Prolegomenon

In December last year, I was browsing an antique dealer's in Eastbourne. The shop was a rabbit-warren of paraphernalia: books, furniture and other impedimenta were piled in heaps on the floor, in such a way that navigation between them required great care.
Among these impedimenta was a trunk that I recognised as having been made by Dauncey and Co., a Victorian manufacturer of quality luggage. The proprietor of the shop told me that the trunk, which was locked, had come into his possession from the clearance of a cottage a few miles away, following the decease of its owner, one Edward Hudson. Mr. Hudson had inherited the cottage from his aunt. She herself had been in service as a housekeeper to a bachelor who had lived in the cottage, which was high on the South Downs.
I purchased the trunk and took it back to my home. I tried the keys in my collection. The fourth key seemed to fit. I turned it and felt a movement; I applied some oil to the lock and tried the key again. Suddenly, I felt the lock give, and I opened the lid.
Inside was a collection of neatly arranged volumes that looked like diaries. I opened the first and saw, written in a fine copperplate hand, the following words:

Further records of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson, M.D.

In these accounts, not a word has been changed. The world knows of many of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes; these are some that have hitherto not been published.

John Howarth

Contents

Prolegomenon

1. The Adventure of the Exmoor Drayman
2. The Adventure of the Ambulant Giant
3. The Adventure of the Villainous Gourmand
4. The Adventure of the Fourth Sutra
5. The Adventure of the Inventive Birdman
6. The Adventure of the Purple Man
7. The Adventure of the Struck Board
8. The Adventure of the Unintended Recipe
9. The Adventure of the Persian Griffin
10. The Adventure of the Leaping Prelate
11. The Viennese Day
12. The Premature End

Afterword