.III.1856
   LXXV. Закревский А.А. 25.III.1856
   LXXVI. Неизвестная, б/д
   

    I...

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