A Statue of Great Stature

The tie is not my clan tartan, but it looked Scottish enough! 

Great men and women inspire great statutes. I’ve had the good fortune to see three great statues of Sherlock Holmes in person.

 

Earlier on this blog I’ve written about visiting the statues of Holmes in Meiringen,Switzerland, in 2008 and London in 2012 with my wife and another couple. Maintaining the four-year pattern, this year at the end of May we made a courtesy call on the statue in Edinburgh, just across the street from where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born.

 

I found the monument quite satisfactory. To me it’s a good Holmes. It doesn’t look exactly like any other representation of Holmes on state, screen, or printed page, and to me that’s a good thing.

 

Curiously, the plaque at the base of the statue - donated to the city of Edinburgh in 1991 by the Federation of Master Builders - memorializes not Holmes but Conan Doyle.  So does a nearby pub, The Conan Doyle. We’ve also dined at the Sherlock Holmes Pub in London and Sherlock in Meiringen. I’m happy to report that all three are well worth the visit, with both food and Sherlockian artifacts that are worth attention.

 

A curious side note: Our waiter a few days later in Oban, Scotland, told us that he was from Edinburgh and the Conan Doyle had been his local pub as a young man. He then informed us that Conan Doyle was a murderer who killed a rival and stole his plot! And I don’t think he believed me when I told him that this was a crackpot theory that no serious scholar credits.