It seems that the world of Sherlock Holmes still has mysteries to reveal. The most recent mystery involves a never-before-seen story that turned up in a Scottish man's attic.
The 1,300-word story, titled "Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar" originally saw publication in a collection of short stories called The Book o' the Brig, which was part of a fundraising effort by the Scottish town of Selkirk to build a new bridge after a flood damaged an older one.
Scottish historian Walter Elliot found the story while looking through documents in his attic for a Selkirk pop-up museum display. He found the story stuffed inside an old pamphlet given to him by a friend over 50 years ago.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle often visited Scotland, including Selkirk, and donated the story for the fundraising collection. Doyle even attended the city's fundraising festival and publicly spoke there about his story. The book raised about $633, which helped the town build a new iron bridge, which still stands there today. Doyle also later donated a long-lost soccer trophy to the town.
"He really must have thought enough of the town to come down and take part and contribute a story to the book," says Walter. "It's a great little story."
The book's cover is simple: a soft brown paper. It also contains other stories from local Scottish authors. The back cover gives details about the fundraising festival, including a schedule of events.
"Usually people would throw out these books or sell them off," says Walter. "It has been in my family for quite a while now."
Walter states that the book probably never saw publication beyond the festival and that most people who bought it at the festival probably threw it away or sold their copies.
The story starts with a journalist hunting down the world's most famous detective. There, the journalist witnesses Holmes discussing a trip to Edinburgh with Watson. Watson cannot go, though, because he's visiting Selkirk "in aide of a Bridge."
This is the first Sherlock Holmes story uncovered since Doyle's last, published over 80 years ago.
The book will be on temporary display at the Cross Keys Selkirk Pop-Up Community Museum. However, Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story itself is available online here. After that, the book's fate is still undecided.
Perhaps, we'll see the story rewritten by Sherlock TV series showrunner Steven Moffat and re-enacted by Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman someday.
[Photo Credit: BBC]
