"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" Quiz

Answer: She was an opera singer

Irene Adler was born in New Jersey. She was a contralto who had sung at La Scala and had become the "Prima Donna" at the Imperial Opera of Warsaw. At the time of the case in which Holmes was involved she is described as "retired".

Answer: The marriage of Irene Adler to Godfrey Norton

Holmes was in disguise as he followed Irene Adler to the Church of St. Monica. As there was some irregularity in the licence the clergyman demanded that the ceremony take place in front of a witness. Holmes was even given a sovereign by the bride as a token of her thanks for him acting as a witness.

Answer: A photograph of Irene Adler

The King immediately offers an emerald snake ring from his own hand. Instead Holmes chooses the photograph that Irene Adler left in her secret compartment before she left the country. In the story "A Case of Identity" we learn that the King later presented him with a snuff-box of old gold with an amethyst in the centre of the lid.

Answer: His right hand was a size larger than his left

Jabez Wilson confesses that he had started his working life as a ship's carpenter. Holmes notices that the man is a Freemason by seeing the arc and compass breastpin. He also puts forward China as the most likely place for Wilson to have acquired his fish tattoo.

Answer: He has to copy out the Encyclopaedia Britannica

The copying out of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was merely a device to keep him away from his shop whilst the criminals set about their devious plan to excavate a tunnel. By the time he consults Sherlock Holmes Mr. Wilson has nearly finished the entries under the letter "A". The other three books mentioned appear in other cases.

Answer: Jones

The criminal that they are waiting for is called John Clay. He is attempting to steal the French gold from the strongroom of the City and Suburban Bank. Clay has worked for Mr. Jabez Wilson under the name of Vincent Spaulding and used the device of the Red-Headed League to get his employer away from the tunnel workings.

Answer: plumber

When her mother re-married, Mary Sutherland's stepfather was called Mr. Windibank. She believed he wanted her to end all acquaintance with her father's friends because of snobbery. After all he was in the wine business and not in common trade. However, his motives were more selfish than that.

He simply wanted to ensure she had no chance of marriage for that would mean the loss of a considerable sum to him. She had inherited money from an uncle in New Zealand, and he had the use of the interest as long as she was single and staying with her mother and him.

Answer: They were all typewritten even down to the signature

Hosmer Angel was Mr. Windibank in disguise and his handwriting might have been known to his step-daughter. In fact Holmes is able to trace the typewriter which produced the letters to Mr. Windibank's office.

Answer: a rat

What the dying man was trying to say was "Ballarat" so that his son would know who had murdered him. Mr. John Turner was known in Australia as Black Jack of Ballarat. Eventually Turner tells the full story to Holmes and claims his attack on McCarthy was provoked by years of constant blackmail.

Answer: He noticed a mixture of clay and chalk on the man's toe-caps

The day upon which Mr. Openshaw arrived was a particularly windy and stormy one. Conan Doyle cleverly builds up the atmosphere by contrasting the snugness of the flat in Baker Street with the wildness of the weather outside. Now, with the details of his case, Mr. Openshaw is about to bring some of the wildness inside.

Answer: K.K.K.

K.K.K. stood for Ku Klux Klan. Holmes says that this name originally arose from its supposed resemblance to the sound of a man cocking a rifle. V.V. are initials used in "The Valley of Fear" for the Vermissa Valley where the infamous Scowrers carried on a reign of fear. S.H. could stand for Sherlock Holmes and J.M. for James Moriarty.

Answer: They were all sea-ports

Holmes worked out that in each case the writer of the letter had been on board a ship. The interval between the arrival of the first letter from Pondicherry and the consequent death was seven weeks. It only took three or four days after the Dundee letter for the threat to be carried out. A letter from London showed that the danger was imminent.

Answer: They were presumed drowned in Atlantic when the "Lone Star" went down

The destination of the "Lone Star" was Savannah. Watson remarks that the gales in the Atlantic were very severe that year. All that was found of the ship was a shattered sternpost with the letters "L.S." carved on it. The story began with a storm and now Conan Doyle has neatly brought it to a conclusion with another one.

Answer: In an opium den

The opium den was in Upper Swandam Lane on the north side of the river to the east of London Bridge. Watson makes his visit there in pursuit of a patient Isa Whitney who had not been home for two days. Holmes is also there in deep disguise pursuing the case of Mr.St. Clair.

Answer: A sponge

As Watson says, "The man's face peeled off under the sponge like the bark from a tree." When Neville St. Clair is exposed by Holmes he explains how he was able to make far more money each day by begging than by taking an honest job. The more deformed and repulsive he appeared, the more likely the public was to give money.

Answer: In the crop of a goose

The goose had been dropped on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Goodge Street by a man who had also left his hat behind. Holmes sets about tracing the goose and tries to establish how the carbuncle got inside it.

Answer: He pretends to make a bet which he is happy to lose

Holmes tells Watson that when he saw the "Pink 'Un" sticking out of the man's pocket he knew that he could get the information by entering into a wager. So he told the man he was sure that the geese were country bred ones. The man disproved this by showing him the address that proved that they were town bred ones.

Answer: He twists a poker out of shape

After he has twisted the poker out of shape he hurls it into the fireplace. "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he declares. Holmes then demonstrates to Watson his own strength by bending the poker back into shape.

Answer: It was the noise of the safe door closing on Dr. Roylott's snake

Lots of the noises are finally cleared up by Holmes' explanation at the end of the case. The whistle was obviously used to lure the snake back to Dr. Roylott's bedroom. The hissing noise was the sound of the snake itself. On the last occasion the terrible cry was given by Dr. Roylott as the snake attacked him after Holmes had driven it back through the ventilation grating with his stick.

Answer: It was used to compress fuller's earth into bricks

In fact the hydraulic machine was used as part of the coining process in the manufacture of counterfeit coins. The secrecy that Stark claimed was necessary so he could acquire more deposits of fuller's earth on the adjacent land was in fact so that the coiners could avoid the interest of the law.

Answer: The fact that Stark's carriage horse was not sweating

Mr. Hatherley was under the impression that he and Stark had travelled possibly ten miles away from the station at Eyford. From the description of the fresh horse that met Hatherley at the station Holmes knew it must have come from the centre of town and could not possibly have travelled the ten miles. Stark had merely driven five miles out and five miles back again to deceive Hatherley.

Answer: San Francisco

The whole case depends upon the fact that Lord St. Simon's "bride" had previously been married and thus was not really married to him. Holmes persuades the lady and her real husband it would be better if they told the whole truth rather than running away. It turns out that San Francisco is also the place where Hatty Doran was first married.

Answer: He caught his son Arthur

Holmes demonstrates in the end that Arthur had in fact caught the real criminal, Sir George Burnwell, and had returned to the house with the coronet which he was trying to bend into its correct shape. Mary, the niece, had collaborated with Burnwell in order to carry out the theft.

Answer: He insisted she should have her hair cut short

Holmes immediately knows that an impersonation is being carried out. Later Mr. Rucastle compels her to wear a particular blue dress that can be seen from the road outside the window.

Answer: a mastiff

Rucastle can prevent both people leaving the house and gaining entrance to it. Poetic justice ensures that he meets his fate as Watson describes, "There was a huge famished brute, its black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat". However, Rucastle survives but was a broken man, "kept alive solely through the care of his devoted wife".